This morning we had a little bit of a sharing challenge in our home. Every once in a while, our little one gets to hang out with a good friend as part of a nanny-share. These two toddlers are besties from birth; they’ve been hanging out since infancy. Navigating new toys is hard, though, no […]
This week’s portion is chock-full of interesting things to write about. So full, in fact, that I had to read it a few times before I could choose something. We’re getting into the weeds of the Torah, that section before the Pentateuch wraps up in blazing glory as we get near to Shemini Atzeret this […]
Tdhis week’s Torah portion is a throwback — way back to Exodus, when the Israelites were about to receive the Torah at Mt. Sinai. This seems a little strange. What is so important about this section of the Torah that makes it worthy of rereading? And why this section, of all the truly important moments […]
This week’s Torah portion is short and sweet — just one chapter of the book of Deuteronomy — which suits me just fine. Who has time to be reading long portions of Torah during the first two weeks of Tishrei, anyway? We have plenty of extra readings on Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur without worrying […]
Every morning, my wife wakes me up with a cup of coffee. I know, I know, I’m pretty lucky. Actually, though, it’s in her interest to wake me up with some caffeine — I’m not exactly a morning person. My brain kind of idles in neutral for a while, slowly making its way into gear […]
If you read it in a certain way, this week’s portion is kind of like a horror film. Imagine it with me, just for a moment. A simple man, righteous (at least in terms of his generation), is living his unassuming life. Sure, his neighbors are a little off, but he’s just going about his […]
Last night I drove to JFK International Airport to drop off my parents, who live in Israel, after a three-month visit to the States. They had come to visit us in July, initially, a few days before our little one turned two years old and stayed through the hot New York summer, during the High […]
My toddler is a master negotiator. Even in situations that I didn’t know were up to negotiation or questioning — it can feel like I’ve already lost before I’ve begun. Say, for example, I mentioned that I was getting up from the playmat for a glass of water. Not a question, right? Wrong. “No,” says […]
Part of the fun of living with a toddler is trying to guess what rules you’re living by at any given moment. They know exactly what should and shouldn’t be done, but no grown-ups have been briefed on the daily dos and don’ts — we find out we’ve crossed a line when we get a […]
Welcome to a world of dreams, where the stars in the sky and the wheat of the fields can dictate your fate. This is a space wherein the spirits of the heavens reign supreme, and the deepest secrets of your subconscious can affect how your real-world life plays out. We’ve arrived at the tale of […]