Dear RachelLike you, my Hebrew name is Rachel.Like you, I have cried for my children. Unlike you, I have been able to watch them grow and thrive.Every Jewish mother is with you today and with all the parents of all the hostages.We cry with you.We have seen Hersh’s face every day since October 7.We felt […] The post Rachel appeared first on Out of the Ortho Box ..read more

Today was my 50th birthday party which I celebrated at JFX with over 250 people. I am so so grateful to have my beloved family surrounding me and my community whom I love so much. Here’s the talk I gave today. Thanks to everyone who made my day so special.I’m grateful to be turning 50 […] The post 50 Reasons I’m Grateful to be Turning 50 appeared first on Out of the Ortho Box ..read more

This week I went on a helicopter ride over Lake Erie with my daughter Nomi. Now, it’s kind of interesting because I never considered myself a risk-taking person, but at the time of this writing, I have jumped out of an airplane once at 10,000 feet, and have taken, to date, two helicopter rides over […] The post Helicopter Mom appeared first on Out of the Ortho Box ..read more

So I went to the south of Israel. And I saw the places. I saw Sderot. I saw Kfar Aza. And I saw Nova. To be a Jew means to live with the heavy cloud of hate. To wonder what it would be like if that was you. “They” were Nazis when I was a […] The post The South appeared first on Out of the Ortho Box ..read more

Parenting is the responsibilityto fall in love with a humanso small, so helpless,so vulnerable, who needs us so badly And to stay in lovewhen they are bigand scaryand their moods are dark cloudsthat threaten to storm(and often do) To choose lovewhen we feel the least appreciatedthe least neededthe least seen Because you must knowthat they […] The post Choose Love appeared first on Out of the Ortho Box ..read more

As some of you might know, I wear many hats. On the one hand, I am a rebbetzin. I am married to a rabbi. I help run JFX and I provide spiritual guidance to our community. I am also a teacher. I teach classes to adults and sometimes teens, whether those classes are intimate gatherings […] The post The Most Interesting Person in the Room appeared first on Out of the Ortho Box ..read more

Motherhood. One of life’s most complicated roles. We love our kids, more than life itself, more than we could have imagined. We are obsessed with them, we think about them nonstop, we identify our success by them. Our very identity changes when we become moms. We are metaphysically tethered to our children by a umbilical […] The post Motherhood appeared first on Out of the Ortho Box ..read more

Only the Jews spend a whole week creatively cooking and eating a rotation of matza, eggs, and potatoes. Only the Jews sing songs of freedom and gratitude even as dozens of our hostages are still held in captivity — and I say “dozens” because we don’t even know how many, because their captors can’t even […] The post Only the Jews appeared first on Out of the Ortho Box ..read more

Your children cannot be your source of satisfaction in life. You have to raise them. You have to nurture them. You love them. You listen to them. You guide them. You role model to them. You help them. You teach them. Then you sit back and let them figure it out. But if you want […] The post Happy appeared first on Out of the Ortho Box ..read more

Today is 150 days of the hostages in captivity. It’s also the day before our daughter’s wedding. And therein, my friends, lies the story of the Jewish people. The bitter and the sweet in one spoonful. My father was sitting shiva the same week as my brother’s wedding. He got up from shiva, went to […] The post Bitter and Sweet appeared first on Out of the Ortho Box ..read more