How To... Havel Havelim

Here's the ultimate "How to..." from our "How to..." Maya. Yes, it's Maya's debut Havel Havelim.

Well, Maya, this certainly makes you a veteran Israeli jblogger!

She did a great job. Take a look.

If I Get So Many Compliments Now, Why...

If I Get So Many Compliments Now, Why...

...Why was I considered overweight years ago when I weighed twenty pounds (8 kilo) less?

This peculiar situation has been troubling me a lot. I was considered "too heavy" all my life. It certainly didn't help that I was a teenager when Twiggy was the idealized figure.

My self-image, even when I was thirty and forty pounds less than my present weight, has always been that of a fat person. I truly wonder if that contributed to my obesity. It became a self-fulfilling prophesy.

I felt comfortable even at my fattest. That's bad. And I was in no rush to get the weight off. I was on the obese charts for about fifteen years. That's a long time.

Don't call it diet... Since I've changed my way of eating, I've been losing weight. I can't predict how much more I'll lose, and I tell people I counsel/coach that they shouldn't make strict goals. Just find a healthier way to eat and accept the results. Temporary diets are the worst, because the resulting weight loss will also be temporary.

Strange Coincidences

Just before Shabbat I found the time to glance at a few blogs, among them Seraphic Secret. There I read a post about the most amazing young artist, Moshe Hammer, Z"L, of California, who had been killed in a tragic accident a few years ago.

I was so impressed by the examples of his work which illustrated the post and Robert J. Avrech's more complete article in the Jewish Press. Davka, on Shabbat our guests' last name was also Hammer, but they don't know of any relationship.


And a different sort of coincidence...

After Shabbat I came across an op-ed piece by someone who also does sketches, granted a totally different style and subject.

Michael Arthur wrote for the New York Times about how he became an artist.

The pen and ink drawings of Hammer and Arthur are very different. Arthur's focus on the people and leave lots of empty space. Hammer's are to illustrate religious texts and blessing. The pictures are complex and the space is full of Hebrew prayers and text.

I enjoy them both.

Shavua Tov U'Mevorach

Have a Good and Blessed Week

Losing A Different Sort of Weight

It's no secret that I've been losing weight and blog about it a lot. My neighbors have been greeting me with:

"Nice to see you, at least what's left of you."

I'm glad that they notice, and I know that there's lots more to lose. My daily eating has changed, and I don't know what weight will become "my weight."

But there's something else that's lightening, and it's because I'm being coached by Yehudit. I don't want to go into any details, but let's suffice that the blogging me is just one (OK, considering my varied blogs) or a few of the various aspects of my personality.

There are things I must change, and it's not just my figure. Yehudit is helping!

They Asked For Chulent

Very rarely do I make chulent, that slow-cooking stew, a lot of people eat as part of, or the main part of, their Shabbat day meal.

My family doesn't like it, or they don't like what I used to make, so I don't cook it.

But yesterday my neighbor who arranges meals for those who need them asked me to make someone chulent. If that's what they want, that's what they'll get. Here's the new version:

• A couple of handfuls of mixed dry beans (lima, kindney and chickpeas.) Presoak, rinse and soak again for quite a while to soften.
• A package of turkey wings, better ratio of meat to bones than turkey drumsticks.
• Potatoes
• spices, peppercorns, ketchup and whatever

After the beans have gotten soft, cook them up with the turkey and water. Then add the potatoes and ketchup and more water. If my pot hadn't been so full, I would have added carrots and onions.

It smells good!

"Retraining" My Yahoo

Yesterday, sans food and water, because I was fasting, I must have clicked spam instead of delete, because I discovered all the blogger comments in the spam box. I check my spam box before deleting messages, because for some peculiar reason yahoo takes an irrational dislike to some senders. For a while, it was sorting my very own mail, sent from the same address, into the spam box.

It took a few weeks of rescuing the letters, moving them to the inbox and then opening them for yahoo to recategorize them as legitimate mail.

So, now I have to do this all over again with my blogger comments. It doesn't matter who is listed as "sender," they all go to spam.

TV Kashrut Problem

There's a very popular cooking program on Israel's Chanel 1, Chaim Cohen's "Shum, Pilpel v'Zayit," "Garlic, Pepper and Olives." I have no idea if their studio kitchen is actually kosher, or sort of kosher or doesn't even pretend to be kosher.

