Sukkot is one of my favorite Jewish holidays. Like so many neighbors and friends, there is just something so beautiful about sitting in the sukkah, sharing meals or just reading by myself during the afternoon.
Sukkot, however, is not inexpensive. From the lulav and etrog to the Sukkah itself to the food for the meals, there is a financial pressure.
And I just want to make you aware, that of course it’s a blessing to have friends over in the sukkah for a meal. But more than that, if you can sense that maybe it would relieve some of the financial burden on a family to have them over, then don’t stand on ceremony, just do it.
If you have a ton of extra Sukkah decorations, offer them up for a friend who maybe could use them.
Finally, make yourself aware of someone who could use help this Sukkah holiday, especially when it comes to last minute Sukkah construction or even when it comes time to take the Sukkah down.
Again, we are on this earth to help one another. You can shake your lulav perfectly or have the best pittum going on your etrog, that’s great. If you notice your neighbor in shul without a lulav and etrog hand your’s over to him.
Anyway, there are just so many opportunities during this chag to do mitzvot. Keep an eye on the other guy, and help him when you can.

There was a time when we used to be taught by our parents and rabbis that one of the reasons why we are God’s chosen people is because we have a “fear of God.”
That fear was a positive aspect of Jewish life. It meant we feared God’s love for us, and that sometimes that “love” turned tough.
But for some of us in the Baltimore Jewish community, it’s no longer about a fear of God.
Instead, some have a learned to fear certain rabbis in our community. God has become merely the rabbis’ colleague, not their superior.
Some have gone from worshipping God to seeking the approval of these rabbis.
And instead of acting as a connection, as a gateway to God, we are instead, connecting to mortal men, who have some of the same difficult issues in life the rest of us face. Rabbis are men who have joys, and who have problems. They get hungry, they have medical procedures, they wear clothing, they get haircuts, they drive cars, they die.
There is no connection? God is there for all of us, and we can directly pray to him with or without the approval of some men, who have co-opted decency and love and warmth in exchange for punishment, anger, and disillusionment.
The danger comes when these same “rabbis” circle the wagons and protect one another and do their own version of loshon hora towards others in the community. Few in this community have taken the mantel of leadership and acted as a true mensch, a true leader.
We used to have a “personal relationship with God,” but we’re not allowed to say that anymore. Sounds too Christian.
Instead, we strive for a personal relationship with men who have rabbinic ordination. We can only hope that their hearts are right and they too get that in the history of the Jewish people, their “job” is to bring people to God, not to them.
We stand up this Yom Kippur and we ask HaShem for forgiveness for our transgressions. I know I will be doing that.
I hope the rabbis on the bimas know that they are just as naked as the rest of us before God on this day.
And that they can explain themselves as we will.
Have a meaningful fast.

I had the honor recently of meeting an amazing group of parents called “Eternity.”
I’ll be telling their story in next week’s Jewish Times.
Eternity is a group of friends sponsored by the Associated’s Jewish Addiction Services.
These friends most definitely wish they weren’t in this particular “club,” because each of the seven parents interviewed had lost an adult child to a drug overdose.
Their children were just like your children or my children. They liked hamburgers, comedies, music, sports and nature.  Most of all, they loved other people.
They died because of the insidious disease of drug addiction.
I learned a great deal from these seven parents. What I think I learned the most, however, was how important it is as a caring community that we not stigmatize anyone because of this disease.
The Eternity group said that their inner circle of personal friends were always supportive and there for them. Once they ventured out of that circle, just a little bit, they could feel the rays of judgment coming from others, and sometimes that judgment was weighed right here in the Jewish community.
At a time when the Book of Life is very much in our holiday thoughts, it’s important that we give “chizik” or strength to our friends and neighbors who have suffered an incalculable loss. Isn’t that why we’re on this earth to begin with, to help each other?
And as one parent said, it would have been easier to deal with the public perception of their child’s death had it been a disease such as cancer.
Instead, it was drug addiction.
Make no mistake about it, this is a serious, deadly disease.The members of Eternity will tell you, that the drug heroin is no longer under the “ownership” of some unfamiliar flop house in an abandoned building.
Heroin is now connecting itself to neighborhoods, Jewish neighborhoods. The spread of these drugs should be a reality check for every parent.
Just ask one of the “Eternity” members.
“Joining” their club has an admission “fee” that’s just way too unimaginable. But that doesn’t mean we should turn from them. Instead, we should embrace them and listen to them.
They have been made wise.
And we as parents and community members need their wisdom.

My husband & I have eaten at the Sunday brunch a few times with my husband’s large family. We were treated well, the food was good & plentyful. We are very satisfied with this restaurant.