I’m a born collector. You name it, I’ve probably collected it at one time or another. This lifelong activity started when I was about five years old. I have vivid recollections of digging mica from the dirt surrounding the towering maple tree in our front yard. That experience, no doubt, led to my avocation of collecting gemstones. Around the same time, I started collecting seashells. I couldn’t (and still can’t!) tear myself away from the ocean – most probably because I was spoiled by weekly Sunday family trips to nearby Long Island Sound, where I’d comb the beach for Hashem’s fascinating marine creations. After that, there were collections of butterflies, stamps, coins, autographs, baseball and football cards, record albums, charms, and soda bottle caps, to name just a few. And I can still feel those highly polished chestnuts, abundant each autumn, that I gathered in a large brown paper bag in the nearby park.

Election Day June 24 is upon us, and with it the endemic problem in the frum community: How do you get people to go to the polls and vote? In theory, and indeed in reality, voting is a duty, and intelligent voting is a matter of self-interest. Such is precisely the theory of democracy, and such is precisely how the Founding Fathers designed our American political system. The voters are responsible for seeing to their interests. If they are dumb enough to hand their fates over to unelected powerbrokers, well then they deserve what they get, which means, in the words of Will Rogers, “We get the best government money can buy.” Intelligent self-interest on the part of voters who vote lies at the heart of our American form of government.

Pictures by Shlomo Pollock

“So, how long have you been writing like that?” asked the meshulach. (charity collector) recently, when I carelessly revealed myself to be a lefty while making out his check.

“Voss fahr ah frageh (what kind of question) are you asking?” I responded – whereupon, he began to list the virtues of being right-handed. Did the amount about to be written on the check take a nosedive? you may ask. Ich gedenk nisht. (I don’t remember) – an old Reagan (another lefty!) response. However, the meshulach’s comment did prompt recollections of my life as a “lefty.” Here are a few episodes that come to mind:*

When Pesach is over, I feel truly proud: I served 10 Yom Tov meals, and they were all good! Never mind that I felt overwhelmed beforehand, with planning, shopping, shlepping, and cooking. Never mind that I had to post a list on the wall to keep track of all the different meals and courses. The main thing is, I did it! But when I spoke to “Rabbi Yitzchak” and his wife “Rifka” about their Pesach sedarim, I was awed! Making Pesach in my own house was really a cinch in comparison to their seder experience.

Rabbi Yitzchak is a kiruv rabbi on the NYU campus in Manhattan and lives in Passaic. This year, he and his wife and their nine children – ages three months to 16 years – moved into a small apartment in Greenwich Village so that they could be near the NYU college campus.

The Wrapunzelution has officially begun! Walking around Park Heighhts on Shabbos, the streets are dotted with colors that we are often only treated to in a bouquet of flowers. It’s not everyone yet, but it’s everywhere.

Every day as Andrea and I pack and fold Tichels, answer emails, make plans to do Wrapunzel shows around the US we wonder out loud what is this? What shift is happening that is making people open to challenge the stauts quo in head coverings?

The true answer, like anything Divine remains a mystery, but we’re seeing some things that may surprise you and help us to understand the depth of what’s going on.