A Bisl Torah

It is the Friday before Rosh Hashana. For some of us that means final sermon preparations, printing, rehearsing, and making sure we know the correct cantillation for our Torah readings. For others it means preparing the apple kugel, ironing the table cloth, picking up meat from the butcher and polishing our silver candlesticks. And for most, it feels busy. Rushing to finish. Rushing to “feel” done. Rushing so that everything is perfect. And yet through the hustle, we forget to rush towards what is most important. The true essence woven within the Yamim Noraim—the Days of Awe. So in this…

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Tomorrow evening, we gather together for what is called Selichot: a night of petitioning God to remember us in this High Holy Day season. Often the days of Rosh Hashana and Yom Kippur feel overwhelming…the amount of people, the pressures that comes with being called the “holiest time” of the year. Certainly Rosh Hashana and Yom Kippur gives us the impetus to change our lives. But Selichot feels different. Selichot feels private. Meditative. Contemplative. If you need a real jump start for change, join us at Sinai Temple, 8:30pm, Saturday night. And as a prelude to the evening, let the…

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Getting “ready” for the High Holy Days isn’t an easy task. I don’t mean the writing of sermons or organization of the honors list. I am talking about soul work. Real work. Being open to repairing our wrongs and admitting where we have fallen and need to do better. Rabbi Yehoshua said, “An evil eye, the evil inclination, and hatred of others remove a person from the world.” I don’t take this to mean that God physically separates us when we engage in this behavior. Rather, when we let a grudge come between us and our community, we emotionally isolate…

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Last week, my husband and I asked my 26 year old brother to help us babysit our children. Specifically, we needed him to help us early Friday morning, so he slept over the night before. Now, remember, we have a 4 year old, almost 3 year old and 8 month old. In discussing what kind of help we would need the next morning, my brother looked at Erez and myself and said, “So what time should I set my alarm?” Erez and I looked at each other and just started laughing. In the last five years, we have never set…

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What music are you listening to? For the past three days, our children insisted on listening to every word from the soundtrack of the musical “Annie”. Our family enjoyed toddler renditions of “It’s The Hard-Knock Life”, “Maybe” and of course, the infamous “Tomorrow”. When listening to music with children, questions inevitably arise. We were asked hard questions: “Who are Annie’s parents?” “What happens to Annie’s friends?” Theological and philosophical questions ensued: “But why wait until tomorrow when the sun is out today!” And most of all, smiles and dancing and laughter followed as we know the Annie story feels good…

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This is a Bisl Torah on the go. Our family is traveling  throughout Philadelphia this week and spending time with loved ones. Diggerland, the Reading Terminal, Philadelphia Art Museum and other highlights are some of the stops on the trip. But of course, I insist that every trip to Philly includes a trip to the mall because of no sales tax on clothing. We save our back to school clothing sprees for these summer trips. As we drove to the mall, we were stuck at a traffic light for what seemed like an unbearable amount of time. We finally “woke” up…

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Last night my daughter asked me to fix something in her room. I looked at her and said, “Honey, I have no idea how to fix that. We’re going to have to call someone else to do it.” Wide-eyed she looked back with bewilderment. “Mommy, how will the person fix it?” And I repeated, “I have no idea, but they’ll know what to do.” She concluded the conversation with, “But mommy, just tell me…you know everything.” And my heart sunk. I understand that developmentally, my kids are supposed to think that adults hold all wisdom and truths in the palm…

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For three days, we lost the television remote control. Now don’t worry, we do have a television in a different room of the house but the lost remote is to the main set. We searched: behind the couch, under the table, in the laundry baskets, near the toys. The remote was nowhere to be found and while each of us shared bitter words (no Daniel Tiger today? No Cupcake Wars?)…something magical began to happen. It was quiet. We played more games after dinner. Books were read. The crutch of the television disappeared and we relied on each other for instant…

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Sometimes we just need a break. A beautiful resource came across my desk: Dr. Leonard Felder’s “More Fully Alive~ The Benefits of Using Jewish Wisdom for Responding to Stress and Overload.” Instead of going over the next item on my to-do-list, I flipped to the page entitled, “Enjoying Mini-Sabbaticals Each Day and Each Week.” Dr. Felder suggests that in order to experience a Sabbath-like feeling during the week, we should schedule “phantom clients” in our calendar. He writes, “What’s a Phantom Client? It’s the name of someone who doesn’t really exist but by putting a realistic name on your calendar…

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Of all advice given to parents, I think the wisest is the following: You are only as happy as your unhappiest child. I don’t take this to mean that we should dissolve in tears when our children feel pressured by everyday bumps. A skinned knee or a C- in math may be hard to bear but are easily categorized as moments of potential growth. Band-Aids and a late-night dessert remedy most childhood ailments. It’s when our loved ones experience true, raw, seemingly unbearable heartache that causes those closest to them to feel intense helplessness and insecurity. Rejection, shame, violation, illness,…

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