The Thursday Before The Shabbat Before Pesach

In a normal year, the last Shabbat totally chametzdik would be Shabbat HaGadol, but this year it isn't.

There's no way to have a totally chametzdik Shabbat HaGadol this year, since it's forbidden to eat chametz very early Shabbat morning, since the Passover seder is Motzei Shabbat, Saturday night.

The house has to be ready for Pesach before Shabbat, since we can't do the work and changes on Shabbat. So on that Shabbat, it would probably be a good idea to have some (pre-prepared) sandwiches and coffee right after dovening (praying), earlier than usual, and then eat a Shabbat meal, either meat or fish, sans bread/matzah early afternoon. Then a snack late Shabbat afternoon, but we can't have bread, matzah nor cakes and cookies made of matzah meal. We have the food tradition of eating lots and lots of bananas.

And back to this Shabbat. I have to cook "just enough," not a week's worth of left-overs, since by the time I want to switch the kitchen, there shouldn't be any food left-over. And, of course, I must use up everything in the freezer and all the little bits of pasta left over in the closet. Why are all those "use up fast foods" always calorie-laden carbohydrates?

Yesterday

Yesterday

Yesterday, the setting sun chased my troubles away

How can one be sad, when the sky looks this way?

Oh, I believe in yesterday

Suddenly, I'm not half as sad as I used to be

There's no shadow hanging over me

Oh, yesterday came suddenly

{Refrain} Thank G-d for sending me

Reminders of His mercy every day

I try to sing G-d's song

And I thank Him come what may

Oh, I believe in yesterday

Yesterday, the strong sun blew the clouds away

I'm so happy and I'll always say

Oh, I believe in yesterday

{Refrain}

Yesterday, I enjoyed the sun's every ray

Under which the children play

Oh, I believe in yesterday

Yesterday
Beatles

Yesterday, all my troubles seemed so far away
Now it looks as though they're here to stay
Oh, I believe in yesterday

Suddenly, I'm not half the man I used to be
There's a shadow hanging over me
Oh, yesterday came suddenly

{Refrain} Why she had to go
I don't know she wouldn't say
I said something wrong,
now I long for yesterday

Yesterday, love was such an easy game to play
Now I need a place to hide away
Oh, I believe in yesterday

{Refrain}

Yesterday, love was such an easy game to play
Now I need a place to hide away
Oh, I believe in yesterday

Pesach Cleaning

I've never been the "it takes a month" type of cleaner. I'm more the "a week's enough" sort. When we lived in a smaller home, I could devote a day per room and still have a few left for the kitchen. When the kids were younger, putting them all to work for a few days and the house was ready.

Now, I just can't handle it all physically. All the time in the world, and I can't get on my hands and knees, nor can I climb on the kitchen counters.

Yesterday I moved out the stove and "soaked the floor" to get the grime off. Some came off, but not all, so I poured some bleach, then water and then finally saw the tiles. It's not chametz, but it's disgusting. Yes, I should do it more than a few times a year. Moving the fridge is harder. I moved the beds in the rooms rarely entered not long ago. If I don't have help, I just won't do it again.

The only areas which really need Pesach cleaning are the areas which are for eating. If you eat, or your kids, spouse etc, all over your house/apartment, then you'll have lots more to do.

I also don't use any spray cleaners. I don't like the stuff in the air or on my skin or lungs. I mourn the demise of "Eazy Off" paste cleaner. Remember if the dirt/grime hasn't come off after being soaked and scrubbed, it's not chametz.

I Didn't Know It Was Normal

There's a certain bonding between parents whose kids have been hospitalized. I'm much better now, but for many years I needed to talk and talk about my sons' hospitalizations. Whenever I'd meet someone, who was undergoing or had just undergone such a horrible, traumatic time, I'd find myself talking and talking and talking about my experiences with them.

Sometimes I felt embarrassed, but now since over twenty years since my baby was sick with a serious bacterial infection and hospitalized for six weeks, and almost twenty years since my elder son was hit by a small truck, hospitalized for four weeks and with crutches for longer, I've just recently "mellowed" about it.

This New York Times article just made me feel better about myself. The writer made me feel more "normal." Mothers of hospitalized children should probably get some sort of therapy; group therapy would be good. And that's why I've felt it so important to talk to other parents about it.

To this day, I'm so thankful to the people who helped me then.

Off, Again

Yesterday, under the (was it) bemused eye of my Ministry of Education Supervisor, I confiscated a cell phone from one of my students. I promised him "no punishment" and went on with the lesson.

