The brother of a friend from high school wanted to go into the film business.  He was especially fond of horror movies, showing off simple tricks to make special effects like they did in Hollywood.  Spaghetti, for example, when broken,…

My sister-in-law spent the holiday of Purim in a bomb shelter.  Her children, my niece and nephew, had been called up for reserve duty and were heading off to the Northern Front.  But despite the dire mood across Israel, she,…

In the Torah, shemen katith, beaten olive oil, was considered the best.  Made by pounding or crushing the olives with a mortar rather than using machinery, the process produces clear, pure oil, the only oil allowed to be used in…