Chanukah 5780, 2019, Has Begun!

This year, Chanukah 5780, 2019, after preparing our Chanukiyot, Chanukah Menorahs for later lighting, I went to Jerusalem to attend the Begin Prize Ceremony. Actually we didn't stay there very long.

As soon as I got to Jerusalem I could see that the city is decorated for Chanukah celebrations. And then when I passed by Zion Square, the Center of Downtown Jerusalem, I couldn't resist photographing the street performers.

I hope they'll be out every night, since school vacation doesn't start until tomorrow.

Succah Up Early

Yesterday one of our sons came by to help my husband put up the succah. First I treated him to a nice meal, soup, chicken and all the trimmings. Then they got to work.

As you probably notice, the decorations sort of survived the year in the storage room. So we really don't have too much else to do.

I even cleaned the plastic chairs, since we had a pre-Yom Kippur Shiur, class, in the house afterwards. And then I gave the leftover cake and some watermelon to the lovely young yeshiva student who taught us.

Baruch Hashem, thank Gd...

Shavuot Menu, Keeping it Easy

Maybe someday I'll still do it. A number of years ago, I started writing a cookbook which I named:

The Lazy Cook Cookbook

For some strange reason, people told me that the title is awful. Am I the only person who looks for easy ways to prepare food? I don't like recipes that have too many steps and too many ingredients. Those of you who have seen my recipes already, must have noticed that they're pretty minimal.

Those of us who live very Jewish lives, according to halacha, Jewish Law, will be celebrating the Shavuot Holiday immediately after Shabbat. That means that since it's forbidden to do any preparation, whether cooking, setting the table or even cutting a salad on Shabbat for the Holiday, even the fanciest balabustas, Jewish housekeepers, should keep it pretty simple. The family and guests, if you have any, will want to eat as soon as possible, no doubt.

That's why I decided to serve me and my husband cream cheese, lox and salad. That's not something we have frequently or at all. I may serve a dairy vegetable kugel, which should heat up pretty easily, but I still have to make it today. With the added treat of ice cream for dessert, we should be ready on time to go to a Torah class. Neither of us learn all night anymore. We're not as young as we used to be.

For Shavuot "lunch," after synagogue, I'll make a version of my "one pot baked fish and vegetables" in advance. We don't have any guests for that meal either, so I can cook exactly what we need to eat.

Ever since we both began to "diet," I try to serve us only what we need. The only "unlimited" foods I have on the table are salad and low carbohydrate vegetables. We've never been on "starvation diets." Just the thought of one makes me gorge on forbidden foods. When we have guests, I put out more food, but many of our guests are "repeats" and have the same food preferences as we do.

I bought a couple of special cheeses as Shavuot treats, besides the ice cream. We won't starve for sure.

Soon I'll go to our local swimming pool, and then after breakfast I'll cook, Gd willing.

Shabbat Shalom and Chag Shavuot Sameach To All

Medura Lag B'Omer Bonfire, Senior Style

When we first moved to Shiloh late summer 1981, we were among the older residents and the few with children old enough to be in school. Now all of us from that time and many who moved to Shiloh years later, are old enough to be in the 55+ group, old enough to enjoy a special range of activities.

Many of us "veterans," or vattikim as we're called in Hebrew are already retired. Consider us as a whole "young seniors," but last night we were all very happy that our Lag B'Omer midura,  or campfire/bonfire had chairs to sit on. Very few of us would have stayed or been comfortable if we had been expected to sit on old rugs and blankets like the kids, or like we had done easily decades ago.

Just like at the Medura Lag B'Omer Bonfires of old, we sang kumzitz style/genre, Israeli folk songs and told stories, plus some Divrei Torah. Unlike the kids, our menu was mostly fruit and watermelon. We do want to stay healthy active seniors for as long as possible, Gd willing.

Gd willing we'll enjoy many more together.

Chag Sameach!

