After 66 years of living in Baltimore – after 29 consecutive years of serving on community boards and watching the tremendous growth and changes – it is time to say good-bye and thank you. Adriane and I are making aliyah. There is so much to be happy for, yet much to ponder.

As we progress through life, we accumulate many documents – forms, credit card statements, records, reports, legal agreements, authorizations, and more. What do you do with all the papers you receive? Knowing what to do with these papers is essential for maintaining an organized and secure financial life. Some documents should be stored forever in a safe place, with a copy in a different location. Some documents should be kept for a short time, others can be thrown away, and others should be shredded. Here are some practical guidelines tailored for individuals over 50 – but applicable at any age – to help you manage your records effectively.

My brother Aharon Dovid is 16 years younger than I am. He was born when I was in the 11^th grade. When I am with him and some of his students, he likes to introduce me as his younger sister. The students look a little shocked, but it always gets a good laugh.

Aharon Dovid, also known as Rabbi E, is an expert at getting people to laugh and connecting to others. All the things he used to do that annoyed his teachers when he was in school he now uses for his career. To be a kiruv professional, you need those skills. Aharon Dovid works as a kiruv rabbi on the NYU campus, where the students he meets love him and look up to him. I know he is always busy, but I am not sure what he does all day. I thought it would be interesting to hear about his activities, goals, what he considers a success, and whether things have changed since the war in Israel began.

A cold wind is howling outside, and sleet is predicted for tomorrow. The children are home from school and whining that they’re bored. It’s that time of year again – midwinter break! Time to book a flight to Florida.

But wait a minute… who said we can afford that? And who said it’s even a good idea?

If you find yourself the “only” family on the block not departing for fairer climes, don’t be disappointed and don’t despair. Here are some ideas for stay-at-home activities to entertain everyone and bring you closer together as a family.

When Chaya* got back from seminary and started to explore career options, her priorities were that it should be family-friendly, something she enjoys, and that the schooling would not put her heavily in debt. She had worked in office management but wanted something more meaningful. After obtaining a bachelor’s degree, she got a job teaching at Bnos Yisroel’s middle school.

“I decided to teach, having no idea if I would be successful or not,” recalls Chaya. “Teaching was very demanding with a lot of prep work to do at home, but I loved it and found it very fulfilling.”

Bnos Yisroel started raising teachers’ salaries while Chaya was teaching there. She says this made it more feasible for her to teach. But even more importantly, it was a very concrete statement about how the school values their teachers. 

Some years ago, while studying the Rambam’s introductory chapters to the Mishnaic tractate of Avos, I came across a paragraph that has shifted the course of my life. You might also find it interesting.

First, some context: The Rambam was explaining how the complete human being doesn’t renounce earthly pursuits, substituting soul for body, quashing self in favor of G-d. Instead, he uses his mind to manage every aspect of his material life and will, directing them toward wellness and wholeness. He notices the temptations to spin right or left but chooses instead to stick with the straight course.

What is the objective that people seek to achieve when they’re well and whole? Where are we headed in life when not looking only for physical pleasure? Sorry, but we’re not going to get into this yet. The spiritual journey doesn’t begin with metaphysics. It begins with becoming a person.

 ?After observing the reprehensible lack of moral clarity on display when the presidents of three prestigious universities – Harvard, University of Pennsylvania, and MIT – were  recently called to testify before Congress, it is evident that decades of brainwashing by leftist woke radicals has succeeded. The DEI (diversity, equity and inclusion) policies, beloved by woke liberals, which use race and gender as weapons to enforce intellectual conformity, have succeeded in destroying honesty, justice, and morality – so much so that these presidents were simply unable to condemn the antisemitism rampant in their schools. Kudos to Republican Congresswoman Elise Stefanik for exposing the moral turpitude in the leadership of our Ivy League universities.

Right in our own backyard, within a one-hour drive from Pikesville, there are wonderful places to visit, most at no charge.

Historic Jerusalem Mills Village

This Quaker village, dating back to the late 1700s, is one of the oldest and most intact mill villages in the United States, where grain was milled from 1772 until 1961. The village, which sits along the Little Gunpowder Falls in Kingsville, Maryland, is in the process of a total restoration thanks to a volunteer organization, the Friends of Jerusalem Mills. The village consists of a restored grist mill, the miller’s house, a still functioning blacksmith shop, a tenant house, McCourtney’s general store, the Jerusalem mansion, a springhouse, a smokehouse/dairy, and the ruins of a large bank barn. All buildings were constructed in the 1700s and 1800s. Adjacent to the village is the intact Jerusalem covered bridge, one of only six in Maryland. There is a lot of history in the village. During the Revolutionary War, gunstocks for the Maryland Militia were produced in the cooperage located behind the mill, and during the Civil War, Confederate troops conducted a raid at McCourtney’s general store.

Our rabbis ask: “Why does the Torah begin with the letter “beyt”? If I would have asked this question of Mr. Sam Broder, a”h, the husband of Mrs. Leni Broder, a”h, he might have responded with something like: “That’s easy. The Torah begins with the letter “beyt” because the first word is Bereishit.” Or he might have said, “The Torah starts at the beginning, and beginning begins with a “beyt.”

Our rabbis offer a different approach. The Kli Yakar, in his Torah commentary, writes that the Torah begins with a “beyt” because the letter “beyt” is spelled “beyt,” “yud,” “taf,” forming the word bayit, or home. Perhaps what the Kli Yakar is teaching is that if you want to know a person’s Torah, take a look in his or her home.

Rav Tzvi Pesach Frank, zt”l, the posek of his generation, lived almost his entire adult life in Yerushalayim, and passed away before I attended school and certainly before I had ever visited or moved to Israel. So how could I have a story about him?

Rav Moshe Feinstein, zt”l, was the gadol hador in America, and although I had the zechus to meet him on numerous occasions, I did not have any private conversations with him, nor did I observe any specific events that are not known to those who have read the biographies about him. So, how could I have a story about him?

I did have a close relationship with many of Rav Feinstein’s talmidim, however, and through them, I have a myriad of interesting stories and observations. One of these talmidim, Rav Efrayim Greenblatt, gave me the inside scoop on a fascinating piece of history of Jerusalem that includes these great figures.