This article is about an upcoming local event where women and girls will be able to donate their hair to be made into wigs for children with cancer.

This article is about the new sefer Torah at a local shul and its journey to kivrei tzaddikim. A longer and more detailed article about it is coming up, IY”H.

Good Shabbos!

I wrote this for a Jewish homeschooling conference that took place yesterday in Baltimore. Here’s the full text:

The day after Pesach my ten year old daughter decided to make a siyum on a perek of Navi that she had finished. Two weeks before Pesach, when she had actually finished the perek, I had vaguely mumbled something about making a siyum some time soon and promptly forgot all about it. But once Pesach was over I had no excuse to delay her party. Especially since it involved real milchig ice cream.

Excited, my daughter began to discuss with her older sister who she’d like to invite. “I’m not inviting anyone who goes to school,” she said. Her list only included homeschoolers. Her sister agreed with her wholeheartedly. A siyum is not a birthday party. It is a celebration of Torah learning. My daughter wanted to give a speech and share what she had learned with other girls who would actually appreciate it. She didn’t want anyone rolling her eyes or spacing out. School kids are just not interested in learning, according to my daughters.

The beauty of homeschooling is the genuine love of learning I’ve been privileged to observe in all my children, even the older ones who are now in school. Homeschooled kids never lose their curiosity and their joy of discovery. When we learn Chumash with my daughter and her friend each of them gets excited when it’s her turn to read. After my husband learns Mishna with my son he is always eager to tell me what he learned. My children think about what they are learning outside of our official learning time and apply what they learned to real life situations. To them, learning is about life and life is about learning.

All children are born with a natural desire to learn. It is beyond the scope of this article to discuss why and how school children lose this desire. But I would like to describe how homeschoolers nurture it and maintain it.

Homeschooling parents are attuned to their children. We enjoy spending time with our children and getting to know them. We try to let go of any expectations or preconceived notions of what our children should be like, and we learn to appreciate them just as they are. And along the way, we learn about their interests, strengths, and weaknesses. Intuitively, we pick up on their learning styles and recognize which approaches work best in teaching them whatever they need to know. We give them all the time in the world to develop at their own pace, without measuring their achievements against someone else’ scale. At the same time, we notice the areas where they get stuck and help them over those humps. Sometimes, that involves hiring a tutor, as was the case with my daughter who struggled with reading due to dyslexia. And other times, it simply involves lots of encouragement, and perhaps even pushing. We are aware of our children’s potential and do not accept anything less than them doing their very best.
And of course, we make learning exciting. For our family, that involves reading lots of books and using a literature-based curriculum whenever possible.

The concept of using living books in a literature-based curriculum has been around for over a century, since the days of Charlotte Mason, a British educator who devised an innovative approach to education. Her methods are still widely used by homeschooling families. The living books approach is frequently used by Christian homeschoolers, and there are many materials available for them. These days, with the growing number of secular homeschoolers, there are many secular living books out there. Currently, we use Life of Fred for math, The Sassafras Science Adventures for science, and various well-researched historical fiction novels for social studies. My children look forward to reading these books every day. My six year old son has been known to sabotage my laundry folding efforts by begging me, “Can we do science now? Pleeease?”

Over the years, as I observed my children’s excitement about a literature-based curriculum, I’ve been trying to use a similar approach to Torah studies. Unlike secular studies, there is nothing ready made available for Jewish homeschoolers. So I’ve been putting together my own list of living books. We’ve read the Naftail in the Beis Hamikdash series by Rabbi Yaakov Meir Strauss. We all enjoyed it, and learned a lot. We’re reading Avner Gold’s Ruach Ami series, currently volume 8. From previous volumes, we learned about Jewish life in Europe in the 17th century, about the Shabtai Tzvi saga and its tragic aftermath, and about living as a secret Jew in Spain during the Inquisition. Right now, in honor of Sefiras Haomer, we are reading And Rachel was his Wife, a novel about Rabbi Akiva’s wife. This morning, when we began our learning, the children asked if we could read it first.

There are many other good Jewish living books out there. But there aren’t enough. I would love to see a lot more books, on various Torah topics, that could together form a whole comprehensive curriculum.
We homeschoolers are creative problem solvers. If something we want is not yet available we think of a way to solve that problem. And so I embarked on an adventure. As a writer, I am working on the kinds of books I’d like my children to read. But one person can only do so much. So I invited other Jewish writers to join me. G-d willing, we will be working together on producing living books that inspire as well as educate. I began a Torah through Literature blog, where I post book lists, book recommendations, tips, and G-d willing, announcements about new books as they come out.

I invite you to join me on this journey and visit the blog at torahthroughliterature.com. Please subscribe to receive the updates as soon as they are posted. Who knows, maybe by the time our children are raising their own children, G-d willing, there will be not one, but many literature-based Jewish curricula to choose from.