Matzah Breakfast on "Second Chance Passover," Pesach Sheni, פסח שני

For years I've been missing the boat, forgetting to celebrate "Second Chance Passover," Pesach Sheni, פסח שני.

Passover, Pesach is one of the holidays we are commanded to celebrate, as written in the Torah, Bible, the first five Books. These texts are thousands of years old, and we Jews still read and follow the Mitzvot/Commandments. When you think about it, it's quite amazing. For thousands of years we Jews have followed the calendar, the same holidays according to ancient texts.

When we were a small people all living in the Holy Land, making it to the Beit Hamikdash for holidays was doable. And since Passover was so important Gd gave us a second chance, because sometimes people found it impossible for very legitimate reasons.

The Torah mentions two official excuses for “missing” Pesach Rishon (on 14 Nissan) and being commanded to bring the KP on 14 Iyar – TAMEI, ritually defiled because of contact with a dead body or other source of TUM’A and DERECH R’CHOKA, “far” away from the Mikdash.

So today, even though I celebrated a large family seder with my family a month ago, I ate matzah. Did you?

Passover/Pesach 5779, 2019 Almost Over

This year's Passover is a day longer than usual for us here in Israel. That's because as it ends Shabbat begins. And we can't start putting away Passover dishes/pots etc on Shabbat, nor can we cook chametz.

So, this year, for all practical purposes, Passover is the same whether you're in Israel or outside of it. In Chutz La'Aretz, meaning out of the Holy Land, there's an extra day, just like they have a Second Seder and celebrate Simchat Torah a day after we do. A number of times in the past, we had visitors from abroad who needed to continue eating strictly Kosher for Passover for eight days, rather than our seven. Those years we couldn't switch everything immediately after the holiday was over for us. But in a year like this one, it's no problem at all. Everyone finishes with Passover the same time.

Now I have to finish off all of the cooking for the last two days of Passover eating.

Enjoy!

PS Please remember to get all of your candles ready before the chag begins and also a 48 hour one so you can light for Shabbat.
PPS Also remember to prepare and bless the Eruv Tavshilin, so you can prepare food for Shabbat on the chag.

Chag Kasher V'Sameach and Shabbat Shalom

Starting Purim Early, Dance Fest for Women

Here in Shiloh we celebrate two days of Purim, although our local Chief Rabbi Elchanan Bin-Nun has been consulting with Torah scholars to get a final psak, halachik decision for us to join other ancient Biblical cities in celebrating only Shushan Purim, which is the second day.

After thirty-seven 37 years of a double Purim, it's pretty routine for me. There are advantages, OK only one or two I can think of.

1. We can give our kids a choice about which day they want to come to us, as long as it's a group decision.
2. We get to know the text of Megilat (Scroll of) Ester really well.

When I was young, I'd frequently find myself pulling an overnighter, needing all of that second night to cook for a second feast and mishloach manot, the food gifts one gives out. Now I can't do that, and I don't need to. We do less entertaining, and with just the two of us home, I also give out fewer food gifts.

At one time, I promoted having the second night as the perfect time for a Women's Purim Party. I blogged about one as Baile Rochel, Got That Rhythm! In recent years I haven't even gone to most of the parties, whichever night they had been held. Generally as I'd approach the location, the tsunami-like super-loud music pushed me away. But yesterday (a few days before Purim) was this year's party, and I had promised my friend, who was going to lead Belly Dancing that I'd come. 

My Belly Dancing friend added a few costume additions, so I'd look the part. Sorry, but I'm not posting a full body pose. I had never done that genre of dance, except that one time I wrote about, but did my best to follow. I didn't do too badly, though I was the oldest in the hall, even old enough to be the grandmother of some of the others there. 

Belly Dancing was great fun. Maybe I should convince her to give classes next year. It certainly makes one move every single muscle and parts of the body that in my case had been frozen for decades. 

Now, I'm ready for our two-day Purim Marathon!

Cooking for Two Weeks/Shabbatot, Purim in Shiloh

Ever since our house emptied of kids, and I've had jobs that kept me out in the evenings, or coming home without time to prepare dinner, my Shabbat cooking is for the week.

