This week’s torah portion has G-d commanding Abraham to leave his family and land to a land that G-d would reveal to him.  Faith.  We read in the coming torah portions how Abraham is tested by G-d to determine how dedicated he is to G-d, and so that G-d may reward him and his…

  After allegations that Harvey Weinstein, a Hollywood movie producer, sexually harassed his female employees, he was forced to leave his production company, was removed from the prestigious Academy of Arts and Sciences, and created a media sensation with a hashtag #metoo, for women to reveal that they had been sexually harassed as well.  Within…

Sukkot is the holiday Jewish families need. by Slovie Jungreis-Wolff In a letter to the parent body of an affluent private NYC school the head of the school described how the school has become a dangerous incubator of indulgence where ostentatious displays of entitlement slip by unquestioned. He wrote of “consumerist families that treat teachers and…

  Building connections.  Between man and G-d and man and his fellow man. I started my morning early at the Ohel, my meditation place, listening to the Rebbe’s fabrengen on tape. As I was leaving, my son called from Yeshiva, several thousand miles away.  We had spoken a couple of times this week, and it…

  These past few weeks, we have discussed how in the month of Elul, G-d comes down from Heaven and is amongst us, closer to us, begging us to get closer to Him. In this week’s Torah portion of Nitzavim there are two verses on which on want to focus: Deuteronomy 30:6 “Umal Hashem Elokechah…

  Tova Mirvis, your article affected me. I was devastated by the heart wrenching account you gave of feeding your Orthodox son his first slice of trayf/unkosher pizza, not too trayf, only slightly trayf. We cant hide anything from children, they see and feel it all even if at times they don’t verbalize it. It…

It is taking me months to work through We Chareidi III.  In We Chareidi I and II, we explored prejudices that we Jews have against each other, in labelling each other. We watched in horror recently, as Rabbis and their wives in Lakewood were taken from their homes in handcuffs.  They were charged with welfare…

  The Giving Tree authored by Shel Silverstein makes me cringe. Other people adore the book. Yes, there is an open dichotomy, a real dichotomy in the book based on whether the reader focuses on the tree or the child. I’ll try to describe the story impartially, although its nearly impossible because of the strong…

  I’m tired, I confess.  But there is a bonding opportunity now in between camp and school.  Have you noticed that camps are no longer eight weeks long, not even seven weeks long anymore, but now six and a half weeks long.  It poses a real challenge to working parents, but a real opportunity as…

  It was just last week that I wrote how important it is for people to give themselves time out.  Time to regain the sense of themselves and their purpose.  To refill their physical, spiritual and emotional tanks to deal with what G-d gives us to manage. I was on a high coming back from…