The dust is swirling in the air, the Pine-Sol is dripping down the cabinets, and the fake brownies are baking in the oven. While all of these are definitely the harbingers of our most intense Yom Tov, if there is one thing that says “Pesach is here” it is potatoes.

As each generation has become increasingly vege-phobic, limiting their weekly intake of green foods to pickles and mint chocolate chip ice cream, families feel lost without flour to fill in most of their meals. During this challenging time when pantries are bare and restaurants are closed, the community faces the threat of starvation, whether real or imagined. After all, there is a limit to how many nights in a row you can eat corned beef. (So I’ve heard; I have not personally reached that ceiling.) Nothing is readily available except baby fingers (which must be somewhat traumatizing for the children) and macaroons, which we buy every year, despite the fact that no one likes coconut. My theory is that we are so disoriented from the late-night arguments with our ovens and the exposure to toxic cleaning chemicals that, by the time we do our shopping, we honestly think that those macaroons will taste like the much-more-fashionable macarons. (They won’t.)

Rav Mendel Gettinger, zt”l, was a mammoth talmid chacham, in the image of those trained in the glorious days of the greatest Lithuanian yeshivos – yet he was born (in 1925), raised, and educated in Brooklyn. He was a rav of a very American-style shul in Manhattan, did post-graduate work in mathematics and engineering at Columbia University, and researched the heavens with his own telescope. His father was a Stuchiner chasid, but if Rav Gettinger had any chasidic influence in his life, I am unaware of it. Although few of his contemporaries in Brownsville received any serious Torah education, Rav Gettinger was sent to yeshivos.

He became a talmid of Rav Yitzchok Hutner, zt”l, at Yeshiva Chaim Berlin, through whose influence he dedicated his life completely to Torah. Rav Gettinger completed Shas the first time at the age of 17! Not bad for an American boy of his generation. Rav Gettinger received much of his shimush (apprenticeship) in psak halacha from Harav Eliyahu Henkin, the preeminent posek of America in his era.

Dear Shlomo, 

I come from a family of high achievers, and I don’t seem to be able to do what they do. I always fall short and then get angry at myself. This makes me really tense and anxious, and I end up sleeping a lot because I am so worn out from being so angry at myself.

Yaakov

Everyone enjoys a shidduch story, and the Where What When has asked me to start off their new column with a few of my shidduch experiences over the past many years. The new column, “Dating Perspectives,” will take the place of “Ask the Shadchan” and will feature a different writer each month.

The couples in the stories below may recognize themselves, but readers will not. They will, however, hopefully be entertained.

by Talia Beyidna

The Chayei Adam[1] teaches, “If one has had a miracle performed to save him, and even more so, if a city has had a miracle that saved it, they have the right to institutionalize a Purim for that city and to authorize a festive meal that would become a mitzva, in order to memorialize the wonders of Hashem.”[2] In fact, the author himself decreed on his family a day of prayer and celebration after the Vilna fort’s gunpowder magazine exploded in 1803.[3] A significant part of the neighborhood (and his house) was leveled, and yet, with Hashem’s kindness, his entire family pulled through and survived. This has become known as the Gunpowder Purim.

The Jews of Egypt commemorated an event in 1524, when the governor of Egypt threatened to massacre them because they refused to join him in a revolt against the Sultan of Turkey, who at that time ruled Egypt. On the day he vowed to murder all the Jews in Cairo right after he had finished taking his bath, he was stabbed to death in the bathhouse by one of his junior officers, and the massacre was averted. A megilla was written to tell the story and is read in Egyptian synagogues on what is known as Purim Cairo on the 28^th of Adar.

When I moved to Baltimore in 1979, you could count the number of shuls on one or two hands. If a fellow congregant didn’t show up for a minyan, you worried. I venture to say the number of shuls have quadrupled, at least, are bursting at the seams. Many of them have expanded or are in the midst of expansion. Nowadays, there is no need to worry if Tom, Dick, Moshe, or Miriam are not in shul. No doubt, they are at another local shul enjoying a simcha!

In this multi-part series, I’ve polled local shul-goers and asked, “What is your favorite shul and why?” Here are some of their answers.

As Purim quickly approaches, I find myself struggling with many conflicting emotions. Normally I would be concentrating on a Purim shpiel or at least a satirical commentary focusing on current events, but the ongoing war in Israel, coupled with threats to Jews everywhere and the pain and trauma of so many Israeli families weighs heavily on me. At the same time, I’m trying to emotionally reconcile advertisements for all kinds of expensive and over-the-top Purim delicacies and treats as well as exotic Pesach programs, offering every type of food, fun, and entertainment.

I was recently at a Shabbos table where the age-old question of “what kind of work do you do?” came up. I can usually understand the answers to these questions, especially when they have to do with professions with which I have some familiarity. Unfortunately, the majority of the people at this Shabbos table worked in computers. Not having any idea of what they were talking about, I asked a few questions. Unfortunately, even after I asked for clarification, I still had no idea what was going on. Not one to shirk my responsibility to broaden my horizons, I decided I would hop on the computer after Shabbos and google the daylights out of the terms they used. Unfortunately, the only one I could remember was “coding.” I figured that was a good start.

Rav BenZion Chayim Shloime Twerski, zt”l, was the oldest of five very esteemed brothers: the late well-known prolific Torah author and psychiatrist Rabbi Dr. Avraham Twerski; Rabbi Motel Twerski of Flatbush and, yibadlu lechayim, the Milwaukee Hornosteipel Rebbe Rav Michel Twerski, shlit”a; and law professor Rabbi Aharon Twerski, shlit”a.

I first met Rav Shloime in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, when I spent the summer there on a SEED program. He was there for a Shabbos in honor of the yahrzeit of his father, a rebbe who had served for many, many decades as rav of a shul in Milwaukee.? My kesher with Rav Shloime deepened a few years later, when I was in kollel in Baltimore and his son-in-law, Rabbi Yitzchok (Itchie) Lowenbraun, and his wife Miriam (zichronam livracha) regularly ran kiruv Shabbatons. Rabbi Lowenbraun asked if my wife and I would like to join them on a Shabbaton. We did, and after that we began seeing Rav Shloime regularly, as he came in several times a year for these Shabbatons.

A few weeks ago, the podcast “Living L’Chaim” interviewed a rabbi from Lakewood who was lamenting materialism. He said that he once gave some teenagers a ride to the airport for winter break and overheard one tell the other, “Going to Florida is really dumb but you can’t stay in Lakewood for winter vacation.”

It is well known that winter break has turned into head-to-Florida season. Now I am sure that going to Florida can make sense and be a good choice in some instances. But whenever I sense that something is becoming a fad, I become a little skeptical. One thing is for sure: Whether summer, spring, fall, or winter, if you are heading to the theme parks, you will be paying a lot for a man-made attraction.