Today is April 16, 2024 /
Today is April 16, 2024 /
Last week was hard. It was raw and messy, replete with mediocre parenting, a sense of working harder than ever before, and an awareness that we – and those we love – were treading water at best. This week was hard. Wants morphed into needs, the shiny potentialities presented by COVID-19 became tarnished, and respite Continue Reading »
Rabban Gamliel has a famous statement in the Passover Haggadah (taken from Mishna Pesachim) that “In every generation, a person must see him/herself as having gone out of Egypt.” This has always seemed to me to be the essence of the Seder, but for years it remained in the realm of ideas for me. I Continue Reading »
My kids are home. Even an adult child I thought would never live at home again is home. Yesterday, we spent 8 hours in the house, each of us in zoom meetings on 4 different devices, unable to say a word to each other let alone bake a cake—all in the name of staying connected. Continue Reading »
It’s a time for harmonic vibrations. We need to model optimism, hope, and love. We’ll leave the panic and fear to those who want to instill panic and fear. There are those who believe that people will listen to them better if they raise their voices and shriek. We are not shriekers. We embrace the Continue Reading »
From my family’s memory: My great-great-grandfather Haron Karkukli was struck with wanderlust the morning after his wedding. As family lore goes, he set out that very day and disappeared without a trace — and without even knowing that he and his wife had conceived on their wedding night. Haron wandered far from Amara, his Iraqi Continue Reading »
I want to teach two truths that we all know: What we need most in life is love. We feel best about ourselves when we are loving human beings. I’m not talking about crazy wild romantic love (though that is also important) ― I’m talking about everyday love. Loving behavior expressed in words and acts Continue Reading »
The intense hours of Rosh Hashana and Yom Kippur are behind us; days are cooler, evenings come earlier. Sukkot arrives and leads us to the door — to dwell outside, in a makeshift home, with a roof so flimsy it might easily blow away. Exposed to the elements, outside of our daily comfort zones, we Continue Reading »
I have a new hero, and it’s a bit embarrassing. Embarrassing to admit that I’ve studied and taught this character for decades and always assumed he was the anti-hero, the person we shouldn’t become, the epitome of someone who was impelled by a mistaken zeal to lead a mistaken life. My anti-hero has become heroic. Continue Reading »
