I have published these thoughts of mine here, but also posting them below since you are my primary blog audience: My friend, a Russian-speaking doctor living in Hebron says: the situation is bad, but we decided that even if only 10 dying families remain in Hebron, ours will be among them. There have been a…
Just a Verse. War.
This is not a poem. This is a cry. Gd!I am praying to You.Will I live, or will I die?I am thankful for what was, what is.Gd, If I have to die, Please do it with as little pain as possible.Gd!I am praying for my family.Please let them have as little pain as possibleIn their…
Back to the “Safety of the Land of the Free”
After I’ve returned from Israel a few days ago, I am still not sure if I can coherently express my feelings. Things that we’ve seen cannot be unseen, words that we heard cannot be unheard. The images of the tiny burned houses of the youth village of Kfar Aza are forever etched into my mind….
Bo
The Evolution of the Mezuzah I am posting the D’var Torah I wrote on the subject of mezuzah. It was originally published on the Yeshivat Maharat website as part of our weekly Pashat haShavuah page. Hope you will find it interesting. Parshat Bo has several commandments that lay the foundations of the Jewish faith at…
On the Road to my Favorite Place in Pain
Tomorrow, I am going to Israel. I have been there in times of joy. I have been there in times of pain when even the taxi drivers thanked visitors not deterred by the suicide bombings. This time it is different. The pain is never easy, but this time, the pain is unbearable. Every account, every…
Women in Chanuka story – real and fictional
This little essay of mine was originally published by my Yeshiva in our Chanukah Reader. I am hoping to highlight more interesting facts about Shlomzion, the real Jewish queen. Women, the Hidden Heroes of Hanukkah At certain moments in Jewish history, it is easy to confuse what is darkness and what is light. In the…
Can we Eat this on Rosh HaShana?
They say life goes fast after you hit a certain age. Life surely flies for me for the last few years. Didn’t we just celebrate a new year? Yet, it is Elul – אֱלוּל again! We should be ready – both physically and spiritually for another Day of Judgement. For the last few years I’ve…
Another (not so new anymore) Adventure or Вот новый поворот.
Summer is coming to an end even though to me it feels like it somehow evaporated without actually being here. It was a strange summer, indeed, weatherlike. Cold and rainy for the most part, then turning to extreme heat for a little while, and now the days start kind of cold already, lots of rain,…
What’s in the Age? Never Late to Learn!
It looks like these tragic days everyone is thinking about time and age. Time that we live, hopefully in peace, and age that our children learn about war. Time that flies away, and age that deepensthe scars. To me, the concept of one’s age is a changing one depending on my mood, experience,and overall outlook…
On Jewish Women in Antiquity and Today. Different times, different tactics
Many women regardless of their life or career choices experience challenges that are unique to their gender. To be sure, men have their own unique challenges, but over the history of mankind women’s challenges were largely overlooked, or at least were not detailed in stories or historic accounts just because the majority of learned and…
Thoughts about Purim this Year – The Origins of Love and Hate
When we talk about the villain of the Purim story, Haman, we most often go to the origins of his ancestor, Amalek, noting how he (his nation) waged war on those of the children of Israel that were week and lingering at the end of the procession on their way out of Egypt: וַיָּבֹ֖א עֲמָלֵ֑ק…
New Healthy Invention – Mushroom, Barley and Collard Greens Supper
It is pretty miserable outside these days here in New York. These are the days that your soul craves for warmth. Potatoes can’t be eaten every day even by those of us that came from the land of root vegetables, namely Russia, correct? Winter is always the time when people gain weight (or is it…
Noshing Across the Nation 