This year, the two days of Rosh Hashanah are Thursday and Friday (beginning Wednesday night) which end just as Shabbat begins. So practically speaking it creates a set of 3-days in which work is prohibited and they are filled instead … Read the rest
...This week I merited to see two Jews happily put on Tefillin outside the synagogue context, who ordinarily wouldn’t do it. One was the talented juggler at the Shalom Festival in Saratoga’s Congress Park. He rolled up his sleeve between … Read the rest
...Earlier this summer Raizy and I went up to hear Israeli/Jewish Blues Musician Lazer Llyod play at Saratoga Chabad. Lazer is a Skidmore alumn, and this was his first tour back from Israel in the US in many years. While … Read the rest
...Today Chai (18th of) Elul is the birthday of the Baal Shem Tov, founder of the Chassidic movement. There are so many beautifully inspiring stories of the Baal Shem Tov (and here little Bluma interjected that she knows a bunch … Read the rest
...One of our end of summer family rituals is to go to the local country fair. It gives the kids a chance to see animals, agriculture, etc. Perhaps the highlight was feeding the giraffe, even our littlest Esther-Miriam got to … Read the rest
...This fanciful parable has been told at many a Jewish campsite, but this is basically the version I heard from my uncle Rabbi Moshe Chanowitz (at a Jewish teen overnight) and this is the one I recently told my children … Read the rest
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