Blog
Families Under Lockdown
We are now in the middle of Israel’s 3rd lockdown, which means my kids are home more or less all day, every day. By 9 PM tonight my little kids were yelling at one another again with shrill indignation, and I’d had it. I turned to my oldest, “Hadas, could you pleeease deal with them? I can’t anymore.” Hadas, the psychology student, somehow made peace and came back to me a few minutes later: “My diagnosis is…those kids have been spending way too much time together!” “Cabin fever,” I...
read moreMy Abba, Rabbi Jonathan Sacks
This reminded me of Mom… Watch an excerpt from Gila Sack’s moving eulogy for her father at his funeral this November....
read moreOn My Way to Get the Corona Vaccine…
Over 1.5 million Israelis have gotten the Corona vaccine so far, a sixth of the population, #1 in the world. And I’m personally eager to join that growing number, but I’m too young and too healthy (b”H!) to be eligible. So last night I decided to try my luck, and took a bus to the conference center which is my health fund’s vaccination center at close to the official closing time, 10 PM, to see if I could receive one of the left-over vaccines for people without appointments.. I got on the bus at 9:03 PM and on the way I did some of the...
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The Solar System According to Yoni
Judging from this picture Yoni drew in kindergarten, if he’d been around during the 6 days of creation, outer space would be pretty psychedelic.
read moreElie Wiesel’s Only Child On His Rebellion, And His Father’s Love
“Just be.” As the cancer progressed with episodic violence, and my father came closer to his end, I would often ask what I could do for him. And, smiling, he would hold my hand and look into my eyes and say: “Just be.” Nothing more than that. There were no more requests. No message he needed me to deliver, no instruction he needed me to absorb. Now the only thing he wanted to convey was his love for me, and his faith in the direction I would take my life. He wanted me to understand what my existence meant to him, not the concept of...
read moreMirror, Mirror on the Wall
My Mom embraced old age, on birthdays she would proclaim stuff like, “77 is the best age so far!” with a vigorous air punch. She loved her wrinkles. Her gray hair. Scoffed at the very word, “Anti-aging.” But as I approach 50, I’m feeling, well, anti-aging! I look in the mirror and don’t like what I see so much. My newly saggy neck. My wrinkly face, I even have deep wrinkles between my eyebrows!. And my chin’s strangely puckered- I’ve got an old-lady chin! Yesterday I was listening to Rebbetzin Gila Levitt’s course: The...
read moreWhen Your Children are Struggling with Judaism (3-Minute Chizuk Video)
As the mother of a child on their own derech, I got a lot of chizuk from this panel at Amudim’s 36-hour fund-raising event (UniteToHeal.com). Here’s some highlights from Rabbi YY Jacobson, Rabbi Yakov Horowiz, Rabbi Daniel Korobkin.
read moreThe Teacher Who Changed My Life (7-Minute Charlie Harary Video)
Charlie Harary was such a troublemaker in high-school, his principal had his mother’s phone number on speed-dial. Here’s the story of the teacher who believed in him and enabled him to become the person he is today. This made me laugh out loud and also moved me deeply.
read moreMom’s 3 Kids: The Lawyer, the Professor, and the Housewife
The day before Mom’s funeral, her rabbi set up a meeting with us to learn more about Mom for the eulogy. And something I found really curious happened. My brother said he credited Mom with his decision to become a civil-rights lawyer, inspired by her determination to make the world a better place, even carrying him to anti-War marches on Washington with him when he was just a baby. My sister said Mom, as a female psychiatrist, helped her navigate her climb as a chemistry professor up the often-splintery academic ladder in a field that,...
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