The "Yetzer Haraa," evil temptation is very dangerous, distracting for sure. So, I'm turning off the computer for awhile.

Simply Beautiful

These views would have been lost if I hadn't had my camera with me.

nothing dramatic

pale

perfectly pale

a perfection of light

pure and simple

untouched

Just the way my eyes

saw these scenes.

The Passover Story

Watch it here.

It's all in pictures, really amazing.

Off!

This computer is an awful "yetzer haraa," temptation. So I'm turning it off. I've blogged everything I need to blog for now.

When I catch my students with cellphones during class, I now offer to hold the phone until the end of the lesson, no punishment, just removing the yetzer haraa, and they've begun to show some gratefulness. I stress that after a few offers, and they're still using it, then if I manage to grab it, I'll give it to the principal instead.

So now, I just ought to do all the things I have to do here, including exercise, clean etc.

Have a nice day.

Pesach Blogging Has Officially Begun...

... with Mother in Israel's Pre-Pesach edition of the Kosher Cooking Carnival!!

She has done a truly delicious job. Next month, I'll be hosting it and in June, the guest host will be West Bank Mama. If you're interested in hosting July's, please let me know.

Please send in any links to kosher food posts you've written or see routinely. The Kosher Cooking Carnival is a monthly carnival, and if you wait until "just before," the chances are if you're anything like me you'll forget. I keep easily "clickable" links to submit my posts to various carnivals on the sidebars of my blogs. It makes life easier for me.

Remember that KCC isn't just a recipe carnival. It includes kosher food traditions, holiday foods, halachik articles, cookbook and restaurant reviews, anecdotes and, of course, kosher recipes! If you post or see anything concerning kosher food, please send via the carnival submission form.

Chag Pesach Kasher V'Sameach

Have a Happy and Kosher Passover

Family Carnival

...of the blogging variety.

I have a post in the latest Carnival of Family Life. It has been quite a while since I contributed to it. There seems to be a nice variety of interesting posts, so take a gander.

Bursts of Color

Some people consider it a bit, well, a bit unnecessary, that I carry my camera around every place. But if I didn't, how could I have taken these two gorgeous pictures?

You Don't Have To Be Frum

Most Jews don't keep all the mitzvot, Jewish commandments/laws. That makes it extra nice to know that Tennis players to pass on tourney to mark Jewish holiday.

Hat tip the Gantseh Megillah.

Bright and Early With HH

That's Havel Havelim, which I discovered has already been posted. This week the host is Jtown Underground, a blog I hadn't read before.

Her sidebar reveals that she may be interested in the Kosher Cooking Carnival. There's nothing like good kosher food to keep the jblogging family together. G-d willing the next edition should be out within a couple of days. Keep checking Mother In Israel. If you're interested in hosting one, please contact me at shilohmuse at gmail dot com. If you post or see anything concerning kosher food, please send via the carnival submission form.

Chodesh Nissan Tov and Shavua Tov!

The Jewish-Frum Factor

When talking real estate values/prices in New York City, how can one leave out the Jewish-Frum Factor?

I just read through this three page NY Times article, which even mentions rather peculiar variations in property values and never mentions Orthodox Jews, synagogues, etc.

"Queens may be the most difficult market to explain, because prices can vary by neighborhood and even by block... Brokers also say that there may be no rhyme or reason to prices in Queens, or even to what type of house will sell."

It may not be much of a mystery. In most parts of the Jewish world homes considered an "easy walk" to an Orthodox synagogue are sold for more money than identical houses a few blocks away, or those separated by a dangerous thoroughfare or difficult topography.

Are there any bloggers out there who can confirm this? How are the real estate values in the areas of Orthodox shuls vs similar homes further away?

Cancer Is Out Of The Closet

I grew up with an aunt and an uncle unsuccessfully fighting cancer for years, and I knew about it. And there was also a second cousin about my age who had survived. But people in public life rarely admitted that they were sick with cancer, getting treatments or discussed their feelings.

On Shabbat I read a great article in the Jerusalem Post, Blogging as a form of therapy, which even mentioned one of the blogs I read Coffee and Chemo. And now, just after Shabbat, I saw this article about US Senator Arlen Spector's successful fight against cancer.

Yes, I know that everyone's cancer is different, and everyone's body reacts differently to the chemo and radiation, when prescribed, and everyone's bodies heal differently after surgery. You can't make rules and you can't predict.

All I can say is:
Refuah Shleimah to the ill. Have a full and speedy recovery!

