Seeds
Good morning. Last night I listened to a beautiful shiur given by Rabbi Moshe Weinberger. It starts at 19 minutes. If you have time, I suggest giving it a listen. I hope you have a meaningful Tu B’Shvat and eat some wonderful fruits.
Category: Yomim Tovim
Have an Easy Fast
Hello, everyone. This week ran away from me — I had planned on posting something about the Nine Days but between schoolwork and my egg freezing cycle, I couldn’t make it happen. Just a quick thought from the Levush: Megillas Eichah is typically not written on the traditional parchment the way other megillos are because our hope is that we …
A Shopping Order is Also a Prayer
Thank you to those who completed the survey! Much appreciated. Hint, hint… Pesach this week! Let’s do it! I have an embarrassing obsession with Pesach shopping orders. Don’t ask. Back in the day, my mother used to do one giant grocery trip before she started cooking in the Pesach kitchen. Sometimes I would go with her and …
Permanence (Or, Seeing Stars)
My friend was trying to borrow a succah for the upcoming Y”T (as her plans changed due to COVID) and finally declared, “I’m going to stop asking around and just buy myself a succah. I need some stability.” I couldn’t resist. “If it’s stability you’re after, you should definitely buy a succah. Now there’s a real symbol of permanence.” …
Yom Kippurs
On Monday, I sat down to write a post about Yom Kippur. I opened up my blog. Clicked on “add new.” Looked at the screen. Didn’t write. On Tuesday, I sat down to write a post about Yom Kippur. Nothing. On Wednesday, I clicked open a bunch of other tabs until I had to go to bed. …
Happy Tu B’Av
Last year I wrote about how I plan to celebrate Tu B’Av once I’m married. Well, this year I decided to celebrate it single! As mentioned last year, Tu B’Av is mesugal for connection. If Tisha B’Av is a day we can mourn the ambiguous loss of singlehood, why can’t Tu B’Av be a day we celebrate the hope and …
Single on Tisha B’Av
Hello, everyone. I hope you’re all doing well and drinking lots of water, especially before the fast. Last week I wrote about boundaries and people-pleasing, and I plan to post some more expanding on that topic later this week or next. So check back for that. This week I wrote a paper for one of my classes and …
Making Shabbos
Ever since I read the Rebbetzin Machlis book, I wanted to get more involved in making Shabbos. It was more of a wish/dream instead of an actual goal because I kept running into this resistance in my head that told me that making Shabbos before I was married would just be “pretend.” One of the positive developments for me …
Sap Rising
Happy Tu B’Shvat! Today we are celebrating the new year for the trees — but they don’t seem to be changing. And outwardly, they’re not. As you may have learned in school, what we’re really celebrating is the sap’s rising, which will eventually nurture the trees into all their spring glory. But we’ve a while yet… For the human …
Simchas Torah
Two weeks ago, my Partner in Torah and I completed Sefer Bereishis with Rashi. I thought how appropriate it was to be making a siyum during the Yomim Noraim, as we approach Simchas Torah. Throughout our learning, I was always surprised by how many new insights I could find in the text, and by how many questions I had …