Call or Text 718-686-9339 or email USOFFICE@MISHPACHA.COM New US and Canadian subscriptions eligible for discount. Valid through May 31st. The post Mishpacha $100 Off Anniversary Sale first appeared on Mishpacha Magazine ..read more

I really struggle with standard weeknight suppers. No one here likes fish of any type, and we’re getting tired of chicken — I make it almost every night in every form, shape, and size. As a last resort, I’ll make pasta, but I’m not fond of such a starch-heavy supper. It must be kid-friendly, and if it has vegetables, they have to be either invisible (pureed) or big enough to pick out, if necessary. We like soup. I’m open to all types of soup, besides sweet or weird ones. In general, my kids like salty foods rather than sweet or cinnamon kind of things. And I’m totally not going out to buy sna ..read more

The moment I’d anticipated for almost nine months would never come. I dab at my moist eyes with my overused handkerchief, not even thinking about the mascara smeared all over my face. It’s just not fair. Life feels cruel. I grab my coffee and step onto the porch, gazing at the beautiful garden below. I sigh deeply and sit down. The stars are shining bright, like rays of hope, far away. To me, though, there’s no hope whatsoever. Right now, my world is dark and bleak. I gaze at my empty hands and try to hold back the tears. Just then, I hear a piercing wail from one of the neighboring buildings ..read more

Bracha?!  The woman joined the organization a month ago, and suddenly she’s qualified to lead it?   Ayala rubbed her eyes as she wheeled her suitcase through the JFK terminal. Since making aliyah, she’d flown back about once a year to visit her parents, but her frequent trips notwithstanding, she inevitably had to stop herself from speaking Hebrew to the airport personnel, and felt unsettlingly out of her element as she took in the people, the advertisements on the walls, the atmosphere — a culture shock that only got stronger as the years went by. “Welcome home,” the passport contr ..read more

This is a tale of two sisters. One sister meticulously plans a weekly menu every Sunday and has a devout following of friends and family who use that menu. And then there’s me. I can’t even seem to follow along when it’s all laid out for me. There are some (rare) days when I think about what to make for dinner early in the day. I even sometimes pull out a cookbook and follow a recipe. On those days, I buy the groceries and get the food cooked and ready before the kids walk in from school. But most days are a marathon. I make a quick stop at the supermarket on my way home at three or four o’cl ..read more

I long regarded the Falkowitzes as “outsiders” who could never fit into our frum worldview Under the snow mountain at the end of our cul-de-sac lay the frozen form of Sébastien, the Khao Manee cat that belonged to our secular neighbors, the Falkowitzes. Kalman Ostreicher claimed that the inch of whitish-grayish fur sticking out from under the great heap of ice was undeniably Sébastien’s tail, and that we were all to use our hands to scoop out as much as we could to exhume the feline. He felt it was of great importance to the Falkowitzes to have knowledge of what had befallen their beloved pet ..read more

Pesach is over, but for Israeli political and military leaders, the prospect of international warrants for their arrest has left the taste of maror in their mouths. Photo: AP Newsroom 1 Pesach is over, but for Israeli political and military leaders, the prospect of international warrants for their arrest has left the taste of maror in their mouths. Over the past few weeks, the lights at the prime minister’s office and the Foreign Ministry have stayed on until the wee hours of the night. Staff are frantically trying to avert International Criminal Court (ICC) prosecutor Karim Khan from issuing ..read more

Does a therapist’s age matter? Should frum young adults be venturing into the field of mental health before they have life experience? Readers weigh in on Sarah Rivkah Kohn’s column. Experience Isn’t Everything I just graduated three years ago from social work school. I’m in my forties and had a couple of classmates my age, but the rest were in their twenties. The downside to men and women my age going to school is that they sometimes believe their life experience is everything. Our excellent professors helped me chuck that idea out pretty quickly. I will add though that I don’t think life ex ..read more

None of those in the encampments are calling for a two-state solution, or Palestinian self-determination. Just the end of Israel.   American Jews have looked on in horror as pro-Hamas encampments popped up on more than 100 college campuses. But predictably, there have been those voices telling them not to get hysterical. Novelist Shalom Auslander, in a piece titled “Dear Media, Stop Taking Students Too Seriously,” argues that college kids are inevitably stupid because their prefrontal cortex, which covers decision-making, is not fully formed. (That argument, by the way, has been used by S ..read more

On our first ever episode, Rabbi Schonfeld and Rabbi Garfield discuss the burning questions parents have about raising their children. Is there any validity to the opinion that forcing middle school boys to go to shul on Shabbos is the way to go? When your child reports "facts" that don't line up with that the teacher says, who do you believe? And the BIG QUESTION: Is it possible my son is not cut out for Gemara? The post Let’s Talk Gemara (Part 1) first appeared on Mishpacha Magazine ..read more