Whether or not we modern Jews live halakhic lives--lives that are organized around Jewish law--there is tremendous value and guidance in our legal tradition. Let's turn our attention to two such legal concepts and see if they can shine a little light on our how we go about our days.
Now that Shiri is reaching the true height of toddlerhood, we have a whole new dynamic going on in our house. Shiri is Miss Independent and wants to do things all by herself. This initiative is often helpful. She now feeds the dog regularly, takes off her own coat, puts things in the garbage, and cleans up her toys.
Let’s face it – parenting is a flood of emotions. Tantrums, tears, and timeouts? This too is Torah.
At the end of our fall holiday cycle and so many intense days of inwardness, prayer and community, it's not unusual to hear people say something along the lines of "I'm so glad that life is back to normal, now I can get back on track." This raises a couple of wonderful questions. What is the point of the Jewish holidays? What should we take with us as we head into "hol"--into mundane time?
During rabbinical school I spent one summer doing a unit of clinical pastoral education at a hospital in Michigan. My reasoning for spending that time in a hospital setting was twofold. First, I needed to get over some of my fear of the hospital environment and learn how to bring the most comfort to the most vulnerable.
Welcome to the first video in the Parenting by the Parshah series. Parenting is making order out of chaos. Alphabetizers and color coordinators, this video is for you!
Yesterday was a difficult day. Even’t if I hadn’t been accidentally woken at 5:30 am by an ill-timed Siri alarm, it still would have been a day filled with emotional extremes.
