The women tentatively walked into the shiva house. It is not easy to pay a shiva call when you know none of the mourners. Some of the women only knew the person for whom the family was mourning by hearsay or had quickly exchanged a few words with her once or twice. Yet, these women came, many of them unable to speak through their tears.

The above scenario occurred over and over during the week of shiva for Rena Baron, a”h. These women participated in Mommy and Me, the free weekly group that Rena organized in late 2022, while taking care of her own family and coping with her diagnosis of Stage 4 cancer.

The creation and execution of Mommy and Me exemplified so much about Rena. After Rena’s shocking diagnosis in the spring of 2021, and after the initial round of surgery and treatment, the Baron/Lapin family had many discussions about what we could do as a zechus for a refuah shleimah. Perhaps a gratitude booklet as being thankful to Hashem was so much a part of Rena’s personality? Perhaps something to do with the bracha of Asher Yatzar as the amazing majesty of one’s body became apparent? One idea after another was suggested, but when her sister Rebecca came up with ideas that would strengthen and honor mothers, everyone realized that was the most appropriate. 

Being single is very painful. In our discussion here, I’m not talking about any individual single. I’m only sharing my thoughts as an individual former single with lots of experience and an evidence-based opinion.

Part of the challenge of being an Older Single is that it makes so many of us feel awkward and uncomfortable because we don’t know what to think, say, or do. It’s kind of like that shiva call – do I talk? What do I say? Maybe I’ll just sit this one out.

I’ve found that singles also hate the awkwardness. They wish they were treated like everyone else. After all, let’s be honest, we all have challenges; some are just more public than others. Singles appreciate constructive assistance, but the hand-wringing and crisis-fying (did I just make that word up?) just isn’t helpful. I hope the discussion below will be. 

We have previously discussed several risks associated with adolescent nicotine vaping and the use of nicotine pouches. These risks include acute and long-term pulmonary and cardiac complications, alteration of healthy neuro-cognitive development, and vulnerability to addiction. Nobody in their right mind would want these problems.

Yet what if there is an upside to teenage vaping?

What I am thinking about is that vaping (or other nicotine use) among teenagers might at times be a primitive way to express feelings of distress. In the old days, we might have called it “a cry for help.”

Rav Chayim Dov Keller and his brother-in-law, Rav Avraham Chayim Levin, zt”l, together started the yeshiva gedola of Telz, Chicago branch, which now is responsible for the education of a grandson of mine and also sports my nephew in its kollel, both of whom are named Nachi Kaganoff, after my father. Rav Keller’s wife was one of the three daughters (and one son, Rav Avraham Chayim) of Rav Eliezer Levin, who had left Lithuania in 1939 to become a rav in Erie, Pennsylvania (very briefly) and then in Detroit for over 50 years, until his passing. The other two daughters were married to Rabbi Yaakov Lipschutz, zt”l, who, in his day, was one of the greatest experts in kashrus, and ybl”c, Rabbi Berel Wein. Rav Levin was probably the last surviving talmid of the Kelm yeshiva. We can hardly even imagine what it was like to have been a true product of what was called the Kelm Talmud Torah.

The U.S. food industry is controlled by 10 companies, all competing for our eyeballs and dollars. Through innovations in food research and technology, these companies have developed ways to prolong shelf life and enhance flavor, resulting in products that taste great but have little, if any, nutritional value, while some may even be harmful to our health. What lies behind the pretty packaging and safe-sounding claims of these processed products? Here is some information I thought you should know that is not included on product labels. 

1) Trans fats, recognized as unsafe in the 1980s and banned by the FDA in 2015, are still lurking in your food even when the packaging says “0 Trans Fats.” That’s because, in the FDA’s dual role to protect both consumer and industry, industry won. Trans fats, created by hydrogenating liquid oil to become solid, preserve the shelf life of foods, an important factor in keeping costs down for the food industry. Through its lobbying efforts, the food industry convinced the FDA to allow .5 grams of trans fats per serving in all processed foods without listing it on the ingredients label. Check out the serving size in your favorite box of crackers that says “0 Trans Fats” and do the math.

Because What Where When is a monthly publication, it is often difficult to write about current events when so many astonishing things are unfolding hour by hour. As I write these words, Israel is bracing for another Iranian attack. No other country, having already been repeatedly attacked, would stand back and await the enemy’s choice of time and place for a follow-up strike. In the Talmud Sanhedrin 72A, we learn, “If someone comes to kill you, rise up and kill him first!” Unfortunately, the rules for Jews and Israel, which are being strictly enforced by the current administration in Washington, require Israel not to respond in an appropriate manner (a massive preemptive strike) since the U.S. woke appeasement policy requires that Israel, and America, must not upset their sworn enemies. Consider that the U.S. possesses the firepower to neutralize Iran. Nevertheless, the Iranian regime openly threatens America, Israel, and the free world. That’s because the Biden administration has demonstrated by its inaction that Iran need not to be concerned that the U.S. will respond decisively. Sadly, America is sorely lacking in leadership and resolve. It is for that reason that Iran has been emboldened.

“You can’t take it with you.” This old adage expresses the thought that, after 120 years, you leave all your worldly possessions behind. I experienced this lesson in a most graphic way, within a family context, 20 years ago. My mother had passed away in 1989, and on the very same date, 4 Sivan, in 2003, my father was niftar. Several months later, my brother, David, my wife, a”h, and I undertook to clear out the family home in Kemp Mill in preparation for its eventual sale.

We planned to dispose of lightweight items, whatever two men could physically handle, through the services provided by Montgomery County Shady Grove Transfer Station. Located in Derwood, Md., near Rockville, this facility offers amenities for both recycling and trash drop-offs. So very early in 2004, David arranged a U-Haul rental, and we got to work. We loaded a vast array of household items, many of 1950s vintage, including chairs, footrests, small tables and bureaus, books, encyclopedias, serving dishes, floor lamps, vacuum cleaners, and so on. We then drove off.

Every reader of the WWW has something to say about school. We have all gone to school and either hated it or loved it. And we send our children to school, where they have the same reactions. As is my custom, whenever I write an article, I ask every person I meet for their thoughts. This time, I asked for advice on how to prepare children for a successful year in school. Everyone had something to say – even the grandmother whose children are grown up, who said, “I have no advice, I am just happy to be finished with all that!”

I’ll be the first to admit that more than a few things frighten me – unleashed dogs, letters from the IRS, taking out my son’s lunch box to pack on Monday morning only to discover the lunch I thought he had eaten on Thursday is still inside.

While everyone is entitled to his or her own individual obsession – such as arachibutyrophobia (the fear of peanut butter getting stuck to the roof of your mouth) or gelotophobia (the fear of laughter) – there is one phobia, called nyctophobia, fear of the dark, that affects almost half American adults today. Triggered by threats that are either real or imagined, it prevents people from going out at night, sometimes just to the car to get a bag they forgot to bring in earlier, and causes panic during power failures.

Written in December, 1991

The story of Rabbi Akiva and his wife Rachel has not only served to inspire other couples to sacrifice on behalf of Torah but has also remained a gripping human drama, inspiring authors and novelists down to our own day. Our past, however, contains many other fascinating true tales of famous couples whose stories are less well known. Here is one:

Rabbi Yehudah Loew ben Bezalel, who became known all over the world as the Maharal, was born in Posen (Poland) in