Friday's Rain Clouds, Gone Too Soon

On Friday when I threw out the recyclables, I saw clouds in the sky.  Now, considering the drought we're suffering from, clouds are news.

It rained Friday night, Shabbat and bit on Sunday, too.  But now we're back to dry blue skies.  Britain and parts of Europe are getting most of the precipitation, and they're not sharing.  In the states, California, Arizona and other parts of the west are also suffering a drought, but the East Coast has more snow than they they need.

G-d must be very angry with us!

Mozart Kosher Dairy Restaurant, AZ, Revisited Twice

A few years ago, when an internet search for kosher restaurants in the Phoenix, AZ, area helped me discover Mozart Café, I called them on the phone to ask if they were shomer Shabbat, Sabbath observant, meaning truly kosher. They said "of course" and sounded rather amused. This recent Arizona visit had me there twice, and I wasn't the only Israeli customer. There was a very famous Israeli rabbi there both times. So, no doubt that Mozart is the kosher dairy restaurant in the area.

I had the Salad Nicoise, (hold the potatoes, please) which is a fancy name for tuna salad.

My cousin had one of the wraps.  We both loved the food. The salad and its house dressing were delicious, though probably too sweet for our needs, but we didn't complain.  We ate it up. Finishing food is rather genetic by us.  In Miami I ate out with two cousins, and nothing was left on any of the plates.

Later in the visit I returned with a friend and ordered their Greek Salad.  It came with a plain unsweetened salad, nothing like the sweet one I had the previous visit.

I don't remember what she ordered. But for whatever reason, we decided to have dessert, but not a sweet one.  We ordered Zucchini fritters or pancakes.  I don't remember what it was called, but they were good.

I wholeheartedly recommend the restaurant.  Everything was delicious, and it's a very pleasant place to be in.

Kosher & Vegetarian
We are a Certified Kosher Dairy (Cholov Yisroel; Hebrew: חלב ישראל‎) restaurant. Which in return means we do not serve any meat. Almost our entire menu is Vegetarian friendly with an exception to some dishes that have seafood (not considered a meat in Jewish law). 7116 East Mercer LaneScottsdale, AZ 85254(480) 609-3879

Staff and Services in the Old Age Home

It seems like one of the biggest industries in the Phoenix/Scottsdale/Tempe area of Arizona is "senior facilities."  My father is in the third one since his move four years ago.  He and my mother "outgrew" their first one.  It didn't suit their needs and requirements, so my sister found another one.  After my mother died, the staff/administration wasn't able to properly take care of my father, so my sister found another place.

This new one seems much better.  It has 24/7 nursing staff and regular doctors visits.

The staff is very nice and even the administrator helps with the residents.  I told her how impressed I was by what she was doing.

During one of the visits I was surprised to hear the barking of a dog. Apparently the dog is "part of the staff."

Another good thing I discovered was a mobile dental clinic parked outside.  My sister is able to register my father instead of having to schlepp him to private dentists.

Ki Tisa Havel Havelim, Losing Count

Cross-posted on Shiloh Musings

Ever since I lost track of the exact count of how many hundreds of Havel Havelim editions have been posted by Jewish bloggers all over the world, I have been naming them after the Parshat Shavua, Torah Portion of the Week.  This week is Ki Tisa,

יב  כִּי תִשָּׂא אֶת-רֹאשׁ בְּנֵי-יִשְׂרָאֵל, לִפְקֻדֵיהֶם, וְנָתְנוּ אִישׁ כֹּפֶר נַפְשׁוֹ לַיהוָה, בִּפְקֹד אֹתָם; וְלֹא-יִהְיֶה בָהֶם נֶגֶף, בִּפְקֹד אֹתָם.

12 'When thou takest the sum of the children of Israel, according to their number, then shall they give every man a ransom for his soul unto the LORD, when thou numberest them; that there be no plague among them, when thou numberest them.

The Parsha starts with counting...  and the great sin of the Golden Calf is because of bad counting... Sometimes relying on numbers can be problematic, so I hope you don't mind that I prefer that we name the longest running Jewish blog carnival, which comes out weekly, after the Parsha.

Blog Carnival

jewish-israel blog carnival aka havel ha

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Havel Havelim is the veteran weekly Jewish blog carnival.  It floats from blog to blog coordinated on our facebook page.  You can submit your articles via blog carnival. Next week and the following week it will be hosted by A Damaged Mirror.  Please share, link, read, comment and join our community.

