The Succah Mezuzah, HH #334

To Kiss a Mezuzah came through again with a very timely Havel Havelim.  Susan B. has certainly been doing more than her share to keep the oldest Jewish blog carnival afloat.  Visit and thank her and of course share it and the posts.

"House Gifts," What Do You Bring When Invited for a Meal?

Here in Shiloh, we're part of a Shabbat/Holiday social scene.  There are various neighbors, couples and singles we have over.  Some also host us.  There are no hard and fast rules about what to bring, though it is expected that the guest comes with something, either wine or food.  Some guests have shown up before Shabbat/Holiday with flowers, too, which are very welcome.

Among those of us who cook, upon being invited, we usually ask if we should bring a portion of the meal.  Sometimes the reply is very specific, and sometimes we're told:

"Bring whatever you want."

We used to bring wines, but since not everyone drinks wine, and both my husband and I eat a lot of vegetables, I usually bake a tray full of delicious, healthy, low calorie vegetables.  For eating at home I make them in a nice-looking "bake and serve" pyrex or pottery, but when I'm bringing it to neighbors, I bake in a disposable aluminum pan.  We then carry it on a large baking pan, after learning the hard way how easy those trays are to spill and leak on clothing.

Yesterday, we brought baked vegetables to add to our neighbors' super-delicious lunch and then later in the afternoon, we brought a simple compote of apples, peaches and cinnamon (no sugar) to another neighbor.  The trick to keeping the vegetables naturally sweet is to add minimal water.

Sometimes the meals almost seem like a "pot-luck" event, but that's part of the fun of having such wonderful neighbors.

PS This post is in the Real Foods Succot Festival.

Caption This Tableau

It's a good thing my camera is always ready to shoot.  When my friend and I were walking the other day we saw crowds of people.  Not being the type to stop and join, we kept going and walked right by the center of attention.  I whipped out my camera, of course, and shot this.

How would you caption it?  What's the story according to your imagination?

Free "Entertainment" During Succot, and a Rant

In Israel, school has been on vacation and will be for longer.  It's Succot, and many schools started the year early in order to give the teachers and students an extra-long vacation from before Yom Kippur until after Simchat Torah.  This may be great for a few types of families.

1. If you have oodles of money and don't need to work.  You can leave home, travel and have a real great long vacation.
2. If you make enough money to pay for childcare, special "camps," etc. so that you can go to work and know that your kids are all being safely supervised.
3. Both parents are teachers, so they can be with their children, instead of teaching others.

Otherwise this extra-long vacation is a nightmare.  How does one go to work as a professional with their kids or constantly on the phone checking up etc?  Summer vacation just ended a few weeks ago, and all official/paid days off have been used up.

Last week, working at Yafiz, Sha'ar Binyamin, we felt it.  After some unsupervised kids knocked down some very pretty baby clothes I told a father off. 

"There are Jewish Laws concerning how to act in a store.  You're not permitted to waste a worker's time nor damage merchandise.  I'm not here to be your children's gannenet, nursery school teacher!"

I don't mind when a customer makes a mess on the shelf looking for something to buy.  The store isn't a museum.  Our goal is to sell our merchandise. 

But I do get angry when kids run around, or do drag races with the shopping carts and knock clothes onto the floor and leave it there.  I also don't want to have to clean the spilled ice cream or try to clean the clothes from dirty, sticky, chocolate coated hands touching what they just wanted to touch or what they ran/rolled over.

For free entertainment, ride the Jerusalem lightrail!  Yes, it's still free.

The route goes from Pisgat Ze'ev to Mount Herzl.  You can get on and off numerous times.  And did I say that it's free?  There's lots to see on the way.  In Pisgat Ze'ev, there's a nice mall.  Buy some food or anything else you need there.  Just be prepared that the route then takes you to some neighborhoods in East Jerusalem, inhabited almost entirely by Arabs.

After that, you get to French Hill/Ramat Eshkol. Take the train to Ammunition Hill, Givat HaTachmoshet to the 1967 Six Days War Museum.

The train, then, continues towards downtown Jerusalem with a stop by the Municipality complex, near Jaffa Gate of the Old City.  The route continues the entire length of Jaffa Road.  You can get on and off.  Shop and eat in the various stores and restaurants.  When my husband took the grandkids out, they went to Heichel HaGvura, the Museum of the War of Independence Underground Fighters, in Migrash HaRusim, near Zion Square.

