When Jacob’s mother passed away, he called the local funeral home to make the necessary arrangements. “What cemetery did your mother plan to be buried in?” they asked. Jacob, full of intense emotions, drew a total blank at this practical question.
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Dear Rivkie,
I am going to a Pesach hotel for the first time ever! I am very excited, but am not sure about a couple of things:
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My sister and her fiancé have been fighting more lately, and the things she’s telling me are sounding scarier and meaner. He’s never hit her, but he punched a wall last week, and I’m worried that eventually he will hit her. When I told her he sounds abusive, she got defensive and said he’s only mean if he’s had too much to drink, usually after a bad day at work.
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Dear Rivkie,
With Purim coming up, it occurs to me that from year to year I forget how stressful it can be, specifically giving out shalach manos (Purim gift baskets, also referred to as mishloach manot). There’s the halachic obligation, but there are also social pressures. For example, do I need to give one to everyone who gives to me? And it seems like so many people develop elaborate themes, making the rest of us feel inadequate. Is it okay to stick with something simple? Then there’s the driving — where is the “boundary” for delivery?
Results from a 2016 survey conducted by the National Association for College Admission Counseling showed 82.2 percent of colleges attributed either “considerable importance” or “moderate importance” to ACT or SAT test scores in admission decisions on first-time freshmen. Last month, we featured an article on the case for the importance of standardized testing in college admissions, but a case can also be made for not taking, or reporting scores for, these seemingly all-important tests.
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Dear Rivkie,
My neighbors have a child with disabilities; he is wheelchair-bound and non-verbal, although he does smile and sometimes responds in his own way to people when they speak to him. I know his family wants to feel included in the community, which of course means Shabbos meal invitations. I really want to invite them, but I honestly don’t know how to act, what to say, and how to not be weird overall. Complicating matters is that I have a couple of young children, and I’m afraid they’re going to say all kinds of awkward, offensive things if we do have this family over. I feel so guilty that I haven’t invited them in the year that we’ve been neighbors. Any advice?
I’d resisted it for months. I’d turned my nose up in disdain upon hearing the title. Why would I want any insight into the embodiment of “white trash” stereotypes?
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Dear Rivkie,
As soon as we are finished putting away our Purim costumes, I feel like I have to begin preparing for Pesach! Somehow, it seems to sneak up on me every year. How do I make preparations less harried in the four weeks between Purim and Pesach?
Following up on our Jan. 25 article about the differences between your resume and your LinkedIn profile, here are four tips for getting the most out of LinkedIn.
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Dear JCADA,
I’m worried that my work friend “Elena” is in an abusive relationship. She used to vent to me all the time about her boyfriend, “Josh”; how he is so uptight, and how much they fight. At one point, she told me he grabbed her during a bad fight, which really scared her. I told her that it scared me, too, and that it sounds like Josh doesn’t deserve to be with her.
It’s a familiar refrain. “I’m not tired!I’m fine.I don’t want to go to bed!”
Depending on the age, children may want to stay up because they don’t want to miss out on what the family is doing.There may be a special event, or a parent who hasn’t arrived home yet.They may want to feel more like adults or their older siblings.They may want to continue reading, watching, playing, or hangin’.Or, in the case of teenagers, their circadian rhythm is changing and they just aren’t tired as early anymore.