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…

Eikev Asher tishmiun/If you will only listen to do the laws that G-d set forth.  Eikev, if you will only.  The root of the word is heel and the commentaries tell us not to grind any of the commandments under your heel as if they were dust, or small commandments which could be neglected. We…

  In the book of Devarim/Deuteronomy, we have Moshe rehashing history, but with a twist.  If you compare the original scenes in the original three books of the Torah, they are told with a different lense.  Moshe is unable to bring the Jews into the promised land.  He is afraid when he dies, that the…

  Summer makes me nostalgic.  I guess there are fond memories attached to school days, but it’s the summer, when I was free to be me, that brings on the nostalgia. I remember 30 years ago, commuting to Manhattan, pre-Gamara car and smartphones.  There were the men in the multi-seaters facing each other, spreading out…

  This week, those who are learning daf yomi will complete 176 pages of Bava Basra, to complete the masechtah.  I am proud to say, I am amongst the lucky. I am not a religious feminist.  I have stated many times that I am happy with the mitzvoth given to me by the torah, I…

Israel’s Use of Targeted Killings: A Weapon of Necessity Alex Grobman, PhD The Israelis prefer “extrajudicial punishment,” “selective targeting,” or “long-range hot pursuit”—to describe their counterterrorism policy. 1 Whatever term used to describe this “counter-offensive” in which Israel employs fighter jets, helicopter gunships, tanks, car bombs, booby traps or snipers to eliminate terrorists who are…