About a decade ago, when chromosomal testing first came out, Lara Diamond, a Baltimore-based genealogist decided to do some DNA tests. She was in search of long lost relatives, but her query eventually produced something even more valuable than reconnecting with family – her own life being saved. Diamond explains, “There were earlier tests that weren’t […]
The table used by the heroic Hasid Joseph Gluck last Chanukah, to stop a horrific stabbing attack that wounded five and killed one, was remade into a dreidel-shaped menorah stand to commemorate the miracle of many more lives being saved. Gluck, who was presented with the New York State Senate Liberty Medal soon after, famously […]
We always focus on the obvious miracles of Chanukah: the miraculous military victory of a small band of fighters against a might army, the fact that the Maccabees found a small jar of oil in the rubble of the Holy Temple and that that oil burned for eight days, when it should have only lasted […]
What’s the purpose of a miracle? There are of course many answers, including those that are specific to the particular miracle in question. For instance, I recently learned how Abarbanel (15th-century Portuguese commentator) explains the purpose of one particular miraculous moment in the Book of Judges. In Judges Chapter 13, a malach appears to the […]
My fourth child was born 6 weeks early, but otherwise healthy. Or so we thought. In the moments after delivery, the OBGYN and neonatologist exclaimed over the baby’s umbilical cord. Part of it was a normal tube, but part of it looked like a thick, flat pancake. “Is that a problem?” I asked. “Doesn’t seem […]
“Each December, an Israeli athlete…travels to Germany, five minutes from Hitler’s home, the Eagle’s Nest. There, they continue a tradition that I instituted in 2015, to light Chanukah candles, where perhaps, very few Jews have lit before.”
