Have you ever blushed? Have you ever experienced “butterflies” in your stomach? Have you ever felt your heart racing out of excitement or fear?

These common occurrences are undeniably physical phenomena. Yet their underlying causes are not physical but emotional. Might there be other physical phenomena, even illnesses, whose true, underlying causes also reside in the world of our emotions?

Many of us would, understandably, reject such a possibility. Our mindset is a Western one. What is observable by the senses and empirically verifiable is legitimate. What isn’t isn’t. Moreover, the mind and the body are two separate entities. Emotions may be responsible for emotional illnesses. My back pain, however, is caused by a structural abnormality, my irritable bowel by inflammation, my chronic fatigue by….well, nobody really knows but certainly not by my inner world of feelings.

The month between Purim and Pesach abounds with excitement and anticipation as families prepare for Seder night. By rosh chodesh Nisan, mothers in our community are readying their homes at an impressive speed for a meaningful and joyous chag. And this year’s calendar means many will be turning the corner full-throttle into Shabbos Hagadol. It’s that auspicious time when spring thaw and erev-Pesach buzz are in the air, but it can be difficult to savor the moment with family while checklists grow and time dwindles. Instead of bringing in Yom Tov for a smooth landing, it is easy to find ourselves out of gas and struggling.

If I have learned anything from teaching middle school for the last 12 years here in Dallas, it is that we live in an age of superlatives. Nothing is just nice, it is “amazing.” If it’s unpleasant, it is “tragic.” With all the emoting and words that are causally tossed around, I am left to wonder what word might describe what Texas went through the week of Parshas Teruma. “Devastating” is a contender, as are “traumatizing” and “crippling.” Perhaps I will land on the all-time favorite term used by my students, “epic.”

 Well, here we go. I’ve started making my Pesach lists as I sit here eating Purim chocolates, which I should have given away or thrown out but of course didn’t. Has a year gone by already? This has been the fastest year yet. I’d like to blame it on COVID which kept us constantly moving from one thing to the next. Maybe I’m just getting old because I’ve always heard older people talk this way about how time flies. Nah, I’ll just blame it on COVID.       

It’s that time of year. I live in Ramat Beit Shemesh with my husband and four children and try to visit my parents in Miami once a year, around winter vacation. I book a trip for January 17 to February 2 for me and my baby. It’s a direct flight: $745 for the two of us. Awesome! As I prepare to leave, my mother is admitted to the hospital for emergency gallbladder surgery. I will be able to be with her – a perfect “coincidence.”