Blog
Happy Rumpelnacht!
This Shabbat, my daughter taught me something I never knew before. The night after Passover when we rush to put away all the Passover dishes and get out the Chametz dishes isn’t only a special night for Moroccan Jews who celebrate Mimouna. We Ashkenazi Jews have a traditional name for this pressured and hectic night as well: Rumpelnacht. The night of balagan, of transition and disorderliness in contrast with seder night, the night of order. In German-Jewish communities the end of this night was traditionally celebrated with glasses of...
read moreAn Unlikely Chol HaMoed Attraction
Exactly two weeks ago, Iran fired 350 rockets containing 60 tons of explosives at Israel. And instead of the thousands of casualties we’d feared and Iran had hoped for, thanks to Hashem’s miraculous protection (and Hashem’s expertly-trained emissaries, the Air Force and allies of the state of Israel) instead of the planned catastrophe the Iranians created nothing more than a Chol HaMoed attraction for Jewish families. 3337 years ago tonight we Jews were standing by the Red Sea, a ragtag crew of several million escaped...
read moreMy 14-Year-Old Hero by Sivan Rahav Meir
My hero’s name is Matanya Tzur Aryeh. He is not a biblical hero, despite his name. He is a 14-year-old boy from the village of Kfar Maimon in the Gaza Envelope, whose residents until recently were living in Jerusalem hotels following their rescue from the Simchat Torah massacre. I met Matanya Tzur when I was invited to speak at a temporary school set up at Yad Vashem for around 400 evacuee children. Scary pictures from the Holocaust era had been removed or hidden. Volunteer teachers, retirees, Yad Vashem workers, all mobilized for the...
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The Arab Selling KLP Ice Cream
My 11-year-old Yaakov has been complaining since Purim about not being able to eat Kitniyot on Pesach like his Sephardi friends do. His friends are feasting on bamba, caramel corn, and rice, while Yaakov is left, as he puts it, ‘With the 3 words that because of them I hate being Ashkenazi, ‘Gefilte, fish, and carrot!'” My Persian neighbor, Moshiach, quipped this week on his whatsapp status, “To my Sephardi friends, happy holiday! To my Ashkenazi friends, have an easy fast!” When Yaakov heard that he did not...
read moreListen Up Ya-Ya Sinwar by Ari Lesser
Ari was my husband’s student around a decade ago at Mayanot, and we loved hosting him for Shabbat and hearing his incredible rap songs. We actually still sing his eshet chayil. So happy to see he’s still going strong!! “Our enemies fade But we still exist Do you really want to add your name to the list?” Go...
read moreRodney’s 1st Seder
My husband enjoys teaching privately, generally via zoom to Americans preparing for conversion or to Reform and Conservative Jews wanting to fill in gaps in their Jewish education. A few months ago, Josh started teaching a very special man who doesn’t fit neatly into either group. Rodney was raised as a religious Catholic and always attended Catholic schools. Rodney’s mother’s parents divorced when she was a young girl, and she was raised her Catholic father. Rodney’s mother barely knew her own mother, a Holocaust...
read moreThe Pesach-Kitchen Transition Period😂
We all need a good laugh right now and a reminder that we aren’t alone in this crazy time of year!!
read moreAdir’s Diamonds
This is one of the most moving videos I’ve seen since the beginning of the war. Following his oldest son’s murder by Hamas on October 7th, this jewelry manufacturer has been on a mission to help soldiers do something his own dead son will never be able to do, get married and build a Jewish family. Shabbat [Hagadol] Shalom ...
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