First Post of The New Jewish Year, 5772

Honestly, I don't remember exactly when, but sometime during the twenty-five years I only ate vegetarian, I realized that our Rosh Hashannah table needed a "head." My husband and kids never asked for a sheep's head or even a fish head, but I wanted to show that we would be "heads and not tails," so I started the tradition of making a "fruit head." 

This year's "head" now looks a bit "jaundiced" and got some strange reactions.  His nickname is "aged hippie."  He looked fine when I took his picture, in this Rosh Hashannah holiday tableau.  His mouth has shrunk; his hair soon lost its sparkle and began to droop, which gave him his name.

Even though I tried not to cook and serve too much food, I do feel stuffed.  We only had four out of five "heavy" meals, and my "heavy" meals are light/lite compared to most.  I only serve one type of animal protein.  There's no such thing as both fish and meat/poultry at the same meal.  Except for the first, all the night meals were just easy to make geffilte fish, salad and vegetables. That included Seudat Shlishit, the last meal on Shabbat.  I served chicken for three meals and quick and easy meatballs for one.  I also served chicken soup, which my husband makes, but I didn't eat any.

I ended up baking cakes.  One cake was pretty much finished the first night, and another was started by a guest the second day.  The rest of that cake was donated to the Shabbat kiddush at shul, and the other two cakes are in the freezer.  My cakes are easier to bake than choosing which to buy in the supermarket or bakery.  And since I froze a couple, I'm set for a while, since we're not cake eaters, at least not since we began reducing weight.  For Rosh Hashannah I make Applesauce Cake.  I substitute applesauce for some of the liquid, reduce the sugar a bit and add cinnamon.
I don't know if I've ever heard the original of the song "One Day," but it seems to be a very popular one for spoofing, etc.  Latma has a very thoughtful version:
"One Day..."



If you don't know, the star of Latma, who sings here, was actually a singer before he began acting on Latma. One thing for sure is that he's extremely talented.

Take This Personally, Have a Great Year!

The new Jewish Year, 5772, starts tonight.  Maybe this year, I'll learn to remember what year it is.  Ever since I began celebrating Rosh Chodesh, the beginning of the Jewish Month at Tel Shiloh praying with other women, I've always known what Jewish Month we're in.  And sometimes I've even known the date, or close to it.  Since the months are lunar, you can get a good idea by looking at the moon.  If you see a totally full moon, then it must be the 15th of the month.  A half moon is either the 7th or the 21st, and a sliver is either the beginning or the end.

Now, if bli neder (please don't take this as an oath) I try to remember to write the Jewish year, I guess that this is a good one to start with, 5772.  That's because it has two 7's in the middle, surrounded by 5 + 2 = 7.  OK, let's see if I can begin to learn it.  The harder version is the real one, in Hebrew  תשע"ב. But now that I've written about it, maybe it'll somehow stick in my mind.

I'd like to take this opportunity to wish all of you a year of blessings.  G-d should bless you with the ability to be truly rich.  And what's a rich man according to Chazal, our sages?  A rich man is שמח בחלקו same'ach b'chelko, happy with his portion.  We must learn to see the blessings, the humor and the goodness in all, including our greatest challenges, especially the things we can't change, have no control over.

שנה טובה

Shannah Tovah

A Good Year

גמר חתימה טובה

G'mar Chatimah Tovah

Literally: A good final sealing

Idiomatically: May you be inscribed (in the Book of Life) for Good

Jewish Blog World, As The Year Ends

First of all, neither facebook, nor twitter, nor sms-ing have killed the blogs.  Some people now (are you one of them?) read and write posts on tiny, hand-held devices that are also telephones and cameras, unlike yours truly who's sitting here at the moment on a large comfy office chair, typing on a keyboard, which is wired to a big black box which also controls a fat screen and a scanner/printer.

And we jbloggers (Jewish bloggers) are still a hearty and varied community.  We get together weekly in the floating blog carnival Havel Havelim, monthly (according to the Jewish Calendar) at the Kosher Cooking Carnival and a few times a year at JPIX.

Please visit and share them (embedded are the links to the latest editions of all three,) and of course check out the various links.  And why not take the plunge and host one or two or more?  It's really not that hard.  I've done them all. 

