A few weeks ago, I came home from (another) disappointing date and felt utterly drained and completely out of options. I called a friend, who stayed on the phone with me for an hour while I cried. She told me, “The only thing to do is not give up. We are not in control of what happens when. But we …
Very spontaneously, a few days before Pesach, I decided I needed to get away and booked a flight to E”Y. I left here on the first day of chol hamoed and returned a week later. It was b”H the most glorious week with exactly no agenda and nothing planned in advance. My first day, I was super jet-lagged so …
Ok, I’m very late to the party here but we have to talk about the greatest piece of writing ever published in Calligraphy. (To be honest, I’m not usually a magazine reader so I’m wholly unqualified to make that statement…but anyway.) On Erev Pesach, my friend texted me that if I had the Mishpacha I had to read Rikki …
Occasionally, I take a look at the date on the calendar as if seeing it for the first time, and then blink. March 2018. Wait. Where did I think I would be now? We set unwritten expectations for ourselves and the path life will take. The who, the where, and especially, the when. It’s understandable — we’re humans who …
I’m struggling to find the sweet spot between too much hishtadlus and too little. Or really, between too much and just right. Can anyone relate? It’s that feeling of…maybe I should text this shadchan again. And, like, maybe again soon. Or email this person my resume, again, as a friendly reminder. Or meet another shadchan who works with this …
Hello, all, I hope you had a good Yom Tov. My family went away for Pesach for the first time in years. It was the most refreshing change. There’s nothing like a vacation for helping everything come back together. The only downside was that my married siblings and their kids weren’t with us. A few highlights: We spent hours and hours …
(This will be my last post before Pesach. I’ll be back in business be”H on Monday, April 24th.) Seder night is coming. I didn’t think I would be single this year at the Seder. I didn’t expect this. Did you? The Nesivos Shalom says that the entire Seder night is an incredibly potent time to ask Hashem for anything. It …
We’re going to be enjoying a lot of matzah next week. Here are two kavanos to have in mind while eating matzah, not only at the Seder but throughout Yom Tov (from The Making of a Nation, the haggadah incorporating Rav Avigdor Miller’s speeches, also mentioned here.) Matzah is the bread of affliction. Our forefathers in Mitzrayim underwent suffering …
Miriam Kosman wrote an article that appeared several years ago in the Family First, entitled “How Cleaning the Refrigerator Helps Us Come Closer to Hashem.” I derived tremendous inspiration from her words at the time, and clipped the article to refer to again. Recently I found Mrs. Kosman’s website (I’m reading her book with my Partner in Torah) and there was …
Do you like to choose a new haggadah for Pesach? Or do you prefer to use the same one each year? A few years ago I felt that I was rolling into Pesach without being particularly prepared or inspired. I was peeling lots of potatoes and cooking my specialties (namely, broccoli kugel and blondies) but feeling intimidated at the thought of …