I never saw him demonstrate a recipe combining meat and milk or some traif ingredient.

The problem is something that someone who only knows "the basics" of kashrut can get caught in. He used liver in a recipe as if if was regular meat. Liver requires a special kashering process, burning over a flame, so the blood will be burnt, destroyed. Other meat and poultry (poultry livers are kashered as beef livers) are soaked and salted.

Especially nowadays when we buy our meat and poultry, all kashered, cut and frequently frozen, ready for cooking, or even cooked and ready to eat, many people are unaware that liver demands special care. I've been married almost forty years, and I only kashered liver once. We buy chopped liver ready-made, and that's a rare week.

Liver is sold frozen next to all the other meat parts, which are already kashered. So I wonder if all the consumers realize that they have to treat liver differently.

Insulting! Disappointing, too.

I haven't been very coy about my age. And I certainly can't be if I want to enjoy the discounts.

My parents were always asked to show proof of age when they wanted the "senior discount." They've always, and still, look younger, much younger than their ages.

This week I finally began using my discount bus ticket (had to use up the old one first.) I was devistated. Nobody, not a single driver has questioned me about my rights to senior discounts!

I Didn't Realize I Was So Tired

My alarm gets me up early, at 5 something am, before 5:30 even. My general routine is to turn on the computer and while it's "wariming up," I make my coffee and start drinking my water. By the time I get to the computer, it's usually ready for action.

Today is a fast day, the 17th of Tammuz. That means: no coffee and no water. So, I figured I'd lie down on the couch for a few minutes.

...three hours later I woke up!

It's not like I've been all that busy this week. I haven't been busy at all. Maybe I just go to bed too late for someone who wakes up at 5 something am.

Amazing Email

The modern world is really something.

Here in Shiloh we have an email group. It's used for all sorts of things, like "lost and found," getting rides, jobs and even babysitters. I used it to give away some shoes and even food we couldn't finish.

We announce celebrations and tragedies. We have "discussions," too.

This morning I realized that I had to find a new volunteer to bring the Torah Tidbits before Shabbat. The neighbor who had conscientiously and reliably brought it to Shiloh every week for many, many years had just moved to Jerusalem. Somehow, I had been entrusted with the job of finding a replacement.

I wrote up a bilingual announcement. English, because the English-speakers are familiar with Torah Tidbits and probably read it. Hebrew, because you don't have to a knowledgeable of English to do a great mitzvah.

Within a short time, there was a reply by a neighbor who works in NDS, an enormous high tech company. She wrote that she sees boxes of TT's delivered every week and wondered if we could get it that way.

I quickly called Toni, who's in charge of TT distribution. Yes, it would be fine. NDS is second only to the Israel Center in the number of Torah Tidbits distributed, over 1,500!

So, G-d willing, tomorrow my neighbor will take over the job!

Tizki l'Mitzvot.

May you be rewarded with more Mitzvot.

$elebrity, Isn't It All About Money?

No doubt that this NY Times opinion piece is right. Michael Jackson, like Elvis Presley, is worth more dead than alive.

Dead celebrities are easier to market. And it's harder for them to sue from the grave.

Whoever gets control/custody of Jackson's kids will also control a lot of money.

MJ's Kids, Whose Children Are They?

Who are the biological parents of Michael Jackson's kids?

The children don't look like his early pictures at all? They also look too dark to be the children of Debbie Rowe and Arnold Klein, his dermatologist. Though, of course, that's just my guess.

No doubt he chose the biological parents to create the look he wanted for his children. They are good-looking kids.

Welcoming A "New" Neighbor

"New" is in quotation marks for a reason. He has been in Shiloh for about eighteen years. He came during my days as a member of our "Va'adat Klita," Acceptance Committee. I always feel a special connection with those I "accepted."

For many years, whenever I needed a community announcement translated into Russian, he was my translator. And when I was given a budget to promote my "ripped flag," he made it trilingual with his Russian translation.

When I welcomed him at the party, I mentioned that he was our Russian translator, he hurriedly get the packet with the trilingual card and ripped flags. I was so move that it is something that means so much to him.

For all those years he lived in temporary housing down the hill, near Tel Shiloh. A few years ago, we heard that he bought an old house in my neighborhood. The renovations went slowly, very slowly.

Considering the housing shortage here, it had seemed a wasted house, when so many families were desperate for one.

