My body has become one giant exercise regimen. “Pull in my stomach.” “Remember to do my morning exercise practice – but wait, it’s already mid-afternoon.” I was pretty good about getting into a steady routine until my kids came erev Shabbos. I thought about the exercises I needed to do while putting up the cholent. Before I turned around, it was four o’clock, and I knew it wasn’t going to happen. But I did remember to stand up straight for a few moments when opening the door to the breakfront. Between washing the kitchen floor, putting the food into the oven to warm, and moving the Shabbos candlesticks to a safer location, I remembered bits and pieces like, “It’s time to drink some water.” “Hold in my core but relax my shoulders.”

This year we mark the 80^th anniversary of the Wannsee Conference, where the leaders of Nazi Germany formulated the Final Solution. The evil plot culminated with the perishing of one third of our people. A few years later, the perpetrators met the same fate after being convicted at the Nuremberg trials. Their mode of execution, hanging, was that same as that of Haman’s 10 sons in Megillas Esther: hanging. Nor was this the only parallel with the Megillah.

“Hashem will have war with Amalek every generation.” (Shmos 17:16) A student once asked the Brisker Rav if the Vilna Gaon’s association of Amalek with Germany could be substantiated, to which the Rav replied, “Any nation that adopts the persona or legacy of any other nation, like Amalek, indeed becomes that nation.”[1] Indeed, we see in our own day how the Arabs of Eretz Yisrael often adopt the persona and savagery of the Philistines (anglicized as “Palestinians”), the nation they seek to reincarnate for Israel’s destruction. The Nuremberg trials demonstrate a similar replay of history. As we relive Purim this year, it would behoove us to remember a Purim victory at Nuremberg and to pray for Hashem’s victory over the Amalekites of our day.

The countdown begins! There are six weeks until Pesach, and you know what that means – it’s time to curl up in a ball and cry your eyes out. Just kidding! This year, instead of panicking, you’re going to get ready for Yom Tov in a calm, organized way.  For many of us, Pesach prep is filled with stress and anxiety, making us feel more like slaves than free women. But it doesn’t have to be this way! Follow my week-by-week guide below and greet Pesach feeling like the queen that you are.

Dr. Lynda Zentman, aka Laytzee the Clown, says her clowning career began when she “retired from real life” about six years ago, after being a teacher and principal in Rockland County, New York, for many years. Now she lives, part-time, in Israel.

“Once I retired, I felt this was something I wanted to do,” explains Dr. Zentman, a great-grandmother who feels like a 16-year-old when she puts on her clown makeup. “I’ve always enjoyed production, acting, singing, and dancing – which were part of my previous life as well – but to dress up as a clown and go and make people feel happy was a dream come true.”

Looking to cross the financial finish line a winner – with your life goals met and out of debt? Having some financial difficulties and worrying constantly about your personal finances? The world is abuzz with swarms of ads for a variety of people who can help, but which one is right for you: a financial coach, a financial advisor, a financial planner, or a financial therapist? What are the differences, and who will be better able to help you? Allow me to be a “financial definer” and help you on your way! 

Reviewed by Rabbi Mordechai Shuchatowitz, Head of the Baltimore Bais Din

We are all aware of the many areas that technology has altered the way we live and the challenges that it presents to Torah-observant Jews. One area in which technology has brought about change throughout the entire world is the way we make purchases. Go back just 20 years, and anyone wanting to buy food, clothing, personal items, or business items would enter a brick-and-mortar store to examine what was available for purchase and then buy the desired items. In the world we currently live in, online purchasing has become a normal way of shopping, which has put pressure on brick-and-mortar stores trying to compete.

This phenomenon leads to a halachic question. Yet the question applies not only to online transactions. The technology may be new, but the halachas surrounding ethical behavior between customer and businessperson are not.

One of the main themes of Purim involves costumes. The fun of dressing up helps us to gain an understanding of a world in which things are not what they appear to be. A world in which the opposite of what we expect to happen happens. In Pesachim 50 we learn that Rav Yosef was critically ill and had a near-death experience. When he recovers, his father asks, “What did you see when you almost departed this life?”

Rav Yosef replies “I saw an inverted world. The powerful were insignificant while the insignificant became powerful.”

I am 28 years old and have been going out with a young man for a few weeks, and I am torn. He is crazy about me and is ready to get engaged. In fact, he hints at it every time we go out. I feel under tremendous pressure. I like him, and he meets a lot of qualities on my “list.” He is very smart. He is capable, honest, and hardworking. Yet, I find myself unable to say yes. I’m not sure what is holding me back. I just have a gut feeling that something is not right. Some of his behaviors bothered me, but I am not sure if they are significant or not. I enjoy his company, most of the time, more or less, but I don’t really miss him when we’re not together, and I don’t feel happy or excited about the prospect of getting engaged. If I say yes, it will be from a practical point of view. I am an “older single,” after all. By the way, I don’t think that going out longer will help me make up my mind. I see who he is. The dilemma for me is can I make a life with a good person who is offering me marriage, children, the whole deal, or should I take a chance on finding someone with whom I can share deeper feelings.

Do you ever wonder what those men are thinking when they give out chocolates to your children in shul? Do you ever ask yourself if they are unaware of the cost of dentistry? As the grandson of a dentist, I have some notion of this, yet at the same time, I am one of those men. This is your chance to hear my side of things. A month before Pesach let me share with you a chad gadya story, a cumulative shaggy dog tale – or tail, if you prefer – about Chevron.

That fact is that today, I, Raphael D. Blumberg, am the self-proclaimed Chocolate Monster of Hebron. But it wasn’t always that way. In fact, it involved a long process going back to 2011, when I started going down to Chevron every day for Rabbi Uziel Nagar’s vatikin Daf Yomi inside Me’arat HaMachpela, the Tomb of the Patriarchs. I would like to describe that process to you, so that perhaps you can develop some compassion for us poor Chocolate Monsters, mere victims of circumstances, as you will see.

The woman was distraught. Her son had set out to that place called America, where the streets were “paved with gold.” She had seen him off at the nearby train station but had not heard from him for six months. Now her head was besieged with questions: Had he made it to the ship? Had he crossed the Atlantic safely? Did he find a job? Was he okay? Finally, she heard something. A local businessman came back from America and told her that he had seen her son and that he looked well. He even provided her with her son’s address.

The woman promptly headed to the town scribe to dictate a letter to her son. She began, “Son, it is truly not right that you have ignored your aging mother and you have not sent a letter or even a regards to let me know that you are okay. Do you not realize that I worry about you day and night and that the worry you cause me is aging me prematurely? Is this the kind of upbringing we provided, to just go off on your own and forget those you left behind?”