4 Tips on How to be a Good Traveler 

16. March 2022 Other 0
To get the most out of any experience and really enjoy your adventure, you need to remember a few rules of traveling. To begin, remember you are a traveler, a tourist. Why is this important to keep in mind? Acknowledge that you are not in your home court.  And that’s good! The local culture, the ...

4 Ways to Spice Up Your Matzah

I want you to think back to your first bite of matzah. If you can’t do that, then at least try to think back to your first bite of matzah of a certain Pesach, or even last Pesach. How did it taste? Pretty boring, right? Remember, the first bite of matzah is at the seder. ...

Have Sukkah, Will Travel!

19. June 2019 Other 0
Hello dear readers, If you’ve read this blog before, you’ll know that I love to travel. Sometimes I will travel for work, and sometimes just for fun, but either way I’ve always found it important to have a small travel suitcase ready to go. Inside I have the essentials packed: clothes for three days, three ...

A Taste of Sukkot

29. May 2019 Other 0
Hello dear readers, Sukkot is always such a joyous holiday; it’s even right there in one of its alternate names, zman simchatenu, the time of our happiness. But am I the only one that sometimes gets another feeling lurking below the surface? A kind of holiday exhaustion, after two days of Rosh Hashana and Shabbat ...

Nirtzah, Part III: Chad Gadya

Hello dear readers, I’ve been writing about my favorite part of the seder; that relaxed, low-key part of the seder where we’re three cups of wine in and we’re staring down the fourth, where the reading is long, but the finishing songs are show-stoppers. That’s right, we’re talking about hallel and nirtzah, also known as ...

Tips for a Pesach Vacation

Hello dear readers, So you’ve decided to book a kosher pesach vacation. Congratulations! Much like the ancient Israelites, you’ve made the wise and courageous decision to leave home and take your family to leave the mundane world behind! (At least for a week or two). Whether it’s to Florida, Arizona, Italy or somewhere else (thanks ...

Little Jerusalem In Tuscany (Pitigliano)

10. August 2017 Other 0
Hello dear readers, Our grand sukkot vacation is rapidly approaching, and I’m so excited! We haven’t been to Europe in years, so I’m making sure to do all of my research well in advance! Our sukkot hotel is located in Tuscany, so I’m looking at travel arrangements for all the classic places in Italy: Rome, ...

Best Sukkah Building Materials

26. June 2017 Other 0
Hello dear readers, The other day I was talking with my neighbor Joel G., and I mentioned that we had just reserved a sukkot hotel vacation in Italy. Joel then started talking about the right way to build a sukkah, both because he’s learning masechet sukkah with his son and also because he’s an architect. ...

Jugglers and Simchat Beit Hashoeva

Hello dear readers, Our trip to our sukkot hotel in Italy is still months away, but one family member is already excited about visiting (and performing) in a new country. That little performer is, of course, little Reuven, age 10, and the performance is juggling at “simchat beit hashoeva” or “rejoicing in the house of ...

The Great Karpas Debate

Hello dear readers, I want to start this blog post by taking you back in time, back to a simpler time. Before smartphones, before the internet, before Y2K and AOL and all that stuff. Back when I was a kid, before we w ent on kosher Passover vacations, pesach seders were a much more intimate ...