When you plant yummy vegetables in your backyard garden, there are any number of critters and pests that think your plants and vegetables are theirs for the taking. (“Thank you so much for keeping us in mind!”) I often imagine that there’s a Critter’s Craig’s List out there, cataloguing all the best gardens in the neighborhood. If that’s the case, I guess we should be proud that our gardens have made it into the big time!

I recently saw a clever ad, a spoof on a Merriam-Webster dictionary entry defining telehealth:

“The provision of healthcare remotely by means of telecommunications technology. Synonyms: convenient; virtual doctor; accessible care. Antonyms: long waits; copays; deductibles; impossible to do from your La-Z-Boy.”

During these COVID times, a lot of things have changed. We’ve had no choice but to work, learn, and shop from home. That list of home-based activities has also come to include getting medical care. Although telehealth – seeing your doctor on the computer screen – existed before the pandemic, it is now big business. According to GBMC’s Medical Director of Primary Care and Population Health, Dr. Robin Motter-Mast, GBMC’s telehealth project was put into place a year before COVID hit hard and was prepared to help patients. In February, GBMC charted 59 telehealth visits; by May, there were approximately 18,000.

It’s been almost five months, yet the Coronavirus still lurks among us. We’re getting used to living with a low level of anxiety. Will my family be safe and well? Will I have a job next week? We have no way of knowing, no sense of what tomorrow looks like. We all have a litany of negatives, especially masks and social distancing. Somehow, though, as we begin to emerge from certain restrictions, many of us are suddenly realizing the silver linings in the heavy COVID-19 clouds. Here are a few items on a list of lessons learned and aspects to be grateful for during this pandemic. Please share your own list with WWW readers for the next edition.

On Erev Taanis Esther, my husband and I were en route to Eretz Yisrael to our grandson’s bar mitzva. We boarded the plane with very mixed emotions. Not only is Purim time the busiest, most hectic time of the year for my husband’s grocery business (pre-Pesach) but the shadow of COVID was just beginning to have an impact both here and in Eretz Yisrael. For some unfathomable reason, I felt an urgency to get to Eretz Yisrael before Purim that I couldn’t explain, even though the bar mitzva wouldn’t take place until more than a full week later. Our mechutanim, Rabbi and Mrs. Nota and Leah Gelb, would actually be arriving in Israel after Purim, and we could have travelled on the same flight. But, as I said, I refused to change our plans.

According the FBI database, there are over two million first-time gun owners in the U.S. since the COVID pandemic started. This means that over two million people who never thought they would own a gun have had a change of heart and decided that now is the right time to buy one. Why is that? What is the process of obtaining a firearm in Maryland? What are some of the concerns people have about guns? And what is the state of firearms availability today? I hope to answer these questions.

It was almost two years ago that the horrific Pittsburgh synagogue massacre occurred, in October 2018. In 2019, anti-Semitic street crimes escalated in New York, fatal shootings were perpetrated in Poway (San Diego) and Jersey City. And in Monsey, five chasidim at a Chanukah party were hacked with a machete.

Although the COVID-19 crisis has eclipsed every other problem these days, anti-Semitism has not gone away and continues to fester in the background. Anti-Semitic hate crimes are not new. Ever since the FBI first compiled statistics in 1992, America’s Jews have been target number-one of religious-inspired attacks. The recent increasing violence, mayhem, and murder, including from domestic terrorists, signal us that we must escalate our hishtadlus (efforts) to protect ourselves.

To the Shadchan:

 I met a guy, and we’ve been dating for two months. I’m 32, and so is Yehuda. We are both professionals and live in the same community. It sounds perfect, right? However, I am getting cold feet. You see, Yehuda lives with his mother and basically supports her. His father abandoned the family a long time ago, and he is very close to his mother. She has had a very difficult life, and from what I can glean from my conversations with Yehuda, she is a difficult person: a bit controlling and given to anger and yelling. I know she asks him lots of questions about me and our dates, so I guess he discusses everything with her.

Dear Rabbi Hochberg,

I am a mother of eight children. My husband has the privilege of being a mechanech in a yeshiva, and I work half a day to ease the burden of parnassa. We barely make it to the end of the month but, Baruch Hashem, we’re a happy and healthy family. The problem is that there are things we can’t afford, and my eldest son insists he needs them (because that’s what all his friends have). I feel compelled to give in so as not to make him feel deprived, but we can’t manage the expense. I’d like to know how to strike a healthy balance, where on the one hand, he understands that if we can’t afford it, we don’t get it, but on the other hand, he doesn’t feel deprived.

Wondering Mother

While most of our community has been busy reorganizing our lives the last number of months due to COVID-19, Baltimore City and Verizon have been partnering together and posting notices on utility poles and street lamps throughout our residential neighborhoods, giving notice for installation of Verizon’s 5G small cell antennas at those locations.

Rosh Hashanah is coming – it’s hard to believe, I know – and I wish you a happy and healthy year, filled with worthwhile experiences, and good news! We all have a lot on our plates right now, so one way I plan to make Yom Tov easier is to cook and freeze ahead. Here are a few tips about freezing: