Many adults, and working moms in particular, struggle to maintain a healthy work-life balance. Today’s women are juggling more than ever before. How many hats do we wear?! We are wives, mothers, housekeepers, cooks, drivers, and everything else that comes along with the role as family co-CEO. Add to that, women may have a full or part-time jobs. As the price of tuition, food, gas, and everything else continues to rise it has become more difficult to make ends meet on one income. Fortunately, women are incredible multi-taskers and most are able to juggle a lot. But do we get it right all the time? Some of the time? Maybe our goal should be to just do our best and let go of what we cannot accomplish. 

Let’s hear from some of our own community working moms to understand why they chose to work outside the home, how they manage work-life balance, and what advice they want to leave us with. 

Natalie Zenou

I am a Physician’s Assistant. I’m married and have one little girl. I work because I fell in love with medicine and worked really hard for many years to get where I am. Also, I feel good about contributing financially. I don’t feel like I have a great work-life balance. However, there are a few things that help me immensely. First and foremost I have help. I could not realistically manage otherwise. I have a part-time housekeeper and I send my daughter to full-day daycare.  It’s rare that I get me-time during the week, but I have carved out one precious night a week, after Shabbat, just for myself. On Shabbat, I take the “morning shift” of tending to the baby and the household. Saturday night my husband stays home with our daughter and clears up while I go on a run. It’s the one time a week I always have to myself and I cherish it, even if it’s zero degrees outside, I go for my run and come home to a clean house and a baby that is ready for bedtime. It’s my opportunity to escape responsibilities for a while and have some quiet time.

I don’t have a perfect balance yet, but it’s getting better as time go by. I learned to delegate more and accept/hire help. Things are always changing, but I always try my best.

I’d like to share one tip. It’s okay to shift gears and make a change if something is not working for your family. I learned the hard way. Just a few months after giving birth I got my first opportunity to finally work as a PA. The job was doing a night shift at a hospital. I took the job, but it was not right for my family. My husband had to take on an immense amount of my responsibilities and it really took a toll on both of us. I’m not a quitter, so we did our best to make it work. But ultimately, I decided to quit and look for another job. It wasn’t an easy decision, but in retrospect, it was for the best. I found a day-time job that works better for me and my family. 

Claudine Winitsky

My company is Faceworks, which I co-own and manage with my mother.  We do facial care using muscle manipulation. We both have a background in personal training, which helps us to have the same approach to our work.Faceworks is a cosmetic service. We aim to revitalize the face through natural techniques.

We’ve curated a series of specific facial massage exercises  that help brighten, contour, and rejuvenate facial skin and structure. With enough consistency you can sustain these improvements without needing injections, chemical ointments, or cosmetic surgeries.

I am also the mother of three wonderful children, ages six, four, and six months. I work because it gives me a sense of independence that empowers me.  It’s also a great feeling to know that I’m instilling in my children strong work ethic values.  They see the time and effort  I put into my craft.

Work-life balance is a really tricky thing for me, and I think for all working moms. Something I try to do is to schedule my work life around the hours my children are in school or sleeping.  By creating and sticking to a set schedule I am able to make sure that I have enough time for all of my responsibilities both at home and work.

I am also very fortunate to have an amazing support system.  At least one day a week is spent on the road in Brooklyn, servicing out-of-town clients, which means we leave early in the morning when the kids are still home, and return after they’ve finished school. I’m very fortunate that I have my husband and mother-in-law around to help care for the kids when I am not around. I also have amazing help from my housekeeper, who helps keep my house clean and organized. 

Balance is something I struggle with every day. I always want to be there for my children, but at the same time, there is a great demand for our services. I always have to take a step back and remember what’s important to me, which of course is my family. Once I’m aware of that, I have to relay that message to my clients. I have to say no sometimes. Sometimes I’m just honest and I say my children are home right now, and I have to give them my attention. It’s not simple saying no to clients, but it’s essential for a healthy balance.

Melanie Falack

I run a referral agency for baby nurses, elderly care aides, and nannies. I live in Deal, NJ and have three kids. I choose to work because I appreciate having my own life outside of my home. It gives me a feeling of independence and I am able to utilize a different skill set when I’m away from home.

Having a career or job presents a struggle for women. We are expected to be everything that comes with being a mother and a wife – no matter what. As a working mother I found that if I’m going do it all, I have to cut corners. I want to go to the grocery store and hand pick my vegetables. I would love to be the one to fold my own laundry and color code my husband’s shirts. But it’s also so important to have something for myself outside of my home. (It doesn’t have to be a job; it can be a hobby or hesed once a week.) For me, I feel fulfilled by working and earning an income. I have always felt this way, and worked all through college and it felt invigorating. 

Only when I got full time live-in help was I able to have a full-time job and feel like I could disconnect from the home at my job. The only way I personally can have a career is by having someone else clean my house every day, laundry done for me, my groceries delivered to my door (I love Instacart), and my vegetables cut and prepared by someone else so that when I begin cooking it cuts the time in half. I don’t like to cut corners in the family meals. I really believe in providing my kids with wholesome and healthy home-cooked food. But sometimes I do serve pizza or store-bought chicken nuggets. But I do try to give the kids a nice variety of vegetables, protein, and a starch/carb every night. 

Being a mother is a blessing and is very rewarding. But, I also love to work. Work also makes me feel accomplished. I do it for me. I work for myself. I love talking to people and helping people. I work because I love it. Another thing I love about working is that my children know that I work and I have something of my own. It’s so important for me to be a role model to my children. They see that I have a career, a hobby, and I create my own financial independence.

To be able to work outside the home I found I needed to have live-in housekeeping and nanny help. I tried taking on jobs before I had live-in help and I was way too overwhelmed. I would end up feeling like I wasn’t 100 percent doing my job anywhere – not as a mother and not at work. So, instead of feeling a sense of accomplishment from my working extra on the side, I felt like an all-around failure at work and at home. Now that I know what I need in order to work, I am able to really do it all.

To maintain a healthy work-home life balance I moderate the time I am available to respond to people for work. I am a night owl and can stay up until 11pm with work phone calls. I recently made the conscious decision to put my family first. I actively try not to respond to non-urgent matters on weekends and on weekdays after my kids come home from school. Scheduling specific times for work and specific times to be a wife and a mother really helps me balance it all.

Rebbecca Veyg

I work for Progressive Insurance, handling injuries from car accidents. I have one child, and it was a shock how much having a baby changed my day-to-day routine. Before I had a baby my work got done, I always cooked dinner, and my house was spotless. Post-baby life is very different! I had a nanny when my baby was younger, but it was hard having someone living with us and the inconsistencies in my schedule resulted in her leaving. I work from home, remotely. My father or mother-in-law sometimes come to babysit while I’m working, which is a big help.

My baby is my priority (over work and housework) so when he’s around and wants to play, needs to be fed, or changed etc., everything else is on hold. I work when the baby is napping. As for the home – some days dishes pile up in the sink, the beds aren’t made, and there are toys everywhere. Some days I don’t get around to cooking dinner, and we order in. I try to work out or do something for myself, in between caring for my baby and working. So, dinner and tidying up do not come first. 

I work because living in Brooklyn is expensive, so my salary, of course, helps us financially. To make this work it’s very helpful that my husband is very hands on with the baby. If I need to go out or just need a break, he doesn’t mind watching the baby and he even will feed, bathe, and put him to sleep. 

I don’t have any specific tips for your readers, but I’ll say what makes me happy is online shopping. It’s something I do for myself often now that I have a baby. It’s like a reward, I never had so many boxes coming to the house before and it’s just fun!

***

The take-home message is that there is no perfect work-life balance. Working moms accept that when you work outside the home, some things have to give. But you do your best with what you have, and the rest is up to Hashem. Women need to do a careful accounting of what works best for them and their families. Extra money coming in may be a necessity. For some women, self-fulfillment from work may also be a necessity and not just a bonus. But, when you have an outside job, all agree that you need support, be it from hired help or willing family members. Working moms are heroines, doing their best to juggle work and family obligations, and trying to do it all with a smile.

Thoughts on this topic? I’d love to chat! Follow me on Instagram @friedaschwekyphoto.

Until next time, 

Frieda Schweky!

DAVE GORDON

Although the Democrats dominate Congress, the Senate, and the White House, some recent major elections indicate that the pendulum may be swinging towards the right, with unexpected wins that may be a sign Americans are looking to the GOP to move the country forward.

Around the country, the people have spoken – loud and clear, that they had enough of the liberal policies they see as resulting in inflation, over-regulated education, increased crime, and wokeism. 