You can shop in the Machane Yehuda Market.  After "floating," (it's a smooth ride) through "town," the train gets to the Central Bus Station and then goes on the "string bridge" to Mount Herzl, where there's also a museum.

If your kids are old enough, you can turn this into a really fun and educational project.

• Have them sketch or photograph what they've seen.
• Have them write and research the various sites.
• They can follow and mark a road map.
• Please leave more ideas in comments...

School vacation doesn't have to mean aimless anarchy.

Succot, Some "Pros and Cons"

Why is Succot the Holiday of Joy? 

• Unlike Passover, I don't have to scrub the whole house beforehand, change the dishes, etc.
• Since we eat in a frequently crowded succah, we can simplify meals.
• In my family, succah building is a man's job.  And I cheerfully thank G-d for making me as He wished.

What do I find difficult about Succot?

• It's bee season
• and we eat in succot, which are magnets to bees, and I fear getting stung, since I get awful infections from them.
• The truth is that Succot is the transition between summer-no rain and winter-yes rain.  That means that we may find ourselves rained out of the succah or that wind will blow the sechach,  special roof off of the succah, making it pasool, forbidden to use as a succah until repaired.  That means that just when we've invited guests to the succah, we'll suddenly have to get the house ready for entertaining.  This could be a problem if your only table and chairs are sopping wet out in the succah.

What can you add to the pros and cons of Succot?

To help you think, here's a Succot song, Harachaman Hu by SoulFarm

Succot, Sprouting and Preparing in Jerusalem

Thanks, Dry Bones

When I came back from work, I found my son and husband finishing off rebuilding our succah.  Pictures of that will follow, G-d willing.  But here are some pictures I took when in Jerusalem this week.  I got out of my ride at Shmuel HaNavi and walked all the way to Rechavia via Geula.  This is what I saw:

Bli neder, G-d willing, more to come.

Chag Sameach

A Wonderful, Happy and Healthy Succot Holiday to All

Grilled Chicken Livers, Marvelous at Marvad

A couple of weeks ago, a friend invited me out to dinner.  We ate at the Emek Refaim, Jerusalem branch of Marvad Haksamim.  We ate there for two reasons.  One was that it was close to Matan, where we were scheduled to attend an Al HaPerek event, and second was because she had a coupon.

Decades ago, there was only one Marvad Haksmim, and it was legendary.  Then various "independent" branches opened; each one was different.  From what I understand, that's still the situation, so this review only covers the Emek Refaim restaurant.

At my friend's recommendation I ordered the chicken livers.  Because of kashrut, all livers must be grilled.  Blood and fat drip out into the fire, so there are probably fewer calories than the charts indicate.

I took side dishes of cole slaw, which was not American style, and fresh green salad, Israeli style.  My usual restaurant "meat" meal is chicken salad, broiled chicken breasts served on fresh salad.  Since I live on a low carbohydrate diet, I'm always on the look-out for suitable dishes, especially those I don't make at home.

Marvad's chicken liver was delicious.  Service was good, and I'm glad that my friend recommended it.

From a Few Friendly Blogs

Here's a short "round-up" of posts from other blogs.  I do it too infrequently.  It's a chance for you to read what I read.

West Bank Mama asks a good question.  Who's your hero?  And then she tells you/us why the late Steve Jobs isn't hers.  I've also been astounded at the media hype about him.

As a "BT," I hate that term, I feel more in common with friends who are gerei tzedek, righteous converts, than those raised frum or just plain Jews who live however.  Recently, I told a convert friend that in some ways I'm "jealous," because she, as a convert, was taught so much, and I, even after over forty-five 45 years of trying to be Torah observant feel that I'm an ignoramus.  In the blogging world, I'm frequently drawn to blogs or posts like this one by You're Not Crazy, which I found on Rafi's latest Interesting Posts.

My first teaching job in Israel was as a Creative Dance Teacher.  I was probably one of the very first in Jerusalem to call myself that in the very late 1970's.  From the age of three until I was about twenty, I took some sort of dance class every single year.  For five years, until I graduated and we moved away (same year,) I also went to Hebrew School two afternoons and Sunday mornings at the Oakland Jewish Center, Bayside, NY.  In my spare time, my friends and I had lots of freedom, living in a neighborhood that was so safe that it seems like a dream.  My children rarely went to any chugim, extra-curricula activities.  There were two good reasons for that.  One was that when they were growing up, there wasn't much of a choice, and secondly, we didn't have the budget for them.  My kids had the freedom to create their own activities, which they and their friends did.  Mother in Israel wonders if today's children go to too many chugim.