• For HH contact Jack
• For KCC contact me
• For JPIX contact Leora

All jbloggers are welcome to be included in the jblog carnivals by submitting your own links:

• HH
• KCC
• JPIX

Wishing you all a wonderful, healthy, safe and full of smachot, joyous events year!

Shannah Tovah

Gmar Chatimah Tovah

Ongoing Succah Saga

Hadassa made a close-ish guess about the picture here.

We have a wooden succah frame, and it has been falling apart year after year.  I shouldn't complain, since most of the wood was originally put up twenty-five years ago.  But the past few years it has been dangerous to try to hang the succah walls.  Hinges have fallen off with the rotting wood.  Posts fell off, too.

For the past couple of years we've spoken to someone about repairs, but we never closed the deal.  This year was supposed to be the year, but the price is out of our league.

Finally one of our sons and our son-in-law decided to do it together, and pretty soon, G-d willing, I'll be able to show you the new succah frame.

KCC, Out of The Box!

The pre-Holiday Kosher Cooking Carnival is Out of the Box!  Take a look, visit the links and share far and wide.  There's a wide variety of posts from veteran and new bloggers and participants.  You're bound to find some great ideas for the holidays and everyday cooking.

Next month's KCC will be at  This American Bite.  To submit a link click here.  And if you'd like to host an edition, please contact me.

Private Lives, Can You Keep A Secret?

It used to be that if you saw someone walking around talking animatedly to her/himself, you'd think the person daft.  Now, if you look carefully, most have something sticking out of the ear or hanging on it connected to wires, like an escaped  marionette.  Yes, they're revealing all of their side of the conversation.  We can use our imaginations to guess or create what is being said on the other side.

It used to be that when talking on the phone, you'd pull the cord as long as it would go and lock yourself in the toilet or a closet so nobody could hear what you were saying.  Now, even at a wedding or other group event, more than half the people sitting at the table are talking or texting into their private cellphones ignoring everyone around.

Sorry, but I'm not blaming facebook for our lack of privacy.

Nobody is forcing you to sign up with facebook.  Even if you feel that you're forced to sign up with facebook you can use it for just minimal stuff.  You don't have to post pictures.  You can delete tags whenever someone tags you.  You can refuse to friend people and just allow messages to go to your email account.  You can cancel groups and pages people sign you up on.  It doesn't matter how many times facebook tells me I must give them my cell phone number for "security," I don't see how givng them something so private makes things more secure.  I also refuse to recruit friends by giving facebook my email information.

I'm not hiding who I am nor where I am.  I'm a very active blogger and joined facebook to promote my blogs.  For me, facebook is a cross between blogging and email.  It's not my homepage either.

Like most people in the modern world, I'm easy to trace.  Most land phones are listed in the phonebook, and most phonebooks are available on the internet.  That's life today.

Rain Already?

It's starting to the time of the year when I check the weather reports. It rained last night.  Now, I'm wondering what's expected the rest of the week.  Forecast is that it should warm up a bit the next couple of days.  Considering the drought we've had the past few years, bli neder, I'm not going to complain about rain.

What's "bli neder?"  It means that I'm not promising; it's not an oath.  I'll just do my best.

We really have to be careful about our words.  Words have so much power. 

I'll never forget that when we went to the states for a visit when the oldest was four.  Her birthday is in July, and she had a party in gan nursery school before left.  The relatives in New York wanted to make her a party, but I told them that she understood that she'd be five at her next birthday.  That's what she had been focusing on. 

"Next year I'll be five."

For little kids, time is vague.  A month can be a year.  So I didn't want to confuse her.  She didn't have a "party," but the kids (then there were just two) got lots of presents every time people came to see them.

Caption This and Tell Its Story

Yes, in the comments.  I'd love your ideas.

Shabbat Shalom!

Oops! Watch Where You Sit!

I almost got caught at the Jerusalem Bus Station.

No, I wasn't doing anything illegal or dangerous.

All I did was to gratefully sit down after walking all the way from the Israel Museum.  And that was after walking to there from Palmach Street, which was after walking from the Mamilla Mall to Pardess in Talpiyot.

Then my bus came, and I stood up, or at least I tried to.  I was caught!

