Another Gift I Want to Give out this Purim
We all know that on Purim we distribute mishloach manot to our friends and matanot evyonim to the poor. But Rabbanit Tzvia Eliyahu added another gift we should give out on Purim…if you see another person, she says, who is down or struggling or in need (of shalom bayit, of parnasa, of fertility, of anything!) […]
Read MoreMourn with Me for the Children I Will Never Have by “Tamar”
The following heartbreaking letter was translated from the original Hebrew version which was posted today on Ynet. I am writing anonymously for professional reasons, but that’s not the only reason. I am writing anonymously because I am someone whom it is difficult to look at, somebody bad. A woman who has not fulfilled her mission […]
Read MoreA Song I am Loving: “Light Touches Light” by Moriah Nave
I read about Moriah Nave in Pnima magazine, and think she and her song are simply exquisite. Her song reminds me of something I once heard– that the word in Hebrew for crisis is “Mashber” which also means labor and birth. Or, as Moriah Nave puts it, “When the heart is splitting, a new day […]
Read MoreFrom the 1st Yahrzeit: Why Rabbi Gavriel Sassoon Doesn’t Ask “Why Me?”
This week, in honor of the 1st anniversary of the Brooklyn house fire which killed 7 of his children, Rabbi Gavriel Sassoon spoke in Jerusalem. Here is an excerpt from his speech: “Human beings by nature tend to ask and understand. “We are all human beings, and all of us can and want to ask […]
Read MoreThe Erloier Rebbe and the Jewish Mother
By the end of the Shoah, the 23-year-old Erloier Rebbe, who passed away this month, was left nearly alone in the world. As one of the only remaining direct descendants of the Chatam Sofer, the Rebbe dedicated himself for the 70 years following the War to rebuilding his great-grandfather’s tradition whose teachers and followers had […]
Read MoreMy Walk through the Jerusalem Forest
A few weeks ago, I was looking over my goals for this year which I wrote up before Rosh Hashana (my elul plan, for all those lucky Rabbi Nivin-ites out there) and realized that I had conveniently and completely forgotten about my plan to “go on a brisk walk every day for at least 15 […]
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