One of the health challenges people face as they age is the loss of muscle mass. This loss begins at age 25 in both men and women, and accelerates after age 55. Two big contributors to this decline are a lack of physical activity and poor choices when it comes to eating balanced meals (or even eating meals at all).

Chanukah and New Year’s are coming up, and instead of the excitement and anticipation that usually comes during this time of year, I feel anxious.

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Dear Rivkie,

 My husband and I recently started to take on greater Jewish observance while raising our young family. We’ve started keeping kosher and observing Shabbos. Additionally, our oldest son is turning 3 soon, and after a lot of thought we decided to have an upsherin for him (a haircutting celebration for Jewish boys upon turning 3).

According to the College Board’s “Trends in College Pricing 2017” report, the average cost of tuition and fees increased by more than 3 percent at private and public colleges between the 2016-2017 and the 2017-2018 school year.

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Dear Rivkie,

 Yom Kippur is just around the corner and I’m unsure how to improve my experience this year. Usually, I spend the day hungry and grouchy, and I find it hard to concentrate on the service while thinking about what to eat after the fast! I want to do teshuva (repentance) and I know there are plenty of things I did wrong this year, but I am so distracted I feel like I don’t give it my all on Yom Kippur. What can I do to make Yom Kippur more meaningful this year?

When challenges arise at school that require parental involvement, parents can be apprehensive about communicating with their child’s teachers or school administrators. It could be that the child is performing poorly in a class, experiencing social difficulties, or feeling overwhelmed by the amount of homework. If the child is “differently wired” (neuroatypical), as at least one in five children today are according to the National Center for Learning Disabilities, there will likely be even more challenges that will need to be addressed with the school.

There are well-established strategies in place for helping young people cope with tragic events, but when dealing specifically with acts of anti-Semitism, a more fine-tuned approach can be helpful. To help you navigate these emotionally-charged and uncertain times, here are five tips from the Jewish Social Services Agency (JSSA) for talking to children about anti-Semitism.

Why it pays to keep a civil tongue at the table.

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 Dear Rivkie,

 With all the Yomim Tovim (holidays) behind us, I’ve been thinking about the lashon hara (derogatory speech) I heard around the table when getting together with friends and family. And not just as an observer; I oftentimes (I am ashamed to admit) participated in the discussion! This is especially hard to imagine myself doing just days after all the teshuva (repentance) for this and a multitude of other sins on Yom Kippur, but it seems to happen every year.

Parenting experts have much to say about behavioral management, the methodical approach to parenting that seeks to rationally examine and structure expectations, environment, and consequences. While this approach has much merit, it is incomplete and often ineffective if it lacks something that we might call “relationship management.”

Yom Kippur looms on the horizon. We have traveled through Elul, that month of soul searching, inner accounting, and resolve to change. We’ve listened to the shofar blasts on Rosh Hashanah, that heart-piercing sound, which Maimonides tells us is designed to wake us from our spiritual slumber. We have intoned the words: “On Rosh Hashanah it is written and on Yom Kippur, it is sealed.” In this time of judgment, we all engage in a great deal of self-judgment. How do we keep up our spirits and find confidence that we can, in fact, improve, rather than dropping into feelings of helplessness, anxiety, and despair?