HOME & FAMILY

These were some of my first impressions, the first year of aliya, of living in Israel. Nine years later, they still ring true.

Eretz Yisroel of Yesteryear
Lead Us with Dignity to Our Holy Land
by Yisca Shimony

"Why did we come here? Had we stayed in Bagdad, things would have been much better," bewailed Sammara Manni, the wife of the very esteemed R' Eliyahu Manni, as she looked at her sick husband. She was at a loss to help him.

Something to Forgive
by Rivka Glick

Sitting at the Shabbos table on Shabbos Shuva, I was glancing at the first page of a Hebrew leaflet that my youngest had brought home from yeshiva. Achdus, it was called, put out by bochurim, themselves, apparently.

Drama in Children's Education
by A. Ross, M.Ed.

They all enjoy play acting. From the time a baby plays peek- a-boo, he is play acting. They play Mothers and Fathers, doctor or school, or, unfortunately, attacks (the modern version of cops-and-robbers): shootings, explosions, Hatzola. During and after World War II, they played concentration camps and how they had been herded into the umschlagsplatz, a word I learned when I was a small child from my friends who were survivors of the horror.

One Bris Leads to Another
as told to Esther Weil

More than Jews have preserved the mitzva of bris-mila, this commandment has preserved us as a Jewish nation.

Your Medical Questions Answered!
by Joseph B. Leibman, MD

We return to our series on evidence based medicine and will discuss a topic of interest that I have not seen much written about.

POET'S CORNER

The Tie That Binds

by Esther Gimmel

Bound. Connecting to Eternity.
So I can choose what's best for me.
My eyes and heart give bad advice:
Look and take, forget the price.

But I'm no servant to such greed,
Nor forced to let emotions lead.
Tefillin, Torah's yoke is on me,
I'm `bound' to be a man that's free.

Moment

by Ruth Lewis

I don't know
what made me glance
to my right, downwards,
as I trudged weary up a hill I've trudged up
countless times before.
But there I saw some flowers -- small and milky pink.

Not slowing my steps,
already late,
I yet gazed long and longingly,
into the pale pink heart of them.
Surprise within suprise --
veins so fine, so delicate, shooting lavender.

Thus, momentarily,
I gazed into the heart of all the world,
drank deep,
walked on.

Lesson in Life

by G. Zemmel

My daughter's a tzadekes.
You ask me how I know?
She's barely fifteen months
With so much time to grow!
Her actions, though, do prove it
As she toddles through her day,
No more crawling -- that's for babes,
In shoes she makes her way.

Not always steady in her steps
I often see her fall
But, unperturbed, she struggles up
And stands up straight and tall.

She tries again, and falls once more,
Then heads towards the door,
Destination still in sight,
She will try with all her might,
Yet fall, and rise, and fall and rise,
This is more than exercise.
Both for body and for soul
This makes the person whole.

For this is how she really grows,
And learns to overcome her woes,
To fall and rise --
Presents no problem in her eyes.
Walking this way is the norm
She keeps on going, stays in form.

Yet when I stumble and I fall,
I don't feel quite that way at all,
I forget it is the norm,
To be beset in life by storm.
Instead of rising seven times,
It is far easier to decline.

Until I look into her eyes,
And realize she's the one who's wise,
After every fall -- to rise.