Positive Word Power “I’m a bum,” the boy told his little brother. “I got kicked out of yeshivah, I smoke and I curse. If I were you, I’d stay away from me.” In fact, only a few months before, the boy had been in yeshivah. He was far from a star student, but he came […]

Positive Word Power Walk down the health and beauty aisle of your local department store. Arrayed on the shelves are hundreds of products, each promising to make the user look, feel and smell attractive. Move along to the cosmetics counter, and you’ll find out, if you don’t already know, that an ounce of lipstick, a […]

Positive Word Power Meatballs and pasketti. Bunny wabbit. Eighteen, nineteen, ten-teen. Learning is a process of making mistakes. Children, who are new to everything, tend to make a lot of mistakes, and many of them sound adorably funny to the adults who dote on their every word. It pays, however, to be sensitive to the reactions […]

Positive Word Power The young mother, out on a shopping trip, noticed a plastic baseball bat that she was sure her 4-year-old son would adore. It was just the right size and weight for him, and would satisfy his yearning to play ball like his older brothers did. She couldn’t wait to see the smile […]

Positive Word Power Translated into English, the irate wife’s Yiddish letter to her merchant husband, off on a long business trip, was a comedy of paradox. “My dear husband — you should live to 120 — you left me without money to pay the rent, and our landlord, who should remain healthy and strong, has […]