Growing up, I dreaded Yom Kippur. Not merely the frightening and guilt-evoking liturgy of sin and repentance, not only having to go 24 hours without food, but also for the mood and the obligations of this challenging day itself.  Our family spent...

The past few cultural events that I have attended as well as the art, music and even food that I have enjoyed lately point out that the world is shrinking and coming together in mostly positive ways. Some terms often used to describe this phenomenon...

Living Jewishly is intense (in the best sense of the word).  The Aseret Yemei Teshuvah, the Ten Days of Repentance, are upon us. The penultimate parsha, Ha’azinu could not be more poignant. Almost the entire parsha consists of Deuteronomy chapter...

I simply could not believe the Light dedicated an entire article to the proposition that the sale of some pillows at the price of $14.88 is antisemitic coding. (“Mike Lindell says he did not intend Nazi symbolism by selling pillows for $14.88”,...

Marc Kornblatt prepared uneasily earlier this year for his daughter, Louisa, to arrive for 10 days with the family. Her homecomings once brought the comfort of movie nights and card games, but this year was different. Marc and his wife, Judith, had moved...

This year, our post-Oct. 6th reality seems omnipresent as we approach the Yamim Nora’im, the High Holy Days. The impact of the horrific actions taken by Hamas on Oct. 7, and the resulting loss of life and ongoing war, have cast a shadow on the joyfulness...

A businessman boarded a plane to find, sitting next to him, an elegant woman wearing the largest, most stunning diamond ring he had ever seen. He asked her about it. "This is the Bexfield diamond," she said. "It is beautiful, but there is a terrible...

Ki Teitzei means when you leave. When we leave our expectations over the messes great and little, some we have made, some made for us. When we cease to compare the what-it-is to the what-we-wanted or the-way-it-was-supposed-to-be. When we leave behind...

This story was originally published in the Forward. Click here to get the Forward's free email newsletters delivered to your inbox. A Bintel Brief, Yiddish for a bundle of letters, has been solving reader dilemmas since 1906. Send yours via email, social...

This story was originally published in the Forward. Click here to get the Forward's free email newsletters delivered to your inbox. A Bintel Brief, Yiddish for a bundle of letters, has been solving reader dilemmas since 1906. Send yours via email ([email protected]),...

This story was originally published in the Forward. Click here to get the Forward's free email newsletters delivered to your inbox. A Bintel Brief, Yiddish for a bundle of letters, has been solving reader dilemmas since 1906. Send yours via email, social...