Living with Honesty: Based on the Teachings of Harav Yisroel Belsky, zt”l, by Rabbi Moishe Dovid Lebovits and Akiva Lane (Israel Bookshop Publications 2017) is a collection of sheilas on the topic of honesty that Rabbi Yisroel Belsky, zt”l, answered during his lifetime. The approximately 500 questions and answers were compiled into book form by his talmidim. They concern everyday occurrences of modern life, such as jaywalking, aggressive driving, tipping service people, reserving domain names on the internet, and returning airport luggage carts. Just skimming through the vast variety of questions is interesting. It shows how Torah values apply to all arenas of life and are not simply relegated to theoretical learning. Another interesting point that emerges from the randomly chosen questions below is that not everything is necessarily wrong. Sometimes it is acceptable to do something that might not seem to be a hundred percent honest, because it is what is customary and expected.

Recently, our community lost a beloved member, Mrs. Sabina Bodenheimer, a”h. Mrs. Bodenheimer came to Baltimore from Venezuela many years ago and married Louis Bodenheimer. She came from a traditional Jewish family but embraced Yiddishkeit here in Baltimore, She was very careful about keeping all the halachos that her husband taught her, and she accepted the troubles in her life with emuna and bitachon (faith). Although the Bodenheimers never had children of their own, they became honorary members of many Baltimore families.

Mrs. Bodenheimer, otherwise known as Sabina, started her “career” of chesed as a babysitter for a number of Baltimore families. She treated the children for whom she babysat like her own. She celebrated their every milestone, and when they outgrew her services, she continued to participate in their lives by attending their bar mitzvas, graduations, and weddings. When the children grew up, they brought their own children to visit “Bubby Bodenheimer.” One mother recalls, “I remember Sabina buying toys for my kids and making chocolate chip cookies. She asked for their pictures and put them on her mantel. Sometimes she took the children for weekends when we went out of town.”

My mother, Mrs. Paula Eisemann, a”h, passed away yesterday, Sunday, March 4, 2018, in Lakewood, New Jersey, where she was in a rehab unit recovering from a fall at the end of December. Today is the first day of shiva, and I would like to share some thoughts about my mother’s life.  Each person is unique, and I want to share the uniqueness of my mother.

My mother was born in 1932, in Germany, where her father was a rabbi in Berlin. The family escaped from Germany after Kristallnacht, right before the war started. They first went to Switzerland but eventually settled in England, in a small town near London called Dorking. Her mother supported the family by running a boarding house in that small town. My mother’s marriage to my father came about through that boarding house. My father’s family used to frequent the boarding house for vacations, and one of my father’s sisters thought that my mother would be a good match for her brother.

Simchas are many things to many people. While some families love the informality of a backyard barbeque, others are happiest with an over-the-top bash at the biggest hall in town. We all speak a different “simcha language.” What we all have in common is the excitement and joy – and also the stress. Making a simcha, especially for the first time, can be overwhelming. So many issues must be investigated and decided upon: What style of music do we want? How many courses should we serve? Who should the photographer be? And, of course, how much money is this all going to cost!?

When we attend simchas as guests, we don’t necessarily notice or care about the details – until we are the ones making the decisions and spending the money! The first time I noticed centerpieces at a wedding was when I had to choose centerpieces for my own child’s wedding. Agonizing over the choices for weeks, the first thing I looked at when I attended simchas during that time was the middle of the tables!

Getting married in the Orthodox Jewish community is often synonymous with buying a wig. Married women have a mitzva to cover their hair and that is usually done by wearing a wig.

Walking in to Orna’s Wig Salon on Reisterstown Road, one is immediately faced with an entire wall covered with wigs. Dark wigs, blond wigs, and all shades in between. Curly wigs, long wigs, wavy wigs, and short wigs. How are all these wigs made? Are they made by hand, by machine, here in Baltimore or overseas?

Orna has her own line of wigs called “Orna Wigs,” and she is also an expert in wig repair. I asked her to explain how the hair on a wig goes from the head of a woman in Brazil to the head of a woman here in Baltimore.

Traditionally, weddings are made in the hometown of the bride. Lately, some families have chosen to make their weddings in other communities such as Lakewood or New York because they feel the event will cost less money that way. Because these venues have a greater volume of simchas, among other factors, they are able to keep their prices down.

Some Baltimore askanim are determined to change this. They want families to be able to make their simchas here. These askanim feel that there is no reason why we can’t work together to create opportunities for the same discount packages, with even greater value, right here at home!