From the time Jewish children are young, it is instilled in them, through their parents, their teachers, their spiritual leaders, that one of the highest forms of service to G-d is getting married and having children. In the beginning of the Bible, when G-d finishes his miraculous Creation, He looks upon his beautiful world and … Read more
School started a few weeks ago in Israel. On the first day, we don’t yet have the children’s schedules, so when I packed the boys’ knapsacks, I just put in a fully stocked pencil case, a sandwich and a water bottle. I left all of the new text books and workbooks at home until further … Read more
September 2009 The other night Kuti and I came home to find my daughter Ahuva in the den, spools of colorful crocheting thread spilled next to her on the couch. Earlier that evening, before we left, Ahuva had just finished the last stitch on a beautiful blue kippah, trimmed with a few rows of intricately … Read more
Coming of age. Rites of passage. Somehow, to me this brings to mind images of a boy in a loincloth, holding a sword in one hand and a sack of grain in the other, going off into the woods to kill his first bear. Or someone breaking out a bottle of bubbling champagne and drinking … Read more