Some of the metal benches at the bus station are breaking, leaving sharp metal edges.  Miraculously, my skirt wasn't ripped.  I would have sued.  It's new and irreplaceable.  I bought it a few months ago at the Designer Outlet Store in Talpiyot for a fantastically low price, because I bought two other things from the same rack.  It's a fantastic store.  You never know what you'll find.  The prices are great!

Beware of benches with sharp teeth!

Jerusalem, Hidden Paths Plus

The other day I decided to visit the Israel Museum after taking some classes at Pardess.  I couldn't find a ride to the Museum, but one of my friends offered to drive me part way and then gave me instructions how to walk via all sorts of paths, lanes and even a couple of streets.

Not too long ago, I would have written down all of her instructions, but I decided to stretch my memory (working in Yafiz, a large clothing store has been exercising memory skills) and try to memorize the basic direction.  I repeated what she said a couple of times and began walking.  Jerusalem still has all of these paths connecting streets from the days when almost nobody had a car.  I had been dropped off on Palmach Street, an area I don't know at all, but I found the route easy to follow and walk. 

There's an adorable neighborhood garden on the way:

Later on, after crossing Herzog, I found myself in Emek HaMatzlevah,  Valley of the Cross for the very first time.  There I called my daughter for further instructions.  It's a good thing, since the sign saying "Museums this way" wasn't the way she recommended. 

I followed the road to the bus station and then turned left after the monastary.  I was amazed at how quickly I arrived.  The newly expanded and improved Israel Museum is great.

I saw some of the new exhibitions, such as Ancient Glass.  Considering how fragile glass is, it's ironic that the pieces, some appear complete and undamaged, are thousands of years old. 

I also watched the Clock Movie.  My daughter took me in to see it after I entered the museum and then I returned to see more.  It's addictive.  It's a twenty-four hour movie that's made up of short snips of lots of movies.  Each little scene concerns time and shows clocks and watches, and the scenes connect.  For instance if someone is rushing out a door, the next scene will have someone rushing in.  It's totally amazing.  Part of the fun is recognizing movies and scenes.  Just to warn you, although the vast majority of what I saw is totally child-appropriate, there was one pornographic scene that lasted almost a minute.

After my museum visit I walked to the Central Bus Station.  On my way I was surprised to see that the new government office complex is the site for prewedding photos.

Yes, a great day and lots of exercise.

Does Anyone Know The Details?

Maybe I'm just too old-fashioned  I expect a certain level of competence, professionalism.  This morning when I was skimming the homepage of Arutz 7 I saw an article about a new separate sex beach at the Dead Sea.  It looked interesting, a nice place to vacation, so I read the article.  I was in shock.  There was absolutely no clue to anyone how to get to this beach, not even the beach's name.  The Dead Sea is a big place.  There's no main entrance booth or phone number to call if you have a question.  If the article had been submitted as a composition to me as an English Teacher, the grade would be very low.

I sent off this comment, but I'm sure I'll never get a reply:

Does this beach have a name? Can it be reached by bus? How much does it cost to enter? Is there a kiosk, restaurant etc? What facilities are available at what price?

I guess there's no general editor.

Well, does anyone know anything about the beach?  I'm just curious.

I'm Not A Nudge, I Hope

Just a quick reminder that the Tishrei (late September) Kosher Cooking Carnival is coming real soon at Cooking Outside the Box.  And I've lined up a new kosher food blogger for Cheshvan, the end of October, This American Bite.  Please send in your links, hot off the griddle, as soon as posted via blog carnival.

And if you'd like to host one, please let me know, thanks.

PS Has anyone been having trouble with facebook?  The other day I had trouble with the google/gmail/blogger empire.

After a Week, Growing!

Last week, I blogged about the squash (does anyone know what kind exactly?) my husband and I replanted from a too small planter to the good earth.  Just over a week later, Baruch Hashem, it's growing nicely as you can see.

For some people, this wouldn't be very news worthy, but for us it's major.  There are very few successes in our garden, certainly nothing like this.  OK, flowers don't mean that we'll really have something to harvest, but we can hope, pray and continue to water the vegetable plant.

What vegetable exactly?  Good question.

Hard to Believe, Havel Havelim has Reached #330!