John Fund, national affairs reporter for National Review Online and a senior editor at The American Spectator,  commented that this new wave of wins was a repudiation of Joe Biden and the progressive left agenda.  

Turnabout in Virginia

With the defeat of former Virginia Democratic Governor Terry McAuliffe, the democratic congressional majorities have been put in jeopardy, as voters elected Republican businessman Glenn Youngkin. 

McAuliffe had hoped former President Donald Trump’s double impeachment and cloud of the January 6th violence would stain the GOP brand in his state. He also made several efforts over the course of the hustings to tie Youngkin’s politics directly to Trump’s, but surveys showed that voters were not interested in this topic.  

Voters were more keen to know about what their politicians were doing on a more local level, with tangibles, which Youngkin stressed, vowing to repeal the grocery tax, suspend the gas tax, and resuscitate Virginia’s economy.

But the more prominent part of his platform came from his policies regarding the hot-button issue with conservatives, the “culture war.” Youngkin promised to ban critical race theory, a topic that is currently absent from Virginia school curriculums, and lent support to an expansive charter school program. He also was in favor of ending current COVID-19 restrictions, such as mask mandates and school shutdowns.

That same said backlash against leftism appeared to be why two additional Republicans won big in Virginia: Winsome Sears, the Lt. Governor of Virginia, a former Marine, and the first black woman to hold this office, and their attorney general Jason Miyares, the first Latino to hold this office and the son of Cuban refugees. 

Surprises in New Jersey

In a shocking surprise for the Democratic party, the New Jersey race for governor resulted in a tightly contested race with only a slight lead for Governor Phil Murphy, who was expected to face no trouble in his re-election bid.

Another surprise came with the election for New Jersey’s 3rd Legislative District. Republican Edward Durr, a former truck driver who was new to politics, triumphed over Democratic New Jersey Senate President Stephen Sweeney. Sweeney was New Jersey’s longest-serving legislative leader. Although the state of New Jersey has a history of being blue, with registered Democrats leading the population by more than one million, changes are being made at both high and low levels of government. 

The candidates’ spending on their campaigns differed dramatically, with Sweeney raising more than $2.7 million in 2021, and Durr spending just $153 (including the $66.64 spent on Dunkin Donuts). 

Biden won the state by a 16-point margin in 2020.

Voters Take a Stand in Minnesota and New York

Minneapolis voters faced a ballot issue regarding police reform measures, with 56 percent of voters saying no. In the city famous for sparking global protests brought on by the George Floyd incident, citizens rejected the measure to create a city council run Department of Public Safety and to eliminate the Minneapolis Police Department. Law and order won out.

In New York, meanwhile, it is tough to expect a Republican win – though it has happened with Michael Bloomberg and Rudy Giuliani as mayors, and George Pataki as governor – the political needle moved closer to the center with mayor-elect Eric Adams, in November. 

Adams, the former Brooklyn borough president and a retired former police captain, ran on a promise to crack down on crime and police abuse, and handily won election against his Republican opponent, Guardian Angel founder Curtis Sliwa. Many are anticipating Adams to be a right-leaning Democrat, likely to avoid the state intervention and leftist policies so often associated with his predecessor, Bill de Blasio. 

What Will the Future Hold?

In the final analysis, pundits are wondering whether these winds of change (or wins of change) will be a bellwether for 2022 mid-terms, and a reflection Americans’ overall growing discontent with the hard-left turns occurring in the Democrat party.

Dave Gordon

David Gindi calls himself “a regular citizen of the great United States of America, probably just like everyone else that followed politics from afar.”

But now, newly elected David Gindi, 49, is not just experiencing a career shift, but is also one of five Republicans in the six-seat Eatontown Borough Council. 

The unlikely candidate, formerly a CEO for a wholesale company in New Brunswick,  did not really set out to be a politician. 

Moving from the Sidelines to the Front Line

“I tell people, ‘My extent of politics was sitting around a fire pit, drinking beers, and complaining about the job everyone else was doing.’ The conversations would always end up, at least from my perspective, where I’d say, ‘You know what? If I ever got the chance, I would try to do it, and make a change.’”

Gindi never went to party-related functions and, “it was just simply a conversation with friends back and forth. That was basically it.”

