Hey Reader! A few years ago, a nor’easter (these crazy hurricane-like storms we get in the northeast) picked up an entire metal structure in our backyard and flipped it upside down. That structure was our sukkah: a temporary outdoor dwelling we build for the Jewish holiday of Sukkot, where we eat our meals for a week. It takes a lot of work to put together, so finding the whole thing completely overturned in our yard was... disappointing, to say the least. what our sukkah looks like when it's...

Hey Reader! Tzvi and I just spent Rosh Hashanah in upstate New York, helping lead services for a synagogue that's over 100 years old and struggling to keep its traditions alive. It was meaningful and inspiring. But one thing reallllllly stuck with me: the smell. Every time we made the 6-minute walk from our house to the synagogue, we passed a chicken processing plant. I've never smelled anything so bad in my life 🤢 Turns out the woman who owns that plant is the granddaughter of one of the...

Hey Reader! A week or so ago (okay, 12 days exactly), I got into a little fender bender. I was down a familiar road, when suddenly, I felt a bump on the back of my Subaru, as another driver was trying to switch into my lane. I was peeved, to say the least, but the damage looked minimal to me (I learned the hard way I know nothing about how expensive body work is on a car 😬😆). I filed a claim as soon as I got home. Which, of course, consisted of hours of back and forth emails, phone calls, and...