A Jewish Grandmother: Original, unedited daily musings, and host to the monthly Kosher Cooking Carnival. **Copyright(C)BatyaMedad ** For permission to use these in publications of any sort, please contact me directly. Private accredited distribution encouraged. Thank you.
That's 100% right, it is good news, wonderful news and I'm really grateful to G-d Almighty that he is blessing us with cold wet weather. But, yes that "but," I'm cold! I need my goves on, and my feet need not only socks at night. I filled a hot water bottle to join me under the "puch," down blanket, by my feet.
For decades already I've had trouble with extra sensitive toes and fingers. Sorry for kvetching.
We need the rain, and in our part of the world we need the cold for agriculture. My grapes won't grow without a period of cold.
I just need the right "equipment." I need gloves, very warm socks and the right shoes with insulating soles.
Winter, like summer, is just temporary. The seasons, and here we have two connected by very short transitions, are like the cycles of the moon. The moon never looks the same two nights in a row, and after it can't be seen, it gradually returns until it's full. And then it gets smaller again.
We've been so desperate for rain that when I spied the shimmering mud on Monday, I had to shoot it and show you!
Diamonds, gold, silver...? There's nothing more precious and valuable than rain, because rain brings water and there's no life, neither people, plants etc without water. You can't live on gold and diamonds, but even just drinking water will keep you alive for a long time. Without water we won't have food.
And without rain, it's much to easy for fires to burn out of control, like Israel just experienced in the north, the Carmel. So, we must pray for rain and we must do what G-d tells us, because He controls the rain.
Sometimes, like yesterday, we suddenly find ourselves with time to "kill." Dancing is a better solution. I ended up with a few "wasted" hours yesterday. Instead of getting aggavated or going online on somebody's unused computer in the Begin Center, I ended up talking to some of the workers. They also had some "dead" time before the Begin Prize ceremony. Even when I was stuck downstairs waiting until allowed to nosh from the food-laden reception tables, I am proud to say that I kept myself pretty calm. I wish I could have danced...
*Elizabeth Edwards has passed away, more quickly than her family had expected. May her memory be a blessing to her family, and may her children inherit her strength.
What's your most used, effective "folk medicine?" A cure-all which isn't a medicine, just something you can take for those vague or viral aches, pains etc...
Yesterday I felt "off" when I returned from Kever Rachel. It's probably one of the reasons I wrote such a negative post. It wasn't my most pleasant experience there. I'll probably blog more when I'm in the mood or can find a more humorous way of describing what happened.
I had some green tea with lemon and honey, which didn't do all that much. I followed my appetite and didn't have a chicken dinner. I made up vegetables and quinoa instead. And I drank a lot of water with freshly squeezed lemon. I also had some this morning before my coffee. Yes that's my "cure-all," freshly squeezed lemon in water. It's great for flus, colds, dehydration etc. Too much honey isn't good. Generally once I'm feeling better I find the lemon in water disgusting, but when I'm not feeling well, it tastes fine.
I'm no computer maiven. Luckily they taught us typing in the 7th Grade in JHS 74, Bayside, NY. It's probably one of the most valuable things I ever learned in school. I was taught old-fashioned touch-typing on a giant Remington manual typewriter.
Yes, it looked something like this one and was perched on a high desk, which is one of the reasons I can't use those low, under the table slide computer keyboards.
Back to the topic, sorry for the tangent...
Of late I've noticed that comments to my blogs, especially Shiloh Musings, arrive in my email inbox, but I can't find them on the blog. It's rather Twilight Zone. I compose replies in my head and then head off to the blog and... strange, there's no such comment. This has been happening much too frequently. Tonight I decided to search.
I checked out my blogger dashboard, clicked "comments" and saw that there were a couple of tabs:
Awaiting Moderation
Spam
And there they were, cowering in the spam box, but they weren't spam. At least most weren't spam. They were comments from my loyal readers, the ones who have no problem conversing with me via the comment option on my blog.
I've learned my lesson. I have to check more frequently. I do check my yahoo spam box. That's where not only do I find most comments, but I find letters I've sent.
Actually, this blog rarely gets comments. But I don't write about such mundane matters on Shiloh Musings. No offense intended.
Miriyummy has joined the exclusive club of Kosher Cooking Carnival hosts with a lovely, moist (B"H, it's raining) KCC!
There are some very tasty posts being served. If you'd like to join the club of KCC hosts, or are ready for an additional opportunity, please let me know, so I can schedule you in. To submit your kosher food posts click here. The Kosher Cooking Carnival is more than just a recipe carnival, because kosher food is not just about eating.
