Opinion

Shortly before Rosh HaShanah, I read an article entitled, “His Best Friend Was a 250-Pound Warthog – one day it decided to kill him.”

For those living in New York City, it’s quite rare to see deer. But for those of us who live on the other side of the Hudson River, it is quite common. In fact, recently the number of deer has grown exponentially. It is not unusual for a family of deer to sprint across our yard, or even be grazing calmly in our yard. (So far, my effort to get them to pay for their usurped meals haven’t been successful…) Often, when I walk into my own backyard, the deer chilling there glare at me as if I am intruding on their property.

I know the Jewish people have been doing the Simchas Torah dancing thing the same way for thousands of years. But based on some trends I see in America, I was thinking of some new ideas we can introduce into our Simchas Torah celebration.

Each year before Tish’ah B’Av, I spend a considerable amount of time working with the learning director of Camp Dora Golding, my rebbi, Rabbi Noach Sauber, to develop a program for our campers that will be engaging, inspiring, and meaningful.

I don’t remember the last time I was able to so relate to a powerful story I heard, in a manner I never could have imagined.

I was asked to share divrei Torah in my neighborhood shul before Hakafos on Simchas Torah evening.

I’m sure it’s the same in many homes. The last few days before the school year begins, our children are abuzz gathering school supplies. Our kitchen table and floor are littered with highlighters, crayons, markers, notebooks, binders, sticky notes, hole punchers, glue, tape, staplers and staples, paper reinforcements, looseleafs and looseleaf paper – standard and college (kollel) ruled, subject dividers, whiteout, rulers, compasses, and many other things that we will probably never see again after the first week. But it adds excitement to going back to school, and that’s a good thing.