English Blog

My Daughter Came Home

Thursday, March 27, 2025 - 1:37 PM

My daughter came home last night from Israel to be with us for Pesach. She’s been studying in seminary since September, and we’ve all missed her very much! Her siblings have plastered the house with welcome home signs, her room is ready, her bed is made, and we all went to JFK last night to pick her up and bring her home.

I remember being a teenager in yeshiva myself, over 30 years ago, coming home from abroad for Pesach. As much as I loved the independence of studying in yeshiva, maturing and living away from home, I loved coming home even more. It was exhilarating. It’s a feeling that can’t be described. It’s the people, the smells, the sounds, the familiarity, the love … Simply “home.”

As I thought about it, I realized this experience parallels the journey our souls make when they enter our bodies. Before we were born, our souls were living at home, in G-d’s Divine presence. We were comfortable there, with all our brothers and sisters, experiencing an intense bliss that cannot be adequately described. Then, one day, we were sent “abroad” to inhabit a body in this physical world, to live here and study and do mitzvot. Eventually, when we have completed our tasks, we will make our way back home.

In the next couple of weeks, Jews all over the world will sit together to celebrate Pesach. Pesach is the holiday of liberation, of freedom and redemption, of homecoming. We sit around the Seder table, eating matzah and drinking wine, reclining like kings and queens. But we’re not only celebrating our physical exodus from Egypt, but our spiritual liberation from everything that tries to interfere with our connection to G-d and His Torah.

This year, too, we’ll be thinking about the hostages still being held in Gaza, and praying for their immediate release. How their families—and the entire nation—await their homecoming! If there’s anyone who understands the meaning of home, it’s them and the hostages who have already been freed.

As we sing “Leshana haba b’yerushalayim - Next year in Jerusalem,” we’ll be praying for our physical return to the holy land, along with our entire nation’s homecoming with Moshiach and the Final Redemption.

I Was Three Minutes Away … Then Ended Up In Brooklyn

Thursday, March 20, 2025 - 2:59 PM

A group of our Belev Echad wounded soldiers were invited to meet Police Commissioner Jessica Tisch last week. They received the VIP treatment and a grand tour of police headquarters. All in all, the visit was a resounding success that left our heroes beaming with joy!

But as for me, my experience was not quite as smooth.

Ten minutes before the meeting, I received a call from the Commissioner's team asking for my ETA. I was in an Uber on the FDR, I told the secretary, and according to Waze we were only three minutes away. “Great, that means you'll be on time!” she responded.

Unfortunately, that is not what happened …

As I was on the phone telling the Commissioner's office that I was almost there, I was distracted and didn’t notice my driver approaching a critical fork in the road: After taking exit 2 on the FDR, there is a fork—left leads to the Brooklyn Bridge and right stays in Manhattan and leads to Police Headquarters.

Before I could intervene, he veered towards Brooklyn and my heart plummeted. I yelled out, “No! Keep right!” but it was too late, and my hopes of arriving on time vanished before my eyes.

I was tempted to unleash my inner New Yorker and scream at the driver. For a moment, I also considered jumping out right then and there, but I was in the middle of a highway—it was far too dangerous.

But my only real option was to give in and recognize that the situation was beyond my control. There was no way I could make it on time, so there was nothing to do but take a deep breath, sit back, and try to remain calm as we headed all the way to Brooklyn and then right back over the bridge to Manhattan—all in traffic, every Manhattanite’s pet peeve!

I finally arrived at the meeting, a bit flustered but a lot wiser. This was the second time I'd experienced the same Uber mishap at that exact fork in the road (the first being on the day of our annual gala!), and I now know to pay close attention and pre-empt the driver before they have a chance to make the same mistake again.

Later, after the meeting, when I had a chance to gather my thoughts and reflect on the mishap, I realized that my experience parallels our journey through life.

When we are born, our soul comes down to this world with a mission and a goal. We grow up and set out to fulfill that mission, but the road is never smooth. We face twists and turns and unforeseen bumps along the way.

Those detours are a given; it’s how we respond to them that defines us.

Do we give up and continue further down the wrong path, wherever it may lead us? Do we panic and make poor decisions? Or do we recognize and acknowledge our mistakes, stay calm, and get back on course as soon as we can?

Most importantly, do we blame others or do we recognize that everything comes from G-d and is part of His master plan for us?

The Baal Shem Tov taught that everything in this world—every blade of grass that grows and every leaf that blows off a tree—is Divinely orchestrated. Everything happens for a reason, even when that reason is not clear to us. So, I may never understand why He wanted me to go to Brooklyn and back and arrive 20+ minutes late for my meeting, but I know there was a reason, and that’s good enough for me.

My Friend Was Ghosting Me

Thursday, March 6, 2025 - 3:17 PM

My friend Jacob is someone I know well. He is part of our community and we regularly touch base about different things.

I started to notice, however, that although Jacob is warm and friendly whenever I see him in person, when I text him he doesn’t respond, and when I WhatsApp him, there is only one check mark, indicating he doesn’t even see my messages and perhaps even blocked me!

But then, when he needs something from me, the strangest thing happens—he picks up the phone and calls or texts me! And I answer. But the other way around yields zero response.

I noticed and found it strange, but I didn’t dwell on it too much since I’m usually busy with a million things.

This week, I tried to call him again, and, as usual, it went to voicemail. When I listened to the message, however, I was surprised to hear a woman’s voice saying, “You have reached Jeanetta, please leave a message …” Bizarre!

I double-checked to make sure I had dialed Jacob, and I had.

Something was clearly amiss, so I did a deep dive and checked the number I had saved. It turned out, I had Jacob saved as two separate entries. One number was correct, the other was one digit off.

After some detangling, it became clear that when Jacob was the one reaching out to me, his number came up correctly. But each time I tried to text or call him, I was using the wrong entry, so of course he never responded. And at some point, Jeanetta got sick of me and must have blocked me on WhatsApp.

With that cleared up, I can now happily say: Jacob is no longer ghosting me!

But I learned an important lesson from the mix-up.

In life, it’s all too easy—natural, even—to view things from our perspective and be certain we are 100 percent right. In this case, I was convinced that I was in the right and that Jacob was in the wrong, but I was completely oblivious to the truth that I was, in fact, at fault. I was, essentially, ghosting myself!

We often make assumptions about others. We think they’re angry with us, ignoring us, looking down at us. But rarely is that the case. Often they’re simply busy, or distracted, or there has been some sort of miscommunication. Instead of jumping to judgment (like I did!), let’s try to be more mindful of giving the benefit of the doubt—with our friends, our spouses, children, parents, coworkers and even ourselves. Our relationships will be all the better for it.