Tag: voice

Her blue eyes stare at me With wonder and hope My heart breaks a little But I still turn around and go.

A dream, A shining ball of brilliance Held lovingly in my palm Its sparkle shone with The edges of my tears.

Branches, in many ways, are like people. A tree has one trunk, and extending out from it are many branches, which are all beautiful in their own unique way.

When Yaakov met Rachel at the well, he experienced conflicting emotions. He felt tremendous joy at having finally met his bashert, yet he raised his voice and cried.

To “trick” Yitzchak into giving him the berachah, Yaakov donned Eisav’s clothing, put the skin of an animal on his arms and neck to simulate the hairiness of Eisav, and went in to his father to receive the blessing.

Dear SATs, I’d rather not take you because once I do my worth will be judged according to you-

I’m going to tell you something that the media doesn’t want you to know. The image of the perfect woman they promote as healthy - That’s not actually that healthy. I mean, we all want to look good and feel good, but the body image that the media shows today is truly horrible.

Our first matriarch’s original name, Sarai, meant “Princess to Her People.” When her name was changed to Sarah, its meaning took on a universal connotation: “Princess to Mankind.”

A few weeks ago my two-year-old daughter was showing my 85-year-old grandmother how to work an iPod touch. I’m not sure if my bubbie was more amazed with the device or with the fact that her great-granddaughter understood it better than her.

I've often written and said that we are living in remarkable but dangerous times in which we can hear (provided we know how to listen) the footsteps of the Messiah. Ours, however, is a generation that has difficulty hearing.

February 11 marked 25 years since Natan Sharansky crossed the Glienicke Bridge from East to West Germany and became a free man. Countless stories have been told about Sharansky's defiance of the Soviets and his courageous actions during his more than nine years of imprisonment.

The High Holy Days are over. It was an awesome spiritual time - when we probed or souls, asked profound questions and tried to determine what our lives are all about. We made resolutions - each in our own personal way - committed to being better Jews. We promised to become better ambassadors of Hashem, more meticulous with mitzvot, more devoted and zealous in doing acts of loving kindness, and in general, become more dedicated to our Torah and all that that implies. And now comes the big question: Are we still determined to make that change?

God commands Abraham to sacrifice his son Isaac, Sarah's only child. Our forefather gets up early and obeys, not telling Sarah, his wife of 47 years. According to Rashi (Genesis 23:2) when she finds out that Abraham had taken Isaac as a sacrifice and then had not killed him, the shock is too much for her and she dies. This has always disturbed me. Upon reflection other things about their relationship seemed problematic.

The soft, laughter-inflected voice of psychiatrist Dr. Judith Orloff narrates her autobiography. It keeps readers glued to the pages describing Orloff's formerly tumultuous life as an adolescent intuitive - a correct observer of human emotions - then catches up with her highly respected present.

Ernie Harwell, Bob Sheppard, George Steinbrenner, Ralph Houk - four legendary men long associated with baseball, all of whom died during this baseball season.

There is so much tragedy, so much sham in the world, that people no longer know how to make a distinction between emes - truth, and blatant falsehood - and we Jews suffer from this plague more than others. Israel is constantly under attack, constantly demonized by a world that has become increasingly anti-Semitic, by a world that would secretly be happy to G-d forbid, see yet another Holocaust unfold.

I am interrupting the sequence of my articles regarding questions posed by widows and widowers. B'Ezrat Hashem, I will continue that discussion in future columns. But for now, I feel compelled to address the tragic events that have once again unfolded in Eretz Yisrael. I would also like to remind our readers to daven and say Tehillim for the valorous wounded Israeli soldiers who were so savagely attacked. I make a special point of this because shockingly, I have discovered how few of us stop to consider the pain of our brethren.

Beloved nutritional counselor a.k.a. naturopath Shoshanna Harrari lives in Israel and hops around the globe helping clients to live healthier lives. With an impressive record for reversing disease, the author is an in-demand speaker and consultant. Her recipe book is a tool for resting her voice and a great addition to many kitchens. Photos by Shoshanna's husband Micah Harrari show the bounty of blessings upon our plates, if only we'll put them there.

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A few years ago I wrote in this column that at the bris of my oldest son - held in a shul whose members were for the most part elderly - a wizened old man approached me, peered into my face and muttered in a raspy voice with a Yiddish accent, "May your children sit shiva for you." I was too stunned to say anything to him and just shook my head as he walked away. I thought, "nebach, he must be demented."

In the past, when I would interview members of well-spouse support groups the topic of suicide was one that was never discussed. However, I always felt it was in the air, just hovering above the group and something very often hinted at in our discussions. Talk of self-neglect, of deliberately doing things detrimental to one's health and avoiding things that were healthy, would come up repeatedly.

Remembering Rebbetzin Lillian Chomsky On Her First Yahrzeit

Over the years, I have been to many, many theatrical productions, most in Toronto, some in Israel and of course, in New York - on Broadway, off-Broadway, and even off-off Broadway. At times I have been entertained, amused, moved, and educated by what I have seen ( and on the negative side, sometimes bored or disgusted or angered) but I don't think that I have ever been imbued with a much needed sense of hope.

Aside from a poster depicting the 40th anniversary of El Al that greets visitors immediately, and a couple of El Al coasters on the coffee table, there is not much in the living room of the Upper West Side home of Marvin Goldman to suggest that he is an avid collector of El Al material and paraphernalia.

The entire downtown business district would pour into the streets around 5:30 p.m., clogging the already congested traffic lanes of Chicago's bustling Loop. Blaring horns of Checker taxicabs and city buses made it hard to hear one's own voice, but I always heard my father's voice...

When one decides to have children, one has to decide: how one intends to bring them up, what values one will imbue in them and how one will stress their importance. Whatever they may be, when one instills the right values in a child, one later receives the dividends of one's efforts. This was proved so true this past Yom Kippur for Rebbetzin Judith Friedlander.

Hineni, the renowned Torah outreach organization, has announced that the latest best selling book of its founder and president, Rebbetzin Esther Jungreis is now available in an audio CD version.

To encounter God is an elemental quest of mankind.

This past week I was told two shidduch stories that made me sad and mad at the same time - because it is infuriating and tragic when people sabotage themselves or let others do so to them.