Thanks to Susan B of Kissing a Mezuzah for this well-presented Havel Havelim.  I used to host them in the days of Soccer Dad, when they were in the double digits.  That was a very long time ago.  You can do the math, considering that there are about fifty a year.  I'm really grateful to bloggers like Susan who host it so frequently.

So, I hope this makes you curious enough to take a look, share it around and visit the various blogs included.

Have a great week!

What was all the panic about?

This morning I kept getting all these warnings from Microsoft SmartScreen® Filter that there was some evil in google.com and it wouldn't approve my signing into blogger or gmail or google. First I had been on the pc in the den, so I tried the too heavy to schlepp around laptop on the diningroom table, and I got the same message.

I wasted time and did some other "morning things," and then I finally tried again, and as you can see, business as usual.  Was it just my house?

I'm curious.  Could there be a cyber-war between google and microsft?  I don't want to be shot in the crossfire.

Graffiti in Shiloh

There certainly is a lot of art talent in Shiloh, so I shouldn't have been surprised that one or more of our local artists could no longer resist the meters and meters of "blank canvases" in the neighborhood.  This is only the beginning, no doubt.

Getting Ready for Rosh Hashannah?

• Have you planned your menu?
• Do you have enough nice (new) clothes for the three day weekend?
• (where required) Have you bought tickets so you have a seat in shul?
• Have you invited guests yet?
• Have you started shopping, cooking etc?

Is this all you have to worry about before the High Holidays?

Christian Non-Jewish America has this maybe once or twice a year, Thanksgiving plus any of their own holidays.  For a year like this one the food planning is almost like six Thanksgiving meals in three days. That's because Rosh HaShannah will be on Thursday and Friday immediately followed by Shabbat.  So a Torah observant Jew can easily get bogged down in all these preparations.

I hate all the obsessive planning, cooking, shopping etc.  I'm usually very late in trying to invite people, so we end up with too many solitary meals; though there have been years when we're invited out for many.

Our Shiloh synagogue doesn't "sell seat tickets."  As members, we have our assigned seats for the entire year.  That's where I sit every Shabbat, or almost every one.  Since mine is in the front row, I move back when there's a special event like a Bar Mitzvah.  That way the celebrating family can see what's happening down there.

Except for the first night (some people also do it on the second night) of Rosh Hashannah, when you have all of the ritual Yehi Ratzon... May it be...,* the meals I make aren't very different from a regular Shabbat.  I also serve two fish meals, since there's a limit to the amount of meat/poultry one should eat in the span of three days.  And, as you can see from the illustrations here, I make a "fruit head" so we can have a healthy and colorful year.

Sometimes I wonder if we haven't lost focus on what Rosh Hashannah really is.  It's the spiritual new year, Yom Zikaron, the Day of Memory when we are supposed to begin our accounting of our deeds.  G-d is the "CPA."  The real preparation for Rosh HaShannah is supposed to be Teshuva, Repentance.  In addition to the Machzor Prayerbook course by Reuven Grodner I'm taking this month in Pardess, I'm studying his  Rav Soloveitchik on Repentance.  G-d willing, I'll be blogging more about that, whether on this blog or Shiloh Musings, I'm not sure.

*The number and creativity of these "puns" grows from year to year.

Shuckling for Rosh Hashannah, From Aish.com

This video form aish.com should energize you for Rosh Hashanna.  Enjoy! 

Rabbanit Yemima Mizrachi Will Be at Tel Shiloh

September 22, 2011

Big T'fillat Chana Event

Starting at 2pm

For more information office@telshilo.org.il

Visiting a Few Friendly Blogs

I haven't done one of these visiting posts for quite a while.  Enjoy, visit, share etc...

Beneath the Wings is suffering electricity problems.  She's wise enough to know that there are worse things in this world.

Sarah, who is the very talented graphic artist who designed both of my blog "header," (forgot the term or am I correct?), posted some lovely pictures from a recent trip to Seattle .

Chavi, the kvetching editor lets us into her life for a day.

Two for the price of one.  Miriyummy chats with Mrs. S.

And saving the best news for last, Hadassa is back at her pink keyboard better than ever, Baruch Hashem!!!

PS, how about some captions, please?