There seems to be an unwritten rule that states: \”If you are going through a convulsive experience, you ought to be open to those with equally or more compelling issues.\” Whatever happened to: \”Put your own mask on first, then, tighten the straps before you try to assist others\”?
\”You shall not eat anything abhorrent,\” the Torah (Deuteronomy 14:3) tells us. And while the Torah is referring to camels, rabbits, badgers and pigs, I would today include foods that that are high in fat and sugar and low in nutritional value. Foods that have been injected with hormones and antibiotics or treated with pesticides. Foods with a shelf life longer than the average life span.
\”\’Fahrenheit 9/11,\’ what a piece of garbage,\” says radio host Bill Handel.
The freeways were quiet and the city seemed peaceful at 4:30 a.m. as I drove to the hospital.
It seemed that lots of people — including total strangers — had plenty of advice to offer my sister and my brother-in-law before the birth of their first child, an event the entire extended family anticipated for late summer 2003. And it wasn\’t just a matter of kindly (if ultimately incorrect) projections about the baby\’s gender or rueful warnings about all those sleepless nights to come.
It had been perfectly planned. For my brother\’s bar mitzvah reception, each member of our family was responsible for sitting with and entertaining a particular constituency.
Seventeen-year-old Megan Knofsky keeps alive her sibling\’s memory by sustaining a teen support group that raises money for research to find a cure for cystic fibrosis, the genetic disorder that affects 30,000 people and claimed her sister, Sarah, in 1997.
Nearly 1,600 people packed Sinai Temple Oct. 10 for the Westwood synagogue\’s monthly \”Friday Night Live\” singles summit, where a Toronto transplant said she was, \”looking for modern, chivalrous men.\”
We are in the month of Elul, and I\’m taking inventory of my year. Much of the year for me was about how I dealt with my grief; it was about the process of letting go.
Jay and I met watching college hoops at Maloney\’s in March. He\’s a Syracuse fan who came to believe his team would only win when my tush was on the bar stool next to his.
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