The Pressure Cooker
My neighbor, James,* died last night. But nobody was surprised. James wasn’t Jewish. He came to Israel from Scotland after his wife left him about 20 years ago because he “wanted to work in the gardens of God.” And that was what he did. James worked as a gardener at Jerusalem’s Botanical Gardens and in […]
Read MoreThis Week’s Mommy Peptalk: Feeling Joy at Challenging Times
How life’s challenges enable us to experience the most intense possible levels of human pleasure.
Read MoreRav Chaim Kanievsky Makes A Match
I loved this story, which I read this week on the blog Life in Israel. I really enjoy the Life in Israel daily Email. It helps me start off my day with an interesting story and a chuckle and a smile, as this story did…: This is a great story about Rav Chaim Kanievsky… Several […]
Read MoreA Jew, A Father, A Soldier: Israel’s New Chief of Staff
This month, Benny Gantz was appointed as the Israel Defense Forces’ 20th Chief of Staff. During the special ceremony celebrating his appointment, Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu pointed out that Gantz’s mother weighed 62 pounds when she was released from the Bergen-Belsen concentration camp. Netanyahu continued: “I am convinced that [Gantz’s mother] never dreamed that 66 […]
Read MoreThe Mommy Detour by Rachel Barmatz
I just read an excellent article on Aish.com about an Ivy-League graduate who feels conflicted about her decision to become a stay-home mother…I especially enjoyed this article because it reminded me that 10 years ago, this was exactly the kind of article I would have written. And today, I can’t even really remember why I […]
Read MoreRivka’s Story: 18 Children is Not a Crowd
You might have noticed that I post a whole lot of articles about super-large families. And you might have wondered why… I think that what I so love about these moms of super-large families (like Rivka, the mother of 18 in the article below) is that they tend to be so gung-ho about their super-large-family […]
Read MoreChilean Miners Visit Western Wall
24 of the rescued Chilean miners visited Israel and the Western Wall last week. I found this news report about their visit really moving and beautiful. I especially loved when a miner explains that he relates to the Jews, since when the miners were stuck underground for so many weeks they didn’t allow themselves to […]
Read MoreTerrifying Stats on Orthodox Teens and Internet Use
I just read some really scary statistics on internet use among religious Israeli teenagers… A survey conducted among 912 Israeli religious junior high and high school students (1) by Maaleh and the Leshem Institute revealed that: -The average religious Israeli teenager spends 6 hours a day on the internet -Only 49% of religious teenagers use […]
Read MoreThis Week’s Mommy Peptalk: My 15th Wedding Anniversary
What 15 years of marriage has taught me…
Read MoreMalkele’s Soup told by Barak Hullman
In honor of the yahrzeit of the holy Noam Elimelech last Friday (21 Adar/ 25 February) here is a very beautiful story about the Rebbe’s favorite soup told by Nachlaot/Mayanot Synagogue storyteller, Barak Hullman. This is also one of my husband’s Shabbat table favorites. Visit Barak’s YouTube channel to see all of his Chassidic stories… […]
Read More