Grand Plan

Moving Toward Connection | Vayera “I don’t see my grandchildren enough!” It is a familiar refrain. Even if you don't say it aloud, you carry it in your heart. We want more time with our grandchildren, more opportunities to share our stories, values, and love. Yet our children are busy, our grandchildren have their own schedules, and invitations don't always come as often as we would like. But this week's Torah portion offers a different question: Instead of focusing on how often our...

Searching for Legacy What will remain of us when we are gone? Who will remember our stories, carry our values forward, and keep our traditions alive? Will the next generation know what mattered to us, and will it matter to them? These are not new questions. In Parashat Lech Lecha, we meet Avram, a man promised a great future but uncertain how that future will unfold. God tells Avram to leave his land, his birthplace, and his father's house and travel to a land that God will show him. He is...

Is Grandparenting for the Birds? When I tell children the story of Noach and his sending out the birds, I always ask them if they know what a dove is. Many describe a beautiful white bird. Others think of their bath soap or a magic trick they have seen. They love hearing how the dove returned to Noach with a fresh olive branch in its beak, promising a new future, Yonat Shalom! But the same Hebrew word, yonah, also refers to a pigeon. Pigeons and doves are essentially the same creature, belong...

In His Image One of the awesome, inspirational, and comforting ideas at the beginning of Bereishit is that human beings are created בְּצֶלֶם אֱלֹקים, in the image of God. After Adam and Chava leave Gan Eden, they have two sons, Cain and Abel. Cain kills his brother. The first family does not exactly become the picture of harmonious family life. Then Adam has another son, Shet. And the Torah describes him with strikingly similar language: Adam fathers a son בִּדְמוּתוֹ כְּצַלְמוֹ, in his...

Navigating the Turbulent JourneyWe can't control the journey. We can choose how we navigate it. Early yesterday morning, I saw a news alert that a flight headed to Israel was in crisis and that more details would be forthcoming. And I found myself in that strange space of not knowing. Should I worry? Should I assume everything was fine? Should I recite Tehillim? Should I put down my phone and simply resume my plans? I did some of each. Eventually, we learned what had happened. A Flydubai...

What If You Misidentified Your Harvest? A few months ago, a friend's son came running excitedly to tell his family that they had pomegranates growing in their yard. The whole family gathered around the little tree, looking at the small buds beginning to form. The tree had been planted by their gardener several years earlier, and suddenly it seemed as though they were about to enjoy their very own pomegranates. They started imagining them on the Rosh Hashana table. Would they be ready in time?...

Is It Too Late for Grandparents? Have you ever looked at a relationship with one of your grandchildren and thought, “It’s too late”? Maybe they’re older now, and you wish you had been closer when they were younger. Maybe you live far away. Maybe there’s tension between you and your adult child, or between you and a child-in-law, and that tension has affected your relationship with your grandchildren. Maybe you said something you wish you could take back. Or maybe nothing dramatic happened....

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...