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.

The following is a stream of thoughts and impressions on the loss of our Rav Sheftel, zt”l, which is still so fresh and real. Harav Sheftel Meir ben Harav Naftali Halevy Neuberger was a Legend of a man, a Lion for all of klal Yisrael, and a Leader for his yeshiva, Yeshivas Ner Yisroel of world renown. I was privileged to call myself a talmid of his for close to 24 years, during which time he made an indelible and everlasting impression on me along with thousands upon thousands of talmidim around the world.

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 seems that, along with all the other hardships of COVID, travel has become distinctly unpleasant. Reading horror stories of frum Jews being thrown off flights on such airlines as Delta, Frontier, Spirit, and JetBlue leaves one to wonder whether their deplaning was precipitated by legitimate safety infractions, COVID-induced hysteria, or anti-Semitism. While the possibility of anti-Semitism is distressing in the extreme, at this point, it is hard to tell. But whatever the situation, polite and considerate behavior while on board is always in place and can prevent trouble. Here, a few of Baltimore’s frequent fliers share their travel experiences, opinions, and common sense tips on etiquette.

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.”

Israelis will go to the polls again on March 23. This is the fourth election in about two years, and we are getting really tired of this.

As in every election since 1967, the main issue people are voting on is “What should Israel do with Judea and Samaria (the West Bank)? The politicians don’t like to admit that. They don’t want to push themselves into a corner. They prefer to leave themselves open to receiving as many votes from as many constituencies as possible. But it’s a fact. All the elections are about that.

As the world is starting to undertake an unprecedented vaccination effort to control the current pandemic, it might be useful to look at other historic vaccination programs.

Smallpox

Attempts at smallpox vaccination have gone on for many centuries using material from the smallpox pustules of people with mild cases or from cowpox pustules to inoculate healthy persons. The most widely recorded example occurred in 1768 when Catherine the Great, Empress of Russia, allowed a Scottish physician to inoculate (vaccinate) her. She developed a mild case, recovered after two weeks, and then had fluid from her own pustules used to inoculate her son and members of her court. After Catherine’s heroic action, inoculation became quickly accepted, and by 1780 two million inoculations were administered in the Russian Empire. An alternative and improved method of vaccination was introduced in 1796 by Edward Jenner, who noted that milkmaids who had been infected with cowpox, a skin infection caused by a virus related to the smallpox virus, did not get smallpox. He removed fluid from the cowpox pustules of a young dairymaid and inoculated an eight-year old boy. The child developed a mild fever but recovered – a successful but highly unethical experiment.

Navigating the shidduch system was a cinch when the Baby Boomers dated. That’s because there was no system – and yet, singles did not suffer from the shidduch “crisis” referred to today. In addition to meeting at shul, school, and singles events, they met at Shabbos tables, Catskill hotels, libraries, and even Tashlich. Relatives, friends, classmates, students, workmates, and neighbors often proposed (no pun intended) ideas. Oh, and suggestions were also made by shadchanim.

There was no such thing as today’s mandatory shidduch profile (more commonly called by the misnomer “resume”), and guys (or their mothers) did not insist on seeing the girl’s photo prior to going out. An extensive preliminary FBI (Frum Bureau of Investigation) check of references did not exist. After hearing some details, you basically trusted the person who broached the idea and then relied on your own judgment.

It seems like the last tax year never ended; it just flowed into this year. Of course, with COVID, last year has been pretty crazy. In fact, in addition to our health, schools, simchas, and shuls, the virus has affected our taxes.

COVID Tax Issues

First, two minor points: 1) You did not have to take money (RMDs) out of your IRAs and retirement accounts in 2020. 2) You also get to claim charity of $300 if you do not itemize. Nothing overwhelming there.