Gina Briefs-Elgin

According to Hasidic tradition, thirty-six “saints” (lamed vavnik) are hidden in the world at all times, holding it together through their secret good deeds. Disguised as socially marginal figures—peasants, porters, and homeless, nameless wanderers—they appear among strangers and, through their

by Gina Briefs-ElginIt’s hard to know what will push you over the edge.After my mother’s memorial Mass, a young friend confided that my mother had taught her an important life lesson: never serve cantaloupe on an orange-colored plate. I could just hear my mother: “Oh! not that color, dear,” my mother would have told her,