Well, he finally moved in, and tonight was his "Chanukat HaBayit," the ceremony to "dedicate" his new house and bless it.

May it be a blessing for all.

Another Bad Haircutting Story

I guess there are all sorts of ways to suffer from bad haircuts.



I returned to Shuki Zikri Duri haircutting school for what will probably be the last time.

Davka, this time the actual cut was OK. Being that the student didn't seem very experienced, the teacher did most of the work. This young student seemed repulsed by having to wash my hair. He (yes a male; I didn't request a female, which I heard someone do when I had just finished) did an awful job. I'm sure that my hair wasn't properly rinsed.

Another problem there is that the combs and brushes come out of the student's private bags, and they don't seem to be cleaned at all.

By the time I came home I felt that my head and body were "crawling" and itchy, if you get the drift of what I'm saying. So, I took a good (water-wasting) shower and shampoo and combed my hair with a fine-tooth nit-picker metal comb when it was all soapy and creamed. I didn't have my reading glasses in the shower, so I don't know if anything was removed. Then I used a blow-dryer to bake it all, if there was anything to "bake."

Afterwards, B"H, I felt "normal." We'll be having new next door neighbors by the time I need my next haircut, and she's supposed to be a trained professional. Hopefully, she won't charge too much. So I'll give her a try. Convenience makes a difference. Also, my hair is covered for religious reasons, so I don't need the best haircut.

Greeting Michael Jackson

Very Helpful Kids

As I was leaving Ofra, to find a ride home, a ride came to me. My friend was pulling into the gas station. As soon as she stopped and turned off the engine, her two very energetic little boys jumped out and very professionally got to work!

My Coaching

This should be considered a "double" post. I coach a diet support group, and I'm being coached.

Yehudit is trying to coach me into a new, successful more confident me. I'm probably a tough cookie to break those "blockages." She's great. I'm just a difficult person.

It's funny. At my 60th Birthday, my kids produced a PowerPoint presentation and mentioned that I'm the only person getting senior discounts who still doesn't know what she wants to do when "grown up."

The only jobs I've ever kept for any period of time, ten years plus were my teaching jobs. I was the girls gym teacher in our Shiloh Elementary School for thirteen years, and I taught EFL English in the Beit El Yeshiva High School for eleven years. Other positions lasted less time; though a couple were for four years. I used to work at a few jobs simultaneously; none full-time, of course.

I'm really enjoying my diet coaching, and the group seems happy with me, too. But to make money from it, I need quite a few groups with enough participants. If anyone is interested and willing to organize, let me know. Of course... a special deal for the organizer.

We're In The New York Times!

All I wanted was to find a New York Times article about Bibi's big mouth to link in a Shiloh Musings post. It's big news here in Israel that our Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu used the dangerous phrase "two states for two nations." I couldn't find it in the NYT.

But I found the following on the "Israel page."
Headlines Around the Web

What's This?
The Associated Press
July 5, 2009
Israel's Barak Seeks Peace 'Understanding' With US
The Washington Post
July 5, 2009
Settlements, regional peace on Israel-U.S. agenda
me-ander
July 5, 2009
Choosing The Best Melon
Global Voices
July 5, 2009
Israel/Palestine: Al Jazeera Journalist Detained
Mystical Paths (aka mpaths.com)
July 5, 2009
Cute Only-In-Israel Video

Choosing The Best Melon

It's harder than ever to choose really good tasty melons wherever I buy them. It used to be that every melon was delicious. Now, even in the open markets in Israel, they're tasteless.

I know that melons, like most fruits and vegetables, are picked earlier than they should be. One of our Shabbat guests mentioned that many of the fruits and vegetables are chemically treated to ripen early. That probably affects their healthiness and certainly the flavor, or certainly both.

Yes, I try squeezing the ends and smelling them. It just gets more and more frustrating.

One of the guests brought me fruit, watermelon and red grapefruit, cut and served in separate bowls. They were both delicious and exactly the same color. I served the left-overs later mixed in one bowl, and nobody asked what was in it...

Another Week

According to Jewish tradition, the week begins with Sunday, which is Hebrew is called יום ראשון Yom Rishone The First Day. I'm glad that I'm beginning this week with a book review on Shiloh Musings which is about NCSY, the youth movement which changed my life.

There's a newish Jewish jblogging tradition for starting the week, and that's Havel Havelim, and Toby posted this week's right on time.

