For months, I’ve been thinking about writing a piece about the traditional blessing of gratitude that we say in Judaism after surviving a life-threatening situation. And then, during our daf yomi siyum recently, marking the completion of Masechet Menachot, someone spoke about her recent near-death experience and how they thanked Hashem afterwards for saving her… Read More Birkat HaGomel in Times of War
Today, as I was driving my son and his friends back to their army base I thought to myself: What would 20-year-old you say if she could see you now? Heck, what would 30-year-old you say? And I had to just shake my head in admiration of where life has taken me. And say a… Read More Back to Base, Today
My second son turns 18 on Friday, and while I was reminiscing about his birth and his first few days (as I always tend to do around their birthdays), I find myself thinking about the day before his birth. What happened on that day? It was a Thursday, like today, and I took my oldest,… Read More My Expanding Heart: 18 Years Later
With 1300 pictures from our recent trip to Africa, we certainly have a lot to admire and enjoy. My 15 year old is a serious photographer with a great camera and our bar mitzvah boy got a very nice new camera for the occasion; the pictures that they took are breathtaking. But few pictures made… Read More When Yakir Found His Match in a Zebra
I spent Shabbat wrestling between the joy of my five year old’s birthday, and the knowledge that Sarah Tchiya Litman’s life, and that of her entire family, will never be the same. Driving Friday afternoon to participate in the pre-wedding celebrations for Sarah’s groom, her father and brother were murdered on the road – with… Read More King for a Day
