Although my knowledge of Spanish does not exceed the vocabulary used in Dora the Explorer, this past Friday afternoon, when we arrived at Rabbi Bentzion Klatzko’s house for Shabbos and he told me, “Mi casa es su casa,” even I knew what he was talking about. Though “mi casa es su casa” is not a Hebrew phrase, it […]

I have recently become an expert – nay, a master – of white rice preparation. How, you ask? I don’t know exactly, but my white rice of late has had the perfect balance of oil, salt, moistness, and fluff. It is everything I ever hoped for and dreamed for in a calorie-heavy, nutrition-light accompaniment to the delicious (and likewise unhealthy) sweet and […]

My younger daughter has been trying to be exactly like my older daughter for about as long as she’s been trying to be. Which, by the way, is a precursor to complete and utter awesomeness (and incidentally what I did as a kid with my older sister). This monkey-see-monkey-do business produces children that are either twice as nice or […]

  A few weeks ago, on a Friday night, after a delicious meal, I curled up in bed, and started to read a New York magazine article called “In Defense of Distraction. I say “started to read” and not “read” because the writer went on and on for so many pages there was only so much I could take before I got, […]

Being that I’m Orthodox, I don’t drive on the Sabbath. Being that I’m punctually challenged, I don’t get anywhere on time. This past erev Shabbos (Friday afternoon) these two different aspects of my being collided to near disastrous proportions. Because the sun doesn’t wait. It doesn’t accept apologies or excuses. It just sets, on time, […]