Up until eight months ago, there was never really an opportunity to make that change, and Gindi never actively sought out that opportunity. “As a side note, I think that’s an overall issue with voters. People want change, don’t like the way things are, but won’t make the effort to go out and cast the vote to change the thing.” 

But when Gindi did toss his hat in, he felt strongly that government on all levels was meddling too much. One of the things that pushed him to step forward was when his neighbor, “had one of the roughest times I can imagine a person having, to deal with putting a shed on his property,” Gindi said.

“I found it to be the most ludicrous thing a person had to go through. He wasn’t putting it anywhere [other than on his own property] and it certainly was not an eyesore. The amount of money he spent to do this, and the town still rejecting him, was unsettling.” 

Gindi’s Commitment to Affect Positive Change

And so, Gindi decided to become involved on the political level where he could affect real change for locals, be it with properties, property taxes, zoning, infrastructure, or helping businesses thrive.

“The mayor and the council have a lot of access to these things where they can make things right for the residents in their towns. You start moving up the ladder of politics, and it becomes like eating soup with a fork. You can want to eat it all day long, but you are never going to get it into your mouth,” Gindi said.

Then, there were property taxes, another sore spot. “A very big issue I have with that is the town and government using an assessment process that allows them gains on unrealized appreciation on peoples’ homes. I want to strip the entire assessment process out of how our town generates revenue,” Gindi noted.

Helping Residents Improve Their Homes Without Being Penalized

“I believe people will start pouring money back into their homes, helping with beautification. Because people said to me, ‘I would love to improve my house, but I just don’t want to be reassessed for taxes.’” 

An example Gindi gives is an individual with an unfinished basement, who refuses to get it finished, due to the fact that “home improvement” will increase his property taxes.

“Why should the government get the benefit of his investment into his home? Why should he be penalized for working on his house?”

While canvasing, many questioned Gindi’s bona fides as a resident. He has lived in the town for four years, but he said the area has been home for him for over forty years.

“In Eatontown, I grew up going to the local mall. We skated at the Eatontown Roller Rink. This isn’t the kind of area where you stay in your town and don’t visit neighboring towns.”

Redevelopment Potential

“In our town, there is a lot of potential redevelopment. The Monmouth Mall, which is currently a $4 million tax ratable, is currently in court fighting their taxes and looking for an abatement because of Covid and because there are residents suing to block any redevelopment. You can’t even begin to imagine the tax ramification on everyone in the borough if they get their abatement. That’s going to be a major pressure on the town and residents. So, we need to sit down with the developers, town leaders – both on council and non-elected citizens – and get together on a plan that works for everybody,” Gindi noted. “Then, we also have the redevelopment of Fort Monmouth, what is referred to as Parcel B, which I think is about 190 acres that’s open for purchase and redevelopment. If that happens, the town will be open for more business and new families.” 

Gindi’s Vision – Eatontown as a Destination Not Just a Drive-Through Town

In that regard, Gindi believes the town ought to be more of a “destination,” than “just a place people drive through,” and he hopes his efforts can be part of the solution.

“With the local mall in disarray, a lot of residents will go somewhere else to shop. My daughter, for example, would rather drive the thirty minutes it takes to get to Freehold than go to Monmouth Mall, because it’s a horrible place to shop,” he noted.

“Where we are located on the Jersey Shore is central. Around us are towns that are drawing dollars into those towns, and making Eatontown a pass-through town. When you get off the Garden State Parkway, you have to drive through Eatontown. The problem is, they will continue going East, or they will head south to the Ocean Neptune area, where all the major retailers are continuing to set up shop. Or they will head north for luxury shopping.” 

Gindi is ready to hit the ground running, ready to make a difference, brimming with a fire in his belly. What Gindi is most looking forward to is the opportunity to help bring the area back to life, and to moving forward after COVID-19.

“It’s a great town. The potential is phenomenal,” he said. “It’s exciting to be able to bring some new, fresh ideas to the table, and work with people who will embrace them, and help get them over the finish line.” 

Machla Abramovitz

No matter what the season, whether in the cold of winter or the heat of summer, hundreds of children – boys and girls – drop whatever they are doing and rush to partake of what Rabbi Maimon Elbaz is dishing out.  

What are these delights streaming from this colorfully-attired melamed’s bag of tricks?  Are they ice cream, cookies, or other delectables?  

