Author: Yehuda Krohn, Psy.D.

March 21st, 2018

This post is a follow up to my “You better listen to your dad” post, in which I described an evocative parenting video, making the rounds on social media.  The video is shot through the windshield of a moving car. It opens with a father narrating how his bullying son was suspended from using the bus to school.  “Dad” demonstrates, on camera, how he now makes his son run to school.  At various points, Dad sha …
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Author: Yehuda Krohn, Psy.D.

March 20th, 2018

There is a remarkable video that has, of late, been making the rounds, on social media.  The video is shot through the windshield of a moving automobile.  The wipers are operating; it is raining outside.  A father, whom we can’t see, narrates, as he drives.  He draws our attention to a 10-year-old child, wearing a backpack, who is running a short distance ahead of the car.    "Dad" informs viewers that his son …
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Author: Yehuda Krohn, Psy.D.

May 24th, 2017

I am not the kind of person who cries at the drop of a hat.  I have experienced, over the decades, more than one sudden, profound loss and have found myself almost unable to shed tears.  My stoicism has led others and, at times, myself to wonder whether I was capable of caring.    A number of years ago, I came across a history series produced by a prominent American Rabbi.  One of his tapes (yes, it was that long ago) foc …
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Author: Yehuda Krohn, Psy.D.

May 5th, 2017

I’m going to ask you an important question.  (It’s kind of personal.) Who owns your body?    Did you answer that you own your body?  Perhaps you answered that Hashem/G-d owns your body.  A good many Orthodox pre-teens would, in fact, answer just that – “Hashem owns my body,” and it seems that they are correct.   After all, Hashem is the Creator of the world and Hashem is present in the c …
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Author: Yehuda Krohn, Psy.D.

June 5th, 2020

COVID-19 has turned our lives upside down.  It’s killed many and sickened many more. The safety measures adopted to limit the spread of the coronavirus have greatly restricted our freedom of movement, shutting down community events, family visits, and play dates.  Government-based restrictions have, until recently, shuttered businesses, schools, and houses of worship. Not surprisingly, the COVID-19 crisis also impacts on our feeli …
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Author: Yehuda Krohn, Psy.D.

February 14th, 2020

A number of years ago, an Orthodox Jewish teenager described for me in session how he and his friends “ditched” their evening Study Hall, in order to participate in a Valentine’s Day tryst with their girlfriends.  Toward the end of his narrative, he grinned and wondered aloud how his religious teachers could not have anticipated that their students would try to “get some action” on this day.  I co …
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Author: Yehuda Krohn, Psy.D.

July 9th, 2020

Author’s note: The privacy and confidentiality of individuals found in this narrative was safeguarded, by modifying identifying details.     It didn’t dawn on me the first week of the shutdown, or even the second or third week. The pandemic had shuttered our schools and synagogues for more than a month, before I recalled my earlier conversation with Hank.    Hank is a bright, sensitive young man.  He is a …
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Author: Yehuda Krohn, Psy.D.

February 1st, 2016

“Excuse me, is that the Torah that you are studying?”  The woman who posed this question was looking across the way into my Gemara, as our plane prepared for takeoff.  She was modestly dressed and wore a headscarf.   In the dim cabin light, her complexion was mocha.  I tried to answer in as factual a manner as I could, as to the different layers of text that were present on the page.    The woman, wh …
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Author: Yehuda Krohn, Psy.D.

November 14th, 2019

The Torah reading, around this time of year, includes a unique and remarkable narrative – The binding of Yitzchok. It is a story that illuminates, first and foremost, the values of fidelity and sacrifice.   A careful reading of the text and its commentaries, though, yields a bonus lesson. There is a clear illustration of how an individual can meaningfully address a bind in which he’s been placed.  A bind is a situation that …
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Author: Yehuda Krohn, Psy.D.

March 27th, 2018

So, I am a Chicagoan, and I probably care more than most people about the fate of the Loyola Chicago Ramblers, an NCAA men’s basketball team that has reached The Final Four – that is the semi-finals of the national championship.    There is, though, something (or more accurately someone) remarkable about this team that has much broader appeal.  Any of us who experiences disability and the effects of aging, whether in hi …
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