When I was 17 years old, I spent the summer studying in Israel. I knew I wanted to be religious, but at that point, didn’t know in which Orthodox sub-group I belonged. There were so many of them! I spent shabbos with a variety of families, including a charedi Sephardic ba’al teshuva family in Jerusalem. […]

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 […]