A drawing by my daughter: what does this ballet dancer and Ancient Egypt have in common? Perhaps someone who knows ancient Egyptian history can help. Or maybe you are familiar with some midrashim related to parshat Shmot? (I’m not, but I gather that’s how my daughter got the idea).
What do you see?
Mrs. S. hosts the Kosher Cooking Carnival for the first month of Adar (we have two this year – extra happiness). There’s tamarind date cake, eggplant filled with bulghur, lemonade, brownies, creamy parsnip soup and more.
Chanukah is over, but I still have photos to share. My husband’s chanukiah has a spot for the shamash, the candle helper that lights the oil wicks underneath. It was nice that the chanukiah was built with a place for a candle, but did the designer have to put the candle directly above the oil cups so every year it bends over like this? It would have made more sense to put the candle holder on the side, although it would take away from the chanukiah’s “classic” look.
A belated thank you to G6 for posting this photo of night two of Chanukah as part of her Pirsum Project, a project to publicize the miracle of Chanukah. She posted some interesting photos such as a quilted chanukiah wall hanging in Jerusalem and this one of an heirloom chanukiah from the 1700’s. On her most recent post she promises: “There WILL be more photo memes in the future.”
And don’t forget to send your favorites to JPiX, the Jewish photo bloggers’ carnival. Next edition will be here on this blog on December 26th.
Our rabbi, Rabbi Bassous, gave 5 reasons why the rabbis chose to celebrate the miracle of the oil on Chanukah. An alternative question might be: Why emphasize the oil instead of the military victory?
(My apologies if I restate any of his talk incorrectly).
If you need further explanation or elaboration, feel free to ask the comments (especially if you don’t celebrate Chanukah or if you just don’t understand one part of what he said – I’m open to questions).
Tomorrow night, December 1, is the first night of Chanukah. Are you ready? Set up those chanukiot, bought those potatoes and oil, found last year’s dreidels? If you celebrate Chanukah and own a camera: take a photo, post it on your blog and submit it to JPiX.
An unknown number of 8 year old girls will be descending (ascending? proceeding to? invading? gracing?) our home on Sunday morning. A treasure hunt has been prepared by middle son, and I will be short order cook in charge of latke and sufganiyot (doughnuts) creation.
We are looking forward to Shabbat guests that we haven’t seen since we visited them in their home in Hashmonaim in 2008.
Last Thursday, Veterans Day, I (along with other parents) had the pleasure of driving my son’s eighth grade class to a small gathering of Jewish War Veterans. We met by the dough boy (see bottom photo) in Highland Park, New Jersey, one half hour before the official Veterans Day Parade. According to my son, the way this got started was one year the teacher who organized the meeting saw some veterans saying kaddish (prayer for the dead) without a minyan (ten men). So she asked the school if she could arrange to bring the eighth grade boys. In the photo above, Rabbi Shostack of RPRY (far left) is talking with the students and the veterans. The 90 year old veteran on the right invited the boys to join them at a special prayer service the next day in Menlo Park. I kept thinking, but the boys have school the next day.
The veterans shared tales from World War II, the Korean War, and the Vietnam War. My friend David on the left (a father of one of the boys) recorded their talks. One told how he became a medic with only a high school education. Rabbi Poleyoff, who is a retired teacher from RPRY, talked about his service in Japan immediately after the Korean War.
This *is* a Ruby Tuesday post, so here’s a red veterans’ car!
These older women wore bright red uniforms. I didn’t get a chance to hear their story. They are standing in front of the Highland Park Doughboy (What’s a Doughboy?).
For more posts with red, visit Ruby Tuesday:
We visited the Butterfly Park in East Brunswick last Sunday. I was planning to post a Nature Notes about the park (didn’t happen! not enough hours or energy in a week); instead, I have material for next week’s Nature Notes.
Update on Friday: “Baruch Dayan HaEmet – Blessed is the True Judge.
This is the blessing said upon hearing the news of someone’s death.
About 11:10 AM this morning, RivkA passed away.
Funeral plans are in the process, and we’ll post them as soon as we know.
May RivkA’s family be comforted among the mourners of Zion and Jerusalem.”
One more update, a parsha thought on Hayye Sarah by Jeffrey Woolf: “Abraham came to Hevron to eulogize Sarah and to cry for her. The Rav זצ”ל used to emphasize that ordinarily the order is the reverse. First once cries. Only after time passes and perspective returns, can one eulogize the departed and evaluate who they were.
Sometimes, though, one is obligated to suppress one’s primal shriek of pain in order to tell the world just who the person was who has gone. That way, the Rav said, we try to involve as many people as possible in mourning the tragedy. Once the eulogy is achieved, we may all let ourselves go and cry out in pain.”
It’s Rutgers New Jersey Jewish Film Festival time, and since most of you reading this post don’t live in New Jersey, I thought we could have a little fun with a “Guess the Film” game.
Finally, if you did live in New Jersey, which films would you want to see? Answers to the second question (which film are my husband and I attending) will be posted early next week.
