Barbara Cooper

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Oct 8, 2023, 6:16 PM

Shmini Atzeret/Simchat Torah 5784

We knew early on what was happening, but not all the details until Yom Tov was over Saturday night. Here's the story of my day. Real, but also surreal... Ready to leave for shul, about 8:45 AM, stopped in my...

Apr 19, 2022, 5:24 PM

People are born and people die

Illustrative. Elder and younger locking of hands (Jewish News)

When I last saw my mother, we played Scrabble, I held her hands in mine, and found it hard to leave. But I didn't process the fact that I'd never see her again

Dec 21, 2021, 1:27 AM

Wildlife, space, and Thanksgiving

It started with Thanksgiving. When the Israel Center in Jerusalem offered a traditional (American-style) dinner with a guest speaker that I wanted to hear, I decided to sign up for it, knowing that I would need plenty of time to...

Dec 18, 2020, 12:23 AM

A last word as we approach the end of Hanukkah…

Wednesday was the sixth day of Hanukkah. It was also Rosh Chodesh Tevet, the beginning of one of the saddest months of the Hebrew calendar. On the eighth of Tevet, the Egyptian King Ptolemy had the Torah translated into...

Dec 1, 2020, 4:35 PM

Hashem’s Gift—A Writer’s Thoughts

I look down, then take a deep breath before starting to speak... My name is Barbara, and I am a writer. (There! I've said it.) Does this sound like the beginning of a meeting of Alcoholics Anonymous? Well, when you are...

Oct 18, 2020, 5:14 AM

BREISHIT/Breishit—Let us begin…

I invite you to join me for an unusual and extraordinary theater experience. As we enter the room, there are no house lights, no playbills. Guided to our seats, we hear a quiet voice briefly chanting, but we can...

Sep 30, 2020, 10:31 PM

Of Bread and Honey

This was going to be a Rosh Hashanah different from any other year. I had hoped that by now Corona would be just a memory and that we would have been back to a more normal kind of living,...

May 27, 2020, 9:08 PM

The mitzvah of bikkurim — a practice run

The choicest first fruits of your land shall you bring to the House of Hashem, your G*d." (Mishpatim 23:19) When the Temple is rebuilt we will have to be prepared to perform the mitzvah of bikkurim. We need to know...

May 27, 2020, 6:35 AM

The Priestly Blessings – The Centerpiece of Parshas Naso

We've come out of Egypt by Hashem's Hand. We are headed for the land that was promised to our forefathers. In Parshas Naso, the Levi'im receive instructions for the service of the Mishkan, we learn about purification of the...

May 10, 2020, 8:29 AM

The ‘home-schooling’ of Shabbat in solitary

Again, not by choice, but following the precautionary measures that we are taking during this coronavirus siege, I pray at home alone. It has always been a highlight of the week to be part of the communal voice in shul...

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About Me

Once a stay-at-home mother of four children, and now grandmother to 15, Barbara spent 50 years 'children watching.' For a decade, she provided childcare in her home and was also a substitute teaching assistant at Gan Ephraim Preschool in Columbus OH. Over a period of 23 years, she made 19 trips to Israel, finally fulfilling her dream of making aliyah in 2019. She pursues ongoing independent study of Torah.

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