Favorite Timewaster? Mine's Spider Solitaire

credit

OK, now you know the truth. I waste time on a card game, a computer card game. Granted, I just use the game that is on the computer and I don't go into any of the game sites. I certainly don't gamble nor sign up up for anything that isn't on my computer. But still I find it very addicting and relaxing. And it can sure waste time.

I used to play Freecell, but now I find it too easy. Spider Solitaire is more of a challenge for the mind. Growing up, the Spiegelman family card game, for generations, was Casino. My father could play and win even into dementia.

So, nu, what's your timewaster? Eating doesn't count, and I don't want to hear that you clean your house...

Salad Meal on a Budget in The Center of Jerusalem

Yesterday, my friend and I decided that we wanted a simple, low calorie meal. We had just found her the perfect tzni'usdik, modest bathing suit, ok a bit more expensive than the same one would have been in Yafiz, Sha'ar Binyamin, but close enough to the price, so it wasn't worth traveling there. Yes, the store where I work does have great prices, not only the best over-age saleswoman!!! 

As only good friends could do, we both pointed to the nearby Cafe Ne'eman, on the iconic corner building on Jaffa and King Gorge, where you can get your choice of ready-made salads plus a fresh roll for all of NS24.90. I chose the Tuna and she took one of the White Cheese ones. And we both took the rolls home to freeze for some other occasion, or our husbands...

Even though Downtown Jerusalem was loaded with people, tourists, locals, families etc, the lovely tables for budget diners were empty, and we had our choice as to where to sit.  We could watch all the action on Jaffa Street, while we had a nice, leisurely lunch and chat.

They also have a nice selection of sandwiches, pastries and great coffee. "Fast food" does not always mean greasy and fattening.

My Vegetable Soup, Always Perfect and Easy to Make

Above you can see my second giant bowl of vegetable soup,lentil to be exact. Yesterday was a traditional Jewish fast day, Tisha B'Av. After twenty-five hours without eating or drinking, it's really important to have something nourishing and easy to digest. For me that's Vegetable Soup. It doesn't matter which vegetables I include or the exact quantities, it always tastes good. That's one of the beauties of Vegetable Soup.

Years ago, I made it richer and heartier with carbohydrates like barley, wheat and rice. But as the house emptied and my weight increased, I found it necessary to tweak the recipe a bit. This is what I made:

Ingredients:
brown lentils
onion
carrots
squash
garlic
oil
salt, pepper and some parsley flakes
lots of water- I add boiling water to cut down on cooking time.

Instructions:

• check the lentils for rocks, bugs etc
• pour boiling water over it, to cover plus, and cover pot
• leave for at least half an hour
• add the onions, squash, carrots, garlic and oil (better less than more)
• add more boiling water, at least a few inches higher than the veggies
• cook on high flame until boiling, then simmer on low flame for between 40-60 minutes
• towards the end of cooking time add the salt, pepper and parsley
• always cook in covered pot
• turn off flame and leave in pot for at least 15 minutes before serving

Variations:

• replace carrots with mushrooms, or just add mushrooms to the classic recipe
• ditto with cauliflower, but since the cauliflower cooks more quickly, add later during the cooking
• substitute barley or peas for the lentils

Let me know how you've made the soup. Thanks.

As the Sun Sets...

Today, on Tisha B'Av, I went to a neighbor's for a class late in the afternoon. As I returned home I took these photos.

May next Tisha B'Av be a day of joy and celebration.

It's The Tisha B'Av Fast Now

 I set up a low stool, covered it to stay clean, and said all the prayers and writings one is supposed to say.

This is what I wrote on Shiloh Musings.

Reflecting on "Tisha B'Av," What Makes Me Sad...

Please tell me what you think, thanks.

One "Tray" Meal, Fish and All The Trimmings

Two nice pieces of salmon are wrapped up in the foil. For me and my husband to have Shabbat afternoon. I did add a bit of oil before baking it. Now it's all covered in foil and in the fridge to be heated up on the electric "platta." All it needs is a salad for a complete meal.

