I took a workshop with Sara Yoheved Rigler and learned about the importance of charting progress when you’re working on changing a behavior. She taught a two-fold method: 1) chart what you’re doing in black and white, not just in your head 2) reward the body with something the body likes. She said, we come down here as a …
Before Succos, I bought Emunah with Love and Chicken Soup, the biography of Rebbetzin Henny Machlis a”h, by Sara Yoheved Rigler. I had flipped through it a few times at other people’s houses and was always inspired by whatever I read, so this 500+ page book was my reading material for Y”T. And full disclosure: I haven’t read the whole thing …
Sometimes if it feels as if you’re davening and davening and nothing’s changing. There was a period this year when I was so sure my yeshua had to be just around the corner, I had been davening with a lot of intensity, and feeling like maybe there was a breakthrough. But nothing changed, as far as I could see from …
I heard the following from Mrs. Dina Schoonmaker. How do we achieve menuchas hanefesh? We learn it from menuchas Shabbos. No matter what’s going on, we stop doing our work when Shabbos comes and it’s “as if it has already been done” (Rashi). Well, what if it’s not? Say you’re in Israel and you have a business partner in America. …
I feel like Purim has just crept up on me. I guess that’s a good thing, because it means spring will be here before we know it. A thought for Purim, something I heard a little while ago from Mrs. Dina Schoonmaker. The megillah is relatively short, and even as we listen, we know there’s nothing to be afraid …
Hi, all! Last week I took a 3-day course for work and I was so busy (and tired) all week! It’s good to be back 🙂 Recently, I started saying Tehillim regularly with the Artscroll Interlinear Tehillim. If you’re not familiar, the way the interlinear works is that the translation of each word is written below it in a format …
Do you ever think about the kind of mother you’ll be? The truth is, as a teenager, the thought of being responsible for raising children one day used to make me anxious. I really wasn’t confident around kids. (Would never babysit). And I thought babies and little kids were so boring, and their mothers were more boring still. …
Thinking about Yerushalayim today… These are a few lines from the book we’re learning: “To the world at large, the history of Jerusalem opens with its conquest by King David. For the Jew, Jerusalem is the place where man was created. Jerusalem is the city of King Malkizedek, the city in which Abraham, Isaac and Jacob worshiped, the city chosen …
Are you learning anything interesting? My Partner in Torah and I recently started Living Beyond Time, by Rabbi Pinchas Stolper (after finishing this book). It’s a collection of essays about the deeper meaning of the moadim. We want to pace it to read each section at the corresponding time of year, so we’ll be needing to choose another book to alternate …
Do you have any shiurim for Shavuos to recommend? This class by Rebbetzin Tziporah Heller (free registration on Naaleh required) is about preparing for Shavuos – connecting to the idea that Matan Torah forms the core of our emunah, and to the belief that we are essentially good. One point from the shiur: if we are told to always remember Matan …
