Blog
The New Wartime Normal
Yesterday morning I ran into an old friend named Esther. She and her husband attended our wedding 28 years ago, and over the years we’ve shared a few simchas and Shabbat meals. It’s been around a year since I last saw her. We chatted about our kids of course, how old is her oldest now? And our youngest? I remember his bris! I remember when she was born! And then she said, “You heard that our son, Yosef Chaim, was injured in Gaza?” “Whaaat?! No…” “He was injured and in the hospital for 2 weeks....
read more20,000+ Servings of Felafel Distributed to Soldiers FOR FREE
Incredible. Felafel Biton of Beer Yaakov has given away over 20,000 felafels since the beginning of the war. Israelis and Jews around the world keep on giving and giving to support our soldiers so they can protect Israel. May they all return home safe and sound and victorious over Hamas and Hizbollah! Please keep the soldier Hanan Drori (Hanan ben Natalia Tali) in your prayers, he’s a friend of my daughter’s who was injured 2 months ago and is now in critical condition. May Hashem bless him with a miraculous...
read moreKabbalat Shabbat Inside a Tank
The Shabbat Queen has been finding Herself in all sorts of unusual places nowadays. May She watch over our soldiers! https://jewishmom.com/wp-content/uploads/GGo7XxnU3y7H5rkCACNkLKAv9m92bmdjAAAF-1.mp4
read moreHafrashat Challah for the Hostages at the Western Wall
Last night I was at the Kotel when a young woman carrying a pot called out, “Hafrashat Challah for the Hostages!” Before long this young woman, whom I later found out is named Nili Grutman-Eshet, was surrounded by around 30 women prepared to respond Amen to her heartfelt prayer to release each hostage. Afterward Nili told me that before the war she never made Challah, but since October 7th, every Thursday evening she prepares Challah dough and brings it down in her pot to the Kotel from her home in the Jewish Quarter. I thought...
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I am FINE!/?
[In today’s therapeutic writing session with Yocheved Rottenberg, she had us choose out 3 smiley stickers that expressed how we were feeling. Here’s the photo of the stickers I chose out and decorated. And then Yocheved had us write a reflection on our stickers. I wrote about the stickers and how they relate to my recent spate of breathlessness]. Am I calm? Am I nervous? Am I so out of touch with myself that I don’t even know how I am until I stop breathing? I feel fine. I’m fine. You are fine. We are...
read moreAvraham Fried Lifts Soldiers’ Spirits in Gaza
ç In this video, we can see Avraham Fried’s unconditional love and unbridled devotion to Israeli soldiers as he urges them on to victory. This visit to Gaza didn’t only life the spirits on the soldiers, it lifted my spirits too!
read moreYour Son Gave His Life for My Son by Jeremy Staiman
(Originally posted in Times of Israel) [I also attended the shiva for Oriya Goshen HY”D, and met his remarkable parents. I was deeply moved to read here about this incredible young man’s final act of self-sacrifice for Am Yisrael.] While my older son Avi guarded the border, his younger brother Arky was called into Gaza recently, for a mission which he described as the most important assignment his unit has received in its entire history. “Every single one of us was ready to put our lives on the line for this mission,” he told...
read moreFather in IDF Gets Moving Message from Home
There are SO many families like this in Israel today, heroic fathers in Gaza and the North with heroic mothers and kids waiting for them for months and months to return home safe and sound please God.
read moreBreathe In, Breathe Out
For a few days I’ve been having a hard time breathing, like there’s a 70’s-style file cabinet sitting inside my chest, on top of my lungs. I keep on trying to visualize that I’m pulling that file cabinet out of my chest, and I can breathe freely for maybe a minute. But then, before I know it, my cabinet-crushed lungs are fighting for oxygen yet again. Right after Shabbat tonight I went on a walk, and after another failed attempt to remove the file cabinet, I decided to open that locked file cabinet and name everything...
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