I'll skip the potato; that's why there's just one. I love these "one pot meals."

Pishers' Guide to Jerusalem #7 A Supermarket to Avoid. Plus WC Tips

This is a continuation in my ongoing series about public toilets in Jerusalem. See #6,  #5, Saved by The First Station aka #4a, #4, #3, #2 and #1. 

For those of us who really need and use public toilets, you should know that there are some in supermarkets. In general I've had some excellent experiences in them. At work in Sha'ar Binyamin, the nearby one is in Rami Levy, which I, bli neder*, must review. On occasion, there may be a mess, but the store's cleaning crew keeps it clean and well stocked with toilet paper. I've also been to a couple of Super Sol branches, which were perfectly acceptable.

That's why I had absolutely no trepidations entering the former Super Sol in the Ramat Eshkol Shopping Center. This is one of Israel's very first purpose built shopping centers, designed after the 1967 Six Days War for the Ramat Eshkol neighborhood, which had many western immigrants. There are very few public toilet options there. I've never tried the gas station, and small stores and restaurants generally restrict access to patrons. So, since I needed the facilities, and the supermarket was the first option on my route, I went in. It's now called יש Yesh.

I walked in headed left, looking for signs along the walls and finally followed them into a storage area. A worker gave me directions. I needed to go up a few stairs and make a couple of turns. The further I went, the worse the place looked and smelled. If you have a good nose, you can probably find it by the scent. I certainly wasn't expecting that. My Rami Levy branch is cleaned and washed frequently. And of course the Yesh WC isn't handicapped accessible.

When I was planning this post, I thought of writing that the toilet hadn't been renovated since Super Sol opened the building in 1970-71, but it isn't technically true. I can see that the toilet itself has been replaced since then. It's a model that didn't exist forty-five years ago.

But the whole set-up there is awful. I'd have to be very, very desperate to avail myself on those facilities again. Within five minutes I could have walked to the Kupat Cholim, sick fund, clinic across the way and down the street. All sick fund clinics in Israel are supposed to have public toilets. Nobody has ever requested a membership card from me as a condition of use. And there's also the gas station... but I usually avoid them. Maybe it's time to overcome that phobia...

*Bli neder means, not a vow, so don't hold me to it.

Sweets from Gd and the Neighbors

Some of the neighbors have sent out messages, that we're all invited to pick fruit from their garden "orchard." I haven't gotten there, but they really must have a lot of fruit if it's more than they, their kids and grandchildren, too, can use.

Other neighbors left out some grapes for passers by to nosh. The note says:

בתאבון

בורא פרי העץ

הופרשו תרומות ומעשרות

BITEI'AVON

Borei Pri Ha'etz

Hufrishu Trumot u'Masrot

HEARTY APPETITE (ENJOY)

...Creator of the Fruit of the Tree (appropriate blessing before eating)

required "tithes" were taken

Back to 3 out of 6 on Arutz 7 Top Blog Posts

I hadn't blogged on Arutz 7 for a couple of months between getting a new computer, losing my password and my brother's illness and death. Finally about a week ago I was able to contact them and get a new password. Now I'm again one of their most popular bloggers.

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Today, August 9, Would Have Been My Father's 96th Birthday

Sidney Spiegelman 1920-2016

My father was the last of his generation, the last of his siblings, and the last of the aunts and uncles also on my mother's side. Like many in that situation, he wondered how it happened. He had never thought he'd outlive his peers. Here he is with the two people he missed the most.

My father and his brother, my Uncle George. They were nineteen months apart, looked different, had different personalities, but they were the closest of brothers and even communicated in dreams after my uncle had passed away.

Here's my father with my mother, Shirley Spiegelman. She passed away less than three years before he did. They had been married for 65 years when my mother passed away.

This is one of the last pictures I took of him.