Our Shiputzim explains why Israeli kids aren't in school this week.  I wonder who's taking care of them.  It's very expensive for many families.  Not all parents are teachers on the same schedule as their kids.

Bat Aliyah's Yom Kippur experiences are very sad.  She may enjoy my shul better.  It's not that most Ezrat Nashim, women's section seats have better views of the "action" in the men's section, but the women sing and sing loudly.  It does make a difference.  And we all try to help each other navigate the unfamiliar and much too varied Machzorim, Holiday Prayerbooks.  I so miss the days of my youth when nobody had a private personal prayerbook and page numbers were announced, either verbally or with a sign that allowed the numbers to change as needed.

Voices' Sharon confesses, kapora.  Nobody tells a better story than Sharon!

Heshy rants in about cooking wine, mevushal versus the real thing.



And finally, acharon, acharon chaviv, saving the best for last, Isramom's short and to the point eulogy of Rabbi Chanan Porat.  As a political observer most of my life, I must say that Chanan Porat's changes in party affiliation were always done in the most principled way.  When he decided that one party more suited his ideals and ideology than another, he also resigned his Knesset seat, unlike every other Israeli politician I can think of.  He didn't use that position as a "dowry" to get join another party.

For those who understand spoken Hebrew, here's a short informal shiur (lesson) Rabbi Porat gave to some of Shiloh's most veteran citizens soon before his death, when they paid him a special visit.

Signs of Succot, The Next Holiday

It's traditional to start building succot after breaking the Yom Kippur fast, and last night, when I was walking around my neighborhood I did see and hear lots of neighbors busy building their succot.  Since we live in a rather rural/suburban-style community, it's no problem to build a private succah or two.  Yes, there are quite a few families that build two succot, one for eating in and the other as a bedroom.

The following pictures were actually taken last week, before Yom Kippur in both Jerusalem and Shiloh.  G-d willing, more to follow.

Post-Fast Problem

I've never heard of anyone else who suffers from this.

If I eat certain food foods after fasting, my mouth burns, hurts.  It started one summer in New York, when we were visiting.  After the Tisha B'Av fast, I drank orange juice and I was in awful pain.  The inside of my mouth and my tongue were "on fire."  Since then I have the same sensation if I have fresh fruit soon after breaking the fast.  I must have cooked food for the first few hours.  I do feel better, perfectly normal, the next morning.

So, tonight, after the Yom Kippur fast, after drinking some water, I had vegetable soup and apple compote and some sesame paste.  I'm still hungry, so I'll heat up the rest of the soup.  Yes, I know that I'm on a low carbohydrate diet, and the soup has lentils and peas, but it's good after a fast.  And the soup needs to be finished before it goes "bad."

Havel Havelim Debuts at Liberty's Spirit

I wish to welcome Liberty's Spirit to the very exclusive group of Havel Havelim hosts.  If you're not familiar with Liberty's Spirit, I suggest that you get to know it.  There are some very thought-provoking posts on it.

As a long-time HH contributor and past (ancient history) hostess, I'd like to thank Libert's Spirit for the excellent Havel Havelim.

Please share it around, read the posts etc.

And, since I probably won't be posting until some time after Yom Kippur, צום קל tzom kal, have an easy fast.  גמר חתימה טובה gmar chatimah tovah, and may "inscribe you in the Book of Life."

שנה טובה

Shanah Tovah

Have a Wonderful Year!

Getting Ready for Yom Kippur

Yom Kippur is the greatest day of the Jewish Year. It's Shabbat without earthly pleasures, a taste of the Next World when we're more like the angels.

Yom Kippur is the only Jewish Holiday without food, so instead of cooking, get yourself ready spiritually.

Hat tip: Carl, also for this introduction:

This ought to get you in the mood for Yom Kippur....
It's the prayer of U'Nesane Tokef (And we will give effect to the day's sanctity) with an emphasis on the second half (on Rosh HaShanna it will be inscribed and on Yom Kippur it will be sealed) and some events that happened in the last year.

