Isramom

Haveil Havalim #344 New Banner Edition

2012-01-22T03:42:00.003+02:00

Well, there it is ~ my new banner! The kids grow so quickly, thank God, and the photos get outdated.

Haveil Havalim is meant to be a roundup of posts from the Jewish blogsphere. I didn't get many submissions so what you will be seeing here are the ones who did send their links along with a few links that I consider worth taking a look at.

Wednesday marks the first day of the Jewish month of Shevat and Batya reminds us:

Women's Prayers at Tel Shiloh

Rosh Chodesh Sh'vat

Wednesday, January 25, 2011

8:30am

Shiur Torah, Short Tour & Torah Lesson

You're welcome to join our facebook page. Tel Shiloh is open to visitors daily. Tours can be arranged through the office. Email telshilo@gmail.com or phone 02-994-4019

Kosher Cooking Carnival for Sh'vat (which I read but don't contribute to) will be up at This American Bite. so if you do blog about your cooking or anything kosher food related you should be submitting.

The holiday we are all looking forward to this month is Tu B'shvat, the new year for trees. The Velveteen Rabbi shares some nicely put together Haggadot to use for Tu B'Shvat worth looking at for ideas for your celebrations.

SusanEsther Barnes shared a thoughtful take on how and what we pray for over at TCJewfolk.com, she regularly blogs at To Kiss aMezuzah and speaking of praying, Batya gave her opinion on Talking inShul.

David has been studying Talmud Yerushalmi and posted his siyyum of Massechet Bikurim and Seder Z'raim (OK, not this week but I am taking the liberty of pointing you there.)

Israel is on the cyber-maven's map as The Real Jerusalem Streets contrasted tweetingabout the nifty stuff that was going on at SMX Israellast week with some less pleasant stuff going on outside. Anthony Reich, writing at The Israel Situation addresses what he terms Racism in Israel about challenges faced by immigrants from Ethiopia. We can only hope that next week brings goodnews inside and outside.

Just to show us how the world has become a global village Ruti Mizrachi points us toward theintriguing blog of a young woman who has left Islam, but cannot comeout in the open. Batya weighs in and defends our way of life in Israel, recounts a story of meetingfamous people and lets us in on a newinitiative involving China and Israel. In more news from Israel Mrs. S shows us that new immigrants eventuallyacclimate and gives us 10ways to measure progress.

In these days of financial uncertainty both here in Israel and in the rest of the world I thought it would be interesting to point you toward this post InGod We Trust: Your Money and a Higher Power written by an American (not Jewish, I believe agnostic) whose blog deals with money management. Rabbi Reuven Spolter (who did not submit but whose blog is a nice mix of Torah and commentary which I read often) shows us something about community expectations over at Chopping Wood and Batya has something to tell us about prioritiesand possesions as well. More on the economic front from the Velveteen Rabbi as she 'passesthe hat' for a vandalized shul.

On my own blog I have set out to define those words under the banner. Meantime I wrote a bit about Feminism. In trying to define Jewish (all by itself, as Orthodox will have its own explanation) I was looking for a way to say that I feel akin to Jews of all stripes. There's a clip over at YouTube that puts it very nicely.

For instructions on how to contribute to the next edition check out ourfacebook Havel Havelim page. HH comes out every Sunday on a different blog. Next week's Havel Havelim will be Beneath the Wings. If you don't have facebook, you can still contribute a link by sending it to me and I'll pass it on to the hostess.

Feminism

2012-01-11T01:22:00.000+02:00

What really defines me?

I'm working on a new banner since some of the photos in the present one are really outdated. (Some change faster than others!) I also noticed that the subtitle really needed to be updated. So I fixed that too. I chose seven words for what's really important in my life.

I put feminism first.

Little girls, growing girls, adolescent girls, women need to be able to view themselves positively and grow up expecting to be treated fairly in the workplace, in law, politics and leadership, in educational opportunities and in the workforce. We need to be comfortable with our femininity and our boundaries need to be respected.

That means I'm for:

Equal pay for equal work and the corollary that women not be penalized or discriminated against because of child care issues. If we don't have a really good system of day care then we need to compensate for that with extended maternity/paternity leave or some other creative solution. Most of us can't be in two places at once.
Positive encouragement of women in leadership roles in business and government. I will not vote for a party which doesn't have women in prominent leadership roles. I want to see more women involved in running thing at all levels.

And I am against:

Excluding women from any profession, employment or educational opportunity based on the fact they are women. I once inquired about a government sponsored course in computer maintenance and told by the clerk that he didn't think it was good for me since I might need to lift heavy computers. It didn't work out for other reasons. But really ?
~~Using~~ Misusing women (and children) in advertising. I am annoyed by the pollution of our public spaces and thoroughfares with suggestive and sometimes downright offensive portrayal of women and children. It troubles me when I see women and girls dressing in what I can only describe as degrading.

What I'd like to see:

Women and men cooperating in making our world (for me that means starting right here in Israel) a safer and more stable place to live. One where women can be what and where they like and not be threatened or viewed as a threat.

What I don't like to see:

Man-bashing. It's counterproductive and gives us all a bad name.

This post will (b'ezrat hashem, bli neder) be followed by others elaborating on the other defining words.

What's new in the JBlogsphere?

