Category: yom tov

Planning for Pesach Already?

Pesach is one of the biggest projects we undertake as frum families. One of the most powerful planning tools in my toolkit—one I use for managing projects both at work and at home—is the after-action report. While any project or endeavor I will undertake again in the future is fresh in my mind, I make notes about what worked, what didn’t work, and what could have worked better with a little bit of tweaking. This way, I can reduce, reuse, and refuse my way to a more sustainable, less stressful holiday.

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Making Do

Pesach reminds me that limiting my choices and not having exactly what I want doesn’t have to mean feeling deprived.

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Sweet Rewards

With Chanukah coming up, my mind is turning to sweet treats: crispy doughnuts and cookies. I don’t make frosted cookies, but I do make frosted cakes, and in the past, I had always bought my frosting ready-made in a tub. In looking at plastic packaging I could eliminate, that seemed like a good candidate because... Continue Reading →

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Regaining Momentum

Over Sukkot, I have to admit, I used both disposable plates and foil pans. Tishrei was the first time I had been in our local party goods store since Pesach. So while I was making strides in my spiritual life, my material life had a lot more garbage bags in it. But, my home and... Continue Reading →

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As Right as Rain

I feel a bit of a letdown when we, during sefiras haomer, leave off from davening “mashiv haruach u’morid hageshem” in the Amidah. Those words have always touched me, evoking how HaShem’s spirit hovered on the face of the waters at the beginning of His acts of creation.  Our rav, Rabbi Aaron David Lebovics, gave... Continue Reading →

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Dayeinu?

“It would have been enough,” we sing each year at the seder table. At our seder, it’s one of the most spirited songs. Probably at your seder, too. But I wonder, have modern Jews, especially those of us in America, where consumption is a national pastime, lost the ability to tell what “enough” looks like?... Continue Reading →

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Perfection Paralysis

It’s almost Shavuos, but this week I have been thinking back to Lag b’Omer and Rabbi Shimon bar Yochai and Rabbi Elazar hiding for 12 years from the Romans in a cave. Where were we, digitally speaking, 12 years ago? We were already standing in the cave (l’havdil) that is the online world, and we’ve... Continue Reading →

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