2014 Best of the Blog

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Dear Readers, We’re celebrating the end of the secular year with a salute to the blog posts you loved the most in 2014. The data is in; these stories are the ones you voted for with your mouse. Follow below to your heart’s content. A happy and healthy new year to you and the ones you love. ~Mayyim Hayyim […]

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Talking in the Dark… and the Light

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by Lisa Berman, Mikveh and Education Director It’s dark out. Cold. Inside the car we are warm and cozy, zooming along the highway. The heater vents whoosh warm air, creating a soothing white noise. My daughter sits in the passenger seat, eating her dinner from a divided plastic container – cut up chicken in one […]

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Bounty and Despair: Hoshiah na

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by Shira M. Cohen-Goldberg This has been a hard year. At this time last year my heart was a well of despair. Some of you may have read about how I emerged from having a miscarriage at 12 weeks gestation last year on this blog. Writing that post was extremely healing for me. Many of you reached […]

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Asking, Asking, Asking

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by Carrie Bornstein As a parent of three young children, I am constantly fielding requests for things: Ima, can you buy me a Superman toy? When can I get a cell phone? Can I have a sleepover? Read me a story. Pick me up. I promise if you get me a dog I’ll take care of […]

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A Great Miracle Happens in Our Home

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by Leah Hart Tennen, Mikveh Guide When I was growing up, each of us lit our own menorah.  There were five of us, so you can imagine how beautiful our table was with all of those candles.  At some point in my young Jewish life, we started lighting some of our channukiyot by starting with […]

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Don't Go Near a Woman

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by Salem Pearce, Mikveh Guide  This semester, as part of my rabbinic education, I am taking a class on the book of Exodus. Recently, we’ve been studying the account of the revelation at Sinai.  In the complicated choreography of Moses (and others) going up and down the mountain in chapters 19 and 24, a question arises […]

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Our Family Doesn't Do Bridal Immersions

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by Sherri Goldman, Administrative and Finance Director There was exciting news as my husband’s entire family gathered at our house for Thanksgiving. One of our nieces, Kayla, had just recently become engaged to be married. I thought, what better way to celebrate Kayla’s engagement than with a Gift Certificate for her bridal immersion? Earlier in the day I […]

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A Rose by Any Other Name Would Not Smell as Sweet

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by Rabbi Matthew Soffer When Romeo “oos and ahhs” over Juliet in the most famous scene of any of Shakespeare’s plays, he utters a line that is often misappropriated today: “A rose by any other name would smell as sweet.” Translation: His beloved’s name is irrespective of her identity, her beauty, and her “sweet smell.” […]

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Past, Present, Future

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by Walt Clark, Office Assistant There was an ancient Roman god called Janus who was known as the god of beginnings and transitions. All entrance ways and exits fell under his purview. He was depicted as having two faces, one that faced the past and the other towards the future. Janus is not a widely […]

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Well, We’re Certainly Talking about the Mikveh Now…

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by Naava Pasternak Swirsky Back in May, Penny Harow Thau and I published a book, There’s a Shark in the Mikvah! A Light-hearted Look at Women’s Dunking Experiences.  We had contacted friends and family and used social media to collect funny mikveh stories.  After the book came out, I wrote an article for the Times of […]

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Red Tent-icipation

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by DeDe Jacobs Komisar, Development Manager The big news around these parts is that Lifetime TV has made our own Anita Diamant’s iconic work, The Red Tent, into a miniseries. It airs December 7th and 8th, and stars Minnie Driver, Debra Winger, and some guys from Game of Thrones. Mayyim Hayyim is hosting its own screening […]

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The Mohel in the Mikveh

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by Alan Green, Mikveh Guide After 35 years of practicing as an OBGYN in Nashua, NH, I retired in April, 2012. So what did I do with all the free time that I thought I would have? Among other things, I became a Mikveh Guide at Mayyim Hayyim. I was accepted into the 8th cohort […]

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