Actually, no. 

They are “mussar schmoozes” (religious discourses).  But tell anyone participating in his “Torah Shows” that that is what they are consuming, and they will look at you as if you descended from some strange faraway galaxy.  “Mussar? Impossible! What Rabbi Elbaz is presenting is way too much fun for that.”

But that is, precisely, what it is – profound Torah insights cloaked in the most luscious wrappings. 

“Seeing” What the Words are Saying 

Take Rabbi Elbaz’s Shemitah Show as one example. Vibrantly colorful slides of lush fields and dripping fruit glide across the screen, accompanying Rabbi Elbaz’s engaging narrative as he takes his audience on a virtual tour of Israel as seen through the eyes of a farmer observing shemitah. But as the children soon learn, this presentation is not only about farmers living far away in a land few of them ever visited, but about themselves and their relationship to Hashem.

“During shemitah, I can go into a stranger’s field and help myself to all the fruits my family can eat for three days,” Rabbi Elbaz informs, his voice undulating with drama and meaning.

Then, a child, chosen previously from the audience, interrupts the rabbi’s monologue with questions that everyone is eager to ask.

“Three days?” this charming little voice chirps. “I’m going to take enough for my family for an entire month!”

“No,” the rabbi replies, his voice oozing with authority. “We are only allowed to take three days’ worth of food.”

Consider the lessons taught in this short exchange. These elated youngsters learn not only some laws of shemitah, but also about hesed (kindness) and emunah.  We needn’t take more than our share because we need to understand that Hashem provides all our needs. 

“By answering targeted questions that I know children ask themselves, and by doing it in a fun way,” Rabbi Elbaz says, “I help ensure that the children will remember the lessons taught much longer.”

Rabbi Elbaz tackles not only timely subjects like shemitah, but also “evergreen” topics such as geulah (redemption), Shabbat, Torah learning, gedoleh Yisrael (great Torah sages), and others – each one similarly developed as a labor of love.  

The rabbi’s all-time favorite show is the one about the Amidah prayer, also known as the Shemonah Esreh. We recite this prayer three times a day, but do we concentrate on every one of the 18 berachot (blessings) as we should?  More of us certainly will after experiencing Rabbi Elbaz’s slide show on this prayer. By watching his real-life photos of blessings that we often take for granted – freshwater, a happy family, the ability to hear – davening takes on more profound, immediate, and personal meaning.  

“It’s not enough to only hear the words of the davening,” the rabbi explains. “My audiences ‘see’ what the words are saying. My goal is to make them feel a deeper connection to Hashem in a fun way. My audience – children and adults – is so immersed in the experience that they feel compelled to do the mitzvah.”

This master storyteller has created, over the last 30 years, 24 interactive and technologically laden Torah Shows aimed at bringing significant Torah lessons to his audiences. Rabbi Elbaz is also occasionally invited to entertain and inspire groups, and runs an ongoing Game Show of      Q&A to challenge the minds of young and old. He has traveled to over 50 cities, visiting high schools, elementary schools, and shuls, presenting his meaningful Torah Shows Series.

A Master Educator Since Childhood

Most educators will tell you that in our age of technology and instant gratification, keeping students engaged is exceedingly difficult. But Rabbi Elbaz never found this to be the case. Even before his bar mitzvah, while living in Cleveland, Ohio, the young Maimon ran Pirchei, Agudath Israel’s youth group for boys, at the Telshe Yeshiva. As a precursor to his future success as a melamed, Maimon packed his Shabbat programs with captivating programs. 

Later, when running the canteen at Telshe Yeshiva and Camp Kol Torah, he added brain teasers to his repertoire in the form of Torah riddles to initiate conversations with the children on Torah, fear of Heaven, and other subjects. Those who solved these teasers received free pizza and popcorn. He also loved giving out goldfish to recruits.

“Sure, they enjoyed the chance to win a treat,” Rabbi Elbaz recalls, “but they were more pleased to realize that the Torah lessons they learned would profoundly impact their daily lives.” 

Noting how children gravitated towards young Maimon (they called him “the Pied Piper,”) the Rosh Yeshiva of Telshe, Rav Mordechai Gifter, zt”l, predicted – accurately – that he would do great things in the world of hinuch (education).