Deja Vu However You Spell It

Strange feeling this Shabbat in Shiloh. It was like I was on Bayit V'Gan Street, Jerusalem, about 28 years ago. Some of the kids looked the same as I had remembered. A couple of the girls are "regulars" in my Shiloh neighborhood, but some of the others I hadn't seen for close to thirty years, and that wasn't here.

No, I'm not going crazy, and I'm not in some parallel universe. It's simply that one of my neighbors now was a neighborhood kid then, and his daughters resemble his sisters. His wife confirmed it. At a local Shiloh school event, one of the mothers asked her if her little girls wasn't related to --, her sister-in-law. That woman also grew up in Bayit V'Gan. And this Shabbat, former Bayit V'Gan neighbors were here since their daughter married someone from Shiloh. A lot of their grandchildren look like their kids did way back when, and their kids look like they did as kids, just older.

It was a wonderful Shabbat, lots of joy, Baruch Hashem!

Last Full Week of Chametz Before Passover

... and there's still too much in the pantry, freezer etc.

I'll just have to give things away.

I'll also serve the egg rolls I had bought.

Next week I can finish the tamari sauce.

Next week, we'll probably eat pasta every day, maybe every meal. Maybe we'll be so sick of it, the matzah will seem like a treat.

Next week I have to clean the house.

Next week we can have everything in a pitta. Pasta, too?

Next week the Kosher Cooking Carnival will be served by Mother In Israel. So send your kosher food links, anything concerning kosher food, via the carnival submission form.

Shabbat Shalom and Chodesh Tov

In The Spirit of Chana

A few minutes ago, I had a phone call asking me to participate in a poll. I agreed and began listening to the questions and choosing answers from those offered. With each question, I became more and more concerned. It seemed like one of those polls for the Left, for those fronts for groups which want to prove that we're a bunch of prostitutes--for money we'd leave our homes.

Well, I told the girl on the phone, that I've probably been living in Shiloh since long before she was born, and I find her questions offensive. Yes, I told her that I know that she's just doing her job, what she gets paid to do. I know that she didn't write the questions and the choice of answers.

But I could hear the direction the questions were going.

They started out rather innocuously.

"How would you describe your life in your community?"
excellent
good
passable
bad

"Why did you move to there?"
financial incentives
ideology
and more choces like that

"How do you see your community five years from now?"
destroyed
moved to Israel
moved to another part of "the territories" under "Palestinian" rule
no change

The questions began getting even worse, and I told her:

"I refuse to continue. I know exactly what this survey is for and where it's leading. I find it highly offensive. If I was living in Shiloh, Ohio or Shiloh, Tennessee, nobody would dare ask me such questions or ask me to leave my home."

I told her that I've lived here a long time, and this is the original Shiloh, and I have no plans nor desire to leave.

Yes, this is the Shiloh of the Bible.

This is the Shiloh where Joshua established the capital of the Hebrew tribes after the Exodus from Egypt and the 40 Years of Wandering.

This is the Shiloh where the Tabernacle stood for 369 years.

This is the Shiloh where Chana prayed for a son who would dedicate his life to the Jewish People. And this is the Shiloh where Chana stood up to Eli who accused her of drunkenness, when she prayed silently and sincerely to G-d.

We have returned to pray to G-d at Shiloh. Each of us mouths our words to G-d, like Chana did thousands of years ago. G-d is waiting to hear our prayers. Chazal, our sages, say that Chana was originally infertile, because G-d wanted her prayers to be exceptionally strong.


Today our People and and Land are suffering greatly. We need a true leader with strength of character and a goal and vision of a strong Jewish Nation in our Holy Land.


Please join us in Shiloh on Sunday, Rosh Chodesh Nissan, the Month of Miracles, at 10am.

"Vayihi or," and then there was light

This morning, as I was passing the den, after drinking coffee to last night's "Law & Order--Special Victims Unit," I noticed a little twinkling coming from the computer screen. it had been dead black for the past two days.

So, I walked in and checked from close-up. Yes, the little light was on. Maybe... well, so I turned on the computer and... the screen lit up!

I'm still waiting for the screen we were promised, abut now I'm deleting and reading the over 300 letters, no exaggeration!, which had piled up and blogging a bit and trying to catch up on news.

The the biggest and most shocking, I heard in one of my favorite Jerusalem clothing stores. A former dentist of ours committed suicide. His name hasn't been mentioned on the news, but the saleswoman knew him and couldn't stop talking about it. The story she told isn't totally identical with what was written in the JPost. But from what I heard, things are still being investigated.

Don't Worry!

Can't post, since our screen broke. It's over ten years old and we got it third hand. I'm at work now.

Just keep reading and commenting!

As long as we're healthy..