Over the past two years, I have collected material on many words that do not warrant an entire column. I present this “collage” of material here. I am sure you will enjoy it.

Asterisk: This word means “little star” from the Greek “asteriskos.” “Aster” means star and “iskos” is

This week’s parsha, KiTavo, ends with the declaration, “Yet, to this day, the Lord has not given you a heart/mind to understand, or eyes to see or ears to hear.”

Our commentators, however, considered this verse to be more of a question: “You saw all that God did for you—when you were in

Leading With
Joy and Passion

The summer is an opportunity for school leaders to reassess and ensure that they are beginning the school year with their mission-aligned passion and joy. What are the plans that can be put into place to facilitate the deep social connections that are

Close to 30 years ago, I was invited to participate in a regional convention of New Jersey NCSY in one of the upstate New York camps. It was a wonderful event, with great Torah study, tefillah, ruach and fun, gathering motivated teens from both frum-from-birth and non-observant backgrounds. On Shabbat afternoon, I was asked to hold

Editor’s note: This article was originally published in The Times on May 31, 2012.

Punctuality, said Louis XVIII of France, is the politeness of kings. Royalty arrives on time and leaves on time. So it is with Her Majesty the Queen, with one memorable exception.

This week we remember Queen Elizabeth II. I’d like to share some of my memories of her.

During my time in Canada, the Commonwealth, I had the honor to be in her esteemed presence.

The year was 2005 and the province of Alberta was celebrating its centenary. To mark

Queen Elizabeth II was an exemplar of much I hold dear: unflinching devotion to duty, commitment to her people, personal dignity, tradition and belief in God.

I want to share some very personal thoughts on the passing of Queen Elizabeth II [last] Thursday in Scotland.

I have two questions:

First, why did my daughter always want to dress up like a princess for Purim?

And second, why are we so obsessed with the British royal family?

I wonder if it’s because we associate royalty with a

Kudos to Nina Glick for her recent Jewish Link piece about the plague of loud noise in our community. This was the subject of a recent shiur that I presented at the Naftoli Aaron Torah Enrichment Program at Congregation Shomrei Torah in Fair Lawn. My focus was primarily the loud music at weddings. In a nutshell, the halacha is

When we toast, we Jews like to say, “L’chaim,” which means, of course, “to life!” But maybe we should be saying, “L’mavet,” “to death,” to acknowledge the reality that far too many Jewish alcoholics and addicts are cutting their own lives short with alcohol and drugs.

One area

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