My father was born in Brooklyn, NY to parents from eastern Europe.  My grandfather was born in Nasielsk, Poland, and my grandmother in Rogotshov, Belarus.  My father served in the Navy during World War Two on the Pacific Front. He was an officer and worked with the radar on the ship. Although not a religiously observant Jew, he was a proud one and was known as "the Jew."

After the war he worked as a CPA; he had gotten his degree from City College before being drafted. He and my mother married in Brooklyn and lived there until I was seven months old. Then we moved to Bell Park Gardens, Bayside, NY.  My brother and sister were born when we lived there. In 1962 we moved to Great Neck, NY. He lived there until October, 2009, when I moved him to live with us in Shiloh. He lived here until the following June when he and my mother were moved to Arizona near my sister. After they died they were each buried in New York, in the plots they bought in 1959 as members of Oakland Jewish Center, Bayside, NY.

Night Shot for 52Frames

I tried all sorts of ways to get a decent night shot. Many of the other photographers have these fancy cameras with all sorts of controls and lenses. They keep telling me, in comments by my photos that my camera also has controls. Hah! Try to control it and read the menu especially at night. I've tried clicking all sorts of things, and it just doesn't do what the Canon site claims it can. And I can't trust automatic, because I don't want a flash to go off. Anyhow, I got a halfway decent shot, or so I think, considering all...

"Tabernacle Synagogue, Shiloh, at Night"

Here in Shiloh, our main synagogue is modeled after the Biblical Tabernacle which had "rested" here in Shiloh for almost four hundred years. A few months ago, it didn't look so bright and well-lit at night, but since then it has undergone a major sprucing up.

Camera: Canon Canon IXUS 145
Shutter: 1/8th of a second
Aperture: f/4
ISO: 800
Location: Shiloh, Israel

One night last week, I wandered around with my camera and a little tripod. I set it up on benches and walls. That's when I took the picture of the synagogue. Before then I had taken a couple I liked. Here's #2 choice:

The Pool at Night

And there were a few others I liked, but I knew they weren't up to standard. Ort maybe I haven't a clue as to what "standard" really is.

Grape Update- What's New in The Vineyard

As many of you know, I consider the fruitfulness of our little "vineyard" as proof that the Shiloh area is the spot Gd created for grape-growing. With less than minimal care over the years, the three vines planted about twenty-five years ago have produced a very impressive amount of absolutely delicious grapes. The key is patience. They are late-ripening ones.

A few years ago, a neighbor made a deal with us and used our grapes, there were still plenty left for eating, to make a nice white wine. And this year, he plans on doing it again. He even covered the vines with some netting he had.

Gd willing, I'll let you know in a few months what happens. And I've also told the gardener who cleared out the "forest primeval" that I'd like him to hang the vines this coming winter. That should give us a better, larger and easier to harvest crop of grapes. Now a whole section is tangled up in the rose bushes, which also need care, cropping and pruning. And on the other side the vines are slithering on the ground among the weeds.

So Much Doing in Shiloh Hakeduma, Tel Shiloh

On Friday, Rosh Chodesh Av, a few friends and I made it to  for our traditional Women's Rosh Chodesh Prayers. As we walked to the spot where it's believed that the Biblical Mishkan, Tabernacle had stood/rested for almost four hundred years, we were amazed at all of the changes and signs of archaeological digging. We had just been there a month earlier on Rosh Chodesh Tammuz! It's obvious that the staff is working very hard.

Our guess is that they have some great surprises planned for Thursday's Kenes Shiloh #5! I highly recommend attending if you can. Since the event is in Hebrew only, that may be a problem for some of you. But even weak Hebrew will be sufficient if you sit with someone who can translate. It begins with tours of the Tel that cost NS31. There were two basic routes, one for first-timers which includes the movie, and the other for those of us who have been there before, which show updates about what has been discovered. The program of lectures afterwards is free, though the recommended organized transportation does cost money. Use the contact information on the poster below to signup and get more information, for tickets click.

After the tours there are lectures. This is definitely a must-attend event!

