The incidence of prediabetes is rising. Approximately one third of the people in the United States have prediabetes, 80% of whom do not even know they have the condition. It is important to treat prediabetes because, in addition to being a risk factor in developing type 2 diabetes, prediabetes is a severe metabolic condition that affects the heart, kidney, and liver.

What Is Prediabetes?

Prediabetes is diagnosed when one has a higher-than-normal blood sugar level but not high enough to be in the diabetic range. (In prediabetes, the hemoglobin A1C (HbA1C), the three-month average blood sugar, is between 5.7% and 6.4%. Diabetes is diagnosed when patients have a HbA1C of 6.5 or greater at two different times.)

Our body uses glucose, a simple sugar that comes from the food we eat, as its primary fuel source. Insulin, produced by the pancreas in response to food intake, drives glucose into the cells, where it is burned to create energy. When someone has prediabetes, the process does not work well. The cells do not respond properly to insulin, and instead of glucose entering the cells, a significant amount builds up in the blood stream. This happens either because the cells are resistant to insulin or the pancreas does not make enough insulin. The more common case is the first scenario.

If you ask a teenager in Baltimore what she did this week, you’ll probably hear a pretty typical answer: school, homework, tests, friends, not enough sleep. The usual. Because the truth is, we’re busy. As teenagers, we are wrapped up in our own lives, juggling school, social lives, responsibilities, and everything in between. Most of the time, it feels like we barely have time to keep up with our own schedules, and yet, somehow, in our community, that’s not the whole story.

If you ask a teenager in Baltimore what she did to help someone this week, suddenly the answer shifts: “I dropped off food,” “I visited someone in the hospital,” “I spent time with an elderly lady,” or “I learned the parsha with a child who goes to public school.” These are small answers. Casual. Almost as though they don’t mean so much, but that is exactly what makes them so powerful.

I remember back when cassette tapes were something everybody knew about. Our glove compartment was full of all the latest tunes, and my children sang Uncle Moishy songs so much that I can still sing them to this very day.

It was in those long-ago days that I discovered Rav Avigdor Miller, zt”l. What a treasure trove of wisdom there was to be found in what he taught. I borrowed his tapes from the little kollel in Pittsburgh, in the neighborhood called Squirrel Hill, and if I think about it, I can still hear his voice in my head. It was through Rav Avigdor that I first learned about how to appreciate an apple, among other things. His style was easy to understand, and he helped me to see Hashem in my everyday life.

Over the years, I learned to feel gratitude for what I’ve been given. A bright sunny day, another healthy year, kein ayin hora, or the joys of being a grandmother helped tune me in to Who gave me these gifts. I have Rav Avigdor to thank for setting me on this path.

The awareness that Rav Avigdor taught me paired nicely with my early awareness of nature. I learned in my younger years to stop and take notice of the subtleties of springtime. I enjoyed seeing the bare branches of the trees start to bud in the early spring and made sure to watch each new day as those buds turned into blossoms and then into tiny green leaves. Seeing was believing, and I didn’t need any convincing as to Who had planned it all.

I learned to see the world as a symphony with its Master Conductor. I understood and appreciated Who caused the rains to fall, the winds to blow, and the sun to shine. Joys as well as sorrows were tailor-made and planned to perfection.

As a frum society, we are excellent at self-flagellation. At the drop of a magazine, we can muster up long lists of all the problems in our communities. But sometimes I wonder if we know how to appreciate what we do have. Are we aware, for example, that as we speak, Western society is grappling with a serious masculinity crisis?

The New York Times, in a recent article titled “It’s Not Just a Feeling,” assures us that this is not just hype. The actual data on the ground shows how dramatically boys and young men are falling behind. For example, only 41% of college degrees now go to men. Atlantic magazine has dubbed this “the new marriage of unequals,” as more-educated women marry less-educated men. Men in the workforce are in decline – in fact, one in ten men aged 20 to 24 is doing neither school nor work. Mental health crises among young men are climbing, as is addiction and suicide – at four times the rate of young women.

And all this is just the backdrop to the most tragic part – the way this crisis is affecting family life. A whopping two-thirds of American children are born to single mothers, even as research shows that the single most important marker for success in life is being raised by two parents. As one commentator put it, women are advancing in every area – while men are becoming really excellent at video games.

Taken together, it’s clear that referring to this as a “crisis of masculinity” is not hyperbole. In fact, it might be an understatement.

If one baby is adorable, three are even better. There is something magical about triplets that makes everyone turn their heads as they pass on the street. How delightful it is to see them together, bringing smiles to the faces of all those around them. We smile, and we go on with our day. But what about the mothers of those triplets? How do they keep smiles on their faces, and how in the world do they go on with their day? Let’s look at what a few mothers of triplets have to say about the experience.

Surprise!

When Naomi Grossman* found out that she was expecting triplets, she was quite surprised. She had a one-year-old at home and never expected him to be followed so soon by three little siblings! She notes, however, that it was not a foreign concept to her, as in the year prior to her triplets’ birth, she knew of a few families who had triplets. That knowledge helped with the initial shock, making triplets seem like a somewhat normal, doable thing. 

When Zehava Wasserman discovered her upcoming triple blessing, she was both relieved and apprehensive. She had waited five years after her marriage to be blessed with children, so the news was very exciting. 

