Dear Jew in the City- I heard a lot about the concept of “tikkun olam” growing up as a secular Jew, but Orthodox people don’t really eeention it. What does it really mean and is it a Torah value? Sincerely, Still Trying to Do Good Dear Do Gooder- It’s definitely a Torah value, but there’s […]

My second day as a working mother began with a bus ride to drop my 5 week old baby with his sitter. I prepared as best as I could, mapping the route in advance, checking the MTA schedule, packing a diaper bag, bottles of pumped milk, and my own lunch. I would soon discover how […]

When Rabbi Daniel Cohen was twenty-one years old, his mother (who was forty-four at the time) died suddenly of an aneurysm. Losing a parent unexpectedly at such a young age profoundly affected him. “We were speaking on the phone one day, then she was gone the next,” Rabbi Cohen recalls. His mother had taught him […]

The following story is a true story about diaper wipes. But is a story ever just about diaper wipes? Hopefully not. Here’s what happened: An old friend invited my family to spend a three day holiday at her house one year when we were in Israel. That meant that she was hosting and feeding all […]

I’ll call her Lindsay in order to protect the innocent; the only one really guilty of anything was me. You see, I found Lindsay to be annoying — like really, really annoying. The very sight of her drinking water made my skin crawl. Well, it wasn’t just the way she drank the water, it was […]