Ladies, don't forget to mark Rosh Chodesh Elul, 5776, September 4, 2016, 8:30am for our Women's Rosh Chodesh Prayers at Tel Shiloh. If you have more questions about it, please contact me shilohmuse@gmail.com.

Women's Prayers at Shiloh Hakeduma

Tel Shiloh Rosh Chodesh Elul

Sunday September 4, 2016

1st of Elul, 5776, 8:30am

Hallel and Musaf for Rosh Chodesh

Tour of Tel Shiloh

Dvar Torah, Short Torah Lesson

Please come and invite family, friends and neighbors

תפילת נשים ראש חודש אלול

בשילה הקדומה, תל שילה

יום א' 3/9  א' אלול, תשע"ו 8:30

הלל ומוסף לראש חודש

יהיה דבר תורה קצר וסיור בתל

כדאי לבוא ולהזמין חברות, משפחה ושכנות

The Holy Temple, Could it Be Real? The Falconi Effect

Just a few hours ago, on Shabbat I finished reading the most amazing and mesmerizing and thought provoking book, The Falconi Effect: A Modern Novel about the Days of the Messiah, by Catriel Sugarman. Some of you may remember Sugarman's very popular articles about life of the Kohanim/Priests during Third Holy Temple times, that used to appear in OU's Torah Tidbits. And you may have known about or bought/received his museum quality wood craft Judaica, which he designed, constructed and sold from his workshop on Shlomzion Hamalka Street, Jerusalem for many years. He is also famous for being the craftsman appointed to repair and reconstruct Rebbe Nachman's Chair.

Sugarman's greatest Judaica project was the Second Temple, for which he and his staff did thorough research to get every detail as exact as humanly possible from the sources available. I must admit that I've known him for close to half a century, and in his earlier days as a carpenter, before crafting Judaica, he built us closets.

Today Sugarman is considered one of the experts about the Holy Temple and how it functioned in Biblical Times. Not sufficing in that, he can picture how the Third Temple will function. And that is how I must introduce his brilliant book, The Falconi Effect.

The Falconi Effect takes place during the time of the Third Temple, not at all far in the future. We are not told the year, and we are not given any details about how exactly Har Habayit, The Temple Mount was liberated by the Jewish People and the Holy Temple suddenly appeared there. We just must accept the premise that a miracle happened. But for my generation and older, if someone had been in a coma or hiking in the mountains or desert for the first two weeks of June, 1967, they'd find the results of the Six Days War just as surprising if not moreso. 

Nowadays, when people of all ages, children, teens and adults, too, read Harry Potter with great enthusiasm, I don't see why anyone would have a problem getting into  The Falconi Effect, which is much more realistic and more magical. We are let into the logistics of how the Temple staff get ready for the three pilgrimage festivals when seemingly impossible numbers come to Jerusalem. Not only do they have to worry about hotel rooms, families hosting pilgrims, sufficient transportation from the airports, they have to make sure there's enough flax for the priests' new robes. When not only does the storage system malfunction, but all of the emergency alarms stay silent leaving them flaxless, the staff scours the world for suitable flax and then everything that can go wrong does so. They finally get some high quality flax, and then we find out who is causing the international anarchy, Falconi.  And then the Kohen Gadol, High Priest, literally changes the world. I don't want to get into details and plot-spoiling.

The main characters are jaded journalists, a leading anarchist, a self-made man who controls international media and Temple staff. And the plot and characters all work as they should. It is plausible; it is magic. I told Casey that I had no idea he could write so well, and he must write more books.

I highly recommend The Falconi Effect. This is the best of its genre. Buy it for yourself, your kids, your friends. Give it as a gift. Choose it for your book club. You can get a paper copy or as an ebook/Kindle.

Product Details

Paperback: 394 pages

Publisher: Ketoret (May 12, 2016)

Language: English

ISBN-10: 0692531882

ISBN-13: 978-0692531884

Product Dimensions: 6 x 1 x 9 inches

Shipping Weight: 1.5 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)

Average Customer Review: 4.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (7 customer reviews)

Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,139,262 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

#1171 in Books > Literature & Fiction > Genre Fiction > Religious & Inspirational > Jewish

#8874 in Books > Literature & Fiction > World Literature

#226155 in Books > Religion & Spirituality

Rami Levy at Rami Levi

I was at work yesterday, morning shift for a change, at the Yafiz shoe store when I heard a lot of noise. At first, with my awful hearing, it sounded like a roar. Then I realized that they were saying:

"Rami Levy!"

Yes, the Rami Levi who owns the enormous discount supermarket chain to which Yafiz is connected, was visiting. Now I understood why the pizza/burger place had been scrubbed down earlier in the morning. Unlike a couple of months earlier, when we had been warned to get the store, Yafiz, Clothes and Shoes for the Whole Family, all spruced up because Yafit, his daughter and the owner, and Rami Levy were coming to visit, this time I had no warning. But everything was fine, and he didn't come to us at all. He and Avi Roeh who's head of Mateh Binyamin (the Benjamin District) plus a bit of staff went into the supermarket for a few minutes and then had a meeting in the pizza/burger place.

Rami Levy in profile, Avi Roeh full-face

I have no idea why or what their discussions were about. I was able to shoot these photos on my phone from just outside the shoe store. Yes, we're all the same complex in Sha'ar Binyamin.

"Chaos" on 52Frames

I didn't have to go far to find chaos to photograph for 52Frames.

"Buried in Chaos"
Last week I sent in my "Calm" picture* before traveling to my brother's funeral. My friend was keeping me company here in the den as I did it. I was complaining to her that it would be hard to shoot "Chaos" considering the Jewish mourning restrictions would have me stuck at home during most of the week. She told me to look around the den where we were. "There's plenty of chaos here," she said. And she's right. What do you think?

Camera: Canon Canon IXUS 145
Shutter: 1/60th of a second
Aperture: f/3.5
ISO: 800

My life has been pretty chaotic as of late, but it was easier to photograph my husband's books and papers, a very, extremely small portion of them.

*In the end I photographed the cemetery for "Calm" and sent that one in. 52Frames allows a change of mind...

Homemade Cold Brew Coffee: WOW!

Yesterday, soon after posting about the pros and cons, differences between perked and French Press coffees, I began preparing for today's cold brewed coffee. Yes, it's not something you can have spontaneously. Cold brewed must be made in advance and kept in the refrigerator. From what I researched it can be kept a few days, so you can try to keep a large glass jar full of it, and then make more when it begins to empty. If that's the case, you need a filter; I'm thinking of using the simple "Low-Tech One Cup Coffeemaker Filter" I bought over a year ago. The online sites I found suggested using homemade ones, like cheesecloth and even tying up the coffee grounds in a stocking, which you pull out when the coffee is brewed. Just don't launder the stocking with detergent, or you'll be tasting coffee and soap.

As you'll see, I used my French Press. Photos to follow with instructions:

1- Put the coffee in the container of the French Press or whatever container you will use. Remember that it must be in the refrigerator at least six hours. Mine was prepared about twenty hours before drinking.

2- Fill with tap water and then stir.

3- Cover before putting in fridge. Since there is no cover for my French Press, I used a plastic bag.

Then the following morning, all I had to do to "prepare" my coffee was to removed it from the refrigerator and filter it with the plunger.

4- It came out looking nice a dark.

5- I pressed the plunger to separate the coffee grinds from the luscious liquid coffee and then poured some into the mug.

Neither photo, with or without flash got the color just right. But just forget the color, the coffee was fantastic!! This is the perfect summer coffee. No need for awful diluting ice cubes and a gazillion times better than the fake ice coffee I tried in New York, which used a coffee concentrate. This cold brewed coffee is also less work than my freezing coffee to be added as ice cubes.

Of course the key is advance preparation. I will have to try it and filter in advance for Shabbat.

The bottom line here is:

SUCCESS!