This year more than in any year prior, Rosh Hashana is upon us and I feel unprepared to show up with the proper mindset for this holy day. With the first night of Rosh Hashana falling out on Labor Day this year, I find my thoughts are still in summer / getting-the-kids-ready-for-school-mode, while my inner me is struggling to focus on and connect with the real themes of our New Ye

?During my tenure as a congregational rabbi in South Africa I had the privilege of meeting many lovely Jews of varying levels of knowledge and observance. To address the needs of the greater community, my shul established a three-tier learning program for beginners, intermediate, and advanced students. Our local kollel (comprised of Anglo-Israelis on two-year rotations), which at the time met in my shul, serviced the intermediate and advanced students with input from myself and my rabbinic colleagues. Personally, I most enjoyed teaching the beginners. These were dedicated, mostly middle-aged individuals who never had an opportunity to properly study the basics of Judaism. While I worked to inspire them, they consistently inspired me!

Tamar Schulman first heard about vaping from her children when they were in middle school. “I found out that kids were vaping in the school bathroom or behind the school building,” says Tamar. “I didn’t know anything about it; I had to go online and research what vaping is.”

Since then, she was told by a frum therapist, “Mrs. Schulman, I am telling you, vaping is happening in every school in Baltimore. It doesn’t matter how big or small the school is. Don’t kid yourself!”

It has been an unreal year-and-a-half since our last trip to Eretz Yisrael. COVID ramifications took many forms for all of us, and no one was left untouched. Baruch Hashem, we felt very blessed. We were well, and family members who had gotten COVID, were also doing well, for the most part.

During these hot summer days, I visited three cemeteries in just a week’s time. First, my wife and I went to the cemetery in Woodbridge New Jersey, where her parents are buried, as we commemorated her mother’s yahrzeit. My mother-in-law was a Trenk, and the Trenk family plot is a very chashuv (prestigious) place. The Trenk patriarchs, Morris and Shea, brothers who ran the Morris Trenk Hosiery and Underwear store on Orchard Street on the Lower East Side, are buried there. There also lie my in-laws (Morris’s daughter and husband), very special people; their cousins, the Schechters of Pioneer Country Club and the Granit Pesach hotel fame; and Reb Dovid Trenk, possibly one of the greatest mechanchim (educators) of this century; as well as his brother and other wonderful cousins.

Klal Yisrael lost a very special and beloved individual just a few weeks ago, on the 25^th of Tammuz: Rabbi David Sykes, Rav Dovid Kalman ben Moshe Yehudah.

Rabbi Sykes grew up in the city of Baltimore, where he absorbed the great love for Torah and learning that surrounded him. He grew up in a traditional home, steeped in Jewish scholarship, kindness and concern for others, and pride in Jewish identity. He had the good fortune of being taught by R’ Meir Steinharter, as he prepared for his bar mitzva. A deep bond was forged, and he was drawn like a magnet to R’ Steinharter’s tremendous love of Torah and chesed.

I thought that, in this issue, rather than answer a question, I would tell you about an exciting initiative in the shidduch world with a catchy name. Perhaps you have heard of it. Nix the Pix is the brainchild (or should I say “heartchild”) of well-known shadchan, Lisa Elefant from New York, who also spearheads the “Adopt the Shadchan” shidduch organization.

Summer is coming to a close (how quickly the seasons change), and children will soon don their backpacks, filled with pristine notebooks and newly sharpened pencils, and head out the door. What are their thoughts and hopes – and what are those of their parents and teachers? If last year was a successful one, they anticipate more happy times. If last year was a disaster, they hope this year will be better. But all of them, all of us – parents, teachers, and kids – wonder what they can do to make this upcoming year a great one. Here are some insights and ideas from children, teachers, parents.

Summer is winding down, and vacation season is coming to a close. Taking a cue from the classic first-day-of-school essay that teachers tell children to write, I will ask, what did your family do this summer and, more importantly, was it a vacation for you?

“The kids had a great time, but it wasn’t a vacation for me,” said Yehuda, a father of seven after a family trip. When asked what would be a vacation for him, he said, “A vacation for me includes my own bed, food that I like, and cool air-conditioning. Obviously, to Yehuda, a real vacation is spent in his bedroom!

Taking a cue from the favorite Rosh Hashanah song of both little kids and their teachers, I have put together some apple-and-honey recipes that will make a big hit with the family.