And now, I can get ready to go to the pool.... life in Shiloh... no need to leave to vacation.

A Great Job, If You Have A Young Family And Want Flexible Hours To Be With Your Kids

The Obama's, Barack and Michelle, have discovered that the best possible job is being President of the United States. They haven't had any trouble scheduling in family dinners, time with their kids etc. And there's a choice of guest rooms for the live-in grandmother, too.

Unfortunately, family and children aren't part of the life-style for their staff. America's "first family" is having a blast. I remember Betty Ford, also, being happy that finally after all those years she suffered when child-raising fell solely on her, her life improved when her husband Gerald became President. Living over the shop has its advantages.

Those privileged to be on the staff have lives more like those depicted in The Devil Wears Prada.

Enjoy Life!

This was sent by Isramom, one of my dearest and most special friends.

I'll dedicate it to those friends who need a special refuah shleimah, complete recovery, so they will grow old at the right time. RivkA bat Tzirel, Pnina bat Sofia Zlata and add whatever other names...

Shabbat Shalom uMevorach

May you have a peaceful and blessed Shabbat

U. S. Jerusalem Consulate Offers Kosher Food

Last night my husband and I attended the United States Jerusalem Consulate's Independence Day bash. Here's my husband's report.




This time a table was strictly kosher. There was a "staff" there specially to supervise and serve.




There were quiches, salads, doughy things and desserts. I must admit that I used my "weekly splurge" on the desserts. Yes, they were worth it; though I felt ill afterwards. The Ben & Jerry's ice cream didn't tempt me. If it had been Hagen Daz, I would have checked it out for my favorite, mint chip.

From the Consulate, on Agron Street, across from Independence Park and Supersol, we walked to Machaneh Yehuda, the open market. If I had brought a backpack, I would have walked to the bus station from there, too.

Aisle Frights

I agree with this New York Times opinion piece about people stuffing much too much in the airplane overhead compartments. I'd just like to add another aspect, my phobia. For healthier traveling I sit in the aisle seat.

Periodically, I look up at those compartments with fear. What if one opened and suddenly a big heavy box or bag would fall? G-d forbid! Something once fell on me in a bus.

It's Time For The Gantseh Megillah

There's alway a great selection in the Gantseh Megillah, and this month is no different. Yes, I have a regular column, which is out of the box...

Please Pray For A Refuah Shleimah, A Complete Recovery

Bad news from RivkA bat Tzirel

She had been alluding to something ominous, and I began checking her blog more frequently.

While you're praying, please add Penina bat Sofia Zlatta, also in need of your prayers. Thank you

How Can I Help From So Far Away?

I'm a sandwich, meaning that I have elderly parents, children and grandchildren. Many of my neighbors are in the same situation, and most of them share parent-care with their siblings.

I can't do that, no matter what sort of help my parents may need. My parents live in New York. My sister lives in Arizona and I live in Israel. For Americans these logistics are pretty normal, and I have heard of those of my generation who have moved their parents "back north," or to wherever they are living, because it's impossible to help long-distance.

We accompanied my parents to a Nefesh B'Nefesh interview which I had set up, but we can't just "transfer" them, unless they cooperate.

No doubt, this will be an ongoing topic for blogging.

Today Was A Very Busy Day!

Recently I haven't been doing much. I think it's time to find a new job. Or I have to be seriously coached into writing one of the books I've been toying with.

But... back to today.

I have been feeling rather stir-crazy, so I acted on something I had been thinking about for months. I decided to shop in the Rami Levi (discount supermarket) in Sha'ar Binyamin, just north of Jerusalem, less than a half hour from Shiloh. After a relatively long wait, just before the bus came in, I got a ride. It's a giant supermarket and I didn't plan on buying much. I think that my shopping cart had the least stuff of everybody there. Then, after checking out, I went to the bus stop, expecting either the bus or a ride. No bus came, but eventually a neighbor from my neighborhood no less. So she took me home.

I had a quick snack and went down the hill, about a kilometer or more, to neighbors who are leaving Shiloh for a small apartment. They are selling or giving away a lot of things they really don't need. I got a few and waited for a ride up.

I was in a rush, because I had to leave to babysit for my grandson.

After preparing a quick lunch I went to Ofra. This time I caught the bus. He's talking and walking, even walked home with me. He stops to look at the plants, take leaves, smells them and then gives them to me to smell.