And now for a favorite of mine, the Leonard Cohen version, "Who by Fire." This one includes a very shofar-like saxophone solo.



I'll end with Dudu Fisher who performed on Broadway, but never on a Shabbat, and then returned home to Israel, nothing like The Jazz Singer. My grandchildren love his Jewish-themed DVD's and know all the words.

Tzom Kal, an easy fast and Gmar Chatimah Tovah

Waking Up in Kfar Adumim

Last week I attended the Matan Al HaPerek siyum, end of the year program on Sunday night. 

And then on Monday morning I had to be in Talpiyot for my courses in Pardes.  Since I couldn't find a place to stay in Jerusalem, I went home with a friend who studies with me in Matan and also had to be in Jerusalem the following morning.  I slept in Kfar Adumim which is southeast of Shiloh and northeast of Jerusalem.  The topography, as you can see in the pictures, is different from that in Shiloh, as is the weather.  It's more like desert, much drier.

Here are some pictures I took early in the morning before we returned to Jerusalem.

Flu "Shot," Yes or No?

I've never had the flu vaccine.   I can't remember the last vaccine I've ever had.  As a kid I got all they were giving. 

This isn't my school, but it could have been.

I'm the generation that was used to try out every version of the polio vaccine.  We were lined up in the gymnasium, class by class, as a school nurse or whoever stuck the needle in our arms.  Most of us were rather stoic, but there was always someone who cried.  Later on we got it on sugar cubes and then another version.  As an adult I'd joke that if I got one more drop of that virus, I'd be sick with polio.  So when there was a polio scare about twenty-five years ago here, even though I was still in the "danger" age group, the doctor agreed that I didn't need an additional dose of vaccine.

Back to the flu shot.  I've never had it, the shot that is.  But I do get a bad cold, la grippe, which could be the flu.  The problem with that vaccine is that the virus that causes the flu is constantly changing, and the vaccine sometimes isn't equipped to make us immune to the flu of the year.  Flu shots must be up to date, not like my wardrobe.  Nu, any advice?  What are you doing? 

PS when my father was living with us, he got all the vaccines, flu, pneumonia etc. and was healthier than all of us!

My Super Simple TNT Meatballs and Tomato Sauce

I served this on Rosh Hashannah, after it had been frozen for a short while. It was a great success. Our guest loved it.

Very Easy Homemade Tomato Sauce

• tomato paste or concentrate
• cut up onion
• garlic either fresh or whatever's in the closet/pantry
• oregano
• oil, any type (I've always cooked with plain ordinary Israeli soy oil except on Passover, when I use olive oil)
• boiling water

Now:

• put water up to boil
• start sautéing the onion (and fresh garlic) add tomato paste and some boiling water to get the right sauce consistency add the oregano (and dried garlic powder)
• let it simmer for a few minutes

Yes, that's it! If you want you can add salt, but I don't. You can also add other vegetables, like mushrooms, carrots, celery. Whatever you want. This is the basis for meatballs and all sorts of foods you want to serve with tomato sauce. It's really so simple to make. I don't understand why people buy the ready-made.

The Meatballs

While the tomato sauce is cooking up I make the meatballs, usually out of ground turkey.  You can use ground beef, chicken or any combination --and if you want something totally different, "Italian Geffilte Fish," use ground fish instead--

• about a pound (500 grams)
• an egg,
• a diced onion,
• spices, garlic, oragano etc.
• matza meal (you can use bread crumbs or flour or nothing)

And then take a large pot:

• Mix it until it is evenly distributed
• By then the sauce should be boiling
• "Double-spoon" (for health reasons I avoid touching raw meat whenever possible) drop the "balls" into the sauce.
• Then lower the flame to simmer and let it all cook for about an hour.

It can be multiplied, and it freezes really well.

Shiloh News and Memories

On Shiloh Musings, I blogged about a neighbor who had passed away a few years ago, Yehudit.  You may want to read her story.

I also announced the next Women's Rosh Chodesh Prayers at Tel Shiloh.

