The Wrapunzelution has officially begun! Walking around Park Heighhts on Shabbos, the streets are dotted with colors that we are often only treated to in a bouquet of flowers. It’s not everyone yet, but it’s everywhere.

Every day as Andrea and I pack and fold Tichels, answer emails, make plans to do Wrapunzel shows around the US we wonder out loud what is this? What shift is happening that is making people open to challenge the stauts quo in head coverings?

The true answer, like anything Divine remains a mystery, but we’re seeing some things that may surprise you and help us to understand the depth of what’s going on.

Someone stopped me at the Goldberger wedding – which was very beautiful by the way – and asked me about a tofu recipe. So, I thought, why not include in my next column a few dishes using this versatile high-protein food that can be meat, dairy, or pareve, depending on the other ingredients you use. Many of the following recipes are quite appropriate for Shavuos, which is rapidly approaching. Good Yom Tov and good eating!

Dear Mr. Weisbord,

Pesach is over, and our daughter will soon be coming home from seminary in Eretz Yisrael. But instead of being happy, I am upset and worried. We visited her this past winter and found a different girl than the one we sent off. And according to our phone conversations, it has only gotten worse.

We are a middle-of-the-road frum family – not especially modern nor extremely chareidi, either. We fit in well in Baltimore. Both my husband and I have college degrees and work as professionals. This is our oldest daughter; she is extremely bright and talented, b”H. During her last year in high school, after discussing it with a relative, she decided to become a physician’s assistant, because she thought it would afford her opportunities for full- or part-time work with a good income.

It’s almost Shavuos, and you’re thinking, here comes yet another article about dairy, with the requisite cheesecake recipes. Well, yes and no. I am indeed writing about dairy, and there will in fact be some cheesecake recipes – but with a twist. The focus will be on a dairy food that is most likely not at the top of everyone’s ingredient list for this holiday: yogurt

We hold Eretz Yisrael in our hearts as our own special place – our home, even when we don’t reside there. We visit, if we can, to soak up the atmosphere of kedusha (holiness), and some of us actually transfer our selves and our belongings – to live there in reality and not just in our dreams.

One thing that everyone can agree on is that Eretz Yisrael is nothing like our sedate Baltimore. From the blazing sunlight to the passionate people, from the politics to the religion, things are more intense. Everything matters, and everyone cares. Besides being a land steeped in kedusha – perhaps because of it – Eretz Yisrael is embroiled in conflict. Ancient and modern, holy and mundane, beautiful and repulsive, great love and poisonous hatred – they all travel the same buses.

I am seriously dating a girl whom I like very much. She is kind and sweet, with excellent qualities of character. We have many common interests and enjoy each other’s company. There is just one problem. I have come to know her family these few months we have been dating, and have enjoyed spending time with them on Shabbos and at various family events. However, I have noticed that her numerous married sisters share one particular characteristic: None of them likes her in-laws. Many times, I have heard the sisters’ husbands say something like, “Let’s go to my parents,” and his wife says, “I don’t want to do that.” The sisters don’t seem to like to spend time with anyone but their own family. Their husbands have to work very hard to get them to go to theirs.

It’s said that in Jerusalem if one walks ten feet in any direction he’ll end up at an archeological site. At the Temple Mount, however, we know he doesn’t have to move an inch. The ground there is saturated with history; it’s the archeological jackpot. The mother of them all.
Now comes author Ruchama King Feuerman to mine the Mount for all its dramatic potential in her new novel In the Courtyard of the Kabbalist. In September 2013 her book hit the internet and Amazon.com with a lot of noise – so much so that last month the book went to hardcopy-paperback. And testifying to Ms. Feuerman’s mastery of her craft, The Wall Street Journal’s book reviewer describes the In the Courtyard as “engaging… brilliant…a manifestly terrific novel...”; the best novel he’s read “in ages.” Recently the book was named as a finalist for the National Jewish Book Award – highly unusual for a book with an authentic Orthodox viewpoint.

“Frankly, I’ve had it with swimming lessons,” an acquaintance of mine recently confessed. As a swim instructor, my interest was piqued by the frustration inherent in her proclamation. I requested that she elaborate, which she was happy to do.

“Last summer, I enrolled my children in swimming lessons, paid a hefty sum of money, and got myself into a carpool that wreaked havoc with my family’s schedule at the most inconvenient time of day. I’m not really sure my children made much progress; even if they had, it wouldn’t have justified the financial outlay, the elevated stress level, and the drain on my energy. The summer leaves me feeling frazzled enough without extra pressure! Maybe I’m a terrible mother, but I’m just not doing swimming lessons again this year,” she concluded with a sigh.

I stumbled on the idea for this article while talking to a shadchan about a young man. The first question the shadchan asked me was, “Is he modern?” I was taken aback, because although I had described this young man in some detail, I had never thought to give him a label. Was he modern? Did modern mean a certain hashkafa and approach to Judaism? Or did it mean lackadaisical observance? I really did not know how to answer the shadchan, which is what brought me to explore the whole topic.