Blogs

In life, as in literature, it can feel like we are involved in an epic battle between good and evil, right and wrong, yetzer tov and yetzer hara. In between these two extremes, of course, exists the quotidian: getting our kids off to school, caring for a loved one, paying bills, and filing our taxes… But the moments that shape us most, in my experience, are the ones that are the most...Read more...

I find myself thinking today of the games that animated my childhood.  Some I owned and some I envied – meaning I did whatever I could to try to bring them out during playdates and sleepovers at friends’ houses who had them.  Who remembers “Operation?”  You had to use tiny metal grabbers to remove tiny bones from a cardboard figure, and if metal touched metal, the figure buzzed and the nose...Read more...

As I write these words, I am aware that we are approaching one more holiday.  That would be New Year’s Eve.  Not exactly an important Jewish holiday mind you, and certainly not our spiritual true north.  If we search them out though, there are ideas with a Jewish bent that we can discern.  The most prominent of these is that it is an opportunity to look back on the past and turn our eyes to the...Read more...

Poke around the internet for five minutes, and you’ll find countless variations on the idea that diamonds, as stunning and resilient as they are, can only be formed under intense pressure. The message is clear: endure hardship, and you’ll emerge from your struggles with a crystalline perfection beyond imagination. Only by surviving immense burdens can you discover your resilience and transform into the brilliant gem you’re destined to...Read more...

The news is fresh and fragile, but it is real: a ceasefire between Israel and Hezbollah, an end to the fighting in northern Israel and southern Lebanon, and the hope of an eventual homecoming for the displaced. There is so much to be grateful for this Thanksgiving Day weekend. Yet gratitude, as we know all too well, often comes into focus most sharply when we are intimately aware of the possibility of...Read more...