One of Those "Just Seconds Before Shabbat" Stories

As I was about to light my Shabbat Candles my husband plugged in the platta, electric heating plate full of Shabbat food, and the lights all went out.  I looked out the window and said:

"This is just us. Other people have electricity. Check the fuse box."

So we pulled up the switch and this time I tried plugging the platta into the other outlet by the stove. Again, the electricity went. I handed him the cable and said:

"Run next door to Moshe. He's a caterer.  No doubt he has an extra cable or platta  to lend us."

A minute later my husband came back with a big black platta with a cord.

"He said that nowadays, there aren't detachable cables."

So, my husband quickly transferred everything to the borrowed platta, plugged it in and we had a wonderful pre-Purim Shabbat.  BARUCH HASHEM, AND THANKS TO WONDERFUL NEIGHBORS!

Our neighbor Moshe catered the Sheva Brachot we did for our son and his wife this summer.

Photos by Linda Fairman

Havel Megillah Havelim, The Poorhim Edition

Cross-posted on Shiloh Musings

Have a hippy poorhim chevre.  Here in Shiloh we've begun the annual Purim marathon.  Two days of eating, drinking, costumes, mishloach manot, charity and four-yes 4- megillah readings! Mishloach Manot for the megillah readers consist of lozenges and lemons. I'm glad nobody expects the ladies to read the megillah. As my wonderful real life f2f friend Isramom commented on facebook:

I guess it's still better than making two seders on Pesach...

She's right. So enough with the kvetching and bad humor and on with the show!

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.

I want to start with two other Jewish blog carnivals:
The Jewish Book Carnival
The Pre-Purim aka Adar Bet Kosher Cooking Carnival!

Israel Museum Fancy Dress and Old Masks for Purim Inspiration
Amalek
Unholy Leftovers
It’s all about the beauty.
Purim, part II (includes link to part I)
A New Sanhedrin: A step forward or a leap backward?
Searching Out The Owner

9 Photos of Israel near Gaza Border
A Jewish Interpretation of The Four Blood Moons. Some Purim Torah
A Purim Post: The Waze Conundrum
Renouncing My U. S. Citizenship, Part 2
Clash Between B’tselem, IDF soldiers and Settlers
"Enclave" Insanity, ZACHOR!
19:49 - Color Red Attack

Early Purim Pics…
Haredi Draft Bill Passes: Now What?
Exploring nature with Israeli author/illustrator Miri Leshem-Pelly
The Biggest Mistake is for Israel to Trust Kerry and Obama to Mediate Peace
Will we be the Ten Percent?
Festive Orange Flowers for Purim

Strange partners for new beers
For My Beloved Country
Footprints in the Snow
A Thing is a-Coming
Kindle Countdown Promotion!
Computer Jobs in Israel (CJI) Salary Survey Result...
Testing Well and Smiling Widely
Give Your Matanot Le'evionim Even In The Rain!

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Technorati tags: jewish-israel blog carnival aka havel ha, blog carnival.

Searching Out The Owner

The American (and Israeli) media was impressed by the fact that Rabbi Noach Muroff returned the close to one hundred thousand dollars he found in a desk bought via Craig's List.

The desk, purchased for $150 dollars, turned out to be hiding $98,000 stuffed in a ShopRite plastic bag, that had fallen behind the file cabinet.
And Muroff gave it all back.
Muroff bought the desk last September, right before Rosh Hashanah. When it wouldn’t fit through the door, he and his wife had to disassemble it. That’s when they spotted a shopping bag full of a cash inheritance that the previous owner assumed had been lost somewhere in her home.

Read more: http://blogs.forward.com/forward-thinking/194400/honest-rabbi-returned-k-and-inspired-us/#ixzz2vuZzA7v9

I thought of it last night at work when a man came in to retrieve a bag of clothes he had inadvertently left in a shopping cart in the Rami Levy, Sha'ar Binyamin parking lot. In our case, when the supermarket worker who had found the bag gave it to kupah rashit, managers office at the entrance/exit of the supermarket, they gave it to the Yafiz check-out counter.  There the receipt was traced and apparently the customer had paid with a credit card which afforded sufficient identification to locate and contact him.  That's one of the reasons it pays to write your name clearly and sign in your phone number when signing the receipt to the store. Not everyone does it. We always make an effort to return such lost bags, which may not happen daily, but each story has a better chance for a happy ending if you do.

The Israeli practice when it comes to a "found" items follows the Jewish Law to return lost item to its owner. A couple of times I've even taken the bag home, so that it would be easier for the owner to pick it up directly from me rather than having to return to Sha'ar Binyamin.  We've all done that.

Over twenty years ago, when I was working in a Jerusalem store, my pocketbook, including wallet, identification etc were stolen at work.  A couple of months later I got a postcard from the "Lost and Found," aka in Israel "Returning Lost Items" department of the Tel Aviv Bus Station that something of mine had been found. I traveled to Tel Aviv and discovered that my pocketbook, identification and change/coins were all there. The thief  had "only" taken the bills.

Yes, Israel is a Jewish Country with Jewish values, B"H.

Admittedly there is still a need for improvement, but we're all supposed to constantly do teshuva, repent and attempt to improve ourselves.

Shabbat Shalom and Chag Purim Sameach!

Bus Foul-Up, It Can Happen to Anyone

I ended up taking the wrong bus #31 from Malcha yesterday.  It didn't stop at Golumb/Pat.  It didn't stop until we were at the Government Office Complex aka Kiryat Memshala. I tried to catch a #14 from there to the Katamonim, but missed it by less than a minute. So I went to the stop for the #31 in the other direction and saw I could catch a #6 to Pat/Golumb.  The bus took ages to arrive, but once it did I got to the junction pretty quickly and made my connection, but when I got to Matan it was too late to walk into the class.

Now I've learned my lesson, two lessons.

• One is a reminder to always ask the driver. Bus routes change, and memories are faulty.
• Everyone makes stupid mistakes. That includes me.

Considering that I got to Jerusalem safely, neither accidents nor terror attacks, and any of those really bad things could have made me late. I really enjoyed how half the bus joined in trying to suggest solutions to my travel snafu. 

I was lucky to benefit from a lull in the rain after classes to walk all the way to the center of Jerusalem.  I was even able to have my lunch in Liberty Bell Park.

On the whole it was a great day, and I'll just have to listen to a recording of the missed lesson.

A Couple of Advantages of Wearing Multifocal Eyeglasses Part 1

 Well, as you know I've been suffering this past year juggling two and sometimes three pairs of glasses, reading, distance and sunglasses. I've reached the absurdity, thanking G-d my kids couldn't see me, wearing two vision eyeglasses simultaneously at classes when the lecturer looked blurry and I still had to read.

Then I finally made an appointment at the Hadassa College Optometry Clinic where they train  and practice.

I went there a few weeks ago for an exam, then went to their opticians, chose frames and then last week picked up my new glasses.

I use clip-on sunglasses, since having the special ones that darken are too expensive for me.

I was all psyched up that it would take a long time to adjust, but Baruch Hashem, thank G-d, besides some reading trouble, they are great.

So far the two best things about multifocals are:

• I'll be able to wear necklaces as fashion accessories since I no longer have reading glasses on a string. Those reading glasses had been my "necklace" for almost twenty years. I'm glad to retire them.
• I find wearing the multifocals so natural I forget they are on.  I feel young again, because I no longer have to change glasses and then suddenly think I'm going blind, because I'm wearing the wrong ones.  It was really getting me down.

If you have anything to add to my list, then feel free to add it in the comments, thanks.

52Frames and Multifocals

This week's theme/challenge in 52frames, the photography group I'm in, was "something hidden."  Too bad that I couldn't reproduce the effects in the "illusion workshop" my grandkids participated in at the Israel Museum a few months ago.

I understood the challenge to be creating a picture that makes the viewer think they're looking at something not quite what is there.  There are always members of the group that take it more literally, so thought of having one or more of the grandkids pose reading books that hid their faces.

"Hidden behind a book."

But this is supposed to be a photographic challenge, so I went for the visual.

Yes, that's a "selfie." I figured that most people would look at the picture, with the hat and dark lenses and figure that I was wearing sunglasses.  The truth is that I'm not, and these aren't the type of lenses that change color/darkness depending on how light or dark it is.  I'm using old-fashioned clip-ons.

The ironic thing is that I originally had planned on buying glasses with those special lenses but was put off by the price. I saw that my sunglasses easily went over them, so just got plain lenses.  And on my way home from the optician I somehow lost the sunglasses in one of the rides.

When I realized that I had lost the sunglasses, I took the clip-ons I had once bought my husband.  We never succeeded in getting them on his glasses, so they'd been waiting rather forlornly in the closet. I had no problem putting them on and off my new glasses.

In another post, bli neder, I'll write more about wearing multifocals.

Something Good to Read in The Rain, Havel Havelim!

Baruch Hashem the rain has returned to the HolyLand.  It has been an awfully dry winter, which is not good. Suddenly we're indoors instead of outdoors, and if we're outdoors we must find shelter.

No doubt you need something to read. I suggest this week's Havel Havelim on Esser Agaroth.

Havel Havelim is the weekly international Jewish blog carnival which floats from blog to blog.  We coordinate it on our facebook page.  You can send in links via the blog carnival form. There's also a monthly Jewish blog carnival, the Kosher Cooking Carnival about all aspects of kosher food and kosher cooking. Reading a blogging for them should keep you happily busy while it rains outside.

PS read the various posts, comment and share, thanks.

Lunch in That Name-forgotten Kosher Miami Restaurant

Somehow I didn't photograph the name of the Miami kosher dairy restaurant my cousins and I ate in the Sunday I was there.  I'd appreciate if someone would add the name in the comments, thanks.

We had a lovely meal. The menu and Hechshar are posted on the window, but I can't see the name anyplace. Those who know Miami should be able to recognize it and the buildings across the way which are reflected in the window.

I had my usual Tuna Salad, which I eat out in many places.

When it's called Salad Nicoise, I just tell them to "hold the potatoes." I think that this restaurant just had "plain old tuna salad," because I don't see the hard-boiled egg you usually find in a nicoise salad.

The restaurant seemed to be one of those family-friendly ones with lots of plain tables and quick service. When my cousin didn't like her food they tried to be accommodating.  There are quite a few kosher restaurants in the area, and I trusted my relatives to choose one.  It's nice to have a choice all within a short walking distance. As I've written before, I was very surprised by the amount of  kosher stores in the Miami area.

My Photo in The Jerusalem Post!

The Magazine has a page which welcomes readers to send in photos.  I had tried once before. The page editor wrote that she was going to use the photo, but then later wrote back that she couldn't.  The quality wasn't good enough.  It was from my phone.  So this time, when I took pictures last week at Shiloh Hakeduma, Tel Shiloh, of our Women's Rosh Chodesh Prayers I used my camera rather than the phone.

There was real siyate d'Shmaya in the timing.  The magazine's theme was women.  Now that I think about it neither WOW Women of the Wall nor W4W Women For the Wall was mentioned in that magazine edition. On the photo page near my picture there is a Reuters shot of masses of chareidi women praying at the anti-draft demonstration.

I wonder if this will get more women interested in coming to Shiloh Hakeduma, Tel Shiloh to pray on Rosh Chodesh.  And I'll take this opportunity to remind you of next Rosh Chodesh.

Women's Prayers at Tel Shiloh

Rosh Chodesh Nissan

Tuesday, April 1, 2014

1st of Nissan 5774, 8:30am

Tour of Tel Shiloh & Dvar Torah, Short Torah Lesson

Please come and invite family, friends and neighbors

תפילת נשים
ראש חודש ניסן בתל שילה

יום ג' 1-4 א' ניסן תשע"ד 8:30
יהיה דבר תורה קצר וסיור בתל
 כדאי לבוא ולהזמין חברות, משפחה ושכנות

Mark your calendar, and join us.  
You're welcome to join our facebook page. Tel Shiloh is open to visitors daily. Tours can be arranged through the Shiloh HaKeduma, Ancient Shiloh office. Email visit@telshilo.org.il  or phone 02-994-4019.

Don't Replace it 'Till It's "Dead," But...

I've had my digital camera, the old and trusty Canon PowerShot A620 for years and years.  It's the only digital camera I've owned.  When I bought it, it was still pretty easy to get film developed and then, if you wanted you could get the film converted to a CD for your computer along with the negatives.  I did that quite a few times.

Half a year after I bought my camera, it was rated as the best digital camera on the market by Yahoo and some other sites. I felt pretty lucky that my sons steered me to buy it when their friend had gotten one. One of the things I really liked was that it looked and felt like an old-fashioned film camera with a viewfinder and all.  It took me a long time to even glance at the screen.  Actually, I had it flipped shut for ages.

A few months ago the shutter began giving a lot of problems, refusing to open fully, and I brought it back to the store.  One of the workers spent a long time on it, and now it opens on command.  I asked him if I should replace the camera already, and he said "no."  He told me that the camera may probably continue working, shooting great photos for a long time.

I'm starting to get tired of schlepping it around.  It's heavy, but it has been loyal and still takes better photos in many ways/settings than my Samsung GalaxyII smartphone.

I've already chosen a replacement, but I can't afford to just buy it when the 620 still functions.

I'd love one of those bright red Canon PowerShot A2500 .  It's more than double the megapixels and a fraction of the weight. The price is also great; Amazon has it with case and memory card for less than the official price.  And for some strange reason the red is less than the black one.

Things have changed in the digital camera market since I bought my 620.  I wonder when I'll really need a new camera. It doesn't pay to buy one when my old one still works, but like I did a number of years with my refrigerator, I'll keep tabs on the market so when the time comes, I'll be ready.  But who knows... the A2500 may be an antique by the time my 620 dies.  Then I'll have to choose a newer model!

The Pre-Purim aka Adar Bet Kosher Cooking Carnival!

Better late than never!

I had a very busy start to the week when there was no time for blog carnivals, though I actually could have combined it again with Havel Havelim which I posted on Sunday which was actually Rosh Chodesh...At the time, blog carnival wasn't functioning making things a bit more difficult. But Baruch Hashem it's back, so just to remind you that you can send in your posts via their handy form. Other information and alternative methods plus how to volunteer to host can be found on our facebook page.

The Kosher Cooking Carnival is the monthly blog carnival with posts about all aspects of kosher food from Halacha (Jewish Law) to recipes to cookbook and restaurant reviews. I started it many, many years ago when a post of mine was rejected by a recipe carnival which had decided to make that edition's theme "ham only." In response I started KCC.

Please visit, comment and share all of the posts included and of course also share this edition of the Kosher Cooking Carnival.  I'm just going to give you the titles, linked to the posts.  I hope that whets your appetite. Dig in:

Selling Israeli beer at Bardak
Oven-Baked Tortilla Chips
Freshly Baked Goods Friday: Lemon Cake Edition
Mozart Kosher Dairy Restaurant, AZ, Revisited Twice
The Lime of My Life
"1 WAY TO MAKE LIME BARS"
Five 5 Shekel Food Place on Ben-Yehuda, Jerusalem, A Review

Hamantaschen French Toast Casserole
Kosher in Miami, Fish & Sushi
Is Holy Schitzel Lower East Side's Kosher Savior?
I Can't Be in America Without My Treat, Häagen-Dazs Mint

Jewish-Indian Flavors



Please make it routine to send your links to the Kosher Cooking Carnival, thanks

http://blogcarnival.com/bc/tb_53183.html
http://rpc.technorati.com/rpc/ping

Something New!

I've gone from

to

Do you know what that means?

Interesting Views and Sights in The Mamilla Mall, Jerusalem

I remember Richov Mamilla when it was a partially destroyed hovel of a street, one of the "spokes" originating from Sha'ar Yaffo, Jaffa Gate. During the nineteen years from the War of Independence until the 1967 Six Days War, Mamilla was on the border.  Only the poor, those without much choice lived there.  After the war, it, like Yemin Moshe which was even more exposed and vulnerable to Jordanian snipers, was suddenly earmarked for luxury housing and commercial development.  The hapless residents were shuffled off aka "urban renewal" to live in quickly built tiny apartments in the more outlying neighborhoods.

When my husband and I made aliyah in 1970, we lived in the Old City and did some of our shopping in a small grocery store, Levi's, on Rechov Mamilla.  Closer to the King David Street end was the best Conditoria in Jerusalem. We continued patronizing it for years.

So I must admit a certain ambivalence when it comes to the very upscale Mamilla Mall.

Busy at Tel Shiloh, Shiloh Hakeduma

On Rosh Chodesh Adar Bet (2) when my friends and I arrived at the spot believed to have once been the site of the Mishkan Holy Tabernacle we discovered a group of tourists, so we continued walking so we wouldn't be too close to them.  We enjoy our time together praying and singing the Hallel out-loud.

We had a nice group including a first-timer. There wasn't all that much time for touring this Rosh Chodesh.

G-d willing next month, even more women will manage to make the time to doven with us, although it'll be barely two weeks before Pesach.

Women's Prayers at Tel Shiloh

Rosh Chodesh Nissan

Tuesday, April 1, 2014

1st of Nissan 5774, 8:30am

Tour of Tel Shiloh & Dvar Torah, Short Torah Lesson

Please come and invite family, friends and neighbors

תפילת נשים
ראש חודש ניסן בתל שילה

יום ג' 1-4 א' ניסן תשע"ד 8:30
יהיה דבר תורה קצר וסיור בתל
 כדאי לבוא ולהזמין חברות, משפחה ושכנות

Mark your calendar, and join us.  
You're welcome to join our facebook page. Tel Shiloh is open to visitors daily. Tours can be arranged through the Shiloh HaKeduma, Ancient Shiloh office. Email visit@telshilo.org.il  or phone 02-994-4019.

Shooting for 52frames

Every week there's a different theme/challenge.  Many of us morphed this week's "on your plate theme" into some sort of food focused picture.  I davka shot a worker preparing an anti-plate shawarma, or something like it on the grill at my local Rami Levy, Sha'ar Binyamin.

I originally just wanted to just get the fancy knife-work and steam in my picture, but my model was so excited to pose for me that I included him in the shot.

Last week's theme was Action and here's my photo:

Yes, that's a winning game by the Big Blue Jerusalem Lions tackle football team.  I was very pleased in how strong the flash is on my new Galaxy II smartphone, although the pictures aren't as clear as from my old Canon 620 camera. Now, if I could combine the flash on the phone with the quality pictures from the camera...  I'd love to replace the camera, but I can't afford to as long as it still works. This week's photo was shot with it.

The week before was Reflecting, something that I only began shooting since I got the digital camera.

It's a whole new photo genre for me. I absolutely adore it. Most of my reflection shots are more chaotic, busier, but I thought that this one would please the style of the 52frame members. But it didn't make a dent; I'm still one of the "backbenchers" in this group.

Some of the photographers in 52frames are real professionals, not dabblers or amateur plus like yours truly. There's all sorts of talk of expensive cameras, lenses, settings etc.  I don't know if I'll ever get "there." It's not only the money; it's the idea of having to schlep all sorts of equipment and losing the fun and joy in just spontaneously shooting. Today's cameras (and some smartphones) really are good and it's possible to take fantastic shots without great expense and complicated calculations.

The Two 2 Weeks to Purim Countdown Havel Havelim

cross-posted on Shiloh Musings

Chodesh Tov! This week's Parshat Shavua, Torah Portion of the week is פְקוּדֵי Pekudai, Keep Accounts, so calling this edition of Havel Havelim a "countdown" does make sense. Also Judaism is full of numbers and counting; no doubt that's why Jews are considered as being good at business, nu?

At present Blog Carnival is "down" again, so all of our communications will be via our facebook page until further notice.  You can also email me  shilohmuse at gmail dot com.  Next week's host is Esser Agaroth; please send your posts/links and any you see that fit the guidelines to esseragaroth@gmail.com. Havel Havel is THE international Jewish blog carnival and has been going on for over a decade.  It's weekly and posted either before or after Shabbat, depending on the convenience of the host blogger.

Please read, comment and share the carnival, round-up, and all of the various links, thanks.

I don't know about you, but I have a busy week, so no more chitchat.  On with the show.  Please remember that I may not agree with the content of the various posts.  Each blogger is responsible for his/her own posts. Quite a few were sent in by their readers and not the bloggers themselves, and I found the rest. To guarantee your blog's inclusion, you must send your links to the host of the week.

And as my norm, I'm just posting the titles, embedded with the links so click and enjoy.

7 New Signs in Jerusalem
Friday Thoughts

Demographic Nonsense
Riiiiinnngggg!!! "This is God calling."
I Found It!
To The Hope Of Israel Baptist Mission, Inc.
John Judis's Truman Book Backs My Theory
Fashion Friday: 1970 Edition
Honenu versus the Israeli Mainstream Media
Why allude to the Churban specifically in Pekudei?
Keeping Judea and Samaria will not be Determined by Israeli Public Opinion
Imagination Under Attack
Pieces
Lovely Nachla'ot

Blessed Intuition
Exact Text of New Israeli Draft Law… or not
Jewish Agency, If You Really Want to Help, Then Don't Help!
What we like about Kiryat Shmuel (and you might, too!)
Queen Esther, Monical Lewinsky and Sara Netanyahu
"Occupied Palestine," sic, An Oxymoron
A Shemittah Dilemma
It's Not Even Purim, but Don't Try to Tell it to The Plants
Shakalim
INN Headline: 'Lapid Will Be Murdered Like Rabin'
One more Shaun Casey visit to Israel-haters pops up

You Can Call Me a "Neanderthal," but I'm Not Looking to Adopt Tefillin, Torah Reading etc. to My Life
Israeli Leftist MK Zahava Gal-On Is Right Again!
Rav Aharon Lichtenstein, the Quintessential Scribe, has been awarded the Israel Prize 2014
IRAN? "PALESTINIANS"? TRUST THE WISDOM OF OUR SAGES!
EVENTFUL DAYS UPON US
Why pay only 'migrants' to leave?
Why the Western World is in Surprisingly Poor Health
Save the Temple Mount
Passover Is Six Weeks Away

Boycotts

You should always check if blog carnival is working to submit your post, thanks.
Technorati tags: haveil havalim, blog carnival.