A Message to our Readers

It is Erev Pesach; you have spent the last three weeks preparing the house for Yom Tov, cleaning every cupboard, washing the refrigerator, and shining all the silver. The place is gleaming! Additionally, you have cooked, cooked some more, and then cooked even more. Your home smells delicious! All this while you've been buying new clothes for all the children, feeding them three meals a day since school was out, and keeping the house running in a relatively normal fashion. You are exhausted!.

Then your Chaim, the child with a developmental disability, opens a chometz cabinet and starts to empty everything all over the clean, Pesach'dike kitchen! You scream, "Chaim, I told you a hundred times we don't open these cabinets on Pesach! Why can’t you ever listen?" As you clean up again, your weariness puts you in a bleak frame of mind as you reflect on your helpless situation. You think that no matter how much effort you put into teaching Chaim, you will never get ahead. It will always be a losing situation.

It is at times like these that you have to summon the pluck and resolve to stay focused on the big picture. Remember that there are dozens of Pesach holidays ahead to continue teaching Chaim. There are thousands of opportunities in the future to continue working toward goals that right now seem too distant to even imagine reaching. Your success as a parent of a child with a disability is dependent on your will and commitment.

Remember, the cumulative effect of working with a child cannot be minimized. With our special-needs children, things just take a little longer.

A kosher and freilichen Pesach,

Rabbi Simon Lauber
Founder & CEO

Founder & CEO
Rabbi Simon Lauber
slauber@spiritmag.org

Editor-in-Chief
Gershon Sabol
gershon@spiritmag.org

Rabbinical Advisory Board
Rabbi Chaim L. Rottenberg, shlita
Rabbi Avrohom Chaim Feuer, shlita

Editor
Dini Sternhill
dinis@spiritmag.org

Copy Editor
Yaakov Steinhart
Naomi Oshry
Magazine Layout & Design
Mark Weisz Design
www.markweisz.com

Web Layout & Design
Baruch Lebovits

Editorial Advisory Board
Rivky Kopstick
Chaya Yitty Rottenberg
Sara L. Sabo
Michelle Steinhart

Contributors
Bayla Sheva Brenner
Pearl E.
Malky Feig
Tziri Frank
Adina Hershberg
Roberta Israeloff
Judy Landesman
Penny Neumann
Bassy S.
Lisa Shapero
Chaya Tavin