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Dear Alice,

I realized this week that there is always one day that consistently sabotages my diet - Shabbos. I can feel in control all week, but when it comes to Shabbos, since I’m not in my routine, I really struggle.

 For the last nine years, friends of ours have arranged to bring busloads of families from Ramat Beit Shemesh to army bases in various locations in Israel on the first night of Chanukah to thank the soldiers for protecting us and to celebrate with them. The IDF is reluctant to have visitors in army bases at this time, but somehow our friends managed to pull it off. This is the first year that our schedules allowed for us to participate in this beautiful initiative. It always sounded like a nice idea, but hearing about it and experiencing it is not at all the same. It didn’t take long for us to realize how much we had been missing out the last nine years.

(Courtesy of OU) 

A new Torah platform has been released this week that is likely to become the go-to destination for Daf Yomi learners. All Daf, a project of the OU, is an app and website that will host an extensive encyclopedia of premium Shas-related audio, video and PDF content, and is designed to help raise the level of Torah learning for every Jew around the globe. The platform was launched ahead of the upcoming Siyum Hashas so that Daf Yomi learners can start the new cycle with every resource available at their fingertips.

“This Siyum HaShas is a tremendous simchah for all of Klal Yisrael!”

So said HaGaon HaRav Moshe Hillel Hirsch shlita, Rosh Yeshiva of the Slabodka Yeshiva, at the Dirshu Siyum HaShas at the Binyanei Haumah Convention Center in Yerushalayim.

“You shall not commit a perversion of justice; you shall not favor the poor and you shall not honor the great; with righteousness shall you judge your fellow.” Vayikra (Leviticus) 19:15.

When I looked at the label of my new blue camouflage puffer coat from Zara, I was a bit startled. Usually, a coat like this is made of goose down feathers and nylon. This one was composed of recycled water bottles! As explained by Zara, “This plastic is collected within 50 kilometers of waterways and coastal areas without a formal collection infrastructure in Rivera Maya coast. The collected plastic is sorted by quality so it can be recycled correctly. PET, the material used in water bottles, is recovered and transformed into upcycled polyester.” My repurposed purchase was indeed right on trend for the new millennium starting January 1, 2020.