Have I written about my hockey room before? When we did construction on our house, almost 20 years ago — yikes 20 years, where did that go? — we had the chance to add a basement to the plans. Should we? Shouldn’t we? My mom convinced us that we should. And it was our best decision ever. For years, our basement was the “hockey room.” Technically, it is called knee hockey, but whatever it was called, on many a Shabbos evening the hockey room smelled like boy. Febreze was a great...Continue Reading
This can be a confusing time to be a Jewish teenager. Cultural assumptions and expectations are changing rapidly in some places; it can be hard for Jewish tweens or teens to figure out their identity. It’s almost a perfect storm for some kids — please note that this...Continue Reading
Emil Bezverkhny’s life followed a classic tragic arc. He was brilliant — a wildly creative, innovative physicist and inventor whose gifts would have been welcome anywhere. He was optimistic and resilient, kind and loving. Like all tragic heroes, he had a fatal flaw, but unlike most of them,...Continue Reading
We Jews are known for our devotion to text. To say we read carefully is to understate ludicrously. We examine every word, every noun for its solidity and apparent meaning, every verb for its active or passive message, every repetition and alliteration and metaphor for whatever might possibly...Continue Reading
