Here's The HH-appy Hanuka to Empower Yourself!

Yocheved has given us a great Havel Havelim to celebrate Chanukah, however it's spelled in English.  Actually I think it's spelled two ways in Hebrew, too,

  חֲנֻכָּה   חנכה
 and the more popular חנוכה

Nowadays, "full spelling" is very accepted.

But let's get back to Yocheved's Havel Havelim, which is very party like, the perfect blog carnival post for the first day of Chanukah!  Please take a look and check out the posts.

Here's this year's Chanukah celebration:

Instantly Chanukah After Shabbat

I was very rushed for time yesterday before Shabbat.  I never got around to setting up the Chanukah menorah aka chanukiyah before Shabbat, which is what one is supposed to to when the first lighting is on a Saturday night.

But I'm not a newcomer to these things.  I manged to get everything ready between Shabbat's end and my husband's return home from shul.

Chag Urim Sameach

May You Have an Enlightened Chanukah!

Hat tip Rafi

Not Quite "Bend it Like Beckham"

Since there wasn't anything worth watching as I did my cooking yesterday before leaving for Jerusalem to watch my son play American Tackle Football, I pulled out a DVD.  Yes, I ended up watching Bend it Like Beckham, which is a fantastic movie about a young gifted Indian woman in Great Britain who plays soccer against her family's wishes.

It's of the genre of members strict religious cultures and how people assimilate to the new culture and society they live in.  The Jazz Singer is of that genre.

Actually I chose that movie, because it wasn't too long.  Even though I've seen most of our movies many times, I didn't want to have to leave home before the movie was over.  But as I got into the story I enjoyed the irony of the situation.  I was about to go to a game which is very American, but my son plays on an Israeli team.  Many of the players on the team are strictly religious, keeping kosher and Shabbat.  If they were living in America they couldn't play on this level.  Granted the level here isn't all that high by American standards.  There aren't any Shomer Shabbat, Sabbath observing tackle football leagues in America if I'm not mistaken.

When IFL founder, Steve Leibowiz, first started American football in Israel, he was thinking less about Shabbat and more about bringing his favorite bit of America to Jerusalem, football.  Today American football is played all over the country.  And there aren't any league games on Shabbat.

Last night, starting close to 10pm the Jerusalem Lions took on the Beersheva Swarm at Kraft Stadium. and the game was over around midnight, Lions 80-Swarms 44.

Bus Changes, Again, Finding a New "Pit Stop"

AKA Pishers' Guide to Jerusalem #2

In an effort to keep the bus-riding public from going senile, a very important public service, Israel's Egged bus company has recently changed some of its most popular routes.  You must have read that being forced to learn new things keeps the mind young, so I have no doubt that these route changes, no matter how annoying are really "good for me."

For the past few years, even before the Jerusalem lightrail began to run its route, I've been traveling to Matan with a pit stop at the Jerusalem Municipality.  From there I'd walk to Shlomzion Hamalka or King David Street to take a bus 18, 49 or 13 or walk the entire way when time and weather permitted.  I can no longer do that, because the 18, the most frequent of those bus routes now travels on King George St. and Shlomzion Hamalka no longer has bus service.  Of course, if I get to Jerusalem early enough, I can still stop at the municipality and walk the entire way from there to Matan, but I haven't gotten in that early for a very long time.

Now I must take the train one more stop and then catch either the 18, 4 or 21 on the corner of Strauss Street and Jaffa Road.

And with the help of G-d and my bladder, I must make it safely to Gan Hapa'amon, the Liberty Bell Garden.

There are public toilets there.

The changes have also made the #18 a longer route for me, since it took over the Rachel Imenu detour from the #4.  The #18 still gets close to Matan than the #4, but the route is less direct.

The Sun is Always Shining!

winter dawn in Shiloh

Even when it's cloudy and raining and storming, the sun is till there bright and shining.  We really must never forget it.  We need the rain.  Without it we would all die.

It's now winter, and Baruch Hashem, thank G-d it has been raining.  This is the season we must have rain and lots of it.  That's how G-d designed/created the world.

When it rains in the winter, its a beautiful day.  We must complain only if there's too much sun and it seems like summer. Dry bright days are for summertime, while wet, cloudy days are for winter.  Regardless of the weather, and quantity or thickness of clouds, the sun will always rise on the east and set on the west.



sunset in Shiloh

Around the Neighborhood

I always have my camera with me when I take walks.  I find my neighborhood totally irresistible.

 

 

Don't you?

HH by "Seven" and other Jblogging News

Havel Havelim is hosted by Ima 2 Seven this week.  There are some very interesting posts about Israeli politics, morality and making the right choice.  I'm sure you'll find lots to read if you click the links.  Please do and participate in the premier Jewish blog carnival via our facebook page.  Yocheved hosts next week's HH.

