Chol Hamoed Pesach. My wife and I joined Shmuel Chaim Naiman for a foraging walk in the hills outside of Ramat Beit Shemesh. He is the son of Rabbi Abba Zvi and Mrs. Rochel Naiman of Baltimore. Rabbi Abba Zvi was my classmate in TA since second grade.

Walking the paths through the fields, we learned about wild oats, carrots, figs, and other plants. We learned about spiritually connecting to the physicality of Eretz Yisrael. Around our group of Anglos, we saw Israeli families, some of them very chareidi, also trekking in the hills. Is there a better way to spend Chol Hamoed?

The finale of the tour was the story of David and Goliath, who fought it out in the Elah Valley below us. Also visible dotting the surrounding hills were rising apartment complexes. Here was Israel – history, nature, and rebirth – all in one foraging walk.

Everyone who has children worries about chinuch (education). From the time a baby is born – and does nothing but sleep, eat, and cry – parents worry: Will the baby become spoiled if I pick him up the minute he cries? If I let her cry, am I teaching her that I don’t care? As the child grows older, the dilemmas just multiply, and of course, when he or she goes to school, chinuch becomes the teacher’s problem, too.

Are the children of our generation different from children 50 years ago? Probably. Each generation of children is affected by the surrounding society – as are parents and teachers. While we like to imagine that they used to just “know” how raise and educate children, whereas we have lost our way, maybe we are idealizing the past, and our confusion stems from today’s different social realities. Or maybe we are merely more aware of the complexity of the task. To get some insight on this very important topic, I surveyed parents, teachers, administrators, authors, and parenting instructors.

Today’s Children

Not surprisingly, people love their pet dogs. It is estimated that about 50 percent of U.S. households own at least one dog, accounting for a pet dog in 60- to 65-million households.  During the Covid pandemic, with people spending more time at home, about 3.1 million pet dogs were added to American homes.

Walking is the most common form of physical activity among adults in the U.S., and walking a pet dog is a great way to get the recommended 30 minutes of daily exercise. But there are hazards. In just the past few months, several of my friends had falls while walking their dogs, resulting in fractures of a wrist, a finger, a hip, a humerus, and an ankle. One walker’s fall resulted in a subdural hematoma. All but one of the injuries occurred in women. This is not surprising as women are more likely than men to walk a pet dog and may be at increased fracture risk because of underlying osteoporosis.

Risk of injury while dog walking is common and on the rise. Researchers at the University of Pennsylvania analyzed statistics from the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission and found that from 2004 to 2017, the number of hospital emergency room visits involving bone fractures in older adults who had been walking leashed dogs more than doubled. The increase was attributed to two factors: a rise in pet ownership and increased emphasis on physical activity among older people.

“Stop being a yenta!” my mother would exclaim when I’d try to listen in on her phone calls. There was no social media in the 90s, so my mother’s only mode of communication was to talk on the phone for hours – to her mother, a”h, her friends, our neighbors.

It’s not that I wanted to know the gossip on the other line for any nefarious reasons – I simply craved information about other peoples’ lives. It helped orient me in a big, confusing world of social norms and expectations.

My brain has always been a little bit different. I get hyper-focused on certain special interests, remember minute details of certain events, but can’t ever remember where I left my keys. As a young person, I struggled to figure out friendships as relationships became more about common interests and less about proximity. Being a “yenta” helped me study people’s lives and get a better picture of how the world works. What my mom meant by “stop being a yenta” was stop being so nosy; no one likes a gossip. As I grew up and learned how to navigate often painful and confusing social situations through the varied relationships of adolescence, I realized that my yenta tendencies had less to do with gossip and more to do with understanding the people, their problems, and the world around me.

Retired professional basketball player Tamir Goodman hasn’t taken a break since hanging up his professional basketball uniform. We spoke with the “Jewish Jordan” during his recent visit to Baltimore about his upbringing here, making a kiddush Hashem, and how he has been helping kids affected by the Gaza war both on and off the court. Tamir is also raising a family, running a tech startup, and using his public persona to publicize the name of Hashem each day.

 Chaim Yehuda Meyer: You’ve said that in order to reach the highest level of anything you really have to love it. Did your Talmudical Academy education help engender your love of Torah and mitzvos?

 Tamir Goodman: My yeshiva education at TA was very helpful in that I had great rabbis and educators, especially Coach Harold Katz, who has coached me since the age of seven. Today, 35 years later, I still consider him a mentor, friend, and coach. Coach Katz has had a tremendously positive impact on my life as well as that of other athletes who have played under him. I am still close with some of these players today.

Last month, I presented my questions and anxiety about my pending retirement, and I introduced the idea of an interactive retirement column. I asked readers to respond with their stories, questions, and ideas, and I thank all those who submitted responses. It is heartening to know that I am not alone and that many of you have been pondering the same questions. Although the letters below do not solve all my quandaries, I know that some Where What When readers will truly benefit from these thoughtful and admirable people.

I have broken the responses into topics for easier perusing.

Request for Help

Dear Rochelle,

When I retired, I became a ride coordinator and driver for Bikur Cholim. I met a lot of people and felt like I was doing something important. After Covid, I became the person running the entire program. I enjoy helping people, but as my driver pool dwindles, I am short on drivers. Now the job is difficult because I have to tell many people who need help that I can’t help them. It would be very beneficial to recruit new drivers. New retirees are perfect for this job. It is as easy as giving one hour a week, if possible. I’d be happy to have people sign up, even if they can only do one ride a month. I have drivers who have told me they have met so many nice people. If you can help, please call me at 443-474-0093.

Bonnie Horowitz

Today, I interviewed Ruchi Tenenbaum.

What year did you graduate Bais Yaakov Baltimore, and what seminary did you go to? 

I graduated high school in 2008 and then went to Ateres for half a year. While there, I

made many good friends with whom I am still in touch. 

“It’s an exciting time in federal politics,” says Rabbi Ariel Sadwin, Executive Director of Agudath Israel of Maryland. That is because the President of the United States and the U.S. Congress are considering tuition assistance for private education. A historic $5 billion dollar scholarship tax credit proposal is part of a reconciliation budget package – also known as the “one big beautiful bill” – that has been making its way, first through the House of Representatives and then the Senate for approval. (It passed the House as I submitted this article!) The excitement began in September 2024, when members of the Ways and Means Committee passed the Educational Choice for Children Act (ECCA) with a vote of 23 to16. It has passed before, but this time, Republicans are the majority in Congress, and they are supporting President Donald Trump’s agenda for “universal school choice.”

Dear Rabbi Beren,

Last summer, I worked at a camp. My seven-year-old sister was in my bunk, and there was one child in the bunk who seemed to have it in for her. She constantly made fun of my sister and got the other girls to join her and not allow my sister to play with them. She made my sister cry, and every morning my sister would say she didn’t want to come to camp. This bully made me very angry. I yelled at her a lot and didn’t treat her nicely. I’ll be working in the same camp this summer. My sister will not be in my bunk this time, but what if there’s another bully? When I mentioned it to the camp director, she just said, “Oh, kids are kids,” so please don’t tell me to go to the head of the camp. I feel bad that I didn’t know how to handle this situation. Do you have any advice?

Malki

“It is difficult to describe the impact that Mrs. Vim had on the Middle School and our students,” said Rabbi Frohlich, Principal of the Middle School. “Whether it was teaching Chumash or Ivrit, she was a teacher’s teacher. Mrs. Vim created our Ivrit curriculum from scratch, using her creative genius to design interactive and exciting games that brought Ivrit to life for the girls.”

One vivid example: You could walk into her classroom and see a student standing at the front wearing a headband with a Hebrew word attached – visible to her peers but not to herself. She would speak only in Hebrew, asking her classmates questions and using their answers as clues until she guessed the word (a variation of the game Headbands).

Mrs. Vim infused every lesson with energy and excitement, making it truly memorable. After her petirah, students shared how, even years later, they still find themselves singing her original songs during davening. One eighth-grade student remarked, “The learning I did with Mrs. Vim actually became part of me.”

Mrs. Vim constantly thought outside the box to engage every single student. Whether it was challenging a student to an arm wrestle or throwing a class party for a student who took the initiative to speak in Hebrew, every student mattered to her. As she once told Rabbi Frohlich, “There is no such thing as a ‘problem student.’ I want those students in my class.”

She taught her students that “I can’t” didn’t exist. She held high expectations because she believed deeply in their potential. Her unwavering belief in her students inspired them to believe in themselves. This message was at the core of her teaching and how she lived her life.

by her Children

The gemara relates that when Reb Shimon Bar Yochai hid in the cave from the Romans, he learned Torah for 12 years straight, uninterrupted. And when he emerged, everything physical he encountered was burned by the intensity of his spirituality. It took another year of Torah study for his outlook to shift. Upon exiting the cave again, Rashbi encountered a simple Jew preparing for Shabbos and was moved by the man’s sincere devotion. At that moment, a heavenly voice declared that he need not return to the cave.

This gemara offers a powerful lesson about perspective. While lofty spiritual pursuits are admirable, an even higher level is recognizing the holiness in the mundane, the beauty in each individual and the value in every moment. True spirituality exists not only in seclusion but in interaction, empathy, and appreciation for the simple and the real.

This message deeply reflects the way our beloved mother, Rochel Vim, a”h, chose to live her life. She was relatable, warm, witty – and at the same time, profoundly deep, reflective, and growth-oriented. Her greatness lay not in big actions but in the way she found value and purpose in everyday life.