A friend today asked me to feature her blogs (yes, she has four and considering a fifth) and her business. So here are her blogs (you can tell her I sent you):
Her art on t-shirts, mugs, magnets, posters and more can be found on CafePress.com.
Another Highland Parker is reportedly working on a “lose weight, eat healthy” book. The diet is what I would call “steak and salad”: red meat is encouraged over chicken, vegetables should be plentiful. Absolutely no white flour or sugar, and no fruit. You can eat cheese on the diet. But milk is a no-no. I wonder if anyone could stick to this. Anyway, when it becomes a real book, I’ll write more.
My husband reads the parsha in depth every week. This week, he said, he gets off easy. There is not a lot of Rashi commentary, because a lot of the parsha is repetition of what was previously said. So, my son wisely asks, why does it need to be repeated? “That’s tonight’s question, replies my husband. Easier to ask questions than to give answers.” A basic theme of this blog, too.
I found one Rashi commentary that is in this week’s parsha but not in last week’s, Ki Tisa. (This is with the help of Avigdor Bonchek, author of What’s Bothering Rashi.)
Exodus 35:34:
וּלְהוֹרֹת, נָתַן בְּלִבּוֹ: הוּא, וְאָהֳלִיאָב בֶּן-אֲחִיסָמָךְ לְמַטֵּה-דָן.
And He hath put in his heart that he may teach, both he, and Ahaliav, the son of Ahisamach, of the tribe of Dan.
Rashi explains that Ahaliav, the son of one of Jacob’s maidservants, is on equal footing here with Bezalel, son of Leah, one of Jacob’s wives, in the holy work of constructing the Mishkan. This exemplifies Job 34:19: “He does not recognize the wealthy over the poor.”
Avigdor Bonchek explains that even though there is a very similar pasuk in Ki Tisa, that one does not get Rashi’s commentary, because that one uses the word “with”. “With” might mean Ahaliav is a subordinate. In VaYakhel, the pasuk uses “and”. “And” puts the two men on equal basis.
Finally, I had a little time on Friday to peruse the parsha. But then my company arrived, and I didn’t have time until now to write a post. Instead of coming up with one in depth dvar torah, however, I am jotting notes of what would be interested to explore more:
– Counting at the beginning of the parsha. Why men counted and not women?
Rabbi Buchwald writes: “since the Jewish women did not participate in the sin of the Golden Calf, they were exempt from giving their half shekel”.
– Lion of Zion writes about hokhmat lev, as possibly being a Hebrew word for art. I’m not sure about this. It’s kind of like elevating all art to the level of Betzalel, who built the mishkan along with other artisans and were imbued by God with a divine spirituality to do this craftsmanship. I’m hoping Lion of Zion will write more on this topic.
– If you have 51 minutes, you can listen to an in-depth podcast about different levels of the Torah by Esther Wein. She’s a good speaker. At a basic level, for example, you shouldn’t take the law into your own hands and murder. At another level, you don’t want to embarrass someone; it’s considered to be like murder. You have to listen to the shiur (lesson) for a while to hear her talk about Sugihara, who saved the Mir Yeshiva and many other Jews in World War II. He was dismissed from his post in his own lifetime, but posthumously he was honored.
– What are the בִּגְדֵי הַשְּׂרָד ? Rashi says they were used to wrap the items in the Mishkan when traveling. Somewhere I saw a discussion of the word ‘sered’; if I find it again, I will add a note here. Sered often means remnant.
– My father talked about how Moshe breaking the luchot, the tablets of the ten commandments, was Moshe’s greatest deed. Perhaps because Moshe did not want God to destroy B’nei Yisrael because of the Golden Calf, and by breaking the luchot he was teaching them a lesson and allowing them to do t’shuva and therefore saving them? (this one is really just a note to remember what my father told my husband and me on Shabbat).
– A fragment of a note: the word herut as engraving the tablets, relating the luchot to freedom (from my husband, who doesn’t remember the source).
– I have become a big fan of Avigdor Bonchek’s What’s Bothering Rashi series. On this parsha, he explains the insight of the Ramban on Betzalel. Betzalel, who had been a slave in Egypt, was considered a wonder as he mastered silver, gold, precious stones, wood carving, embroidery and weaving! God inspires this recently freed slave with uncanny God-given talents to build the mishkan.
Both Avigdor Bonchek and Nechama Lebowitz explore Exodus 31:13:
אַךְ אֶת-שַׁבְּתֹתַי, תִּשְׁמֹרוּ: כִּי אוֹת הִוא בֵּינִי וּבֵינֵיכֶם, לְדֹרֹתֵיכֶם.
Note the word אַךְ (akh). This is a limiting word, meaning something should limited…is it the building of the Mishkan or keeping Shabbat? Rashi and Ramban disagree on this subject. Rashi says we do not build the Mishkan on Shabbat. Ramban says there are times we do not keep Shabbat; even Shabbat has limits. From this our Sages learned, for example, that in cases were a life may be at risk (pikuach nefesh) we may break Shabbat.
