Grand Plan

Before Rosh Hashanah, we spend a lot of time preparing. We plan meals. We clean the house. We think about what to wear, who is coming, where everyone will sit, and what will be on the table. But there is another kind of preparation that may matter even more. What are we bringing into the new year as a family? Rosh Hashanah is traditionally understood as the day when we proclaim God as King. The Musaf service centers around three powerful themes: Malchuyot, Zichronot, and Shofarot. What if we...

Back-to-school season is full of instructions. New teachers explain the rules. Parents remind children what they need to bring, when they need to wake up, how to get to class, and what is expected of them. There is a lot of information being passed from one generation to another. But I wonder whether the most important message a child needs at the beginning of a new school year is one that doesn't appear on the syllabus: I see you. I believe in you. You are capable of more than you know. That...

Back-to-school season has a way of filling our screens with firsts. A friend proudly posts that her grandson is the third generation of the family to enroll at a prestigious university. What an extraordinary legacy! Another shares photos of the matching outfits she bought for her granddaughters, followed by pictures of them wearing those outfits on the first day of school. They truly looked adorable. Someone else writes about the long, heartfelt conversation she had with her grandchild about...

Recently I watched a grandmother at a wedding. She had been looking forward to this moment for months. She was thrilled to be there, had thought carefully about what she would wear, how she would participate, and how she would celebrate her granddaughter. This was one of those moments she had probably imagined many times before it arrived. And then the wedding began. The music was loud. The dancing was energetic. People wanted her to join in and celebrate. But her body couldn't keep up. The...

As summer winds down and grandchildren head back to school, they are preparing more than new backpacks and sharpened pencils. Your grandchildren are stepping into systems of rules, expectations, and authority. They will be asked to trust teachers, coaches, administrators, and new routines, sometimes without fully understanding why things work the way they do. Parashat Shoftim is surprisingly concerned with this very question. It lays out judges, witnesses, leaders, priests, and systems for...

When we think about grandchildren, we naturally want to protect them from negative consequences. We don't want them to be disappointed. We are heartbroken if they fail. We certainly don't want them to suffer. Yet Parashat Re'eh opens with one of the Torah's most fundamental lessons: Our choices matter. "See, this day I place before you blessing and curse." The Torah isn't trying to frighten us. It's teaching us that our decisions shape our lives. Many of us grew up with consequences that were...

When we think about the Jewish legacy we hope to leave our grandchildren, recipes, holidays, rituals, and family traditions often come to mind. They are beautiful expressions of who we are and where we come from. But what are they ultimately pointing toward? If our grandchildren inherit our challah recipe but never experience the One Who Sanctifies the Shabbat, what have we really passed on? Parashat Eikev invites us to ask a deeper question. Not simply, What Jewish traditions are we leaving...

This week I found myself thinking about the Shema in four completely different settings. On Sunday, I recorded this week's Connecting Jewish Grandparents podcast, exploring how the Shema is not only the cornerstone of our relationship with the Almighty, but also a blueprint for how grandparents nurture lasting relationships with their grandchildren. On Monday evening, I attended a brit milah and watched an Israeli grandfather hold his first grandchild, radiant in his new role. On Tuesday, I...

This week's Grand Plan learning is lovingly dedicated in memory of Julia Jerusalmi, a remarkable woman whose life embodied the enduring strength of family. She carried generations of history with grace, warmth, and unwavering devotion, gifting them to future generations with joy. May all who were blessed to know Julia find comfort in the extraordinary legacy of love, family, and kindness she leaves behind. Min HaShamayim tenuhamu. Starting something new usually means looking ahead, sometimes...