Last Shabbos, we thought we had turned off Alexa (the intelligent personal assistant developed by Amazon), but then, at just past midnight as I told our guest, “I’m an extreme moderate,” she woke up and said, “You want modern music? OK!” She then proceeded to blast black gospel music throughout our kitchen. Which is ridiculous, because […]

   An article recently published in the Boston Globe, “The biggest threat facing middle-aged men isn’t smoking or obesity. It’s loneliness,” (March 9, 2017) suggests that for adult men, meaningful friendships often do not actively continue into the adult years which can not only lead to a variety of problems, but can also have a terrible impact […]

Last month my husband and I celebrated our fifteenth wedding anniversary. It made me wonder if I had any wisdom to impart – any lessons based on Jewish philosophy I had discovered over the years which help us keep our marriage strong and recover from challenging times when they arise. Was there something to say about giving? […]

On the occasion of my eldest’s bat mitzvah which took place this past Sunday, I got to thinking about what it means to be the parent of a child who becomes a bat mitzvah – and an Orthodox one at that. In my pre-observant days, my bat mitzvah was mostly about memorizing the Torah portion, […]

There’s a new “Cheerleader” in town – a song that’s been playing on the radio (and now in my head) non-stop. At first blush, it seems kind of sweet: the singer “OMI” (don’t ask me why there are only capital letter in his name – at least he has one) found a wonderful girl, even […]

Worrying doesn’t just run in the women of my family – it does marathons. And after hearing about a child abuse case in a pre-school California in the early 80’s, my mother was terrified of all the horrible ways my sisters and I could be kidnapped, killed, and molested (though not necessarily in that order). […]