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Traditions Taught Me by My Children

Ruti Mizrachi — Tue, 02 Apr 2013 10:12:42 +0000

To My Dear Sons: As I was changing the house over after Pesach, it occurred to me just how many of our Jewish family traditions were perpetuated by my dear sons. The liberating thing about being converts to Judaism is that we could pick and choose some of our minhagim, customs. Perhaps Abba and I [...]

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Dear Son: Your wedding is really none of your business.

Ruti Mizrachi — Tue, 29 Jan 2013 07:28:10 +0000

To My Dear Sons: Basking in the glow of our most recent simcha seems like a great opportunity to remind you of some of our family rules about making a wedding — and to add some of my hard-earned new knowledge. Old news first. As I’ve told you since birth, a wedding is really a [...]

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Life sucks.

Ruti Mizrachi — Wed, 05 Dec 2012 19:13:30 +0000

To my dear sons: Life sucks. Pardon the vernacular. But that is just a fact. The rabbis even determined, yonks ago, that it would have been better for man not to be created. Because life is very hard, and making it work is one of the hardest things there is. The House of Shammai and [...]

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The Life-Enhancing Power of Gratitude, Part One

Ruti Mizrachi — Tue, 27 Nov 2012 13:02:55 +0000

To My Dear Sons, They say that someone’s mission in life is hinted at by his name. Avraham, for instance, means “father of a multitude” or “father of a mighty nation.” (Anyone who’s seen all of you together might say that — with G-d’s help – Abba is well on his way.) Ruth means “friendship.” I like [...]

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Yarden’s ride, Stella’s fight

Ruti Mizrachi — Thu, 25 Oct 2012 10:43:26 +0000

To My Dear Sons: Family and community are everything. All of your other accomplishments in life, save for those that improve the lives of other human beings, will be meaningless at the End of Days. We have been very fortunate in finding friends and communities that have embraced us, and made us feel like family, [...]

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Siblings: Slaying the Green-Eyed Dragon

Ruti Mizrachi — Sun, 09 Sep 2012 05:39:27 +0000

To My Dear Sons, Some people think that the only way to keep their children happy is to be sure that when any one child receives something, they all get something. This becomes expensive, even when parents can regulate it. More often than not, it’s a program that is impossible to enforce. You can [...]

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Guns and Knives: Are we creating dangerous men?

Ruti Mizrachi — Mon, 06 Aug 2012 12:02:59 +0000

To My Dear Sons, So, the debate rages. Nature, or nurture? If we raise our boys with dolls, will they be gentle caregivers? If we forbid weapons, will they be peaceful? You guys were my teachers. I was a firm believer that our kids were tabulae rasae, blank slates, who would become what we made [...]

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The Dream Crushers

Ruti Mizrachi — Sun, 20 May 2012 06:35:58 +0000

To My Dear Sons, Lately, young people have been asking my advice, as if I knew something. (This cracks me up. As you get older, the wisest thing about you is that you realize there’s a huge pile of stuff you don’t know.) How can I possibly know what choices a college kid should make [...]

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Tips on Child-Friendly Judaism

Ruti Mizrachi — Sun, 25 Mar 2012 10:56:56 +0000

“And you shall teach them to your children…” To My Dear Sons, As we continue preparing for Pesach, I am reminded of how important it is to keep the Jewish holidays child-relevant, and fun. It’s easy to get overwhelmed by all there is to do — cleaning, organizing, clearing away the physical and spiritual manifestations [...]

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Don’t insult your audience

Ruti Mizrachi — Sun, 18 Mar 2012 09:06:19 +0000

To My Dear Sons, Years ago, I dragged Abba to a comedy show to see a friend of mine perform. The opening act was beyond not funny, for one reason. When the comedian found that his audience wasn’t warming up to him, he began to insult us. His entire act turned into a barrage of [...]

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TV or Not TV — and How We Managed It

Ruti Mizrachi — Sun, 11 Mar 2012 09:23:51 +0000

To My Dear Sons, Like many religious parents, we tried to go entirely without television and movies in the house for a while. When we discovered that you preferred spending all of your time at your religious friends’ houses — watching TV — we decided we had better reintroduce the evil demon into our [...]

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Recipes and Memories

Ruti Mizrachi — Sun, 04 Mar 2012 06:47:45 +0000

Dear Sons, Each of you is such a fascinating individual! Watching you grow up to be yourselves as been one of my greatest joys. There are so many details to remember. Mothers always mean to keep up the photos and baby books — but life gets in the way. One project that worked better than [...]

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Date Your Spouse!

Ruti Mizrachi — Sun, 26 Feb 2012 08:48:15 +0000

To Each of My Sons, Before His Wedding: One thing we have always told newlyweds is to “keep dating each other.” It will be easy at first. There are just two of you; you have these stars in your eyes for each other; your work and school and stress schedules are still pretty manageable. And [...]

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Ema’s Pearl Necklace

Ruti Mizrachi — Sun, 19 Feb 2012 08:50:14 +0000

To My Dear Sons: While you were growing up, I made no secret of the fact that strings of pearls are my favorite jewelry, just in case any of you would ever have a fairly significant chunk of change lying about on my birthday. (I think women should not expect men to read their minds. [...]

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