This week, we'll have very few regular evening meals, between my book club, a grandchild's birthday party and Purim. Here in Shiloh, Purim is a long two day holiday, a third day of food change if you count Ta'anit Ester, The Fast of Esther. We celebrate two days of Purim, so next Friday is also Purim, and Gd willing the kids and grandkids will be coming to eat a festive Purim Lunch. That doesn't leave me much time to prepare for the immediately following Shabbat.

So, I cooked a bit more than usual yesterday of chicken and moussaka/meatloaf (using ground turkey) and froze half of it.

This is in the freezer already, made in a double pan.

The two smaller containers are now frozen for next week. 

I'll have to find time to make side dishes before Shabbat, probably after the Thursday night's Megillah reading, which will be our third out of four.

Many people wonder why we in Shiloh have been instructed by the rabbis to celebrate both days. Other Biblical Cities, like Jerusalem only celebrate the second day, Shushan Purim. But even though we are in the same location, which is agreed by Biblical scholars and archeologists alike, the fact that for centuries Shiloh was deserted probably changes its status. Our local Chief Rabbi Elchanan Bin-Nun, in this year's Purim instructions has stated that although we still must celebrate both days and make the blessings only on the first, we should have strong kavana, spiritual intentions recognizing Shushan Purim as our Purim. Maybe in the near, or more certainly distant, future we in Shiloh will be instructed to drop the first day of Purim and only celebrate on Shushan Purim.

After decades of living in Shiloh, since 1981, we've gotten used to a Two Day Purim. It's certainly a lot easier than having two Pesach Passover S'darim. There are no travel restrictions on Purim, and one can be extremely creative in terms of menu. Having two days for the feast gives a lot of flexibility for family and friends. When we host, we have a choice of days, according to what our children prefer. The most difficult of the Purim logistics is making sure to hear the megillah four times.

Have a Truly Joyous Purim

Chag Purim Same'ach

Our TU B'Shvat Seder and Memories

Most Jews, and even many non-Jews, know about the Pesach/Passover Seder, where we are commanded to eat matzah, that dry tasteless cracker like bread and drink four cups of wine. But there's another seder, which has been gaining in popularity, the TU B'Shvat Seder. For a Jewish religious ceremony, it's rather new, only a few hundred years or so.

Growing up in American in the 1950s, we got bags of dried fruit and nuts to commemorate TU B'Shvat at the Oakland Jewish Center Hebrew School. Friends and neighbors from all over the world, a bit younger and older than myself, have similar memories. We were told that the raisins, figs, almonds and bokser, dried carob pods were from Israel, and on TU B'Shvat we opened our brown paper gift bags to eat them together.

In Israel, when we lived in Bayit Vegan, Jerusalem, the preschools would walk to the large almond tree near our building and serenade it singing השקדיה פורחת Hashkaydia Porachat, The Almond Tree is Blooming. We'd have to send various fruit with our young daughters which would be made into a large large fruit salad. That was all the TU B'Shvat celebration I knew of.

After we moved to Shiloh, we began hearing about and being invited to various TU B'Shvat s'derim, which seemed to vary from year to year and host to host. The most memorable one, which was attended by lots of olim chadashim, new immigrants from the USSR and "adopting families." This TU B'Shvat seder included drinking four cups of wine, beginning with white wine and ending with a dark red wine.

I highly doubt that we've ever been to two TU B'Shvat s'darim that used the same text/instructions. Last night we went to our daughter's family in Ofra, and it was totally different from any other. There was barely a mention of wine. If I understood correctly, this one emphasized the seven species of grain and fruit grown naturally here in the Land of Israel. It was accompanied by a delicious meat meal.

The Seder TU B'Shvat we used was very "child friendly," and the younger grandchildren there really participated it. Our grandson kept quizzing us with tree related riddles he had heard. Some were solved with general knowledge, while others were more like puns.

