Sim shalom! Grant peace! These words begin the final section of the Amidah, standing silent meditation, in the daily Jewish…
Category: Family
Don't Expect a Perfect Rabbi
Rabbinic scandals, anyone? Voyeurism, clannishness, sexual harassment, court battles over defamation. We’re shocked – not just because we expect better.…
A Grandmother's Wisdom
My mother’s mother died long before I was born, so I never met my grandmother. She seems to have been…
Letters from the Front
This Remembrance Day, I’m remembering two World War II veterans, my father and my uncle. Just six months ago, my…
Taste of Eternity
The fifth of the Ten Commandments states: Honor your father and your mother, that your days may be long in the land that…
Fifty-five Alive!
Today is my 55th birthday. It’s a bittersweet day. Today I receive my small inheritance, half the proceeds from the sale…
Spiritual Intercessor
At a Jewish funeral, you might hear the prayer, “May she (or he) be a melitz yosher for her family.”…
Mandela and Messianic Time
In less than a week, so much has been said to eulogize Nelson Mandela. Together with Frederik Willem de Klerk,…
Remembering Freddy
Each year, on Remembrance Day weekend, Canuck Place Children’s Hospice hosts a memorial service called “Remembering Our Children.” This year,…