HOME & FAMILY

"Wait for me, my good little girl, O.K.? I'll be right back. I just want to... need to... Er... what did I want, little one?"

Grandpa Siberia scratched his forehead and adjusted his faded kipa absentmindedly.

Toby
by Sudy Rosengarten

"I suddenly understood what people meant when they said that blood was thicker than water."

LETTERS, FEEDBACK

Dear Editor,

I want to respond to an article that appeared in the FAMILY SECTION some weeks ago by Rabbi Zobin, "The Feat of Walking" (P' Truma). In it, it was claimed that not crawling can cause difficulties in learning to read.

BOOK REVIEW
On Bus Drivers, Dreidels and Orange Juice
by Tzvia Ehrlich-Klein
Distributed by Feldheim
reviewed by Sheindel Weinbach

With the general dimensions of a regular envelope, stuffed with goodness, the juice of good cheer, of chessed, of joie-de-vivre-in-Eretz Yisroel, this book is like its subtitle -- "Life in Israel - It's More Than You Bargained For." It packs a lot!

Your Medical Questions Answered!
by Joseph B. Leibman, MD

Let's finish up with the prostate. The prostate sits under the bladder and as we mentioned it can enlarge as a male ages. Cancer can develop and it is a debilitating one with death common. Detection is tricky, as the prostate is hidden in the body.

POET'S CORNER

Lag B'Omer
by S.W.

All around the hills are aflame
A red fireball is slipping down behind the last mountain
Little pinpoints of fire are ignited
Across myriad mountain crests
Proudly proclaiming temporary reign
Over the terrain
Lag B'Omer is here again.

Branches stretching fingers up to heaven
In flashing flame
Illuminating expectant faces
Focused on the phenomenon of fire
It crackles, sparkles, heats
Stinging, singeing, twinging hearts,
Spiraling cascades of fiery brightness.

Heartfelt prayers rising
To disappear into the night
To disappear, but not be lost.
Bar Yochai is with us
`Anointed' with flame
With the living ember-remember
Burning on in hearts
Ignited from fire to fire to fire
Across blazing mountain crests,
Across the ages, the pages
Of Zohar, of History,
Of then and now.