Blog

I was blessed to grow up in the same house my entire childhood. My parents moved into 1258 Crosby Crescent in Ann Arbor in 1969, and my mom only left the house after my dad died 49 years later. I have no memories of moving during childhood; the first time I packed a moving box was when I went to college. My father, God bless him, had a hard time parting with material things, and by the time he passed away there was a lot of stuff in the house that had to be cleared out and repaired in order to get the place in condition to sell. That was a big enough job on its own, and it became significantly more complicated when the pandemic hit about 15 months after he died, especially because my...

I don't have much occasion to go in the backyard during the winter. For starters, January is pretty cold in Chicago, and the dog is perfectly fine if we just let her out the door to do her business and then run back in. But the other day it was a little warmer, and Phoebe seemed like she would enjoy playing fetch. So I bundled up and took her out. After a few rounds of catch and release with a...

"Insurance is one of finance’s great gifts to mankind. Through the statistical magic of risk pooling, an individual can obtain peace of mind and protection against devastating loss." A perhaps unexpected opening sentence to a Shabbat reflection from yours truly. But the article it comes from, by Wall Street Journal writer Greg Ip, really grabbed my attention. I had always kind of assumed that,...

What an intense week it has been.   Yes, yes: I'll get to the new administration in a bit. But there was much more to this week too.   For me, the week began with clearing out my mother's apartment and visiting her frequently, as we moved her into memory care. Not a simple thing, of course. It's definitely the right move for this moment in her life, and she is adjusting to it with her customary...

When I was a kid, in order to become an Eagle Scout you needed to earn 21 merit badges. Of those, some were required and some were elective. I remember my electives included things like ice skating and music (which were, conveniently, things I did anyway outside of Scouting). The required merit badges were things like First Aid (no surprise), Citizenship in the Community, Swimming and...

Dear friends, I heard from many people this week about The New York Times columnist David Brooks's essay, "The Shock of Faith." I won't speak for him (he does that for himself in 2,000 words). Nor do I really want to have a conversation about whether Brooks, who talks about his Jewish life, is really a Christian at this point (he deals with that a bit in the essay). Instead, I want to respond to...

  On Tuesday morning this week, I stood amidst the ruined homes of young members of Kibbutz Kfar Aza, one of the kibbutzim overrun and decimated by Hamas terrorists on October 7, 2023. These small apartments had provided a way for the kibbutz to help young people get their start in adult life. Their location, closest to the western fence of the kibbutz, made them the first line of attack....

Many years ago, when my oldest son (now 21) was little, he asked for me to read him stories from a children's bible on our shelf. It had belonged to my wife as a kid, and I was excited that Jonah wanted to hear these stories.   But of course it got complicated, because these stories are not, in fact, children's stories for the most part. They talk about some pretty adult topics.   I particularly...

I was riding in a Lyft at 4:30 a.m. on Sunday morning, en route to LAX to make a flight home in time for my son's 12th birthday party. My driver, a middle-aged African-American woman, asked me where I was headed. "Chicago."    "Chicago?! Take me with you! That's where I'm from."   "Oh, where in Chicago did you grow up?"   She proceeded to name what felt like 25 different neighborhoods: First she...

Even though I went to bed early on Tuesday, before the election outcome was clear, I didn’t get much sleep. Try as I might — sleep meditations, visualizations, every trick I know—I couldn't get my mind to stop spinning: so much uncertainty, so much at stake for so many of us. I just couldn’t settle down, and I tossed and turned all night. I know many of you felt that way too. When I finally got...