Finally, Nehama Lebowitz has a lot to say about כִּי קָרַן עוֹר פָּנָיו . “…the skin of his face became radiant…” Michelangelo and other artists gave Moshe horns because of a mis-translation of this pasuk. Maybe by next year I will actually take the time to read this chapter, which she entitled: Moses Was Unaware His Face Shone.
For all those who care to know about fellow bloggers: Juggling Frogs is reportedly fine and busy preparing for a family simcha (celebration). Nice to hear good news.
A few days ago I created a Tag Cloud for my sidebar. What’s a Tag Cloud, you ask? Go down to where it says Popular Tags. If you roll your mouse over one of the tags, you can see how many posts I have done that have that tag. And if you click on it, you can read those posts. Now, being an artist, I wanted the smaller tags to balance more nicely with the larger tags. So ideally I would want some little tag that begins with an ‘a’ or a ‘b’ to balance those larger ones. That’s just more interesting than starting my cooking for Shabbat.
Finally, I am pleased to say that Akismet, the anti-spam module that comes with WordPress, let Therapydoc post a comment without my having to take it out of spam, where it previously put her comment. So my fears of having to check continually to see if I have false positives in my Akismet comments were unfounded. This stuff works, after all. (Basically, I like WordPress).
Here’s a drawing I did for a post I am planning. The post is going to be about getting kids to eat healthy. Or about giving up trying. Probably both. See “Broccoli for dessert“…
Do you find yourself thinking about your next post? Or your next comment? Do you wonder how a blogger is doing, if the blogger hasn’t posted in a week or two?
For me, it all started last summer, when Noah Feldman wrote his notorious piece for the New York Times Magazine about how Maimonides School, my alma mater and his, had the audacity to crop him and his fiancée out of a photo. I found myself calling my friends in the Boston area to ask their reactions. No one seemed terribly interested. “Oh,” said one of my friends. “I remember when he came to visit Harvard, when he was still in high school.” What do you want to do, my friend had asked. The response was something about helping people. My friend at first interpreted this to mean he wanted to enter a career such as social work. Upon further discussion, she discovered what he really meant was he wanted to be President of the United States. Whatever.
Anyway, I found myself Googling “Noah Feldman” and “Maimonides School” in Google Search Blogs. Fast forward a month or two, I got hooked on my Google Reader and dozens of blogs. The other day, one of my son’s friends remarked on how many emails I had. “No, those are posts in my Google Reader, ” I explained. Though I do get an awful lot of emails, too, especially when during the week when I am working.
Commenting was the next step. Somehow, it was very difficult at first to leave a comment; I felt vulnerable, exposed. “You’ll regret what you wrote,” remarked one friend, who feels that way about what she says at times. But after a while I was more comfortable with the commenting process. I do tend to hesitate before commenting, and I edit and re-edit my comments, as though the whole world will read them and misunderstand them.
Finally, I set up my own blog. This was fun! As I am a web designer and developer, I have my own website already. I had read good things about WordPress, and I had an enjoyable time in December setting up the site.
Some people start blogs because they have something to say and a need to say it. I had a need to design a site, but…what to say? I still struggle with that question. As an artist, I try to intersperse text-based posts with photographs or artwork. And I like to add at least one image to a post, if time permits. My subconscious often leads me to my next post topic.
Thank you to the bloggers who have left comments on my site:
And a note of gratitude to any of my Highland Park buddies who have taken the time to read at least one of my posts, often after I prod them to read a particular post. And thanks to those who have commented ( especially my star commenter).
This a picture of my mom, z”l (may her memory be a blessing), posing in front of some fancy shop in Newton Centre. We used to enjoy window shopping together. I took the photo in the late 1970’s? early 80’s? It captures a little of her personality.
my latest watercolor
This pie crust is very easy to make. You can use it for fruit pies or for quiche (you might want to add less sugar for quiche). It has no trans fats, and it’s pareve (no dairy)!
Nutrition Nerd warns: however, this recipe does have white flour, white sugar, and it is baked. If you really want something healthy, make a soup, OK?
You need:
– a pie baking dish
– a fork
– a mixing bowl
– various measuring utensils and a wooden spoon
Preheat the oven to 350. Then gather your ingredients:
- 1 1/2 cup flour
- 1/2 tsp salt
- 1/2 cup applesauce
- 1/4 cup oil
- 1/2 cup sugar (or to taste)
- 1 tsp cinnamon (leave out for quiche crust; you can add something savory instead, like mustard or garlic
Mix all ingredients in mixing bowl with a wooden spoon. Grease the pie dish. Use your hands (you may want to rewash them at this point) to make the dough into a ball. Using your hands again (no rolling for this dough…too many wet ingredients) flatten the dough into the pie dish until it looks like a pie crust. Use the fork to make flutes on the sides.
Bake in the oven for about 8 minutes.
If you want to make this into an apple pie, cut up about 3 or 4 peeled granny smith or other baking apples. Combine with sugar and cinnamon. In another bowl, make some more dough using the above recipe, but this time add an additional 1/2 cup of oatmeal (preferably the old fashioned oats). Put the apples in the pie crust, then cover with the dough. Punch holes in the top with your fork.
Mom tip: as apple peels are a nutritious part of the apple, put them on the kitchen table for your kids to eat. My kids ate them up!
