Have you ever heard of the expression “all dressed up with nowhere to go”? It presents the pathetic picture of a person who is all ready to go somewhere, to accomplish something, but no one wants what he has to offer. That is what it can be like for those who want to live a purposeful life. We want to emulate G-d; we want to be givers. But in order to be givers, someone has to be willing to receive.

In her book, Circle, Arrow Spiral: Exploring Gender in Judaism, Miriam Kosman describes the power of being the receiver in a relationship. “The greatest gift one can give another person is to allow him to experience that godlike feeling of being the bestower. By allowing someone to give, you are, on the deepest level, giving him a chance to express his inner essence….Someone who has no way to give is locked away from his connection to his Divine essence.” Mrs. Kosman elaborates on the connection that is created between the giver and the receiver. She says, “The art of receiving is what opens the door to relationship, to abundance, and to joy.” According to Mrs. Kosman, the giver and the receiver have a reciprocal arrangement, and both are doing kindness to each other.

Lots of people send liqueurs for Purim, in those cute little bottles, or serve them at the seuda. It so happens that making your own liqueur is really easy. For years I didn’t try it, thinking there must be some kind of trick to it. But once I could not easily find Kahlua with a hechsher (I have heard it still has a hechsher in Mexico), making my own became way more attractive. And then I discovered how easy it is.

You do not need the best vodka, but I would strongly recommend against the worst vodka. Pick a vodka you like that’s not too overboard. The coffee and sugar will not only mask the flavor of the vodka, it will mellow the vodka with time as well. You are looking for about 100 proof vodka. (Smirnoff would work.) As for the coffee, I like to use decaf coffee because I am particularly sensitive to caffeine. For a slightly earthier taste, you can use brown sugar. 

We were looking forward to a week of family simchas in late December. My niece Miri Rosenbaum’s chasuna would take place in Baltimore on Tuesday night, December 28. On Wednesday, we had the wedding of my husband’s niece in Lakewood. Thursday was the bar mitzvah brunch of a nephew, with the niece’s sheva brachos in the evening. We were going to stay in Lakewood through Shabbos sheva brachos. Since all these simchas involved close family, we planned to take our children with us and had reservations to fly from Ft. Lauderdale to Baltimore at 7:21 Monday evening.

One of my early childhood memories may offer an insight into my future choice of profession as a librarian. I clearly recall scrutinizing a family comic book whose storyline involved the adventures of a handful of puppies. I had probably heard the story many times from my parents or older siblings, but I was still a pre-reader and couldn’t read the speech balloons myself. However, I knew without a doubt that they contained the dialogue of the story. I did not yet have the skill to decode those intriguing marks and signs, but the thought of one day being able to read them myself filled me with heady anticipation. And indeed, it wasn’t long before I learned to read, and the world of words opened up before me.

I recently had the pleasure of engaging in a game that I have not even thought about since I was about eight years old. It is the game of hide-and-seek. Now what most of you don’t realize is that as you get older, you also get better at the game. This basically means that, by now, I could be playing on an Olympic level, as could many of you. However, this is not exactly what happened; let me explain.

My daughter was babysitting for a three-year-old, who, like all three-year-olds, is amazingly cute. While I was standing in the kitchen minding my own business, he ran over to me, careened into my legs, and exclaimed with glee, “I found you.” Not that I knew I was missing, but being a good sport, I turned to him and exclaimed right back, “I found you, too.”

I was having a decluttering kind of morning and decided to get rid of as much as I could. For someone who enjoys this kind of activity, I was amazed at how much I continued to store but never used – like purses, for example. Each season, I treat myself to a new one. Since I can’t bring myself to plunk down hundreds of dollars for one that isn’t even real leather, I always seem to settle for something I like that is either on the clearance table or in a discounted shop. When the new season rolls around, I put last year’s model on a shelf in my closet where it sits with others in a heap like rusted old cars in a junkyard. The thought in my mind is that maybe I’ll reuse it the following year.

Synopsis

With the close of War II, 250,000 Jews languished in DP camps in Europe. In Palestine, turmoil reigned as British struggled to maintain order between Jews and Arabs even as they prevented Jews from entering the country. President Roosevelt promised the Arab Ibn Saud that the U.S. would not support a Jewish state, and the State Department was adamantly opposed to one. This was the gloomy picture in 1945. Then, in April of that year, Roosevelt suddenly died, and Harry Truman took his place.

Bible-believing Truman was sympathetic to a Jewish state, but not persuaded. He was worried about Arab oil, and he had legitimate fears of provoking a broader war in the Middle East. Plus, he was thoroughly alienated by “pushy New York Jews” and refused to meet any more Zionists.

Palestine was a powder keg, and a United Nations committee was formed to study the problem. It proposed “partition,” the creation of two states: Arab and Jewish. But would there be a two-thirds vote in the UN in favor? Would the State of Israel come into being?  Here is “the rest of the story.”

?My wife Arleeta and I hadn’t been to Florida together in three years. As “Yeshiva Week” 2022 approached, Arleeta, a devoted second-grade boys teacher, needed a sanity break. For the better part of the last two months Arleeta could be heard reciting a quiet chant when working into the wee hours on numerous school projects, or when dealing with a challenging parent. Her chant was “Going Florida…Going Florida…!” Being a perceptive person, I picked up on the idea that she wanted to go to Florida. Reservations were made and “points” flights were booked.

Vaping of e-cigarettes remains very popular among teenagers. Across the country, about 20% of high school seniors report that they are currently vaping. We do not know how this compares to what is happening in our community. Yet I see many kids in our community vaping, and wonder if they are aware of the health consequences.

As a parent and as a psychologist, my biggest worry is that kids who vape will develop nicotine addiction, more formally called tobacco use disorder.  Nicotine is extracted from tobacco, and is the active ingredient in most vapes. It is a stimulant that increases heart rate and blood pressure. Kids like vapes because nicotine improves alertness, focus, and memory. The problem is that over a very short period of time, nicotine can cause depression, reduce alertness and focus, and impair memory and learning. Many kids who start vaping report how difficult it is to make it through the school day or take a test.