Jumping right in, I’m not quite sure where to begin. I’ve been in the middle of chaos for over a month now. May and June are always terribly busy for me. Too many birthdays and occasions. This year I even had two nieces and one nephew graduate from their perspective schools. Oy! Unfortunately, this has left little room in my brain for musings with the maelstrom I’ve been foolishly, aimlessly dog-paddling in for weeks now. Now, none of this is all bad, mind you. In fact, I think it all to be ...
Israel
Israel: 70 Years of Beauty
As my rabbi loves to quip, “What a long month this week has been.” My week can be summoned up in two words: Oy. Vey. I’ll just skip my usual digression and say Life has been unusually busy recently. (Though, I feel like it’s been this way since January…?) Regardless, I’m finding myself inspired today. Yes, Life has been rough, painful, stressful – you name it. And intense? Did I mention intense? However, it’s all been worth it. It always is. I think a perfect example of this is ...
Passover Failure
I never know how to start these blog posts. It always feels so pedantic. So we’re in the middle of Pesach; Passover as it’s more commonly known. This time of year is not merely to remember and reflect on the life of Moses and the Exodus from Egypt. As usual, it permeates far deeper than memory in our psyches, or neshama. As we say during Seder, we must feel as though we endured the bitterness of Egypt ourselves and are leaving our slavery and sorrows behind to begin a new life of ...
The Original Cinderella
Do you know what begins tonight?! Purim! Okay, so I realise some of you may not know what Purim is, which is sad because I think you’re missing out. Purim is first and foremost a Jewish holiday. People describe it as being a cross between Halloween and Mardi Gras, which is somewhat accurate. We dress up in costumes, wear masks, eat these funny-named triangular cookies called Hamantaschen (yum!), and even get ourselves a little tipsy. (Okay, so some of the Rabbis say we should get so ...
Homesick
It's been one year, 257 days, and 11 hours as I write this since I arrived in the land of Israel, ארץ ישראל, and probably about one year, 246 days, and 11 hours since I returned (if my math is correct). And I'm homesick. It ebbs and flows, this longing of my soul, to return to the one place in this entire world I truly, deeply know I belong. Sometimes the longing is overwhelming, pouring from my aching soul through my tears. Other times, it is merely a sense of consciousness that ...
