Over the last 40 years, the Baltimore community has helped many widows and orphans after they have unfortunately lost a loved one and there was no plan to replace the lost parnassa that the deceased had been providing for the family. I have been involved, too often, in helping raise these needed funds. Many millions have been raised, and tzedakas like Avigdor’s Helping Hand, a New York-based tzedaka organization, and our local Ahavas Yisrael Charity Fund have provided tzedaka to these mishpachos. Rabbi Boruch Brull, the executive director of Ahavas Yisrael, has been at the forefront of many of these efforts.

I am a big believer in buying insurance that will protect you and your family. I am not a professional financial advisor or an insurance broker. I am a conservative businessman, and many people come to me for financial counsel, which I am happy to give, using my extensive life experience as a guide.

When I heard that this issue of the Where What When would focus on children, I immediately thought of Ahavas Yisrael, our incredible local charity run by Rabbi Boruch Brull and his very dynamic staff. Ahavas Yisrael helps children greatly – along with their families – as well as our aged and, really, any community member struggling financially. Next, I thought of two beautiful stories that I love to tell and that include children. Here they are:

The majestic wooden pews at Shearith Israel have been replaced. What memories! Those pews are where so many tzadikim once sat, all of them now in the Olam Ha’emes: Rabbi Shimon Schwab, Rabbi Mendel Feldman, Mr. Jakob Gradman, Mr. Kurt Flamm, Abraham Morganroth, Bernard Yaffe, chazan sheni Louis Miller, Dr. Kurt Raab, Wolfgang Meyer,

Today, over 84 years since the start of the Holocaust and 79 years from the end of the Second World War, a multitude of Torah learning and educational vehicles are available to enhance the chinuch of our children and make them bnei and bnos Torah. Many of our parents and grandparents are Holocaust survivors who escaped the horrors of Hitler’s Europe. Many of them unfortunately did not have the opportunity to study in yeshivas but came out of the horror of the war with strong emunah and were firmly committed to halacha and shemiras Shabbos

“Tu b’Shvat higi’ah, chag ha’ilanot….” So go the lyrics of the famous children’s song. Tu b’Shvat, the delightful new year of the trees, is when we eat the sheva minim, the special fruits of the Eretz Yisrael. They are wheat, barley, grapes, figs, pomegranates, olives, and dates, which are mentioned in the pasuk (verse) in the order of their ripening.

Besides being delicious, each of the seven species was associated by the mekubalim (kabbalists) with the one of the seven sefiros. Wheat corresponds to chesed (kindness), barley to gevurah (strength), grapes to tiferes (harmony), figs to netzach (perseverance), pomegranates to hod (humility), olives to yesod (foundation), and dates to malchus (royalty). The kabbalists ate these foods in 16^th century Tzfas at a Tu b’Shvat seder, a custom that has had a revival in our time.

Many people ask me about investing in the stock market. I tell them, do I know where the Dow will be tomorrow? The answer is, of course not – but then, neither does Warren Buffet. Here is what I do know: Inflation and the Feds raising interest rates have caused turmoil in our IRAs and financial portfolios. It’s unsettling to see a financial statement that is 15% off its high for a conservative portfolio and even more for a Nasdaq high-tech portfolio. There’s a natural feeling of uneasiness and financial concern. We get seasick.

We have seen the markets correct over the last year, b”H, and the markets had a very positive 2023. As interest rates begin to come down, bonds and the markets should hopefully do well. Gold just hit an all-time high at over $2,100 per ounce, and Bitcoin has made a healthy recovery as of late. Real estate, especially office space rentals and shopping centers, have had a rough time coming out of Covid. There is a lesson here to be learned. Come aboard and listen to my advice.