Homeshuling

One of the many things I’m thankful for is that my children love school. There’s never a battle in the morning to get them out the door (or if there is, it’s because I HATE THESE SHOES.) We are reminded on a daily basis why we pay a substantial percentage of our income to send…

When I set the table for  Shabbat or Yom Tov, my children immediately recognize that this is no ordinary meal. It’s not just that the piles are cleared off the kitchen table (we don’t have a dining room), and that I’ve put out a tablecloth and taken time to fold the cloth napkins rather than toss…

I was scrolling down my twitter feed – something I rarely do – when a headline caught my eye: Orthodox Rabbi Marries Gay Couple in Washington DC. I couldn’t imagine that this article could really be about an Orthodox Rabbi marrying two Jewish men under a chuppah, but I was curious about what actually happened…

Many years ago, when I was studying at Drisha, a women’s yeshiva in New York, I was involved in a traditional women’s tefillah (prayer) group. During our services, women would chant from the Torah, and there was some controversy over whether we were halachically permitted to recite the bracha (blessing) over the Torah reading.  I asked the…

Over the course of Tishrei we went through an awful lot of challah with our holiday meals. I had a chance to experiment with a few time-saving recipes, and wanted to share my findings. While my all time favorite recipe is from the blog smitten kitchen (this is the one I prepare with my kindergarten class every…

Next Sunday I’ll begin a month of travel to Jewish book fairs around the country to share my new picture book, The Shabbat Princess. If you live nearby, please come and introduce yourself! Sunday, October 30 Springfield, Massachusetts Springfield Jewish Community Center 10:30 AM Sunday, November 6 San Diego, CA San Diego Jewish Book Fair…

My daughter, Zoe, and her fifth-grade buddy beating willow branches on the ground  at their day school’s Hoshanah Rabbah assembly: Here’s part #1, part  #2 , part #3, and part-i’ve-lost-count, not necessarily in that order. Chag Sameach!

On Friday night, our family huddled together in the sukkah for the first time. We hovered over the table because the furniture was too soaked to sit on. The fabric walls were threatening to blow off in the wind. The rain dripped freely on our heads through the way-too-sparse schach. Which we could barely see,…

  Homeshuling is delighted to host this month’s Jewish Book Carnival, a gathering of blog posts about Jewish books.  Enjoy your visits to all the participating blogs, and please help promote the carnival by posting a link on your own blog and whatever other social media you use. Let’s start with the grown-up books (“adult…

Nowhere is ritual more useful than in times of loss. When a loved one dies, it’s comforting to be part of a tradition that tells us what to do and what not to do, what to say and what not to say, and when and how to slowly move through the grief. The guidelines support…

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