Halachot (Jewish Law) concerning kosher animals, cleaning, cooking etc.
Traditions, kosher family food traditions, holidays and special occasions.
Kosher cookbook and restaurant reviews.
And recipes, of course, as long as they're kosher!
According to the predictions, this rain is not to last very long. We need twenty hours of rain each day for the next few months. There should be four hours of sunshine so the water will have a chance to seep where it's supposed to seep, deep, deep down in the ground. This drought is far from over.
Keep praying.
Pray for rain and for wisdom for us and our politicians in government. We're all in this together.
Yes, we're being blessed by rain, and after less than an hour, by my reckoning, electricity was returned. And I'm not complaining, just thanking G-d for His mercy. This is what winter is supposed to look like. G-d willing, in a week or so, there will be lots of green and more rain and mud.
Hat tip the Ima Bima who is expecting to be, or may already be as I blog this, a mother of four. בשעה טובה! B'Sha'ah Tovah! May it be at the "right time." And nice and healthy, ima and baby, nothing else matters!
The news has reported that the devestating fire in the Carmel region of Israel is officially extinguished. Baruch Hashem, Thank G-d! Davka, a fire during the holiday of lights... Yes, another example of how in Israel the same things can be holy or profane.
And for two conflicting thoughts. The Hand of G-d is in everything, but at the same time, we humans have free will and must take responsibilities for our actions, including recognizing that each act, each word affects others, sometimes like a house of cards collapsing. And sometimes when a mitzvah or chessed brings more...
Yes, five small "cups" of best quality (for eating) olive oil are burning in the window facing the street. We light the chanukiyot (Chanukah menorah) on the window sill. These windows face the road. Our front door faces the path. Our custom is for everyone to light his/her own chanukiya. When the house was full of kids and guests we had chanukiyot for one and all. Some years/nights both long (wide) window sills were full. I bought lots of simple (inexpensive) oil chanukiyot, like this one. And of course, I also had to buy lots of little glass cups. We have all sorts of sizes, too. Yes, it gets sort of miss-matched. My husband still prefers his traditional candles, but I changed my tradition and I guess I've been lighting oil for a long time already.
Another change we've made over the years is to sing the entire Maoz Tzur, instead of just the first verse. I first heard the complete singing when I lit in someone else's house, because I was going to a wedding with them. It was a long time ago, and it took a very long time to get the custom accepted by my family. Another thing I didn't know existed was HaNerot hallalu... All I had ever learned in my Hebrew School was the blessings.
Life is learning and growing, like the lights in the chanukiya. We shouldn't make do, be complacent with the "old ways." We must keep on learning, improving...
There's nothing more fun that doing-- like in doing arts & crafts.
When my kids were little they didn't have tons of toys, but there were always simple crafts supplies, like paper, crayons, paste, scissors etc. Over a year ago, when I was in New York I found modern (plastic rather than metal) pot-holder weaving kits so similar to the ones I had as a kids and my kids got as gifts. So, of course I bought them for my granddaughters. The big girls really enjoy doing them, designing patterns and then weaving.
Here they're busy doing mosaics, pasting little squares onto small jugs.
No computer game gives the same total brain, body workout as these arts & crafts projects.
It always starts off seeming like Chanukah is a long holiday, eight days... Yes, that's more than a week. But once it gets started it goes real fast like a tray of freshly fried latkes with all the trimmings, surprisingly simple no-fuss homemade apple sauce and sour cream... not on my menu, but the memories are great.
Last night we lit the 4th candle, which means that we're at the half way mark.
Here's a cute video I found on youtube. It's not new, but it predates my youtube viewing, so it's new for me.
In Shiloh, we try to help each other. It feels better to be on the helping side, but there's no way to guarantee that we'll always be there. Sometimes we must agree to receive help, whether we want to or not. It's not always pleasant to admit that things are out of our control. We just can't do it all, and if we don't take a break, breathe and let the assistance in, or the situation may get worse. Sometimes you have to just let go and let others take charge.
The time in my life when my family and I needed the most help was when my youngest was a tiny (OK, he was never really tiny, just very young) and he had to be hospitalized for six weeks. I blogged about it last week. We never would have survived without my wonderful neighbors. After he was released from the hospital and we returned to our regular life, I could once again assist others.
We also must be realistic about our capabilities to help others and not take on more than we're safely able to do.
I may be wrong; it has been forty-five, yes, 45 years since I decided to live as a Torah Jew...
