We've all heard of the expression, "You can't generalize." Before reading this article, please repeat the expression to yourselves several times. The examples we cite are not typical of the whole community. But, unfortunately, they do exist, and people who run a gemach cope with clients like these every day, and are only too familiar with them.

BOOK REVIEW
The Wonderful World of Berachos
by S. Apelbaum

No problem this year as what to get the children for the Afikomon. And even if your children are only Hebrew-reading, they will be able to intuit the information and just love this new book to pieces. (By next year, the Hebrew version should be available, new and non-chometzdik!)

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

We have been discussing autoimmune disorders, that is disorders that are caused by the body attacking itself for reasons that are unclear to us. The body looks at certain materials or cells as foreign invaders and attacks them. Almost all of these diseases commonly affect the joints.

Poet's Corner

Embracing My Own Intrepid Spirit
by Shoshana Berman

I get the feeling
That Someone up there
Loves me especially

He's the One
Who makes the redwood forests
And grand canyons
Who never plays it safe

Who never sleeps
Or slumbers

If I weren't so intrepid
And didn't keep moving
I could have easily missed Him
And still be installed
In place
I could have been successful
At doing what they do
And living what they live

I would have never followed Him
Into the desert
Or forfeited a return plane ticket
To stay
Or found my soulmate
By following a slender lead
To a hotel lobby

Or lived in a tiny three room apartment
Without central heating
Or had all those beautiful children
On a salary that didn't exist

I would have never
Crouched on hands and knees
To check the house before Pesach
Or stood guard
Over candlelight
Or waited an hour
Balanced on a ledge
To see a holy face
Or looked into a goblet of wine
As I hung on
Every word of blessing

If I weren't so intrepid
I would have not
Followed the trail of crumbs
In the forest