Leora

Thursday Challenge: Sweet Orange

Daughter Age 1 Mixed Media

I did this almost 6 years ago, when my daughter was one. It’s a combination of graphite, watercolor and crayons on paper. As I haven’t had a chance to do art lately (work, work, work –> keep that web work coming!), I love the opportunity to share this portrait with you.

Watery Wednesday Wet

For more wet posts, visit Watery Wednesday:

SourDough and Hummus

What could be more delicious than sourdough bread topped with homemade hummus? To learn how to make sourdough starter, visit Mother in Israel’s post. And to find out more about hummus and what makes an authentic chickpea dip (as opposed to some wannabes), visit the Occidental Israeli’s post.

Why sourdough starter?

• Taste
• Health: More in this article on fermented bread. Easier to digest seems to be a top feature. Also, some people have reactions to commercial yeast (my father may have this) and find they don’t have the same reaction with the sourdough.

I’m thinking of doing this in July, as Mother in Israel says it works better in the hot humidity. See also read Mimi’s Oatmeal Sourdough Bread.

Why hummus?

Why not?

Here’s the Occidental Israeli’s comments on common hummus errors:

Another mistake I saw on TV that day, was the host opening a can of chickpeas and simply pouring them into the food processor. When making hummus, you must, MUST, wash the chickpeas numerous times, to make the “hummus” even edible. Moreover, if you want your hummus to be good, even if you use canned chickpeas, you have to boil them and remove most the skins, from most of the individual beans.

The biggest mistake, however, was the lack of tehina (sometimes called tahini). For hummus to be really good it must include tehina. Apparently there are other authentic versions that replace tehina with ful or with labaneh, but simply mashing chickpeas (with other vegetables, no less) does not result in hummus.

Ruby Tuesday: Strawberries

Yes, I have strawberries growing in my garden.

Many strawberries are growing my garden, but we had more of these delicious, luscious fruits last week. Many are now mush.

For more photos with a little red or a lot of red:

Today’s Flowers: Red Lily

I am trying to detect which kind of lily this is. See Wikipedia for the varieties of lilies. I have others that seem to be day lilies; they bloom on and off throughout the summer. This one blooms once per bud, then it usually gets knocked over and that’s it for the season. My guess: it is some kind of Asiatic lily, because of the leaves. The stem looks like these Asiatic Lilies.

For more flowers, visit:

Summer Stock: July Birthday

Haveil Havalim and JPIX

Imabima has hosted Haveil Havalim, the News and Politics Edition: Jewish blogosphere posts about President Obama’s speech, the shooting at the Holocaust museum and more.

JPIX, the Jewish photo bloggers carnival, will appear on this blog on June 28. Submit your photo post by June 25 using this link.

Thanks to these bloggers who have submitted:

• Devo
• Ilana-Davita
• G6
• Batya
• Proud Mommy
• A Mother in Israel
• Mike in Midwood
• Rahel
• Maya

Update: Thank you for your recently submitted pics:

• Robin
• Cosmic X

Still plenty of time to send in your pics.

Weekly Review with Lily

On My Blog

But I’m Not Purple (what do you do when you’re stressed? here’s my artistic outlet)

Today’s Flowers: Cranesbill and Sage
Summer Stock Sunday: Parades and the Beach, traffic, too
Ruby Tuesday: Red White Blue
Watery Wednesday: Bridge over Raritan River into Highland Park
Window Views of a fancy East Side Fifth Avenue House
Nature Notes: Bird Sightings

Loss of a Parent

Upcoming in Highland Park Area
(Adin Steinsaltz at 4:30 pm, The Velveteen Rabbit in Metuchen, a blood drive)

Upgrade to WordPress 2.8 (thoughts for those who use self-hosted WordPress)

Mushrooms with Onions: Serving Warm food on Shabbat

Sing Like a Levi and Help a Job Hunter (got any tips for someone who just graduated college?)

Coming soon: Starter Dough Bread and Hummus, too (one of my Link Challenge posts: you can still participate)

Elsewhere in the Blogosphere

• Recommended reading:
  Jews Must Defend Themselves (read the comments, too — hat tip: Bataween)

• Jewwishes, Imabima and Gail all posted about Officer Stephen Tyrone Johns, who was murdered at the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum.

Sing Like a Levi and Help a Job Hunter

In this parsha we learn a lot about the Levi’im (Levites) and the roles they played in the mishkan. (Pop quiz: what did a Levi do between the ages of 25 – 30?) Curiously, however, the parsha does not mention the Levi’im singing. I asked my husband about this, and he said the singing Levi’im must be part of Torah sheBa’al Peh, the Oral Law. He thought there was a hint of it when the parsha says the Levi’im worked the burdensome work up to age 50, at which point they only did the less cumbersome tasks (and one assumes this would be singing – see Numbers 4:47). I did a search on the web and found this about sources of Levi’im singing in the Torah on the Darche Noam website. FYI, my boys and my husband are Levi’im.

On a somewhat related topic, Rabbi Abraham Twerski explains why the tribe of Dan was last. While the Levi’im were up in front carry their parts of the Mishkan, Dan was put at the back. Why? Rashi says their job was to pick up stragglers and lost objects. Here’s a story that Rabbi Twerski relates to explain:

A European Jew consulted his rabbi. His son, who had deviated from Torah observance, had emigrated to America. he became successful in business and was sending his father money. However, since the son was not shomer Shabbos (observant of Shabbos), the father was reluctant to take money which may have been earned on Shabbos.
The rabbi said, “It is unfortunate that your son has dropped observance of the mitzvos. The one mitzvah he is still observing is honoring his father. We may hope that observance of this great mitzvah may have an influence on him to observe other mitzvos. If you refuse the money, you will be depriving him of an important mitzvah.”

Rabbi Twerski explains that Dan was the weakest of the tribes, the one that still had idol worshippers and produced King Yeravam, who caused the secession of the ten tribes. So Dan is somewhat like the wayward son in America. Dan’s good role was in picking up objects and returning them to their owners, and perhaps by doing these mitzvot they would eventually return to being loyal to God. Sometimes doing a mitzvah for a fellow human being can bring one to be closer to God, as well.

•   •   •

Which brings me to my final topic: Jewish Side, who you can follow on Twitter @Jewish_Side, is looking for her first “real” job post college. She wrote her resume, and she asks, what next? If you have any job hunting tips, you are welcome to leave them in the comments or via Twitter (do @Jewish_Side and whatever you have to say).