Today, this proud father and grandfather is a fifth-grade rebbe at Yeshivat Ziv HaTorah, and an 11th-grade English Language Arts teacher at Yeshivat Kinyan Torah (YKT), reflecting his love of Torah and abundant artistic and creative abilities. Meanwhile, his extracurricular programs keep thousands of talmidim/fans engaging in Torah study and pursuing a meaningful relationship with Hashem. His classes are available on TorahAnytime.com/kids.

The Merging of Two Worlds

The journey Rabbi Elbaz traveled to arrive at his phenomenal success reflects his unique connection to both the Sephardic and Ashkenazi communities. 

The rabbi grew up in a Sephardic home, but his schooling and friendships developed in a decidedly Ashkenaz environment – Telshe in Cleveland and Chicago, and Ner Yisroel in Baltimore. Then, in 1988, Rabbi Avraham Baddouch and Rabbi Shlomo Goldberg invited him and other Sephardic bochurim to Mexico City to help strengthen their growing Sephardic yeshiva, Emek.  

Rabbi Elbaz recalls that he found, to his sheer delight, that the community there in Mexico City did not need help, but was in “turbo drive” in its pursuit of Torah knowledge. 

“We came to provide hizuk [strengthening],” he says, “but we received more than we gave.” 

The community’s impact on him was so substantial that he later looked to the Sephardim for a wife, and he married Malky Vicki Salem, the granddaughter of Hacham Sion and Victoria Maslaton, who encouraged the couple in their respective missions – for him, hinuch, and for his wife, hesed and shadchanut (matchmaking).

His stay in Mexico also pushed him to attend Yeshivat Mikdash Melech, a Sephardic yeshiva in Jerusalem, and he later joined Camp Shivtei Yisrael, an all-Sephardic sleepaway camp in Upstate NY where campers were immersed in a yeshiva environment for two months. He was particularly impressed by how patient the staff was with campers from families that were not religiously observant. He realized that this kind of awareness and sensitivity best reflected who he wanted to be.

“They Came Because They Felt Loved”

Putting this inspiration into action, Rabbi Elbaz opened the Children’s Torah Center, a father-and-son Shabbat program housed in the Ahi Ezer Torah Center. It later expanded to every second day of the week, and ran for 12 incredible years.

“It was not a babysitting service,” Rabbi Elbaz says, “but a real extracurricular enrichment program. We had a full-functioning minyan, speeches, and a Mishnayot program, all under the auspices of this wonderful shul.”

Some 100 children attended every program, and they were enamored. The atmosphere was magical. The rooms were replete with electronics, sporting goods, Torah tapes, and all kinds of exciting goodies that they could win. 

The program featured Rabbi Elbaz’ famous Torah riddles, over 3,000 of which he later compiled into his popular two-volume book titled Torahific, which he dedicated to his late parents, Rabbi Avraham and Esther Elbaz a”h. The riddles included questions like, “Where in the Torah is it hinted not to overeat candy, nosh, and sweets?”; “When does a ‘little’ equal ‘a lot,’ and sometimes even more?”; and, “When is hametz forbidden even when it’s not Pesach? And why?” These questions had children, fathers, and grandfathers scratching their heads.  

“The program was dynamic, exciting, and well organized,” Rabbi Elbaz proudly recalls. “But more significantly, the children came because they felt loved. Whether a child had peyot or wore a necklace, we equally welcomed them to the program.” 

The Center has since moved to Congregation Har Halevanon at 820 Ave. S, and runs every Sunday afternoon.  

Books on the weekly parashah and Navi shortly followed. His latest volume, The Children’s Sefer Torah Encyclopedia, is a colorful compilation of information – culled from Torah, Midrash, and the Talmud – on making a Sefer Torah, replete with quality photos. He also produced an hour-long Torah Show on this subject. 

Rabbi Elbaz says his books, Torah Shows and Shabbat/Sunday programs ultimately serve a greater purpose: to win over the hearts of his audiences, inspiring them to live a Torah lifestyle. “We keep telling our youth what not to watch, so we must create for them alternative materials. If they’re entertained and inspired, they won’t go searching outside the Torah community.”

But when it comes to keeping children engaged, he says, there is no great secret to it all. 

“Children want to feel that their rebbe is sensitive to who they are, does not embarrass them, and praises them honestly.” All this comes naturally to Rabbi Elbaz, setting an example for all educators and parents to follow.