Because What Where When is a monthly publication, it is often difficult to write about current events when so many astonishing things are unfolding hour by hour. As I write these words, Israel is bracing for another Iranian attack. No other country, having already been repeatedly attacked, would stand back and await the enemy’s choice of time and place for a follow-up strike. In the Talmud Sanhedrin 72A, we learn, “If someone comes to kill you, rise up and kill him first!” Unfortunately, the rules for Jews and Israel, which are being strictly enforced by the current administration in Washington, require Israel not to respond in an appropriate manner (a massive preemptive strike) since the U.S. woke appeasement policy requires that Israel, and America, must not upset their sworn enemies. Consider that the U.S. possesses the firepower to neutralize Iran. Nevertheless, the Iranian regime openly threatens America, Israel, and the free world. That’s because the Biden administration has demonstrated by its inaction that Iran need not to be concerned that the U.S. will respond decisively. Sadly, America is sorely lacking in leadership and resolve. It is for that reason that Iran has been emboldened.

“You can’t take it with you.” This old adage expresses the thought that, after 120 years, you leave all your worldly possessions behind. I experienced this lesson in a most graphic way, within a family context, 20 years ago. My mother had passed away in 1989, and on the very same date, 4 Sivan, in 2003, my father was niftar. Several months later, my brother, David, my wife, a”h, and I undertook to clear out the family home in Kemp Mill in preparation for its eventual sale.

We planned to dispose of lightweight items, whatever two men could physically handle, through the services provided by Montgomery County Shady Grove Transfer Station. Located in Derwood, Md., near Rockville, this facility offers amenities for both recycling and trash drop-offs. So very early in 2004, David arranged a U-Haul rental, and we got to work. We loaded a vast array of household items, many of 1950s vintage, including chairs, footrests, small tables and bureaus, books, encyclopedias, serving dishes, floor lamps, vacuum cleaners, and so on. We then drove off.

Every reader of the WWW has something to say about school. We have all gone to school and either hated it or loved it. And we send our children to school, where they have the same reactions. As is my custom, whenever I write an article, I ask every person I meet for their thoughts. This time, I asked for advice on how to prepare children for a successful year in school. Everyone had something to say – even the grandmother whose children are grown up, who said, “I have no advice, I am just happy to be finished with all that!”

I’ll be the first to admit that more than a few things frighten me – unleashed dogs, letters from the IRS, taking out my son’s lunch box to pack on Monday morning only to discover the lunch I thought he had eaten on Thursday is still inside.

While everyone is entitled to his or her own individual obsession – such as arachibutyrophobia (the fear of peanut butter getting stuck to the roof of your mouth) or gelotophobia (the fear of laughter) – there is one phobia, called nyctophobia, fear of the dark, that affects almost half American adults today. Triggered by threats that are either real or imagined, it prevents people from going out at night, sometimes just to the car to get a bag they forgot to bring in earlier, and causes panic during power failures.

Written in December, 1991

The story of Rabbi Akiva and his wife Rachel has not only served to inspire other couples to sacrifice on behalf of Torah but has also remained a gripping human drama, inspiring authors and novelists down to our own day. Our past, however, contains many other fascinating true tales of famous couples whose stories are less well known. Here is one:

Rabbi Yehudah Loew ben Bezalel, who became known all over the world as the Maharal, was born in Posen (Poland) in

Most of what I learned from Rav Gifter was from the times I heard him speak publicly or read his published material. Rav Gifter was a fiery speaker, with both exceptional content and powerful delivery in three languages: English, Hebrew, and Yiddish. But first, a small introduction to his unusual development as a gadol baTorah.

Have you ever lost something important and, in a state of panic, search everywhere, retrace your steps, and, after looking and looking in every logical and illogical place, struggle to resign yourself to the reality that the item has simply vanished?

Last week, as my wife Arleeta and I were preparing to leave for Israel for our granddaughter Rivka’s wedding, we were dealing with all of the last-minute preparations – especially all of the items for the kids and grandkids and figuring out the suitcase-packing jigsaw puzzle while checking the exact weight of each luggage piece – when Arleeta said, “I have to run out; what did you do with my car keys?”

I replied, “Nothing; you were the last one to use your car. Don’t worry, they’ll turn up. In the meantime, here’s the spare key.”

After returning from her errand, Arleeta said, “This is ridiculous. My keys must be somewhere around here.”

As we approach the nine-month point in the war, Israel is a different place than it was this past Sukkot, when I last wrote. But to Israelis, more importantly, the world has changed – and not in a good way. When you turn on the news in the morning, too many days begin with the dreaded words, “Released for publication…,” which means that the family has been notified and now we can tell you. Nearly every day, Israeli papers contain two depressing things – another casualty among Israeli soldiers and details on antisemitic incidents around the world. Those antisemitic incidents are in the usual places but also in places that Israel thought were liberal democracies and should be supporting Israel in its war against Hamas, not calling for attacks on Jews. The average Israeli now believes that there is no place where it is safe to be a Jew – not in the “goldena medina” and not in Israel. Being Jewish remains a difficult state of affairs.

All children have dreams of what they will be when they grow up. Every little boy wants to be a fireman or truck driver, and every little girl wants to be a nurse or morah. But not many people end up working in these jobs. Often the careers that excited us as children do not look so exciting once we are adults.  

My father kept an old framed letter hanging in his office for years and told us the story behind it many times. My grandfather was an antique dealer, and he wanted my father to be a judge. During World War II, my father’s family lived in a small town in England, where my grandfather became good friends with Rabbi Dessler, zt”l.

Rabbi Dessler convinced my grandfather to send my father to Gateshead Yeshiva when he was about 16. After spending time in yeshiva, my father lost his yearning to be a judge. He wrote a letter to his parents explaining his desire to stay in yeshiva and become a rebbe. His mother sent my father’s letter to Rabbi Dessler and asked him what they should do. Should they give up their dream of their son becoming a judge so he could stay in yeshiva? Rabbi Dessler wrote back, encouraging them to allow my father to stay in yeshiva. Here are some lines from the letter:

Reviewed By Rabbi Mordechai Shuchatowitz, Head of The Baltimore Bais Din

In previous articles, we discussed the concept of ribbis, which is the paying of interest for a loan. We discussed that a loan is when either money or some other commodity, such as food, is given from a lender to a borrower in order to be spent or consumed by the borrower. If the principal of the loan amount is paid back, and the borrower adds something extra to the principal, that extra is prohibited because of ribbis.

In this article, I will discuss cases that are prohibited in halacha because of ribbis, even though there is no actual loan. These are cases in which a business transaction has taken place and some additional compensation is made for waiting to receive what was committed. This includes both prepayment for items purchased that won’t be received until some time later, as well as to post-payments for items bought on credit and paid for later on. Although such transactions are not an actual loan and do not therefore constitute ribbis d’Orayisah (from the Torah), they are nonetheless assur mid’rabbon (rabbinically prohibited) due to their similarity to ribbis. This is called “agar natar,” which means reward for waiting.