This time I'm giving you plenty of notice.  The next Women's Rosh Chodesh Prayers at Tel Shiloh will be on Rosh Chodesh Cheshvan:

Women's Prayers at Tel Shiloh
Rosh Chodesh Cheshvan

Friday, October 28, 2011

8:30am

Dvar Torah, Short Torah Lesson

Please come and invite family, friends and neighbors

תפילת נשים
ראש חודש חשון בתל שילה

יום ו' 28-10 8:30

יהיה דבר תורה

נא לבוא, לפרסם ולהזמין חברות, משפחה ושכנות

Tel Shiloh is open to visitors year round.  For more information check here, email office@telshilo.org.il or call 02-994-4019.

The First HH of the Year!

Ya'aqov ended, and Ya'aqov began...
Yes, 5772's first Havel Havalim is to be found at Esser Agaroth.  Ya'aqov has pulled a double-header of sorts, since he had also hosted the previous one, just a few days ago. 

Thank you, Ya'aqov!  You're definitely top joblogger, and you have been for quite a while.

Ya'aqov's standards haven't dropped.  HH #332 presents an excellent edition, worth lots more than ten agaroth, which are worth lots more than 2 cents.  As the American economy continues to sink in relation to the Israeli one, will Ya'aqov change the name of his blog?

Please share it around, check out the links, share them, too. Send in your own posts to the next edition, and you can also host.    And remember that there are two other jblog carnivals, Kosher Cooking Carnival and JPIX.  More details here.

Just a couple of hours and then the best vegetable soup....

This is a fast day on the Jewish Calendar.  OK, not everyone fasts on Tzom Gedalya, but I do.  Davka, today's fast is even easier to be "excused" from because it isn't the real day.  Yesterday, 3rd of Tishrei, is the real date, but it was Shabbat.  I have no excuse not to fast.  Pregnancy and breast-feeding are ancient history.  My "baby" is almost 28 years old.  And thank G-d I'm still in good enough health to be fasting.  There are all sorts of medical conditions that not only exempt people from fasting, it requires/demands eating and even fully eating.  I'm not there, thank G-d.

If I had gone to work today, I would have ended up eating, at least early.

I'm at home, being lazy, so there was something really great to do.... make vegetable soup.  I probably should have done some cooking for the upcoming holidays, but... I just couldn't think of dealing with food again.  We just had three days of eating:

2 days of Rosh Hashannah

+ 1 day of Shabbat

= a lot of food and little exercise

I make a really great TNT vegetable soup.  It's easy to make and very flexible.  This time I used:

• dried peas
• lentils
• onions
• carrots
• lots of water, some preboiled to make cooking quicker
• and I'll probably add a small sweet potato
• I sauteed the vegetables in a bit of oil
• and soon before it's all finished I'll add the salt, pepper and other spices.

Soon I'll combine the peas and lentils  with the vegetables in a large pot, in which I have been sauteing the vegetables.  This time I used the food processor to cut them.  It makes it quicker cooking and really is easy.  The downside is washing out the food processor.

OK, I do have more to do.  If you try my recipe, please let me know in the comments.

Now To Get Ready for Yom Kippur

This year's, 5772, upcoming Yom Kippur will be on Shabbat.  All that means is that there's a bit of tweaking the prayers to accommodate.

Physical Preparations:
For those who fast on the "minor" fasts, we're having a rehearsal today, Tzom, The Fast of Gedalia.  Today's fast is a short one, just from the first rays of sun until night.  Many of us felt so stuffed by the time we finished all the Rosh Hashannah and Shabbat gorging eating that we're grateful for the opportunity requirement not to eat.  Remember that Jewish fast also forbid drinking.  That means, no water, no coffee etc.

My brother sent me a youtube that gives some instructions on how to prepare your body for fasting and recommendations on what to eat when the fast is over.  I disagree with the post-fast suggestions.  I've found that juices and some fresh fruit make my mouth burn painfully.  I prefer breaking the fast on water and vegetable soup or fruit compote.



Spiritual Preparations:
Yom Kippur isn't just about starving oneself for G-d.  It's about repentance.  The goal isn't to do an extreme diet make-over.  We're supposed to be working on our spiritual selves.  And we were supposed to get started on it over a month ago, in Elul.  I'm reading The First Ten Days, A down to earth guide to the Days of Awe based on the Sefirot, by Yaacov Haber, and will, G-d willing, review it.  And as I've mentioned on Shiloh Musings, I've been studying Teshuva in Pardes with Rabbi Reuven Grodner.

The truth is that Judaism isn't just about food.

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.