Hello and Goodbye  

Coordinated by Michal Frischman

As we cross the threshold from one year to another, it’s a time to reflect on new beginnings with unlimited potential and seemingly infinite possibilities, and endings that bring us either peaceful closure or painful mourning – and often something in the middle. Hello is hope and opportunity; goodbye is finality and conclusion.

Stately Encounters

Rabbi Moshe Dov Heber

WEspent our midwinter break this year in the vibrant Jewish community of Atlanta, Georgia. It was a perfect choice, with kosher food, minyanim and plenty for the kids to do.

Before we returned home, I wrote a short note to the staff of the hotel where we’d stayed to thank them for going out of their way to make our stay comfortable. Unsure whether to sign my name, I called my wife’s grandfather, Rabbi Paysach Krohn.

“Zaidy, should I write my name?”

He didn’t hesitate. “Not only your name, but ‘Rabbi’ before it. That way you make a kiddush Hashem.”

A few hours later, I passed through the lobby just as the hotel staff was having their morning meeting. The manager stood in the center, holding a piece of paper. She was reading my note aloud. When she reached the bottom, she read my name, which I’d written exactly as my grandfather had suggested. Heads nodded. Smiles spread.