Faigy Shpitz, however, had a very different reaction upon being informed that she was carrying three. Faigy’s sister, an ultrasound technician, was the first one to reveal the triplets. When her sister informed her, Faigy said she “just cried from fear.” Her sister, meanwhile, was very excited and ran to tell Faigy’s husband. Faigy says, “My husband just smiled. He’s a very calm, chilled, controlled person, which really helped.” 

When the Gold* family moved to Baltimore, they knew they didn’t have to worry about their welcome. Of course, their new neighbors would share their flour, eggs, and simchas. They would take in the mail for the ones who went away and babysit for each other’s children. And certainly, when a new neighbor moved in, they would bring over cookies and say hello. People, especially in the Baltimore community, go the extra mile to make sure everyone feels welcome. Being sensitive to others beyond regular friendliness is a level up that we can all achieve. It is a middah that takes effort to develop but is so important to acquire.

Don’t Wait… Anticipate

One of the most important and challenging mitzvos is kibbud av v’eim – honoring parents. The prime examples provided by Chazal (Kiddushin 31b) of honoring parents are feeding, dressing, and transporting them. Although under normal circumstances the need for this is limited, this mitzva comes to the fore with elderly parents who are no longer able to care for their own needs. It can be tremendously taxing for the children to take care of elderly parents. On the physical level, being on call to assist with daily functions can become very time consuming and involve great physical strain. On the emotional level, it can be very difficult to see one’s parents age and decline; a feeling that is exacerbated when needing to help them with basic life functions.

Of course, we all understand that there is a mitzva in the Torah to assist our parents even when it is very difficult. We also understand that we have a basic responsibility to show hakaras hatov (gratitude) to our parents for bringing us into the world and for raising us. This sense of gratitude behooves us to take care of them as they age.

One of the most pressing issues of our day in yeshivishe circles is the shidduch plight. In this essay, I would like to offer a multi-pronged approach to cutting it down to size. In broad terms, the issue at its core lies in the difficulty in arranging a shidduch, which, in turn, derives from two factors. One is the imbalance in the number of girls and boys entering the parsha each year. The other is the yawning and ever-growing gap between the ever-increasing population of the Torah world and the availability of shadchanim.

Guidance of our Gedolim

Around 2023, an audacious initiative was undertaken by numerous rabbanim, spearheaded by Rav Moshe Hillel Hirsch, shlit”a. They issued a call for girls returning from seminary to delay dating for one year, while boys should begin dating, wherever possible, one year earlier. However you do the math, this would, over time, dramatically reduce the disproportion between boys and girls entering the shidduch market while also achieving greater age parity in dating. This plan offers much-needed relief for girls.

Let us pray that singles and their parents heed this directive. Time will tell.

When we daven Nesana Tokef each Yom Kippur, we recite, “Mi yichyei u’mi yamus – who will live and who will die.” We do not know what the judgment will be, and we pray for a year of life and health. But other than davening to Hashem, what else can we do?

Over the last 40 years, the Baltimore community has helped many widows, divorced woman and their children, 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 tzedakahs like Sister to Sister ( helping divorced woman only), Avigdor’s Helping Hand, a New York-based tzedakah organization, and our local Ahavas Yisrael Charity Fund have provided tzedakah 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 nor 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.

All insurances are important: health, disability, homeowners, car liability, life insurance, and long-term care. Let’s take a look at life insurance. I have purchased and studied many policies over many years. I also administer the Finkel Family Mechanchim Baltimore Insurance Fund, which provides term life insurance to over 170 limudei kodesh rebbes, teachers, and administrators of the schools Mr. Finkel chose. This fund was started by philanthropist Sidney Finkel, z”l, of Baltimore with the counsel of Rabbi Herman Neuberger, zt”l. Mr. Finkel handed me a check for one million dollars to endow this project. How very important and wonderful such a project is. But even with this program in place, mechanchim still need to purchase more term insurance to properly insure their mishpachos.

As I wrote last year, Pesach is very different here in Israel. The war brought us many challenges, and I will try and give you my perspective from the ground. During the early days of the war, no one was allowed outside due to the constant flow of missiles from Iran. In conjunction with the Chief Rabbinate of Israel, there were no minyanim allowed due to pikuach nefesh. Shuls were shuttered, and any other sort of gatherings were not allowed. After about seven to ten days, Home Front command allowed gatherings of 50 people, so neighborhoods such as ours had a minyan in an underground parking garage, in our case because of its proximity to a shelter. 

Originally, my wife and I were planning on visiting my mother in Baltimore in early March on the way to our grandson’s bar-mitzva in New Jersey a couple weeks later. We were hoping to spend time with our children in the States as well as with my siblings and friends, whom we miss very much. But Hashem had other plans. Our flight to America was cancelled on numerous occasions, and by the time we got a flight to leave 10 days later, our travel became extremely problematic. One of the personal casualties of this war was both of us having to watch our grandson’s bar mitzva siyum via Zoom.

Once shuls were allowed to re-open for the chag, we were limited to 50 people davening in the shul’s shelter. Friday, April 10^th, was the first day since late February that we were able to have a minyan with full participation in shul. During the restricted days, minyanim were done on a first-come-first-served basis sign-up sheet. My wife, feeling she did not have an obligation to daven with a minyan – even though she does so every week – felt that signing up was not appropriate if it took away space from someone who was obligated to daven. She settled for Yizkor at home.