For those who were the pioneers, moving to the Teaneck area 30 and some years ago, we assume that they never would have dreamed that this community would become what it is today. Stories are told to us, as relative newcomers, explaining how the Judaica House on Cedar Lane was one of the first bastions of Jewish life here. Bnai Yeshurun, on West Englewood Avenue, was

I have always felt very strongly that Judaism is caught more than it is taught. Children learn very early on what is important by the way their parents model their lives. This applies both to negative and positive behavior. If parents use coarse language in the house it will be imitated. If fathers don’t help mothers with dishes or cleaning, that too will resonate.

Goldfish are pretty durable. People are always saying, “Yeah, we can’t kill this one. We’ve dropped it on the floor, left it in the sun, on the stove, we forgot about it when we moved, and it still somehow found its way back to us. It just showed up at our front door, panting.”

The only

After sifting through all the jabber about money, empirical evidence suggests there are only three reasons to save:

1. To provide a measure of security against unforeseen events,

Years ago, my siblings and I caught (pun intended, since part of the game revolves around “catching them all”) Pokémon fever when my brother received a Game Boy and Pokémon Emerald Version for Chanukah. All three of us would take turns staring at the tiny device, traveling around

The Screaming Staircase by Jonathan Stroud

When a sudden outbreak of supernatural sightings occurred in London, the people of the city immediately began to set up ghost-detecting agencies.

For someone who grew up in the age of instant gratification, the Three Weeks has always felt restrictive. When technology has put everything right at our fingertips, time stretches out for what seems like forever when there’s a list of activities we suddenly can’t do.

When the daughters of Tzelafchad came to Moshe and asked for their father’s portion in the Land of Israel, they described their father as having been separated from Korach’s group. Chazal suggest that this fact is what caused Moshe to refrain from issuing a judgment on their request. Moshe felt that since Tzelafchad

With this week’s haftorah, we introduce a new function for the weekly prophetic selection. Until this point, the purpose of the haftorah was to strike a theme similar to one found in the parsha

The first four chapters of the book of Eichah are alphabetical acrostics. Surprisingly, in the acrostics in Chapters 2, 3 and 4, the verses that begin with pe precede the verses that begin with ayin. The Soncino commentary to Eichah remarks: “This unusual order has never been satisfactorily explained.” In light of the

Last week, Rabbis Noach Sauber and Hersh Kasirer, the learning directors at Camp Dora Golding, launched what they called the “Say Thank You” program. Rabbi Sauber introduced the program by reiterating to the campers about the great importance of reciting brachot as a way of thanking Hashem for all the gifts we take for

We in Israel stand aghast, but not surprised, as we see the increasing number of murderous attacks on innocents abroad, as we have experienced for too long ourselves.

And ever more acutely, as we see before us an exact duplication of such