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Howard Rheingold speaks about how to know if a Web-based source is reliable.

I like that term Crap Detection. Literacy is so important. Not everything you read or see on the web is true. Haha. Seriously though, he makes a good point about the site that mentions MLK that is really a white supremecy site. I also feel like I have to be very careful when I send out links to parents to check out. I do this in all my mass emails because it's a good way to continue the discussion and learning. But one time I sent out a youtube video and in the comment section there were some bad words. So important to scroll to the bottom. Another time one of my teachers was using this site to get prayers off of but then realized it was a Jews for Jesus site that was cloaked as a Jewish site. Oye. She was mortified. So important to know how to detect crap! Especially when you can't smell the screen but have to dig a little deeper with your eyes.

The Vitality of the Hebrew Language What are the secrets of its survival? This article is excerpted from William Chomsky's magnum opus Hebrew: The Eternal Language, first published in 1957. Reprinted with permission from the Jewish Publication Society. How we can use Hebrew today. Teaching Hebrew to our students.

Yes we can use Hebrew! Reminds me of the Dali Lama meeting with the Rabbis and asking how did Judaism survive while in exile for 2000. One answer is Hebrew. I think Hebrew plays a big role in our continuity. It's a language we can all use for prayer and now as the every day language in Israel. I want my own children to know Hebrew so they can pray in Hebrew and read seferim, chant Torah/Haftarah, and study gemara. They have a ways to go but have to put it out there and I also realize it has to come directly from them too. Thanks for the good reference and link.

They say that no matter what happens, at the end of your wedding day the goal is to be married. I find the same to be true for a Bar/Bat Mitzvah. At the end of the day you are a Jewish adult. You will be held to higher standards. It does not matter if you only have an aaliyah to the Torah or if you lead the whole thing. The point is you have reached adulthood in Judaism and you need to start acting like it.

You are a Jewish adult, then you go back to middle school! Seriously though, I really love myjewishlearning.com. I use it all the time for references and articles. The articles make a lot of sense and speak to a wide yet focused and community. I also appreciate how even though it keeps it serious, it remains consistent in its respectful approach to pluralism. In terms of the adult b'nai mitzvah, we have a class at the Synagogue for just this type of thing. We use Hineni Prayerbook Hebrew for Adults through Behrman House. People can take the class even if they don't schedule an actual adult bar or bat mitzvah. The ceremonies are really quiet special....it's never too late. And there's also the tradition of every 70 years having a bar or bat mitzvah which also has lots of potential. We all should live so long!

For all of us, learning was an innate part of life. It was something we just did, that was as natural to us as breathing. If not for this innate desire to learn and with it the ability to do so, we would never learn to walk, or speak or interact with others.