Passover is usually one of my favorite holidays. I love the ritual of preparing the house, the smell of the food, and the joyous atmosphere at the seder table. But this year is different. Passover began only three days after the one-year anniversary of my father’s suicide.
Purim is coming, a wild holiday that holds its place alongside Yom Kippur and Passover as a dramatic story in the Hebrew Bible’s accounts of redemption and revelation. But, unlike these other stories, Megillat Esther does not mention God. How can this be? According to the ancient rabbis, God is hidden.
As a communications director, it’s my job to tell other people’s stories. However, I’m not always so comfortable telling my own. Even so, I want to tell you my dad’s story. More than that, I need to tell you about amyloidosis, the rare disease that took his life, so we can help save others from the same fate.
Although I tell my hereditary cancer story again and again, it never gets old.
Today is World Suicide Prevention Day. I wrote this prayer in memory of my father, Lowell Jay Herman, who took his life on April 20, 2015, at the age of 72. It reflects the pain my family and I have grappled with since that day.
I am dedicated to honoring his
Since celebrating my 50th birthday, I have enjoyed attaining many milestones: half a century of life, 25 years of marriage, the graduation of all three of our children, and the publication of my wife’s and my first book.
There was a time in my life where I had a lot of trouble sleeping.
If a feel-good book about cancer sounds like an oxymoron, just pick up a copy of New Beginnings: The Triumphs of 120 Cancer Survivors by Bill Aron (Skyhorse Publishing), a tour de force from one of America’s most accomplished photographers.
Aron is best known
The Mi Shebeirach, a Jewish prayer for healing, has been set to music by several contemporary Jewish musicians, including the late Debbie Friedman.
By this week's Torah portion, Parashah B'haalot'cha, it is no surprise that the children of Israel are complaining. This time the desert cuisine of manna is not to their liking, and they demand that Moses give them meat.
Moses loses it!