Category: March 2016

Advice from the professionals so you can sit-back, relax, and enjoy your big day By Chandrea Serebro   CHUPAS Weddings are beautiful, yet no one can deny that they can also be stressful af-fairs. Too often, many wedding parties get so stuck in the details of the look and feel of the wedding that they lose sight of the end goal: the happiness of the chosson and kallah standing under the chupa, get-ting married! One of the essentials is choosing a nice chupa within your budget to help add to the visual…

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How Purim Got Its Name By: Robert Sussman Megilas Esther, the book from the Hebrew Bible which we read twice on Purim, tells us in its text that Purim was so called because of the pur – the lot – that was thrown by the wicked Haman in order to determine the date on which he would destroy the Jewish people.[1] Rather than just choose a date on which to kill the Jews, Haman instead held a lottery to decide, a seemingly insignificant detail among all of his considerable planning…

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By: Aviva Blumstein It should be a moment of nachas and joy: your child’s simcha. But instead, you’re sweating, feeling slightly queasy, and half-wishing the event was over. All because of a conspiracy of poised, eloquent parents who, years ago, made a “parent speech” standard for Jewish events of note. Even if you’re usually a good writer, for some reason here you can’t find the right words. Your emotions overwhelm you. My child is so special and this event is so important, you think – either consciously or subconsciously. How…

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Putting The Simcha Back Where It Belongs By Chandrea Serebro The other day I was helping out a friend who was due to be the master of ceremonies at an upcoming wedding.  We decided he should start his speech with a joke. Have you heard the one about the guy who wanted to make his daughter the best wedding ever? One couple he knew hosted their daughter’s wedding on a cruise ship in the Mediterranean and other friends booked out an entire island in the Indian Ocean. Desperate not to…

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Until You Don’t Know What? By Dovid Samuels One of the most anticipated but strange parts of our Purim celebrations (besides for dressing up) is the obligation to get drunk. The source for this obligation is in the Talmud where we are instructed to become drunk [with wine] until we no longer can differentiate between ‘accursed be Haman’ and ‘blessed be Mordechai’. Apparently, understanding simply, we must get drunk…and very drunk, it seems. The point where you don’t know the difference between Aror Haman and Boruch Mordechai is really quite far;…

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Turning a holiday on its head By: Isaac Ansell Forsyth On a sunny Thursday morning in the holy city of Jerusalem, Yeshivat Shapell’s -Darche Noam embarked on a unique chesed mission. The yeshiva boys journeyed to a humble building in the city’s Ramat Rachel neighbourhood, where they were suited-up with labourer’s apparel, and introduced to some heavy machinery. Ninety minutes later, several kilos of rice had been packaged for distribution to hungry families all around Israel. Pantry Packers is a food-distribution initiative of Colel Chabad. Founded by Rabbi Shneur Zalman…

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