When is a curse a blessing? Sometimes it’s hard to tell which is which. In our parasha this week, the non-Israelite prophet Balaam is summoned by Moabite King Balak to curse the Israelites. Somehow, throughout Jewish history, we have been seen as a...

Sometimes, it’s not what you say, it’s how you say it.As a parent, there are moments when I find myself suddenly furious. It seems as if my children have made just one demand too many. All of the whining and insistence that I drop whatever I am doing...

Animals can speak. Flowers can be painted. Mice can sew.  Lamps can house genies. Dragons can be trained. Toasters can have feelings.  If I told you these things, you’d think I was crazy. Surely, none of these things is true. And yet, as children...

I was a really picky eater when I was young, and I mean really picky. I didn’t like tomatoes, onions, lettuce—well, pretty much all vegetables—corned beef, thin salami (thick was OK), mayonnaise, pepper, fish, beans, sausage, honeydew, cherries…...

I am always intrigued by the minds of b’nai mitzvah students, especially the lessons they glean from their parshiot. This week, my daughter celebrates becoming bat mitzvah. As with all of my students, I have had the opportunity to peer into her mind...

They say the first step towards change is admitting you have a problem, right? Well, today I’d like to own up to one of my most unattractive qualities, something I’ve dealt with since I was very young: I’m extremely possessive.In kindergarten, I...

We sometimes forget, since it has been a long trek through the [Book of] Exodus, that as we get to B’midbar, the Israelites have only been out of Egypt for a little over a year.  They are not aware that there are decades of wandering to come and that...

Money is important. No one can deny that fact. We love it and we hate it, but ultimately, we need it. And in college, it’s on everyone’s minds. Whether graduating in four years or one month, every student is thinking about how he or she might get...

A Jewish folktale tells of  a man visiting hell, being amazed to find its inhabitants all seated at long tables, with fancy tablecloths, beautiful silverware, and a spread of delicious looking food and delicacies. As he looked more closely, he noticed...

Seventeen years ago, our daughter invited me to become a bat mitzvah with her. In the world I grew up in, bat mitzvah was not a choice. This lifecycle was something reserved for my brothers, not for their older sisters. Our family embraced the transformations...

This week’s Torah portion, Shemini, wraps up the eight-day inauguration ceremony of the Tabernacle and its Kohanim, the priests.  On the eighth day of the inauguration, as a coda to the process, a calf was brought on the altar and a Divine fire emerged...