When you are up high on top of the mountain, it becomes much easier to see where you are going; everything seems so clear, and often the view is breathtaking. In the valley, on the other hand, the high walls of the mountains obscure where you really are, and it is much easier to get lost. more

Dear Aviva, I feel that my husband and I don’t always see eye to eye on our child rearing. My disciplining ways don’t mesh with his, one reason being that I am a former educator and he has no previous experience with children. I feel that I am constantly telling him how to parent. I get exasperated with his lackadaisical ways, and I feel that it is confusing to our children when I say one thing and he says another. How do we get on the same page? more

Chapter 23, verses 2-4 list a number of male types who may not enter “k’hal Hashem,” the community of G-d. On a simple level, the verses seem strange. The first two individuals – men who have become sterile on account of external, or unnatural incidents – are likely Jewish men. As is the “mamzer,” the product of two Jewish people who participated in a Torah-forbidden relationship. Don’t they enter the community of G-d the moment they are born? more

The very leaf that falls calls to the earth that births the seed in need of rain drops to bloom from the hibernating tomb of nature’s nesting life... more

When Anthony Weiner resigned from Congress, it was assumed that whoever got the Democratic Party nomination would win the race to replace him. But you cannot assume when it comes to special elections, remember in 2009 when Ted Kennedy was replaced by a Republican? more

It was a morning like any other, a clear sky above the Upper West Side, where my art studio class at LaGuardia High School was starting its fall semester. Across Amsterdam Avenue, the gates of Engine 40 Ladder 35 quickly went up and fire trucks raced downtown carrying 11 men to an unprecedented emergency. more

Ten years is a long time in the life of any human being. For a book reviewer this daunting subject is a challenge in that this is a topic that deserves more than just cursory treatment. Thus, I … more

As we approach Rosh Hashana the operative word is “judgment.” From the unique foods we eat, to the customs we maintain, our prayers, our thoughts all embody the idea that a court case of sorts is playing out in cosmic proportions. more

With this summer’s unusual earthquake and a hurricane now safely behind us, our minds and reading habits are shifting towards the high holidays and new school year. more

Two words; two chilling words, that have haunted a generation of Israelis, Jews, and innocents around the world, were heard yet again, piercing the peaceful quiet of the Negev desert this past week, as all too suddenly, a quiet peaceful afternoon suddenly filled with the screams of the dying and the wounded as Arab Hamas-sponsored terrorists once again targeted the innocent in a horrific series of attacks. more