Author: Rabbi Yitzchak Shmuel Ackerman, LMHC

November 3rd, 2019

Chanoch l’naar al pi darko, gam ki yazkin lo yasur mimenu” – Train the youth according to his way, so that even when he ages he will not deviate from it. (Mishlei 22:6) That is one of the ways to translate and understand this pasuk in Mishlei.  It means that once you have trained a child in a certain way he or she will maintain that way throughout his or her entire life.  The catch is “a certain way.”  …
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Author: Rabbi Yitzchak Shmuel Ackerman, LMHC

October 13th, 2019

In 1974, I was in graduate school.  I had voluminous amounts of material to memorize and I was struggling.  Then, Hashgacha Pratis brought about the publication of a book that changed my life over the long term and got me through graduate school in the short term: The Memory Book by Harry Lorayne and Jerry Lucas.  Yes, that is the Jerry Lucas who played for the Knicks.  After retirement, he co-authored The Memory Book which so …
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Author: Rabbi Yitzchak Shmuel Ackerman, LMHC

October 6th, 2019

We’re all familiar with the NYPD motto, “Courtesy, Professionalism, Respect.”  That should be the motto of every educator and parent every time they speak with a child. It is our motto as yidden all day every day towards everyone, isn’t it?  Doesn’t derech eretz kadma l’Torah mean exactly that? What does it mean to speak to everyone with courtesy, professionalism, and respect?  What would you so …
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Author: Rabbi Yitzchak Shmuel Ackerman, LMHC

October 2nd, 2019

In Parshas Ki Savo (Devarim 27:15-26), the Torah records the curses pronounced by the Kohanim and the Leviim while facing Har Eival.  Rashi (27:12) says that each of the k’lolos was preceded by a corresponding bracha, and Rashi at the beginning of Parshas Re-eh (11:26) says these brachos were alluded to in the words re-eh anochi nosain lifnaichem hayom bracha u’klola. The question remains.  Why did the Torah enumerate the k& …
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Author: Rabbi Yitzchak Shmuel Ackerman, LMHC

September 23rd, 2019

Remember back when you were dating?  You spent a lot of pleasant time wining and dining out, although the “wining” part consisted of diet cola. Then you got married and the wining and dining continued but the setting shifted to your home. In the next stage, when your baby began to feed herself, wining and dining was suspended and replaced with you trying to eat while repeatedly refilling your baby’s fork or spoon, or just p …
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Author: Rabbi Yitzchak Shmuel Ackerman, LMHC

September 10th, 2019

I’ve heard people say that you are not allowed to question Hashem. I never understood that. When Hashem told Avraham Aveinu that Hashem was planning to destroy Sodom and its neighboring cities, Avraham asked Hashem a series of questions. When Hashem make the sivlos Mitzraim even worse after Moshe Rabeinu’s first encounter with Pharoah, Moshe asked questions of Hashem. I understand that we are not on the darga of Avraham or Moshe, but …
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Author: Rabbi Yitzchak Shmuel Ackerman, LMHC

September 1st, 2019

These song lyrics from 1975 resonated with me: To those of us who knew the pain…
And those whose names were never called
When choosing sides for basketball. They described my life from ten years earlier. Never being chosen for basketball, baseball, or anything else, was painful for me but I wouldn’t consider it being bullied. Being punched in the gut while on line at the lunchroom, being mocked, being called names, being …
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Author: Rabbi Yitzchak Shmuel Ackerman, LMHC

August 19th, 2019

We’ve all heard the expression, “Think Outside of the Box.”  Have you ever wondered what box this refers to? The primordial box was not metaphorical. It was a specific box in the form of a two-dimensional square. “Sam Loyd's Cyclopedia of 5000 Puzzles, Tricks, and Conundrums (With Answers)” originally published in 1914, includes (it’s still in print!) a puzzle known as the 'Nine Dots Puzzle' which was pose …
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Author: Rabbi Yitzchak Shmuel Ackerman, LMHC

August 19th, 2019

Do you know how long ago there was a technology upgrade in my school? It was in 1962!  Our blackboard and white chalk had a tech upgrade to greenboard and yellow chalk.  Conventional wisdom says that happened when it was discovered that yellow on green is easier to read than white on black.  Apparently the makers of highway entrance and exit signs agree.  Interestingly, an article in the October 2016 issue of The Atlantic sugg …
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Author: Rabbi Yitzchak Shmuel Ackerman, LMHC

July 21st, 2019

I’ve read that when you are angry at your child you should take a deep breath and count to ten before you say anything.  Every time I’m about to tell my child what she did wrong, I stop, take a deep breath, and count to ten.  After I’ve done all that, I say the exact same thing in the same angry voice that I was going to say to begin with.  What’s the point of breathing and counting when I end up the same, R …
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