It's all about the children.

Yom shlishi, 21 Av 5769.

Here are two visuals I had to share with my readers, pictures being worth oodles of words and all.  One is very topical and Jewish:

Dearest Flamers:  Please don't waste both of our time by remarking to me that Obama isn't the first US President to suggest that Jews give up their homes.  I know that this problem has been growing for at least the last four administrations; and it hasn't mattered from which side of the aisle the President stepped up to the podium.  And there is no point in sharing the other well-known fact that Israeli Prime Ministers have cared far too much about US Presidential opinion, also over several administrations.  But now is when the excellent graphic artist, Aharon Shevo, produced this impressive piece of work.  Ya gotta admit he hit the coffin nail right on the head.
[Hat tip to Jameel ]

The second visual I want to share is a two minute video that has nothing to do with Israel, and nothing particular to do with being Jewish.  It has everything to do with heading back to school, with the division of labor in most families, and with the special relationship my sons have always had with their father.

Briefly:  Many years ago, I heard a dvar Torah from Rabbi Moshe Meir Weiss in which he taught that prayer is the ultimate life insurance policy.  If you want your spouse to live a long life, remind your Tatte B'Shomayim that you can't live without him.  This sounded reasonable to me; and I thought that I would increase our life insurance by adding insurers.  Thus I requested that my sons daven for both of their parents to live to be really old, because Ema gets us places on time, and Abba is fun.  (I suspect that I convinced them to daven harder for Abba with that technique; but that served my selfish purposes just fine.)

Please take a couple of minutes to enjoy this adorable Kevin Nalts production.  It will remind you why women stay busy with long lists of activities.  How else can fathers successfully instruct their progeny in new and ingenious ways to puncture perfectly functional membranes?
[Hat tip to Rabbi Shlomo Skinner and HIS insurer, Lisa]




May we share more happy pictures than sad ones.