Rosh Chodesh is approaching during Chanuka, and that's when I'll be hosting the next Kosher Cooking Carnival.  Send in your posts via blog carnival or send to me with kcc as subject.  And if you'd like to host an edition of KCC, please contact me, thanks.

For many of us blogging is a lot more than using the internet as our personal "horn."  It's a community or communities of bloggers with similar interests.

And here's a link for an interesting and important article about olive oil for lighting the Chanukiya.

Nice Social Shabbat

We went to Eli for Shabbat and stayed with friends.  Eli is the yishuv just north of Shiloh.  I once hiked the distance.  It's actually closer that way than by the roads, because both yishuvim are at least a kilometer more inland from the main road.

The only problem is that we don't have a car, nor does my friend. Getting rides just before and after Shabbat can never be considered "easy."  And public transportation isn't when you need it.

My husband put a request on our local email list asking if there's someone going to Eli before Shabbat.  The bus is a bit too early, and I needed time at home for various things, like my tutoring job.  We didn't want to arrive too early either.  A neighbor volunteered to give us a ride if we got stuck.  Such a tzaddik!  I didn't expect that.  In the end we took his offer.  He even said that we could call him after Shabbat for a ride home, but we felt that would be much too much an imposition.  We'd someone manage.  Manage we did, but it took more time than desired.  In the end we had a ride to the Shiloh Junction with the free Moetza (regional) bus and then a total stranger going to Shiloh insisted on taking us to our door.  I call that mitzvah mehadrin bein adam l'charevo.  Taking a mitzvah, G-d's commandment to help another person to its highest level.

Our hostess is a person I got to meet from shiurim, Torah classes many years ago.  There was a time when the existence of our communities had seemed in immediate danger, and various other communities all over the world "adopted" us.  The dati leumi community of Har Nof, Jerusalem then adopted Eli.  Rabbi Shalom Gold, his wife Baila, and Rabbi David Stahl would come to Eli to give shiurim classes in English.  A group of us from Shiloh would come, too.  That was over twenty years ago, if I'm not mistaken, and that's where and how I met this friend.

Even I was amazed at how many friends I saw over Shabbat.  I knew almost every woman in the Ezrat Nashim, Women's Section of the synagogue she dovens at.  I also knew quite a few others we passed.  A neighbor from Shiloh whose daughter was making a kiddush for her daughter, so that neighbor was there.  We know that entire family.

I like these sorts of Shabbatot away more than going to a hotel.  I like being with people, talking, listening and learning.  I don't like being stuck in a room and lobby without anything much to do.  I don't need the fancy food and all sorts of temptations and boredom. 

Simply put, I like people, which is why I enjoy my simple rather low-paying job.

Baruch Hashem, thank G-d for good friends.

Strange Things in The Vineyard

We have this little vineyard near our house.  In recent years we've been enjoying the grapes.  A neighbor even made some good wine with them a couple of years ago.  I'm no horticulture expert, not even the plants we have. 

So according to my very limited knowledge of grape vines, they dry up late summer, early winter. Then they look rather dead and pathetic until the spring, when small green leaves suddenly appear and much later on the grapes.

Recently, I've noticed this:

On the dry branches there aer suddenly young, bright green leaves.  Rather peculiar, isn't it?

Time for A New Watch

A couple of years ago, I went to my favorite old-style real watch repair place on Betzalel Street, Jerusalem to get my Speedo watch repaired or battery changed.  I was given bad news.  It was irreparable, all rusted inside.  That was his proof, again, that there's no such thing as a fully waterproof watch.  Once you open it for the first battery to be replaced it can't be considered waterproof.

So, I bought a simple, cheap watch for ns70.  It lasted almost two full years.  The past few weeks I began to notice that the watch was losing time, so this week when in Jerusalem I stopped by again and picked out a new one. 

The price of his simple watches had gone up to all of ns80- with a year's guarantee.

At my age, a watch must be easy to read.  That's the only "style" I care about. 

And What Can You Say About This One?

I'm sure that anyone who has dealt with a two year old can easily relate.  Fill in the blanks and caption it if you wish in the comments.

Upgrading for Chanukah

Since I keep hearing that the real way to light the Hanukkah menorah aka chanukiya is outside the house, maybe I should buy myself a present.

Where do you light yours and how many does your family light?

It's How You Look at It

The sun does rise every day, even when we can't see it. And the sun shines every day all the time, too.  Sometimes it's just all hidden away.

On a winter's morning like this one pictured here, it's hard to predict whether the sun or clouds will dominate the day.  We need both.  Without those clouds there won't be rain and without the rain we'll all die.  So, when it's winter here in Israel, we must remember that a rainy, wet day is a glorious beautiful one.

I really appreciate and agree with the Bima Ima's post about taking a new path.  We shouldn't let ourselves get into a rut of "this is the only way..."  There are many ways to do things, and it's good to shake ourselves up periodically.

It's good to reflect on life.  That's the key to תשובה Teshuva, Repentance a cornerstone of Judaism.

The front door of our synagogue, NoamYonatan, Ramat Shmuel, Shiloh

Returning to Work

Yesterday I jumped back in, full schedule and all after being home a week to try to recover from a pulled painful shoulder injury.  It's not that I'm 100% recovered, but if I wait for that I'll never ever work again.

Luckily they like me enough at work to make life as bearable as possible. We all have our weaknesses and try to compensate for each others'. Best of all there is a new worker who seemed fitter than all of us, B"H.  That was a nice surprise.

I'm glad that I had a good reason/excuse to get out of the house in the morning before my night shift.  I had to vote in Likud Primaries.  For my report on that "experience" you can read CLICK this post.  Politics in Israel is always entertaining, sort of theatre of the absurd, grand farce and all that.

There was a real carnival feeling as I approached the polling station.  Too bad they hadn't offered space to craftsmen selling jewelry, scarves etc.  It would have been more worthwhile than the kids trying to recite the spiels promoting various candidates they had memorized.  Considering the long wait before voting, they could have done good business selling hot dogs and cotton candy.

At Yafiz some of the customers said that they had gone to Sha'ar Binyamin to vote.  I guess I'm lucky that we had our own polling station in Shiloh.  With everything so computerized, we could choose voting stations and weren't assigned to one specific one.  I have a sneaking suspicion that Bibi and crew could also see exactly how the vote was going....

Enough politics, this is supposed to be my "fun blog."

Thanksgiving for Havel Havelim

Rickismom is the host of this week's very grateful Havel Havelim, the weekly Jewish  blog post round-up.  Most of the posts are from Israel concerning the aborted war.  Take a look, read, comment and share them all, thanks.  If you'd like to host an HH or want more information, please join our facebook page, thanks.

And just to remind you, I'll be hosting the Tevet Kosher Cooking Carnival in a couple of weeks.  Is Chanukah really that soon!!??!  Submit your post, or any relevant post you may spot, via blog carnival.  You have to sign up with them to do it. It's painless.  If you have any problems or want to volunteer to host a KCC, please contact me directly.

Have a wonderful week everyone!

Simply Delicious

A few weeks ago I bought a "mini-pumpkin," or dalorit as it's called in Hebrew.  I kept visioning  myself stuffing it with chopped meat.  For some strange reason, I was craving a meal based on this idea.

I figured that it's a bit risky to serve something like that to most guests, because it's pretty much an entire meal, and another problem was that we only had one, which would make just two servings.  Finally on Thursday I bought some ground chicken and didn't have guests lined up for Friday night.  In a sense you can say that eating half a mini-pumpkin was the closest we had to a Thanksgiving meal.

I cut the dalorit in half, as you can see here, cleaned out the seeds and put it in a pretty baking pan.
Then I mixed the ground poultry (you can use chicken, turkey, beef or any combination) with tomato past, onion, an egg and spices.
I had about 2/3 a kilo, just under 3 lbs of ground chicken.  It was about double the amount I needed for the two servings.

Then I stuffed the two halves with the chopped meat.
I used the leftover meat mixture to make a meatloaf, which conveniently fit in my oven to bake at the same time.

I baked them until they seemed ready. Every oven is different, so I can't tell you what temperature and for how long.  Sorry

The stuffed mini-pumpkin looked pretty good when it came out of the oven.

And then we had to wait until Friday night to eat it.  I was pretty nervous, because I usually serve a pretty standard meal, animal protein, a starch for my husband, salad and at least two vegetables.  That's a standard meal.  On Friday nights, my husband has soup and sometimes some corn on the cob, too.

You can't get a full idea of the size from the picture, but they were each a meal.  I had also baked two tiny sweet potatoes.  All I ate was my salad, the sweet potato, which I really didn't need and my serving of stuffed mini-pumpkin.  My husband had the same, plus rice, soup and corn.  I felt stuffed!  And I'm a big eater.

You can do the same with any similar type of vegetable.  The advantage of this size is that there really isn't any need to serve anything else besides the salad.

I could have flavored the chopped meat differently and probably will next time.

If you give this a try, please let me know how it comes out and other suggestions, thanks.

Jerusalem Bus Routes Change Again

They say that being forced to learn new thing keeps the mind young and fresh, so I guess we must thank Egged, the Jerusalem bus company for their efforts to prevent massive senility.

And this time, they hired all these sweet young people to try to prepare us for what we have no control over.  On Wednesday, while I was waiting on Shlomzion Hamalka Street for the 18 (or 49 or 13) to get to Matan, this lovely young man came over to ask me if I was aware that the days of this bus stop are numbered.

As of today there will no longer be any bus stop on Shlomzion Hamalka Street.  The 18 will go to King George and then do the #4/4א detour on Rachel Imenu, while the #4/4א will go straight on Emek Refaim.

I'll have two options if I must take a "pit stop*" at the Jerusalem Municipality.  I can walk to the King David Street bus stop for the 49 and 13 which get near Matan but not as close as the 18.  And if I can live/travel without a "pit stop" I can take the train one more stop, to King George and pick up the 18 or 4/4א or 21 there.

*There are other "pit stop" options on the way, such as Horse Park (though the last time I tried that it was being renovated/closed,) the Begin Center, Gan Haatzma'ut or Gan Hapa'amon.  I once popped into the Israel Center which was B"H open early because of a bus trip.

Renewal, Another Chance

Considering how miserable Bibi and politics and war have been making me, I need to blog something good and encouraging this morning.

Just a few short days ago, it was all brown and dry here.  A few inches of rain and we see the sproutings of green.  OK, maybe some of those sprouts, leaves are just weeds.  But weeds are related to the wild flowers, G-d's favorite way to decorate the Land.

Rain is a blessing, a gift from G-d.  It's the key to life.  And no matter how much we sin, G-d keeps on giving us more chances to repent.

Such a Simple Vegetable Soup

Here's the soup I made for myself when I could barely hold a knife, and even harder was cutting with one.  I needed a good hearty meal, and while at the job of cooking, of course I made a quantity enough for a few meals.

To cut down on the stress to my injured shoulder/arm, as you can see, I didn't cut the vegetables much.  The brown lentils needed plenty of cooking, so that suits the timing for large carrots.  I just cut them with the spoon when eating.  They were very soft.

Exact quantities aer not important.  The most important thing is a good pot with a lid. 

Here are the instructions:

• check your lentils, peas or any combo for small stones or bugs
• put them in a pot and more than cover with boiling water
• cover and leave for at least an hour
• add more boiling water and put on a low flame
• add onion, carrot and any other vegetable you want, such as squash, pumpkin or sweet potato
• add a spoon or more of cooking oil
• leave to cook on a low flame for an hour or so
• if you see the water being absorbed add more boiling water
• add your salt and seasoning only when it's almost ready
• when everything is soft, turn off the flame, leave it for a few minutes and it's ready to eat

Reiki, Acupuncture, No PT, Dawn of New World

We're only human, aren't we. And we, including me, have to remember to take care of ourselves.  I guess I wasn't careful enough last week, because I found myself in awful pain in my shoulder and upper arm.  At least G-d was good and had me with some dear friends and family when the pain became unbearable.

One of the friends is an expert in Reiki and gave me a "first aid" treatment.  No doubt that Rav Kook's presence on the wall contributed to its effectiveness and helped me relax a bit and me get home safely.

Once it became clear, the very next morning, that this wasn't going to just clear up (get all better) all by itself in a day or so that I'd have to take additional action.  I actually went to the local doctor on Sunday morning. 

We have this lovely clinic, Kupat Cholim Le'umit in Shiloh, and I'm happy to say that I'm pretty much a stranger there even though I pay all sorts of extra fees for special treatments and discounts.  But in all honesty I'd rather subsidize others than be sick or injured.  But regardless, my turn came to be an actual patient.

Everyone was rather surprised to see me, and some of the staff and I are total strangers. That is everyone besides the secretary who is a close friend and the doctor who hasn't met me enough to remember who I am.

After looking at my file and hearing my story, the doctor recommended physical therapy, which I rejected, or one of the alternative/complementary/holistic medical options.  I refused the PT, because my body (the injured soft tissue) isn't ready to be stressed and retrained.  First everything must be totally healed before enduring such a treatment, and he agreed when I explained my refusal. 

I was sent to the secretary to hear my other treatment options.  As a "gold member" I had a choice of various alternative treatments.  I decided on acupuncture.  One of the reasons is that there is a specialist on Shiloh who even has clinic hours in his home.  I have very fond memories of Shabbat meals and Torah classes in that house from when it had been owned by close friends who no longer live in Shiloh.  And I was able to make an appointment for that evening.  He uses the Japanese method of acupuncture, and since then, thank G-d, I've had felt/seen steady improvement.

It's amazing how wonderful it feels to be flossing my teeth or washing dishes or managing to get a shirt over my head after a few days when pain had made those simple mundane acts impossible.

And now my lessons are:

• I'm not immune to injury.
• I must get enough sleep.
• I must pace myself better.
• I can't work a morning shift immediately after a night one.
• I can't count on my body healing quickly or without some sort of help.
• I must get myself back into shape, especially in the winter when I can't go swimming.
• I shouldn't wait until I'm in serious pain to get help.
• I have wonderful friends and neighbors!