FEBRUARY 8 • 2024 | 49
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Cohen put on tefillin for the 
first time. He was hooked 
— in part, he joked, because 
of the “irresistible appeal of 
donning a rakish black hat.”
Eventually, Rabbi Cohen 
found himself at a cross-
roads. He’d been accepted 
into an elite writing program 
at Columbia University 
and also wanted to learn 
Torah in a yeshiva. A wise 
rabbi advised him to attend 
Columbia. Better to go 
to grad school and wish 
you were in yeshiva than 
the other way around, he 
advised. 
Rabbi Cohen followed 
this advice but dropped out 
after two months, enrolled 
in the Rabbinical College 
of Morristown, New Jersey, 
and learned Torah full time 
for the next six years. After 
that, he was a fully ordained 
Orthodox rabbi. 
In 1991, he married his 
popular wife, Ita Leah. (“I 
should consider changing 
my legal name to Ita Leah’s 
husband,” he joked in his 
Acknowledgements page.) 
The Cohens lived in New 
Jersey until 2005, when they 
heard about a new rabbin-
ic post in Michigan. (He 
quipped, “What’s a rabbinic 
post? Where they hang the 
rabbi!”) The Cohens lived in 
Birmingham until they relo-
cated to Oak Park in 2020. 
After the move, Rabbi 
Cohen spent his days learn-
ing at the new Chasidic kollel 
at Congregation Dovid Ben 
Nuchim. One day, his son 
urged him to write a weekly 
d’var Torah. 
“I was pleasantly surprised 
to discover that people 
seemed to really enjoy read-
ing it,” shared Rabbi Cohen. 
A friend suggested compiling 

all his writings into a book, 
and doing so became a full-
time project. 
In December 2022, his 
father, David H. Cohen, 
passed away. This lit a fire 
under Rabbi Cohen — he 
was determined to honor 
his father’s memory with 
the publication of this book, 
which took another year to 
complete.
It was a very fitting dedi-
cation. 
“There are so many ele-
ments of my life in this 
book,” explained Rabbi 
Cohen. “My father invest-
ed so much in me, from 
my childhood, college, my 
writing career, our time in 
Birmingham … I see my 
father’s hand in everything I 
ever did, all the steps that led 
to the creation of this book.”
The book is a fun read. 
There are references to films, 
musicals, plays, books and 
plenty of kosher puns, such 
as “
Avraham’s taking a ham-
mer to his father’s idols is 
certainly a smashing story.” 
It’s sprinkled with humor-
ous personal anecdotes and 
jokes, obscure quotes and 
bits of wisdom from ran-
dom sources and peppered 
with philosophical questions 
that have probably never 
occurred to most people, 
such as: Was Frankenstein 
Jewish? When did being a 
rabbi become a competitive 
sport? and Who made the 
seating chart for the seder? 
The wise son next to the 
wicked son? Are we looking 
for a food fight? 

Copies of Think Outside the Lox are 

available at Borenstein’s, Spitzer’s 

on Amazon or wherever Jewish 

books are sold. To arrange a book 

reading or writing workshop, email 

RabbiCohen36@gmail.com.

antoniosrestaurants.com

To commemorate this milestone, 
the Rugiero family is going to be 
celebrating with the community with 
special promotions and gifts. We will 
have 60 days of celebration from
April 2nd – May 31st and then 
again for another 60 days 
from August 1st – 
September 29th.

The Rugiero 
The Rugiero 

Family 
Family 

Celebrates 
Celebrates 
60 Years in 
60 Years in 

Business
Business

PUZZLE ANSWERS

Solution to puzzle in 2/1/24 issue.

Heros

Hoers

Hokes

Horse

Hoser

Keros

Khors

Kores

Okehs

Rokes

Shoer

Shore

Erks

Eros

Hero

Hers

Hoer

Hoes

Hoke

Hore

Hors

Hose

Kero

Kesh

Khor

Kore

Kors

Okeh

Okes

Ores

Rehs

Reos

Resh

Rhos

Roes

Roke

Roks

Rose

Serk

Shoe

Skeo

Sker

Soke

Sore

