We, as a community, have suffered our share of tragic overdose deaths, and many community members and their families are suffering the effects of various addictions. But what is addiction? Is it a brain disease? A moral failing? Or something else? And how should it be treated? Is entering an inpatient rehab facility the best way to cure addiction? Is attending 12-step programs the only effective option for those in recovery? Or are there alternative approaches?

After I started reading and listening to experts on YouTube about addiction, I, too, became “hooked” – on learning as much as possible about the subject, that is. So much of what I believed turned out to be not evidence-based science. Even when there is evidence-based data, scientists don’t necessarily agree on what addiction is, interpreting the same information in different ways.

Ruthie and Menachem Schwartz* have five children in day schools and yeshivas who are thriving. An additional child of theirs, Ari, age 16, has not been doing as well. He’s been suffering for the past three years from a form of skin cancer that, after a short remission, has been getting worse. The Schwartzes are beside themselves with worry but don’t know where to turn. Nothing seems to be helping on a long-term basis. They don’t know anyone in the community who has faced this difficult challenge and feel very isolated in their suffering.

Fearing the stigma associated with this serious disease, they have avoided making his condition known, trying to spare their other children the embarrassment of being known as the siblings of a child with this challenge. They are especially concerned that if word gets out, their daughter next in line to marry will be shunned for shidduchim and the younger boys will have problems getting into good yeshivas.

Purim is my favorite holiday. I love hearing the Megillah, with its deep and meaningful lesson that the real King is directing events in the background and nothing happens by chance. Even on the simple level, it’s quite an exciting story! I’m fond of Purim’s unique mitzvos and festive get-togethers. And I marvel at the creative costumes and mishloach manos that people come up with. Or maybe I love Purim simply because I like to laugh (who doesn’t?) and make others laugh too. And there’s a lot of shared laughter come Adar 14.

But there is one aspect of how the holiday has come to be “celebrated” by many that puts a damper on my joy – and not only mine, I’m sure. That is the excessive drinking and drunkenness that many have come to believe is not only permitted but obligatory on Purim. What I am referring to is not the halachically-prescribed drinking leshem Shamayim but the out-of-hand boisterousness that leads to chillul Hashem.

“The clouds moved so quickly that it was like watching a video on fast-forward,” said my cousin Mark Rosenthal about Hurricane Irma. Mark, a dentist in Parkland, Florida, will be making a lot of guacamole in the next week or two. At least 20 avocadoes were blown off his backyard tree, leaving just two hanging on. Fortunately, other than the avocado cascade and a few other unexpected landscaping changes, his house was undamaged.

This was fortunate because his elderly mother and four friends (along with two dogs) weathered the storm with him. Sheltered inside with hurricane shutters blocking any view of the outside, they, like so many others in the area, went without power for several days, and sat in the heat with only candles for light. By the second or third day post-hurricane, the others left for home or places that had air conditioning.

When is a dish is not a dish?

When it is a KLEE, of course!

A KLEE can be anything you have handy – a bowl, tray, platter, or, yes, a dish. (It is the Hebrew word for container, after all.) Or you and your children can make one out of clay or cardboard, even Clicks or Legos. Whatever form your KLEE takes, the point is to keep it on display in your home and fill and refill it with the products of Eretz Yisrael.  

By now, Baltimore’s Persian Jews – with their exotic pink shul on Park Heights Avenue – are a familiar part of the community. Like previous groups – the Russians, the Yekkes, and the Holocaust survivors – who escaped difficult circumstances and made their homes in Baltimore, the Persians add a unique and colorful flavor to our diverse community.

Jews have lived in Persia (modern Iran) since before the time of the Second Temple. Their arrival in Baltimore was a “fluke” (also known as “hashgacha”). That is, it wasn’t exactly planned that way. During the tranquil days of the Shah, Rabbi Naftali Neuberger, zt”l, had initiated a program whereby contingents of college-age men would come to Ner Israel yeshiva on student visas to get rabbinic training. They would then return to Iran, where high-level Jewish education was lacking, to bolster Jewish life. Before the second half of the plan could be implemented, however, the Iranian revolution of 1979 changed everything. Those who were in Baltimore stayed, and many others fled their ancestral home following the violent regime change.