As has become my custom, I'm just listing the titles which should hopefully get you interested in looking at blogs you may not normally read.

Destroying “Settler’s” Home, Beating up His Wife
Photos of the March to Mevaseret Adumim (E1)
One year ago today… (and milestones)
Sixty
"The Hope Merchant," More Than You'd Guess
Opportunity or Test?
They stab their rabbis
Settlers Attack Leftists Near Hebron: Oh, Really?
South Florida, Surprisingly Jewish
A Crazy Day, with a "Valentine" from Ricki

Rav Hershel Schachter's Valentine to Jewish Women
USA Broken Promises From Kerry and Obama About Jerusalem
Israeli Knesset – Hadassah Outside and What’s Inside
Sunday Scenes: February 9, 2014
Audio Shiur: Parshat Ki Tisa - How Could Moshe Break the Luchot?
Complete Dedication
Isolating Air Travelers to Israel
A Huge Kindness
Civil Administrations Shows Everyone How Brave They Really are by
Lest We Forget

Moving Towards the Army
Hadassah and Purim Katan
We <3 a="" hatzalah="" love="" united="">

I'll end with this in Memory of Sid Ceasar, Z"L, hat tip cosmic x

In case you're not yet familiar with it, there's a fourth Jewish blog carnival.  It's monthly and focuses on reviews of Jewish books.  Here's the latest at  Needle in the Bookstack.

And don't forget about the Kosher Cooking Carnival. Please get your links in via blog carnival.  We also coordinate on facebook.

And JPIX appears a few times over the year and is coordinated on the JPiX page.

That concludes this edition. Submit your blog article to the next edition of jewish-israel blog carnival aka havel havelim using our carnival submission form. Past posts and future hosts can be found on our blog carnival index page.

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Amazing Little Miracle

About a month and a half ago or more I managed to lose a gold earring at work.  Suddenly I realized that it wasn't in my ear.  I had vague memories of something being stuck in my sweater or neckwarmer and pulling on it, but I couldn't quite remember where that had happened.  I mentioned it to some of the staff at the time.

It was a good earring, which I had for years.  I decided not to allow myself to get upset.  It wasn't a matter of life and death.  It probably happened around the time that Superman Sam lost his battle against leukemia and died. With that on my mind and other issues much more crucial than a gold earring, after doing my best to search for it, I just said Kapora.  May the loss of the earring be instead of the loss of a life.

Davka, I've found and returned many lost objects in the store, Yafiz-Sha'ar Binyamin.  But even though I frequently sweep the store, and it gets cleaned daily, the ring had disappeared.  It's not the first time in my life I've lost an earring. I've lost earrings that were more valuable and mean much more to me than that one. Yes, Kapora.

That's me at work a couple of months ago
wearing the earring.

Last night at work, after spending a lot of time manning our "outside" for awhile, where we have about a third of our stock, I walked in and stepped behind the counter where the cash registers are.  Suddenly I noticed something bright and gold sparkling at me.  Yes, of course, you guessed it.  It was my earring.

"That's mine." 

I said in English. So surprised, I couldn't find the words in Hebrew.

Another staff member told me that a customer had just found it.  When he told me where I was even more surprised, since I've cleaned there many, many times.  And even stranger is the fact that not all that long ago I found someone else's earring in the same basic location.

All I can think of is that the customer who found my earring really needed a mitzvah to do, and G-d decided that it should be to find and return my earring.

Shabbat Shalom u'Mevorach

May You Have a Peaceful and Blessed Shabbat

I Can't Be in America Without My Treat, Häagen-Dazs Mint

I love ice cream.  OK, not just any ice cream, thank G-d.  If wasn't so fussy, I'd be binjing on ice cream all the time and I'd weigh a lot more.  Thank G-d I'm fussy about my ice cream.  The only ice cream I can't resist is Häagen-Dazs mint, and I only buy it in the states.

During my recent visit I almost left without my "fix."  But luckily when my cousin took me shopping for the last few gifts I spied a Häagen-Dazs kiosk in the mall, so we stopped there for lunch.

Yes, that was my lunch.  I had a medium size cup of Häagen-Dazs Mint Chip with a bottle of water.  That's a michaiah...

Fake "Plain Goats Yogurt," American Scam

Since I generally don't eat much dairy products and when I do it's goats yogurt, while I was in the states one of my hosts tried hard to find me some.  According to the label this was perfect.  Please excuse the blur.

With great enthusiasm I opened it one morning at breakfast.  Hmmm... it wasn't the pure white color I'm used to in Israeli goats yogurt, but my organic Israeli egg yolks are also paler than their American cousins. The yogurt sic looked more like pale yellow custard.  The texture seemed strange, and the taste was totally different.

Then I checked the ingredients.

There was some sort of starch additive, plus other extras.  I've eaten all sorts of Israeli goats yogurts, and they are real yogurt.

I know that many Americans are afraid of the slightly higher fat content in goats milk and yogurt, but that fat is natural and unprocessed.  When you have the higher fat you don't need the starches, fillers and sugars you'll find in the low fat or fat-free dairy products.

All Five Senses for 52 Frames

This past week's 52 frames theme/challenge was the senses.  I had really wanted to get a great beach picture in Miami, but it didn't work out.  I got to the ocean, but I didn't get to a beach.

I even stuck my foot in the water, but it didn't make for the all five senses visual experience I had been hoping for.

Finally, at pretty much the last minute, the morning I had to get the picture submitted, I shot my breakfast, after dressing it up a bit with greens.

All 5 Senses
Touch- We handle food in preparation and sometimes eating it, too.
Sight- We look at food.
Hearing- I heard this sizzle when cooking. Taste- I'll taste it when I eat it. Smell- It sure smells good.

New Creations on Esser Agaroth's Havel Havelim Plus Jblogging News

Esser Agaroth, who had done an awful lot to keep Havel Havelim going is this week's host.  Take a look and share this latest edition the veteran international Jewish blog carnival.  Not only did he do a great job collecting interesting posts, but he has revealed his latest hobby.  Here's an example:

Saeb "Pull My Finger!" Erakat
"The escalating escalations are escalating to escalations of escalations! Oh, yes! I almost forgot! Everything is Israel's fault!"

I just wonder how he did it. My photo editing is limited to cropping and adjusting brightness and colors.

Please join our facebook group where you can find out who's the weekly host and volunteer to host, too. Please send in your posts of the week on Jewish or Israeli topics via our blog carnival form or directly to the host.  I guess I'm next week's host.  My email is shilohmuse at gmail dot com.

There are actually three other Jewish blog carnivals, the Kosher Cooking Carnival, JPIX and Jewish Book Carnival.

The Kosher Cooking Carnival is monthly, on Rosh Chodesh, and includes posts about every aspect of kosher food and kosher cooking. It also has a facebook page to coordinate hosts and announce what's new, besides the blog carnival form.

JPIX, the Jewish picture post blog carnival, is coordinated by Leora, has its own special submission form and appears a few times a year.

Recently I discovered the Jewish Book Carnival.  It also floats around the internet.

As you can see, whether you're a blogger or not, there's lots to see on the internet.  Please visit, share and comment on all of the carnivals and posts, thanks.

Don't Be Afraid to....

Dream....

Dream on.
We all need a dream.

In a Miami park...

"The Hope Merchant," More Than You'd Guess

The Hope Merchant by Adam Berkowitz is not my usual sort of read, but I was intrigued by the title when my friend told me about it and offered to lend it to me.  You can either buy it via Amazon or directly from the author; more information is on its facebook page.

So, what is The Hope Merchant about? It's a series of stories that eventually tie together showing us the power we all have to change and also how little control we really have over things. 

It's pleasant easy reading.  I turned pages from curiosity not from the stressful anticipation or the fear you'd find in a mystery or crime novel.  Berkowitz explains more in an interview he gave:

-What inspired you to write this particular story?Moving to Israel certainly had an influence. Here I am, speaking a strange language, writing in the wrong direction, and being called by someone else's name. Personal transformation is the most powerful form of magic. The Hope Merchant is all about people discovering that the original life plan is not enough and a new car or next years hot new gadget won't make the awful feeling go away. I am in awe of people who are open to change and constantly question the values they were raised with. I don't think life is about sticking to a 100 year schedule.

Life really is full of surprises, and it gets really good when we learn to trust in G-d and not make too many plans.

I must admit that I read the book close to a month ago, before my recent two week visit to the states to see my elderly father and other family members.  So details aren't all that fresh in my mind.  But honestly, it's not the specific plot and character details one is supposed to take with us from The Hope Merchant.  It's the ability to let go of the superficial details and discover what's really important.  We'll find ourselves surprised and full of hope.  Sometimes we must do a one hundred eighty degree turn in our priorities to go in the right direction.  What we think is right and "smart" is totally wrong.  We've been misled.  That's what happens to some of the characters in the book.

The book is not preachy, not at all.  It's gentle and for some even mesmerizing.  As I read it, I kept saying to myself that it isn't my usual type of book, but I couldn't put it away nor return it to my neighbor.  Yes, I definitely recommend the book.  It's not of a specific genre according to the author.

I have an ongoing disagreement with my publisher about what genre the book is. I wrote one of the chapters when a literary agent asked me who the book would appeal to. I don't think it has a genre or a specific audience. I would call it slipstream, which may be accurate (or not) but it is too obscure a genre to be a useful handle for the average reader to grab onto.

That would mean that pretty much everyone can get something good from The Hope Merchant.  We all need hope.  Don't we?

A Peek at Some Miami Museums

My cousins took me to a few museums when I was in Miami, yes, last week.  I'll just give you a peek right now.

Yes, I do admit that this is a rather strange selection of pictures.  I have more, which bli neder (don't hold me to it) I'll post at a later date.

If you're familiar with Miami museums, then maybe you can chip in by identifying the pictures in your comments.

Fun and Healthy Food in Miami

I was in Miami for the very first time last week visiting cousins.  They took me all around; they really love their city and Dade County.

One of the places we went to, which wasn't all that far from their home, was a farm, Burr's Berry Farm, which not only sells its vegetables and strawberries, but for those interested you can pick your own berries and pay by the weight.

Since we had neither the time nor the need for such a quantity, we just bought produce from their stand.

The tomatoes were as ripe and tasty as those we buy in Jerusalem's Machane Yehuda Market, which is a great compliment.  I even found something to drink.

Yes, coconut milk.  Totally unprocessed and kosher.  They poke a hole in the coconut, stick in a straw and then I drank it.  I was disappointed that they didn't have the tools to break it apart so we'd be able to make a meal or good snack from the actual coconut.

More posts about my visit to Miami to follow, G-d willing.

Coming and Going, Yes, I'm Back Home

Here's a picture I took while hiking through Ben Gurion International Airport (aka "Natbag") on my way to see my father and sister (and her family) in Arizona and cousins in Miami.

And here are pictures I took while hiking through Ben Gurion International Airport after my trip to Arizona and Miami.

Yes, Baruch Hashem, thank the Good Lord I'm back home safe and sound.

Reflecting on The Visit

This has been a wonderful visit with family, just family, besides on Shabbatot.  It has given me much peace.

I'll write more when I'm home, G-d willing.

Caption This, Guys/Gals (Fixed, picture reposted)

What do you think? I found it hanging in a museum in Miami.

"Pet Swan"

My cousins told me that a swan lives in the pond in their back yard.  It took awhile until I actually caught a glimpse of her/him/it.  And then it was very dark, so I had to lighten the photo just a little.



This is my very first trip to Florida, and I can see why it's a very popular place.  No doubt I'd feel a bit differently in the summer, but then again, maybe not.  Heat no longer bothers me.

We've been trying out all sorts of kosher restaurants.  I'm reminded in many ways of Queens and Great Neck.  I could almost be on Long Island, NY.

This Week's 52 Frames Challenge/Theme "Out of the comfort zone"

For me the timing was perfect.  I'm not home.  I knew I'd have to use new and different equipment to send my photo in, which is certainly "out of the comfort zone."

Here's my explanation:

I was so out of my comfort zone that I couldn't write an explanation when I sent it. On the smartphone I saw it as a close-up. I'm very, very new to using a smartphone as a camera, and I was certain that I'd never be able to post from it. In the end my cousin's 14 year old daughter helped me figure out what to do. I did guess right at times even before she did. But I couldn't do it alone. It's an LG, not the most advanced. I cancelled both the color and the flash. My father's dementia includes flashes of his old intelligence and I feel that this picture shows it. When he was "more himself" he wouldn't have dressed like this, so the shirt is an important part of the picture.

And here's the photo:

Sport in the Old Age Home

I was amazed at how my father could still concentrate when playing "soccer" at his "nursing facility."



I'd be checking all around distracted.

Yummy Debut Kosher Cooking Carnival at Foodiscovery

Check out and share Foodiscovery's debut Kosher Cooking Carnival!

She did a fantastic job, and I'm sure you'll find great information in the included posts. If you'd like to host an edition, then please contact me at shilohmuse at gmail dot com or sign up via our facebook page.  You can submit links via the carnival submission form.

I've been abroad and plan on blogging about eating kosher in Phoenix and Miami, so stay tuned.