Special Pesach Offer -- Make Your Reservation Now While Space Still Available!!

I cannot take credit for this. It was forwarded to my by Ricki, but I find it absolutely FABULOUS.

Your Family Presents…
PESACH IN YOUR HOME

COME SPEND PESACH 5768
WITH YOUR FAMILY

Celebrating over 3,000 years of Pesach with Jewish families…

For the entire Pesach:
Ø Gebrokts/Non Genrokts- depending on your family custom
Ø Hand/Machine matzah- depending on your family custom
Ø Private sedorim with your spouse and children
Ø Highly stimulating family-oriented discussions upon request
Ø Daf Yomi and other shiurim with your Rav in your shul
Ø Shul stocked with seforim
Ø Warm friendly neighbors and friends for your children to play with
Ø Sumptuous gourmet meals
Ø Dancing and singing at every meal
Ø Chol Hamoed trips – to discuss and decide with entire family
Ø All food cooked under the strict supervision of Mommy
Ø Inspiring divrei Torah and nachas from your children

MBD, Shweky, Gabay, Lipa, and Dachs
Rabbis Alter & Erps
Rabbis Frand & Krohn
Available on tape/CD the entire Chol Hamoed

Fulfill the mitzvah of Sippur Yetzias Mitzryaim properly-
Tell your children the story of the exodus from Egypt without all the distractions of hotels
Special Chinuch program: Let your children witness your mesiras nefesh to prepare for this beloved Yom Tov

Abba/Totty/Dad, Mommy/Ima, Kinderlach/Children
Will be joining us for the ENTIRE Yom Tov
Special guest appearances by BUBBY and Zaydey

So this year when you declare "Kol dichfin yaysay v'yaychol" you won't mean "Whoever can help cover the hotel bill can join us"….

Whether we need it or not....

We are the kind of people, social as we are, who never seem to go away for Shabbos or Yom Tov. We love our home. We love our shul. We love our Kehillah. We also love Oma G., and because of the nature of her illness, if we were to go away, her simchas Shabbos V'Yom Tov would be compromised. So we stay.
And this is probably why, when we once in a blue moon DO go somewhere for Shabbos, we appreciate it so much. I never realized how much of my weekdays, from Monday on, are dedicated to the shopping, preparation and cooking for Shabbos. This whole week has been so relaxing for me. We are going to a family Bar Mitzvah in Bridgeport, CT. I look forward to spending Shabbos with family and friends and coming home to a clean kitchen on Motzoei Shabbos...... oh, yeah, right..... I forgot...... the kids are staying behind at home..... strike that part about the clean kitchen :)

Hail, Hail, The Gang's All Here.....

...or they will be in a few hours!
Erica and Moshe, Chana and Michael and the rest of us will finally have our "first Shabbos together".
Don't you just LOVE Shabbos?
:)

Just Say "NO!" To Dumbing Down for Shidduchim

I had a conversation with a friend of mine last night at a chassunah. Chasssunahs seem to be the place where all conversations turn to shidduchim (of course with all the separate seatings and bullet-proof barriers, the likelihood of any young singles actually meeting is nearly nil...but that's a conversation for another time). She has a very lovely, fine, frum, intelligent, attractive and cultured daughter. Unfortunately, she is looking for a "learning boy" who appreciates all she has going for her.

Problem!!! The current batch of learning boys, in my mind, are far less educated, worldly and knowledgable (gemara aside) than young ladies such as this. These young ladies frighten the boys at best and repulse them at worst. (Horrors! A girl knows that traffic in midtown Manhattan is due to matinee day! The Yeshiva Bochur she's dating doesn't know what matinee day is.... therefore she must be a wanton woman, regardless of whether or not she herself even attends the theatre!) This becomes a frustrating dilemma for girls such as this. They *could* ostensibly dumb themselves down, but TO WHAT END?!?!? They are smart! They may "get the guy", but they will be miserable down the road. Now in truth, these girls should probably be looking for boys who are educated as they themselves are and are serious about their learning to boot, but sadly a) that's not what these girls have been taught in seminary to look for and b) as the head rav of my daughter's seminary told her when she described such a boy as what she was looking for told her, those boys are very hard to find (hence not recommended to a large number of girls) because their roshei yeshiva purport learning only and boys who try to do both are labelled "more modern"....

Where has Torah Im Derech Eretz gone?

Where has the sanity gone?

When will the vicious cycle end?

What can each of us do to help?