Since my Dad’s death, there have been numerous times I’ve thought about calling him to tell him about something funny that happened. I’m grateful to have been able to visit him more since moving to New Jersey, and I’m indebted to the members of my community who have comforted me with many acts of kindness. At the halfway point of shloshim, the first thirty days of mourning, I’ve begun to write my next article for The Wisdom Daily, which will be published in two weeks. Even as I think about making the transition to the next stage of mourning, about leaving the more intense grief behind and settling into a long-term relationship with loss, I am still making sense of my feelings through writing poetry and memories. Here is a link to the hesped, eulogy, I shared at his funeral and later on my website:

Aaron Jay z”l  (January 15, 1943 – October 13, 2026)

When I was 4 years old, attending an Orthodox Nursery School in Staten Island, and adults would ask me, “What do you want to be when you grow up?” I’d answer, “A fireman, President of the United States, or a rabbi.” And they would chuckle because, although I was an early reader, this was before the founding of Ms. Magazine. But I wasn’t trying to be funny. READ MORE→