Pesach Chumros: Are Eggplants Chometz?

by Tamar Rotem – Haaretz

Books with pages spread wide open, perched on balcony railings and shedding imaginary crumbs of not-kosher-for Passover food. Shelves covered in new paper, and masses of aluminum foil on kitchen counters and the stovetop. Signs on doors warning “Do not bring in hametz” – referring to leavened products – with several exclamation marks. All of these were signs in my childhood that Passover was approaching. Above all I remember the near-hysteria that overtook the women and girls in the house, which mounted as the holiday grew nearer while they pursued to the death every stain and crumb.

Mazal Tov's View More

Rabbi Bukiet’s Advice and Vertlach on Hagadah

Rabbi Chaim Meir Bukiet

I will never forget the scene. My grandfather, Rabbi Chaim Meir Bukiet, a Talmudic scholar, was speaking in Lexington, Mass., where my uncle Rabbi Alter Bukiet is rabbi. The invitation for the event told of an entertainer and the guest speaker, my grandfather, a Polish immigrant who’s English was on the rocky side. However, it was clear that many came just to hear him speak. He was beloved in the community, to many serving as fatherly figure. They loved his honesty, his sincerity and his words of wisdom.

Interview with Rabbi Boruch S. Ezagui, La Jolla, CA

San Diego Reader

Rabbi Baruch Shalom Ezagui: “Everyone, everything, and every moment must be embraced in its absolute potential.”

Rabbi Baruch Shalom Ezagui, 34, is the director of Chabad Lubavitch of La Jolla, San Diego County, California. born in Montreal, Canada, he studied at the Rabbinical College of Montreal, Canada; Yeshiva Geloda Lubavitch, London, England; Educational Institute Oholei Torah, Brooklyn, NY; Yeshiva Gedola of New Haven, Conn., Rabbinical College of Detroit, Mich., and Rabbinical Institute of Melbourne, Australia. His Congregation has 120 members.

Parents Enjoy a Break as Kids Enjoy a Puppet Show

Following what has become its yearly tradition, Lubavitcher Yeshiva on Crown Street and the Small Wonder Puppet Theater put on an afternoon show for children – complete with lunch – giving some parents a much needed break and a chance to finish up with Pesach preparations.

Op-Ed: Tornadoes in Hebron

by David Haivri

Hebron

Some Jews bought a house and moved in. “So what?” you might ask. If it were anywhere else in the world, little notice would be taken. But in this case, the home is in Hevron, and the last owner was an Arab.