For many assimilated Jews, I think that celebrating Chanukah, even as a substitute for xmas, shows the last remnants of their Jewish observance. It may be as minimal as buying a Chanukah present for the kids and not a xmas one. That's even easier than buying a box of matzah and making some effort to hold a "seder" on Passover.
Over the years when various relatives married non-Jews, if a female relative married a non-Jew I'd buy them a present, a Chanukah Menorah. Sometimes I got it for a Jewish couple, since it seemed like a nice Jewish gift from the relatives in Israel. I don't know how many actually have used them. I certainly don't ask.
But if I'm not mistaken, it's the one ritual item most people are familiar with.
I'm amazed that acapella is so popular with the youth! I had thought that traditional Chazanut was on its way out.
I get a kick out of this video, because it's from NCSY. I'm a "product" of NCSY, one of its success stories from the 1960's. In my day, a couple of the popular bands got their starts playing at NCSY events. Jordy Penkower and the Mark 3 were NCSY fixtures. They were really great; we even had the Mark 3 play at our wedding. I had this album autographed with personalized messages from the band.
The Ruach Revival started at NCSY in our Greater New York ACTION Region. Their style was very different from Mark 3.
I've been in Israel forty years, almost exactly if you count the months two-thirds of my life, but I haven't been able to totally delete my earliest years. Because of this my perspective isn't what you'd generally expect from the way I dress. We're judged by our "uniforms." Yes, we're all in uniforms, because clothing is like publicizing a membership card. Of course, we can change our clothes and change our image, impression on others.
Chazal, our Sages, say that in Biblical times, when the single girls danced in the Valley of Shiloh, they exchanged clothes, so that they didn't wear their own white dresses. A rich girl could be in a simple, inexpensive dress while the poverty-stricken girl could be in the dress of a wealthy girl. Our clothing is external, superficial.
Because of this, we all must be so careful how we speak to others, because we may accidently say something offensive. One of my pet peeves is when someone giving a shiur Torah Class prefaces something by saying:
"כמו שכולנו למדנו בגן"
"Kimo shekulanu lamadnu b'gan..."
"Just like we all learned in nursery school..."
Well, I didn't go to gan, nursery school, and if I had I wouldn't have learned any Torah stories there. Though born Jewish and raised in Jewish neighborhoods, Torah wasn't on the menu, not in the curriculum.
The first time I heard that expression, it was from a distinguished guest rabbi. I sat fuming, because I felt totally left-out, rejected. By his saying those words he excluded me from the group. I was dressed like the other women and understand enough Hebrew to attend Hebrew-language shiurim, so he simplistically took for granted that we in the audience were "all the same."
I didn't feel right getting up and walking out, nor did I think it good form to interrupt him and tell him how he had insulted me. About a year or so after that experience, one of my neighbors gave a class to us and used the expression. Knowing that he would never intentionally or unintentionally hurt me, I politely interrupted him and told him how I felt. I also mentioned that I wasn't the only one in the group who hadn't gone to gan. Some of the women were from even less Jewish backgrounds and even converted to Judaism. You can't tell by looking at us. Since then, he is much more sensitive to the issue.
Should I have spoken to that guest-rabbi? I'll always wonder.
For the past month plus, I'd been trying to figure out how I was going to f2f Chaviva and her husband, Evan, during their trip to Israel. The "free time options" didn't seem to match mine, but I figured I'd give it one more try. Last night before I went to sleep I found the cell phone number she had sent me and put it in my phone planning on calling during a break when studying in Matan.
I must admit that I barely had breaks and didn't remember my plan to call until I was on the bus to the bus station. But I called anyway, and apparently G-d decided that we must meet. Chaviva and Evan were on their way to the kotel, not their original plan for the day. I was on King David Street, so I got off at the next stop, HUC, and walked down Mamilla to Sha'ar Yaffo, the Jaffa Gate. Perfect timing. We arrived minutes apart and I recognized Chaviva.
Since we read each other's blogs and facebook, we weren't real strangers. And now we're not strangers at all.
We had a pre-Chanukah family gathering last night, since my NY daughter is in. My grandchildren had great fun with their aunts and uncles, and the feeling was mutual. The baby is a chatterbox, "talking," telling jokes and laughing with everyone. What a nice pre-Chanukah present!
Last night I posted the Matisyahu Chanukah video and today something very different. When get back from Matan I'll have to set up the chanukiyot for me and my husband. We have large livingroom windows overlooking the street, Shvut Rachel and the lights from the other side of the Jordan River can also be seen. Maccabee battles took place to the west of us. Yes:
