Thank God, my wife and I are blessed with six daughters, ranging in age from 19 to 31. We are also blessed now with our third grandchild and our first granddaughter, thank God! I wrote this reflection a couple of years ago but in honor of our first granddaughter, I want to share it now. She was named after Diane’s mother Ruth Jacobs whose Hebrew name was Rivka. God willing, our Ruthie, will be a source of pride to our family, community and the world and the values of her namesake will live in her and through her always.

I would not be the rabbi and person I am today if not for David.

David could answer Amen to the six most important life questions.

How does a moment become an unforgettable memory?

What did he learn that night, what changed him? How did he come to experience God? How can we?

I believe he learned three truths - first, life is a gift, second, embrace the memories of ancestors and third, the spiritual power of a communal Torah experience.

What do we praise and what do we love?

What does it mean to celebrate goodness in our youth?

Like the love of a parent, grandparent to a child, never forget the God's love of each of us is even greater and deeper.

Our daughter Adina wed Moshe in January in Jerusalem. We wanted to celebrate in Stamford when they are both here for Passover to say “ Thank You!: for the role of our community in shaping who she is today. My remarks follow below and serve as a testament and love letter to the power o

I am grateful for the honor of speaking in West Orange this week in memory of Rabbi Marcus, whose impact lives in me and through me. Writing the tribute to him further crystallized a life lesson for me and all of us that we can each be one of the 36 righteous people on earth at any given moment. May his memory be for a blessing always.

This past Monday, I thought I was going through a door, but I hit a wall.

Make this New Year’s weekend the first of many weekends to pause and light. Turn off the outside world to turn on your inner world.

The last stop on our heritage journey to Poland two summers ago was to a small field an hour outside of Krakow with the unmarked graves of 800 children murdered by the Nazis for being Jewish. We visited many sites of atrocities during our trip, most notably the concentration camp Plaszow on the night of Tisha B'av, infamously featured in Schindler’s List and Tisha B’Av day at Auschwitz. Yet, the unmarked graves of 800 children were chosen as our last memory for an important reason that applies to each and every one of us.

Where have you lived during your life? Have you wished at times you were someplace else or do you embrace the place where you are? Have you ever found that at first you did not understand why you ended up somewhere, but over time realized that it was meant to be?