In our home, we have a game that we play several times a day, called Click-Pow. The premise is pretty simple. Our toddler is really into clicking the fasteners on the high chair and stroller into place. When they’re secured, he looks at my wife or me with an expectant eyebrow raise. Then we all […]
A few days ago it was my wife’s birthday and, just like any other special event we celebrated over the past year or so, we had a Zoom birthday party. We pulled out all the stops — special Zoom backgrounds, a screen-shared video of people she loves wishing her a happy birthday, an online app […]
Every time I walk into my home I wash my hands. This has long been my practice (the New York City subway is gross), but these days hand-washing takes on a whole new dimension. When I put my hands under the tap and start counting to 20, I’m scrubbing for my life and the lives […]
A few weeks ago I was at the playground with my kiddo and my wife. It was a sunny Saturday afternoon and the place was hopping. If you want to know where the party is on a weekend in Bed-Stuy, I can tell you — it’s at the playgrounds. Kids of all ages raced around […]
My toddler knows how to say the word “no” now. To be completely fair, he also knows a lot of other words. Actually, this week he said his first full sentence — when my wife asked what he was doing (building a Lego tower), our little one slowly said “Ani boneh!” (I’m building!), and we […]
Welcome to a world of disease. This week’s double Torah portion features dozens of verses detailing skin maladies — ingrown hairs, oozing pustules, discoloration, and a whole lot more. Every year, when Tazria-Metzora rolls around, anyone in the congregation who speaks Hebrew grimaces. The first quarter of 2021 has wrapped up, and we’re living in […]
Shemini, or ‘eighth,’ is not a portion about Crazy Eights. It does start by telling us what should happen on the eighth day (unusual for the Bible, wherein so many things happen on the seventh day), and dives right into some more sacrifices, in case you hadn’t had enough yet. Then the book of Leviticus […]
You know those ‘flashback’ episodes of TV shows, the ones that are basically all old footage loosely connected with one or two lines of text? They’ve always seemed like a lazy cop-out to me. Maybe the writers weren’t inspired that week. Maybe the network had more important things to figure out. Either way, it’s disappointing. […]
Every morning in our household starts the same way. Our little one wakes and starts crying his vague morning whimpers, which my wife and I can hear through the baby monitor. I’m a heavy sleeper, and I sleep with earplugs in (a habit I’ve developed during my time living in Brooklyn), so it’s usually my […]
When I was growing up, my family had a lot of rituals we carried out on Friday evenings to welcome the Shabbat. They did evolve over the years, as all things do, but there are a few that remain constant and stand out particularly in my memory. We always lit candles with my mother. I […]