Can I offer you a glezele tey (Yiddish for a little glass of tea)? In days gone by, tea was a way of life among Eastern European Jews. As Jewish food historian Rabbi Gil Marks writes in his Encyclopedia of Jewish Food, families would laugh and chat over glasses of tea, and rabbinic scholars would discuss points of law. Tea was so ingrained into the fabric of life that Eastern Europeans typically drank five to six cups per day, and frequently more.

  In the past few decades, nutritional science has been catching up to the innate wisdom of yesteryear’s

Now that the heat of the summer months is upon us, some of your vegetable crops are getting ready to be harvested. Although it might seem intuitive as to when to pick a vegetable off the vine, it’s not always so obvious. So, here’s a quick guide to harvesting your vegetables:

Tomato
This is easy, right? When the tomato turns red, it’s time to pick it off the vine and enjoy the fruits of your labor – and what a tremendous treat it is to partake of G-d’s great bounty and taste the incredible flavor bursting out of a

As a former Baltimorean, and a 30-year resident of Kiryat Arba-Hebron, I often find myself explaining Israeli history to some of our American eighteen-year-old yeshiva and seminary Shabbos guests, who don’t have a clue about these things. In 1967, I tell them, Israel conquered Judea and Samaria, known in the Western media as the “West Bank.” Judea and Samaria is the section of the Land of Israel that Jordan grabbed and held on to in 1948, which happens to contain the most famous Biblical cities: Hebron, Bethlehem, the City of David and the Temple Mount, Shilo, Bet-El, Shechem, and many

Some things are done a certain way, and we all assume they will always be done that way. But PTA meetings, amazingly enough, have changed dramatically. Twenty-five years ago, I waited in line for two hours to see just one of my son’s two teachers. It was considered normal for parents to spend the entire evening at school, never being able to tell the babysitter when they would be home, because they had no idea how long the wait would be. While waiting in line, the parents would grumble about what an inefficient way it was to do things, but

My Father’s Favorite President

If Only We Had Him Now

Growing up in Montgomery, Alabama, I did not hear too many stories of great rabbis from my father, Meyer Oberstein, z”l. He had settled in Montgomery in 1921 and was out of the loop as far as the renaissance of Torah learning in America was concerned. However, my father still retained the sharp, logical mind of a Litvak. Instead of the gemora, he analyzed the newspaper. When I was a little boy, he used to explain things to me in great detail, since my mother wasn’t interested, and his customers in the

Do you remember the thrill of getting behind the wheel for the first time as an independent driver with a brand-new license tucked in your pocket or purse? Do you recall volunteering to do errands for your parents, just so you could drive the family car? Did you, like me, pick up a friend – or two or three – and zip carefree to the beach or out for an ice cream?

  Back in the “good old days,” as soon as you thought you were ready to take the test, you just went in and took it. Some people,

To the Shadchan:
I have been dating a very nice guy for a few weeks. For the most part things are going well, and I see a lot of potential. There is one thing that really bothers me, though. We have had a few dates where we were walking outside and were passed by some homeless people. My date, who is usually very nice, was very rude to them, telling them to “get out of the way and go back where you came from.” Furthermore, he went on to speak badly about them after we passed by. These people have

A Shidduch Question:
I have been going out for a few years now. I feel that I am capable and mature enough to know what I need in a husband. My parents, though, are very picky, and often nix a prospective shidduch, thinking that they know who I should marry. The last person I went out with was everything I wanted. My parents even liked him, but they wouldn’t let me continue going out with him because he was planning on going into chinuch. They want me to marry a professional. I am more interested in marrying the person, not

“Hysterics doesn’t seem to be the way to go,” says Mrs. Robin Alberg, recalling a personal meltdown when one of her children acted up in the middle of South Dakota. It was so bad, says this Seattle-based home-schooling mother, that she even threatened to cut short their long-anticipated six-week summer road trip. In her talk at this May’s Torah Home Schooling Conference, in Baltimore, the humorous Mrs. Alberg recommended various constructive strategies for self-care to counteract the common, albeit happy, stresses of home schooling.
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  This was just one of many fascinating presentations at this year’s conference,

There is a famous Midrash that Rav Shimshom Dovid Pincus, zt”l, brings down in the sefer Shabbos Kodesh. Rabbi Yehudah Hanasi (Rebbi) and the Emperor Antoninus were friends. Once, Rebbi invited Antoninus for a cold Shabbos afternoon meal. Antoninus found the food especially delicious despite the fact that it was cold. The next day, Rebbi invited him for another meal of warm food. Antoninus reported that he liked the Shabbos food better. Rebbe told him that the weekday foods were missing a certain seasoning called Shabbos.

  One part of the mitzva of keeping Shabbos is the “zachor” aspect, to

That the world is rapidly changing is a cliché, and nowhere is it more true than in the area of telephone service. It was not so long ago that we had to watch the clock when we made long distance calls. People would stay up till just after 11 p.m. to take advantage of the lower rates, and families easily spent over $100 a month on long distance calls within the U.S. alone, while the charges to call Israel were so high that it was not even contemplated! Remember?

  Thinking further back, to my childhood, I remember phones were