This Tuesday is the Ninth of the month of Av, in Hebrew called Tisha B'Av. I always have trouble calling it a holiday per se, because in my mind, the word 'holiday' evokes a sense of joy and celebration. Tisha B'Av is neither of these things. It is a fast day - a day of mourning and remembrance.

I find that happy holidays are much easier to explain to children and certainly much easier to get them involved with days of celebration. Those holidays tend to have family centered or family friendly rituals, foods and customs. Also, they often are marking an interesting point in our people's history - for example, Passover marks the... more

A TIME of North Jersey presents Rochi Lerner, who will lead a lecture/discussion group for couples dealing with infertility on "Keeping the faith: Maintaining faith in Hashem in challenging times", this Wednesday, June 6, at 8:00 p.m. at Maayanot in Teaneck. For more information: nj@atime.org or 201-645- 1622. Couples experiencing infertility are extremely isolated in our communities that are so focused on children. A TIME of North Jersey's events provide them the rare opportunity to get out and meet with people who can relate to them and gain strength from our speakers. Even if... more

Shavuot - translated as "The Feast of Weeks" and known in Christian circles as Pentecost, is one of my favorite holidays. Shavuot, which occurs this year on May 23rd and 24th (starting at night on the 22nd), is the holiday when we celebrate the receiving of the Torah. The day to celebrate the holiday is not specifically mentioned in the Torah, rather it says that we count seven weeks - forty nine days (the omer) from the second day of Passover. The fiftieth day - the culmination of the counting - is Shavuot, hence the name.

A great thing to do with your family before a holiday is study about it's meanings and customs. Many people have the tradition of having different members of their... more

There has been good talk on many adoption blogs lately about Mother's Day - who is it really for? What about Birthmother's Day?

In my family, Mother's Day has always been a day for giving my mother a card and small gift. People ask me if we - as orthodox Jews - celebrate Mother's Day because it's not a Jewish holiday. While Mother's Day has no Jewish origin, it is also a secular holiday with secular founding - unlike Halloween or Valentines Day, which are mostly secular now but come from religious origins. Mother's Day is a great time to make money if you are in the flowers, chocolate or card business. We don't "celebrate" Mother's Day with a mandatory dinner or formal exchange of... more

Happy Passover, Joyous Easter and Happy Sunday to all.

We are busy chopping onions, mashing potatoes and running to the supermarket for more butter. I wanted to go out to look around for a new dryer (alas, ours is dying) but basically everything is closed. The kids are going slightly stir crazy as it is actually snowing outside, but I plan on getting everyone out of the house to synagogue tomorrow. Enjoy ther rest of Passover - I'll catch up with all on the other side of the holiday!

Something that I have overlooked talking about is the fact that the Passover story is perhaps one of the earliest records of an adoption taking place. Moses, as an infant, was placed in the Nile River in a basket (because Pharoh had decreed that all male infants should be killed, Moses' mother was trying to save him) and he was retrieved by the daughter of Pharoh himself and raised in his household. The name Moses, as the Bible states, comes from "because I drew him out of the waters." Although one could say that there is an earlier adoption story in the Bible with Abraham and Lot, I think that was more of a case of Lot being taken under Abraham's wing and helped out in life. Besides, Lot... more

Okay - here we are in the final stretch. I think it's hard to imagine what prepping for Passover is unless you have experienced it. There's the full house spring cleaning, turning your kitchen inside out, purchasing large quantities of food, cooking, more cooking and getting ready for the seders.

But there's still time! Passover begins Monday evening, so there is still a bit of time to do some last minute crafts. Here's Naomi's top 5 list of things you can still do (with or without kids) before lighting candles for Passover.

1. Make a matzah cover. We always seem to run short of these at our seder. An 18 inch-ish square of light colored material from a craft store will do... more

How does it work? I'm still stuck on figuring out how Anna will relate to her older relatives, her religious heritage, etc. both adopted and biological. When we thank G-d in a few days for taking us out of Egypt, will she too feel that she can in some way connect to the story, even though she wasn't born Jewish? Or will she feel a disconnect, finding it easier to relate to being African American. When I tell her stories about my grandparents and great-grandparents - the stories that my mother told me before bed - will Anna really and truly feel that they too are her relatives? Or will she always look at them as mine?

I think that having Anna involved in the preparations for the holiday... more

When I was little, I marked the passing of time with the coming and going of Jewish and secular holidays on the calendar. Chanukkah was exciting, full of goodies to eat and little presents, and also meant that Spring was just around the corner. New Year's eve was a special treat to stay up way, way past bedtime and drink champagne with my parents at midnight. July 4th brought a huge family bar-b-que at my parent's house, but also a sad reminder that we'd be going shopping for school supplies soon.

In general, I dislike shopping for clothing and clothing related items. However, shopping for new shoes for two of the holidays was always something to look forward to. We got black or dark... more

We are blessed to live in a diverse neighborhood with a large Jewish population. Once, while in the local kosher supermarket, Anna picked up a bag of potato chips or something and asked if it was kosher. She was amazed to learn that everything in the store was kosher. But this is how she is growing up; any time we are food shopping, Anna knows that she needs to check to all items to see if they are kosher.

Although a good number of Jews keep kosher year round, you will find many more who make a special effort to be "kosher for Passover" even if they do not observe the laws at other times. My... more