The Policeman’s Special Note
After searching for a parking spot, a family visiting the Kotel to celebrate their son’s Bar Mitzvah parked their car illegally and left a note on the windshield explaining their situation for the police. Upon their return, they found a ticket on the window with a nice Mazel Tov message instead of a fine. 😃 […]
Read MoreMy Final Shabbat of the Year at the Peace Retreat
My daughter invited me to join her this weekend at an Arab-Jewish silent-meditation peace retreat in the Arava. This wasn’t exactly the environment in which I wanted to spend my final Shabbat of the year. But I decided I wanted to have special time with my daughter. And I wanted a restorative vacation to rest-up […]
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The Angry Taxi Driver
This morning in her Elul writing workshop, Yocheved Rottenberg shared the following story with us: “Yesterday I took a taxi, and at one point the driver got angry with me about something. And then, all of a sudden, he stopped himself and firmly said to himself: “Quiet!” “And then the driver proceeded to recite all […]
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Sorry! Sorry! Sorry!
Rabbanit Yemima said something in last week’s class that was obvious but yet had never even occurred to me. She pointed out that “Slichot” is a very strange name for the prayers we recite in these weeks leading up to Rosh Hashana and Yom Kippur. It’s strange because the word “Slicha,” means “Sorry” or “Forgive […]
Read MoreMy Failures this Year
In preparation for the new year, Rabbi Nivin suggested we write up 50 personal successes from this past year. I wrote up my successes a few weeks ago, and then read them over this past Shabbat. B”H this year I made meaningful headway on all sorts of personal goals: the healing of a strained relationship […]
Read MoreMy Phone-Free Morning
 A few days ago I went out for a few hours and when I was too far from home to easily go back, I realized I’d forgotten my phone at home. This was very bad news, since I had so many people who would need to get in touch with me… I had left 2 […]
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