You might think that you know a neighbor of 40 years very well, but I was amazed to hear all the many things I did not know, which were said about Rabbi Moshe Juravel at his levaya. The feeling of loss and of love for the niftar was palpable among the crowds that came to be melaveh him. You could see that people found it hard to fathom that he was gone!

We moved to Baltimore in 1984 and found ourselves right next door to the Juravels. Not only were we neighbors with this special couple, but I have been walking with Mrs. Juravel almost every morning for about 30 years.

Throughout the generations and in all places of our exile, Pesach has been beloved by the Jewish people. Aside from its deeper meanings, there is no holiday where the rules about food are stricter or more numerous. Here in America, we take it for granted that all our Pesach food needs will be amply available. But even in times and places where it wasn’t, Pesachdik food – and especially matzah – has played a singular role in Jewish life.

Sonya was lost in a forest. There were several paths, but she was not sure which one to take. She was hungry, thirsty, and tired. She longed for some food and a place to sleep, but most of all, she yearned for somebody to show her the way out of the forest. Suddenly, she noticed a sign tacked to a tree: “Are you hungry, thirsty, tired, and lost? I will show you the way out of the forest and give you some food and a bed.” What a relief it was to Sonya! She followed the directions on the sign and was soon eating a bowl of soup while listening to instructions for leaving the forest. 

For most people, a home construction project is a major undertaking. It’s not something you do often, it’s expensive, and the average person does not know much about it. I thought it might be helpful and interesting to hear from the experts about mistakes that homeowners often make so that readers can avoid those issues when planning their own projects. Nobody knows as much about home improvements as the contractors, the people who spend their days doing this work. Here is what they have to say:

A few months ago, neighbors of mine, Meira and Eli Greges, moved to Ramat Beit Shemesh, in Eretz Yisrael, with their four children, the oldest of whom is only seven. Meira’s parents, Eliezer and Sandy Gunzburg, still live here in Baltimore. Since I am friends with Sandy Gunzburg, and I know that Meira is close to her parents, I wondered what could motivate a young couple to leave their parents to move across the world. But, first, I asked Sandy what she thought.

As a grandmother, I raised my children quite a few years ago, and I never heard of tongue tie. These days, I hear about it often. What is tongue tie? And is it a new problem, or has it always been an issue but people were unaware of it?

Heather McCormick, a speech therapist and certified lactation counselor who works at the Tethered Oral Tissues Clinic (TOT) at Kennedy Krieger Institute, explains that tongue tie (or ankyloglossia) is a term used to describe functional impacts when the tongue does not move freely in the mouth because the frenulum, that thin strip of tissue connecting the tongue and the floor of the mouth, is tight or shorter than normal. “Tongue ties can also occur with lip ties (under the upper lip) and buccal ties (in the cheeks),” she says. “The term Tethered Oral Tissues (TOTs) is the umbrella term that includes all of these. Assessment of TOTs is based on how the baby is functioning, not how the frenula look.”