Rabbi Gary KatzMother’s Day and Honoring Your Mother – A Tricky Combo At Times.
Mother’s Day can be a tricky day for some. Many have recounted to me the range of emotions that can come up while looking for an appropriate Mother’s Day card in the drug store. There are literally hundreds of cards full of adulation, admiration, love, and respect for mothers. Yet few seem to fully capture […]
Finding Support in the Orthodox Community for Families Who Have a FamilyMember Struggling With Mental Illness
As this article mentions and links to a study, eating disorders are disproportionately high in the Orthodox Jewish community. There have been many advances in the services being provided but often the family is still in search of support. Ultra-Orthodox Parents of Children With Mental Illness Face Lonely Struggles When one teen began bingeing and […]
Teaching Orthodox Jewish Girls Healthy Sexuality
Orthodox girls can internalize the values of modesty in their community in negative ways that cause them to feel shame about their body and have a fear of their own sexuality as well of male lust. Talli Rosenbaum writes a thoughtful article about how to raise Orthodox girls with a healthy sense of sexuality. Ten […]
Protecting the victims of sexual abuse in the Jewish community.
How much longer will the rabbis and Jewish community leaders fail to understand how to protect the victims of sexual abuse and be sensitive to their needs? The Jewish Standard Taking Care of the Victims. Meira Bayar Ellias and Rahel Bayar • Op-Ed Published: 01 May 2014 We are sisters. One of us is a former […]
Why do we use salt on bread when making hamotzi?
Hmmmmmm….not sure why, but I’ve been thinking A LOT about bread (especially pizza) recently… My friend, Yochi Dreazen mentioned to me earlier this week that he and his wife Annie began to use honey on their challah (and even matzah) as a sign for sweetness in life and their marriage during their first year of […]
Lessons of the Four Sons
The Four Sons/Children Every child learns in a different way. We all have our own approach, identity, and way in which we learn. Cookie cutter approaches don’t work in raising children or in education. The four sons at the seder show us that each child needs to be approached in a way that is best […]
Parsley & salt water – healthy shame versus toxic shame
At karpas, we balance both the reminder of the pain and suffering represented by the salt water with the symbol of renewal of the green vegetable. Why did the rabbis combine two opposing symbols into this one stage of the Seder? Why not just drink or taste a little salt water in order to recall […]
Brokenness – the beginning of healing
The middle matzah is broken at the beginning of the Seder into two pieces to be used later on in the service of the Seder at two different times. Only by being broken is it able to fulfill these two different functions. In what ways has brokenness enabled you to be useful at a later […]
Urchatz – a Reminder to Sanctify Our Actions
We wash our hands before dipping the karpas into salt water as was the custom in earlier times to ritually wash the hands before eating bread or any food that would be dipped into liquid. Why did the rabbis enact a law that requires washing of the hands and not any other part of the […]