Since the celebration of TU B'Shvat is very flexible, there's a way to commemorate the day that suits all. Following are a few links to help you:

The Tu B’Shvat Revolution
Kabbalistic Tu B'shvat Seder
Tu B’Shevat: Basics
ABCs of Tu B’Shvat

Eight 8 Nights of Chanukah

Chanukah 5779, 2018 Night #1

Chanukah 5779, 2018 Night #2

Chanukah 5779, 2018 Night #3

 

Chanukah 5779, 2018 Night #4

Chanukah 5779, 2018 Night #5

Chanukah 5779, 2018 Night #6

Chanukah 5779, 2018 Night #7

Chanukah 5779, 2018 Night #8

Succot Almost Over, Soon אחרי החגים

In the Jewish Calendar, there's a period late summer when for almost a month we celebrate holidays. And when we're not celebrating, we're preparing, or cleaning up from them. This holiday season includes lots of fasting and even a twenty-five 25 hour fast.

In Israel, all these religious holidays are national holidays, when schools, government offices, banks, some stores etc are closed. Considering how soon they can fall after the two month school summer vacation, you shouldn't be surprised that for a couple of months many things get postponed until אחרי החגים, acharai hachaggim, after the Holidays.

Tonight we begin the last of these Holidays, Simchat Torah, when we joyfully dance with the Torah and move back into our homes after a week of eating and sleeping in our sukkot.

One thing for sure is that many of us will have to work really hard trying to lose the weight we've gained over the holiday season. That's one אחרי החגים things I'm not looking forward to.

Succot! Enjoy ושמחת בחגך

Tonight we celebrate the weekly Succot Holiday. Enjoy!

As you can see, I managed to decorate our succah. Some of the decorations are very old, but most are from Jewish Calendars sent by various charities. I just cut out the pictures and put them up with thumbtacks. I also use New Years- Rosh Hashana Cards people have sent us. That makes decorating the succah very easy and low cost, free is about as cheap as you can get other than decorated succah fabric/walls.

Our succah is wood, but actually, the walls of our merpeset,  balcony/terrace go halfway up, so the wood, pergola and wall pieces don't start from the floor. Our sons came over the other night to help my husband get it all up, including the s'chach, special reusable roof.

This year we bought a new supply of plastic chairs, and we're looking forward to having a few guests. What are your plans?

Succah Up, But Needs Decorators

B"H, my wonderful sons came by after work and within minutes had the succah up. Luckily my husband had found all the boards beforehand.

Now, I'm stuck with the job of decorating. We have a box of decorations. I just have to get inspired to put some up. B"H some stayed up from last year.

PS Did you notice that we bought new Keter plastic chairs? Most of our old ones either broke or disappeared.

Kitchen Post-Passover "Normal" and Maimuna Memories

We've always made a point of getting all of the Passover kitchenware stored away and the regular chametz things back on their shelves before hitting the sack after Pesach. And the switch to Passover is also done in one hysterical campaign. Even in the days when I made large s'darim (seders) I never  started cooking for them while there were still chametz dishes/pots out.

So, before we went to bed, we had finished switching back.

There were some great years, when the kids were around to help and big enough to really make life easy for us. Those same years, neighbors a few doors away did a nice Maimuna celebration. Going to it was like getting rewarded for all of our hard work. Of course our Moroccan neighbors had managed to put together a great party in much less time... 

Baking Matzah by Hand

Last night, OK with daylight savings time it was more like late afternoon, while taking a walk around the neighborhood, I noticed some activity going on. Apparently this van brought all the supplies and equipment needed to bake matzah.

So I got a bit closer and took a couple of pictures. Since matzah-baking is strictly timed,  I didn't want to disturb anyone. That's why I didn't get too close.

You can see that they brought gas canisters, an oven and everything else one would need to produce handmade matzah.

Just a few days ago, I had admitted to someone that I had never seen nor participated in matzah-baking.

Should I add matzah-baking to my "Bucket List?"