The benefits of regular exercise for our physical and mental well-being are well known. This was especially true during the height of the pandemic, and many of us took the opportunity to get out and walk around our neighborhoods, Quarry Lake, Meadowbrook Park and other local nature areas. Baltimoreans are also blessed to have beautiful walking/hiking/biking trails along local abandoned railroad lines. In addition to the exercise, these make for a wonderful family outing on Chol Hamoed Sukkos or anytime. Described below are some of the most accessible and popular.

The pandemic has helped us learn at least two vital messages very well. We all learned not to take anything in life for granted. Not family gatherings, events, our daily schedules, hugs – or even our own breath. We’ve learned to appreciate everything more as we now have seen that it can all be taken away – and quickly.

Another vital message we have learned is how important it is to strengthen our immune systems. When young people are given the chance to joyfully learn the skills needed to keep the immune system strong from a very early age, we are doing what is within our power to help them lead healthy, happy, and long lives.

With cell phone in pocket or purse, we are all photographers these days. It’s so easy. Film has gone the way of the typewriter, and everything is digital. No need to load the camera; no need to turn the film to the next frame. The pace of life is fast, and it can be captured at an equally fast pace in pictures that preserve our most precious memories.

There are cameras on our doors, too, and on our PCs and laptops, in the streets, and in all kinds of buildings. The cameras keep clicking, covertly capturing our activities, and we do not always get to smile.

It’s that glorious time of the year when the crape myrtle trees are in full bloom. I never saw these trees any place but Baltimore although they’re known to grow throughout the southeastern part of the country. Picture medium-sized trees laden with large tufts of blossoms in gorgeous colors. When we moved here, I was simply amazed when I first saw them. I’m used to seeing flowering trees in the springtime, long before their leaves first appear. Crape myrtle trees only start blooming in July but can continue into September. For a flower lover like me, they are truly a sight to behold.

TEVA TALK

 Finding ourselves in a similar spot to where we stood a year ago compels us to pause and take stock. After a full year of masking and quarantines, many people now find themselves repeating the mantra: “But we did this already.” If we shift our focus, however, to carefully examine events as they unfolded, we will discover moments of clarity, when we worked together within our community to make this year a little more manageable and a little less lonely. Taking an honest look at where we stand, we can clearly see that we are not merely “doing this again.” Rather, we have grown since Covid started and learned to stay safe, both physically and emotionally, during continued uncertainty.

There are moments in many of our lives when the unfathomable happens, and the first reaction is “Not me, not my family; this can’t be happening to us!”

At first, you walk around in an uncomprehending state of disbelief, shock, and utter dismay. After a while, when you realize that it’s not a bad dream or a temporary lapse of sanity but is really happening, you discover that you’ve got to accept it and deal.

Life is wonderful – we have so much to be grateful for – and then, bam, we get a blow that sends us reeling. It could be the sudden death of a loved one, a serious illness, a child who goes off the derech, a seemingly beautiful young couple who become incompatible and decide to get a divorce (often with young children in the crossfire), a family member who becomes unstable – and, sometimes, more often that not, a combination of these incomprehensible situations.

I’ve been living in Israel since 2002. Throughout this time, I have been renting in Jerusalem. Recently, with the awareness of the rise of anti-Semitism in the U.S., I have had the thought of myriads of Americans making aliyah and gobbling up whatever apartments are available. But even without that, it is a fact that more and more people from abroad are buying apartments in Israel as “insurance,” “just in case” they need a roof over their heads one day.

It’s no joke. There are many empty apartments in Jerusalem owned by people from overseas who occasionally show up for a few days out of the year. And their demand for such properties is driving up prices.

Where What When: We are here today with financial planner Eitan Schuchman to talk about the lifecycle of investment from a young age all the way until old age and beyond. Thank you, Eitan, for joining us; we hope this will be an informative discussion. First of all, what exactly do you do and what is your background?

Eitan Schuchman: I was born and raised here in beautiful Baltimore. We are old-school “Bal’more Hon,” a long-time intergenerational TA and BY family. After marriage, my wife Ariella (from Philly, the “other Bohm” family) and I chose to further strengthen that legacy by sending our six children through the system.

Regarding my career, after my BS, I went to the University of Maryland to earn my MBA and started my career at the investment firm Bear Stearns in New York City. I am a certified financial planner and a chartered financial consultant. I help individuals, married couples, and companies achieve their financial dreams, or at least get them to the next level in realizing their dreams. We do that by planning. There are many aspects to it, and we bring the best experts in the field together to make sure that my clients are in the best shape moving forward.

This year more than in any year prior, Rosh Hashana is upon us and I feel unprepared to show up with the proper mindset for this holy day. With the first night of Rosh Hashana falling out on Labor Day this year, I find my thoughts are still in summer / getting-the-kids-ready-for-school-mode, while my inner me is struggling to focus on and connect with the real themes of our New Ye

?During my tenure as a congregational rabbi in South Africa I had the privilege of meeting many lovely Jews of varying levels of knowledge and observance. To address the needs of the greater community, my shul established a three-tier learning program for beginners, intermediate, and advanced students. Our local kollel (comprised of Anglo-Israelis on two-year rotations), which at the time met in my shul, serviced the intermediate and advanced students with input from myself and my rabbinic colleagues. Personally, I most enjoyed teaching the beginners. These were dedicated, mostly middle-aged individuals who never had an opportunity to properly study the basics of Judaism. While I worked to inspire them, they consistently inspired me!