Rabbi’s Musings & Amusings

My first position in chinuch, about two decades ago, was as an elementary school social worker in Yeshiva Bais HaChinuch in Spring Valley, New York. During those years, I taught a class about emotions vocabulary. It began with a discussion about the common emotions of mad, sad, glad, and bad. It then moved on to discussing more complicated emotions like disappointment, frustration, excitement, surprise, etc.

By now, the world has moved on from the news of the death of Britain’s Queen Elizabeth. But a few weeks ago, it was all everyone could talk about. There were endless articles, tributes, and anecdotes about the Queen and her lengthy reign.

In a recent article, I noted how interesting it is when El Al security agents ask Jewish customers why they are flying to Israel, as if they need a reason.

On one occasion, after my wife and I had gone out for breakfast together (an occasion that doesn’t happen enough), we went to one of the local Jewish groceries. As we were entering, we saw the rebbe of one of our sons holding a few bags, about to exit. We began schmoozing (not about our son – no teacher appreciates improv parent-teacher conferences) and the rebbe shared with us the following personal story.

In my sixth-grade literature textbook, there was a section explaining that words can have different meanings. To elucidate the concept, it contained the following joke: “Why did the baker get so angry at the bread? Because it was so fresh.”

It was the morning of the first day of the camp season at Camp Dora Golding a number of summers ago. I was a division head and was davening next to my campers and counselors. The chazan was finishing his recitation of Chazaras HaShatz when one of my counselors rushed over to me and quizzically said “Birkas Kohanim!” I smiled and motioned that it was okay.