After my son-in-law came to relive me I rushed to Shiloh, caught great rides, so I could attend Shmuel Yerushalmi's Azkara, Memorial Ceremony. It' shard to believe that seven years have passed since his murder, and Gila Kessler's and all the others who were at the French Hill Bus Stop at the "wrong time."

Afterwards I went home.

Should I Keep The Diet Carnival Going?

I posted the fifth edition of my Blogging About Losing Weight blog carnival days ago, sent out notices to the mailing list and it has been ignored. What's the point of my putting it together?

I may give it one more try.

This is very frustrating, because I am trying to develop a career as a Diet Coach, and the blogging is supposed to give me more publicity. The coaching is doing well, and more women want to join the group. So far, I've done it for free, in order to learn how.

Next year I want to charge for it.

Life Has Gotten So Complicated

According to Jewish Law, a child is the religion of the mother, and if the child (and mother) are Jewish and the father is Jewish, then the tribe of the child is determined from the father. For most modern Jews, tribal identity is unknown. Only the Kohen-Levi Priestly Tribes have an unbroken tradition. And modern genetic testing have proven this correct.

Kohen and Levi are both descended from our Biblical Patriarch Jacob's son, Levi, and it's very rare for anyone to prove that they descend from any of the other eleven tribes/sons of Jacob.

Some people have an ancient family tradition that they're descended from King David, who was of the tribe of Judah, but even if that's so, it's probably not a straight male line. There are Indian Jews believed to be descended from Menashe, another of the sons. The story, which is very possible, is that the tribe of Menashe wandered to India and settled there a couple of thousand years ago.

Today, when women can be impregnated with a thriving embryo consisting of someone else's egg and who knows who's sperm, a child's genetic history can be a total and utter mystery. Until recent times, there could be unknown factors in paternity if the mother had intercourse whether willingly or unwillingly with unknown or multiple men.

So now, it seems that Michael Jackson's children aren't his biological products and may not even have been of the eggs of Debbie Rowe who was married to him and carried the first two to term.

No doubt, more information will come to the media about it. I'm glad that so far, at least, there's no Jewish angle, because that would make it more complicated.

Can People Really Be This Dumb?

I'm not a Jay Leno fan, nor am I familiar with his work, but someone sent me one of this series of his interviews, and they are funny.

Another Healthy Evening

It's healthy to have a good laugh, strengthens the immune system. Therefore I must say that last night when my Shiloh Movie Club watched The Russians are Coming! The Russians are Coming! we had some very good medicine together.

I have just one question:

Why did we women laugh more loudly and joyfully than the men?

Healthy Nosh, Snack

Here in Shiloh the most popular snacks are the colorful ones, fruits and vegetables. In the winter you'll see more fresh cut vegetables, and now that it's summer, who can resist the fruit?

I've even seen young kids hoarding colorful peppers and berries while ignoring cookies. And there's always water to drink, too.

Michael Jackson, Anorexic?

I was never a fan, never met him etc, but no doubt that his extreme thinness was a contributory factor in his death. And the descriptions in the news of his autopsy make it seem most likely. Emaciated = anorexic, nu?

That Bridge

Yes, that bridge again!








As you can see, walking it is nothing to sneeze at! Jerusalem's String Bridge has made some people rich, but it's also a photographer's dream.

Celebrating Again!

There's that old saying:

"Vote early; vote often."

That may be illegal when it comes to voting, but it's sure legal when it comes to celebrating a birthday, especially a biggee!

Today my friend took me out to lunch. We ate at the Village Green, one of the veteran (though I remember when it was new and trendy) vegetarian restaurants in Jerusalem.

Sorry, no pictures. I had their tomato-basil quiche and lots of salad. No bread. They owner was surprised. I told her that I had cut out bread.

"That's why you look like you lost weight."

Yes, I know her. When I worked for the Beit HaBagel, the Bagel House, we used to deliver to the same offices at the same time.

The Wrong Sky For Late June

Yesterday's sky was very dark and cloudy. The clouds seemed to scream "rain," but late June is not rain time here in Israel. I did my best to ignore the clouds.

I hung out two washes, and I slathered myself with sun screen, and I went to the pool. Actually, the clouds made the pool more comfortable, since there was less difference in temperature between the air and the water.

Finally, just as I was leaving the pool, at about 9:30, the clouds began to leave and allowed the sun to blast its brightness.