Out of the Ortho Box
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Hi! I'm Ruchi Koval. I'm an Orthodox Jewish woman. Married, kids. This blog is about promoting Jewish unity among people of all beliefs via mutual respect and education.
Out of the Ortho Box
2w ago
The other day my husband and I were out shopping for shoes for him. Now, this is a very rare situation, because 1. he never goes shopping, especially not for himself 2. we never go shopping together! Who has time for that sort of thing other than newlyweds and the elderly? So by now you’ve […]
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Out of the Ortho Box
1M ago
Last week my family and I were driving from… you guessed it… Monsey, New York, back home to Cleveland. Yes, we do this trip a lot, since many of our relatives live on the east coast and we are big road trippers when it comes to family simchas. My nephew’s bar mitzvah was on Tuesday […]
The post Made of Honor appeared first on Out of the Ortho Box ..read more
Out of the Ortho Box
2M ago
Who will be the Zaidys of our children? There is a visceral correlation between the seasons of the year and the seasons of the Jewish calendar. Lighting Chanukah candles is in the frost and ice, stamping the snow off your boots as you blow into the warm home of wherever your Chanukah party is. You […]
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Out of the Ortho Box
4M ago
I write these words to you from Kalahari where I am spending two days and a night with my daughters. The reason I am here is that one of them is on winter vacation (they don’t get a break in December but rather they do it now instead), and the other one used the opportunity […]
The post A Chip on Your… Wrist appeared first on Out of the Ortho Box ..read more
Out of the Ortho Box
5M ago
It’s the end of an era. Last week I got home from Monsey, NY where I was celebrating the shiva of my dear grandmother, Mrs. Neche Heimowitz, of blessed memory. I say “celebrating” mindfully — it was not a sad shiva but rather an inspirational one, one where we all got to celebrate the woman […]
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Out of the Ortho Box
1y ago
This week I was really struggling with a parenting issue, and I found myself feeling stressed and angry. I was mostly OK with how I had handled the situation, but not completely, and I was feeling all kinds of other things, including but not limited to: fear, fury, worry, shame, regret, blame, frustration, annoyance, and ..read more
Out of the Ortho Box
1y ago
Our daughter’s wedding was fast approaching on Tuesday, December 28th, and Omicron was proving to be the black shadow that cast a cloud on the whole thing. One by one, friends and relatives messaged us that they could not come, due to illness or fear of illness. Plus, we had been planning an outdoor chuppah ..read more
Out of the Ortho Box
1y ago
I recently got back from a trip to Israel, which was thrilling on many levels. First, the joy of being able to travel to the Holy Land, after so many months of not knowing when we’d be able to go back, made the trip all the more sweet. As one of the attendees remarked, “You ..read more
Out of the Ortho Box
1y ago
Hello OOTOB Readers, Somehow, this summer sneaked right by and I failed to notice that this past July marked ten years of my blog, with my first post, The Bridge, having appeared on July 25, 2011 (when I read it now I cringe at my writing style, naivete, and grammar gaffes). I thought it only ..read more
Out of the Ortho Box
1y ago
Every time you think Covid is over, there’s a new variant to freak you out. Omicron is the latest in the “let’s-worry-before-we-know-if-there’s-cause-to-worry” parade in the news, but it certainly won’t be the last. In other words, Covid isn’t actually going away anytime soon. We just have to learn to live with it as a present ..read more