I had an interesting experience last week — I got to meet and interview a retired Los Angeles County sheriff, as part of this article on the upcoming Congregation Bais Naftoli Breakfast (page 8).

I’ve also been working hard on the Torah through Literature e-book, blog, and Facebook page. (If you use Facebook please like it here. I would really appreciate it!)

If you haven’t yet had a chance to download the e-book, Teaching Torah through Literature: Guide and Book List, you can get it here. And please share that link with all your friends and family who love good Jewish books!

Have a wonderful Shabbos!

The e-book is ready for download! Click here.

If you don’t have internet accesss please email me and I’ll be happy to email you the PDF file.

Hope you find it helpful! Feedback would be much appreciated.

Hope everyone had a nice Pesach. Though by now it seems that Pesach was a century ago, as I’m trying to get through my list of things to do after Pesach. I’m back to writing, back to homeschooling, and IY”H working on exciting things for the Torah through Literature blog.

Two articles in Jewish Home this week: on three LA boys’ meaningful Bar Mitzvah trip and on the upcoming Israel Festival which involved a shaila for Israel’s chief rabbi.

Enjoy, and have a wonderful challah-ful Shabbos! 🙂

Dear everyone,

Tonight is bedikas chametz, when we search our homes in order to remove all traces of leavened bread. Chametz, dough full of air, traditionally symbolizes arrogance. We are asked to remove from our hearts all traces of self-centeredness and conceit.

Yet, only eight days later, we’ll be bringing chametz back to our homes again. Do we get permission to be self-centered right after Pesach?

It seems that this generation, with its iPhones, iPods, selfies, and Facebook where people get to tell each other all about the minute details of their lives, is overly focused on the I, on the self. Yet, every idea and trend that comes down to the world is a reflection of some spiritual reality. What are the spiritual benefits of this self-focus?

There is a famous story of Reb Zusha of Anipoli, who used to say, “When I get to the next world I won’t be asked, ‘Why weren’t you Moshe Rabbeinu?’ I’ll be asked, ‘Why weren’t you Zusha?'” Each one of us will be asked, “Why weren’t you the best you could be?”

Each one of us has a unique potential and a unique mission in this world. Everyone has unique strengths and talents, given to us by Hashem in order to fulfill our mission. These talents are not an excuse to inflate our egos. Yet, the more aware we are of them the better we can fulfill our mission in life.

Perhaps the message of this I-centered generation, the message of bringing chametz back into our homes after Pesach, is that we should get to know ourselves and be aware of our uniqueness, not for our own self-aggrandizement, but as a step in making our unique, personal contribution to this world.

May Hashem help all of us fulfill our mission! Chag kasher v’sameach!

Here’s the project I’m working on that I mentioned in my previous post: torahthroughliterature.com.

It’s very much a work in progress, but if you click on free giveaway you can get my Pesach story and a list of recommended Pesach books for children. (If you’re subscribed to my blog you already read the Pesach story — it’s Coming Together, Worlds Apart.)

Enjoy, and spread the word!
Happy Pesach cleaning!

Three articles in Jewish Home this week: about a boys’ acrobatics program at a local school, about the first graduation at the local yeshiva for adults (my husband took the pictures — he learns there, but hasn’t graduated yet), and about Rebbetzin Chana Bracha Siegelbaum’s visit to LA (it’s on page 6 here).

Coming soon, IY”H: a new project I’m working on, including a new website.

Have a wonderful Shabbos!

We had some amazing people visiting Los Angeles in the past couple of weeks. I wrote about two of the inspiring events: Rabbi Shalom Arush’ talk at Nessah Synagogue and Rabbi Yisrael Meir Lau’s visit to Beth Jacob Congregation.

Anyone interested in reading Jewish e-books? I’d like to put together a site, or a page on this one, that links to Amazon kindle pages for e-books written by frum authors. I’m always looking for those, especially when traveling, and would love to have them all in one place. Any suggestions for what to name the site? I’m thinking it would only list books that are halachically and hashkafically appropriate, but I don’t want to limit the audience to frum readers only. Non-frum Jews might like the books also. So how do I let the frum crowd know that the books are appropriate for them without scaring away the non-frum Jews, in the space of a few words? All suggestions would be much appreciated! And if I choose yours you can get a free e-book, IY”H, once the site is set up.

Have a wonderful Shabbos, and happy Purim!
Yehudis

I interviewed Sorele Brownstein, author of The Guilded Cage, a novel about Queen Esther. The article is in the magazine section of Jewish Press, on page 9. You can also read it in the online edition, page 115, here.

Another project in the works is an anthology of short stories by different authors on the subject of ahavas yisrael. If anyone is interested in contributing a story please be in touch with me.

Good Shabbos and chodesh tov!