As we drive up the main road of Mitzpe Yericho, with olive trees surrounding us on both sides, I am full of hope. Searching for a community can be daunting, and at last my husband Eliyahu and I agree that this yishuv we are visiting feels like home. Perhaps we are coming full circle as we got married in Mitzpe Yericho’s wedding hall, Nof HaYarden. Funny, though – at the time, we did not even consider living in Mitzpe, as it is fondly called.

Eliyahu points out the significance of Mitzpe Yericho. A mitzpe is a lookout; this yishuv lies on top of a mountain overlooking the ancient city of Yericho a few kilometers away. Nowadays, Yericho is an Arab city known for its casino, and Jews are not allowed to live there. But its history goes back to the times of Yehoshua, when Bnei Yisrael entered Eretz Yisrael and miraculously conquered the city.

When I think of my father, Chonon Shugarman, a”h, an anecdote that he shared with us, his family, arises in my mind. That is of my father as a little boy, sucking on a candy ever so slowly, trying to keep the moment of pleasure for as long as possible. His love for life and enjoyment of the wonders of this world led my father to explore a question that he entertained even as a youngster – which was what happens after death? None of the adults around him were able to give my father an adequate answer to his persistent question. Born into a traditional family and attending Baltimore public schools, my father’s search for truth was aided by the Hebrew School he attended. By the time he reached bar mitzva, he was already keeping Shabbos and kashrus as best as he could. Later, Harav Moshe Heinemann, shlita, as well as the community surrounding TA, Etz Chaim Center, and his co-worker Chaim Pollock contributed to his becoming a proper Orthodox Jew.

As Torah-observant Jews, our desire is to teach each generation to cling onto our etz chaim, and we have established a multitude of day schools and yeshivas to accomplish that goal. To create healthy, wholesome branches within our children, I believe that incorporating the methods and tools of other educational approaches can stoke the flames of real Torah passion even further. I would like to share here some more specialties of Waldorf/Steiner education. As noted in my previous article on Waldorf education, the ideas I have outlined here are separate from Steiner’s general philosophies and beliefs, which are anti-Torah.

Unsure of my exact destination and uncertain about my upcoming meeting, I felt vulnerable and queasy as the bus lurched around the sharp turns on the descent from Yerushalayim, but I soon arrived at my stop. Alighting, I surveyed my surroundings. I was a few minutes walk from Ramat Motza, a small, pretty neighborhood right outside the entrance of Yerushalayim, directly below Har Nof. I navigated to the address I was given with help from my trusty old Moovit navigation app.

What celebration can beat the exuberance and excitement of a wedding festivity? Well, I was soon to find out. During my engagement to my Teimani (Yemenite) chatan, Eliyahu, it was proposed to throw the traditional Yemenite, women-only, pre-wedding ceremonial party, called the Henna. I was warned that it might be more enjoyable than the actual wedding, and in hindsight, I must agree that it was. I really did not know what to expect as I was too busy with wedding preparations to check into what happens at a Henna. I did know what my sister-in-law-to-be told me, which is that the letters of henna, in Hebrew, stand for the three special mitzvot of a woman: challa, niddah, and hadlakat neirot.

If you would have heard me say, about a year ago, “Until 120,” you might not have known that it referred to something other than a wish for long life. That is because I was searching for my soul mate and getting rather weary. Most of my dates were coming from the two Israeli dating sites I had joined. Many evenings I would closet myself by the computer and tell my friends I was going “shopping,” that is, navigating the dating sites to see whom I could get a date with. The sites have more than 40,000 members, so choices were plentiful. The problem was that, although many guys I met really were suitable, I had also encountered a fair number of disappointing dates.