2012-01-10T22:43:00.001+02:00

Batya has been busy doing lots of interesting things as well as hosting the newest Haveil Havalim and
Kosher Cooking Carnival.
Leora posted J-Pix a review of photos on our Jewish blogs.
Yasher koach to both of you!

Haveil Havalim is now being organized and administered over at a Facebook. So if you want to host that is the place to sign up.
I will be hosting the January 22 edition so you can send me your links either in the comments here, by email or by messaging me on Facebook.

Post Box Rehovot

2012-01-02T23:30:00.000+02:00

Risa, coming to you from beautiful downtown Rehovot reporting on a historic "find". A genuine relic of a bygone age. You heard it here first. (maybe)

This post box is a reminder that from the end of the World War I until the declaration of the State of Israel on May 15, 1948, Palestine was governed by Great Britain as a mandate of the League of Nations. With 63 years of paint it might be just a bit difficult to see but there is a crown there above the words POST OFFICE.

Winter Friday in Rehovot

2012-01-01T08:00:00.000+02:00

Nothing says Israel more than Friday noontime downtown. People are coming and going with their last minute purchases and there is a general feeling of rushing to get ready. By 3 PM (summer or winter) everything is closed or closing down. Religious and the not yet religious alike are winding things down in preparation for something that unites us all. Shabbat, shabbos, sabbath. This is Israel's day of rest. No matter how you define it.

My daughter Racheli and I met for conversation, coffee and quiche on Friday. I met her on the busiest corner of downtown Rehovot. The one where these three men have been singing for many years. They brighten even the grayest of Fridays making getting ready for Shabbat special.

Racheli and I spent almost two hours at a lovely cafe and bakery a few blocks from this crosswalk where the proprietors had enlisted this gentlemen (dressed as I'm not so sure exactly what) to brighten our coffee date.

Have a great week everyone!

Soldiers, Sons and Daughters

2011-11-04T06:15:00.000+02:00

It is painfully clear that Israel needs a strong well equipped army in order to defend the country against threats from our enemies. Some countries, like the United States have professional armies where service is a career choice and there is no draft. That's good and bad. Good because it's efficient for training motivated soldiers for service and bad because the burden (and consequences) of army service is not evenly distributed among the citizens.

In Israel we do it differently. Israel Defense Forces (Tzahal) is known affectionately as 'the army of the people'. That's because (in theory) there is universal draft here. By their 17th birthday everyone has received a letter from the army to report for preliminary examinations. Thus begins a series of physical, psychological and aptitude testing geared to finding the right people for the right jobs in this complex organization.

In addition to keeping us sage and secure the IDF figures heavily in educational, economic and social aspects of our country. Through programs like MAKAM which gives young people from problematic situations (drop-outs, disadvantaged, delinquents, immigrants having difficulty adapting) intensive help so that they can serve better and also build up their life skills and help them get further in life. There are special programs for integrating deaf soldiers as well as those with other handicaps into appropriate jobs in the army.

Mystical Paths, a charedi blogger describes his daughter's army service here. (definitely worth reading the whole post)

"Among general Israel you move from immigrant to real Israeli when you or your child enters the IDF. You’ve joined the ranks of those who have put their blood on the line to defend our common lives and community."

Lives depend on soldiers doing their jobs right. It is dangerous for us to treat soldiers like children. Of course on a personal level, they are our children. (Although I'm 62 my mother still expresses concern about my losing sleep when she realizes that it's sometimes midnight when I call her, so I know that you are always your mother's child.) But, in a world where adolescence is often prolonged well beyond the age of 18 these men and women are trusted with adult responsibilities and all of us have to take that seriously.

This week, Anat Kamm was sentenced to four and a half years in jail for systematically stealing and passing on hundreds of classified documents to a journalist. Her father testified "in her favor" saying that his daughter had not intended to harm state security but was merely “foolish, stupid, idiotic and vapid.”

The court disagreed saying that it was difficult to believe that "the defendant, who has a high level of intelligence, did not understand the meaning, implications and danger of transferring huge amounts of data to a journalist for publication.” They also dismissed the notion that this was youthful folly pointing out that the security of our nation depends on the commitment of young people to the responsibility of military service which they take seriously and do well.
Our soldiers bear this tremendous responsibility with honor and we owe it to them to treat them as responsible adults.

Here is another heartwarming project of the IDF: (Can't help but love this army!)

Our Children, Ourselves

2011-10-30T16:09:00.000+02:00

Chuck Hornstein hy"d

Eli Solomon hy"d (left)

Thirty-eight years ago our country was engaged in a war of survival and we came pretty close to not winning. You can not avoid the association of Yom Kippur with the war as it marks the beginning of the memorials for the fallen soldiers. Over two thousand soldiers were killed between Yom Kippur 1973 and the final cease fire agreement with the Syrians in May 1974. I lost two good friends in that war Eli Solomon hy"d and Chuck Hornstein [I described my feelings about going to their memorials last year (here).]

Last night when I got around to seeing the news on the computer I was greeted by reports of renewed shelling in the south. I re-shared a link to qassamcount.com because as they say "many media outlets do not report on these attacks". It often does seem like we hear and see more about Israel's retaliation than the rockets which provoke the reaction. Yesterday a 56 year old father of four and grandfather of five was killed in Ashkelon when one of those rockets hit his car on the road home.

I teared up when I saw the following immediate response from Debbie, Eli's younger daughter.

We want to believe that things will be better for our children and our grandchildren after them. We want to believe that we have fought the last war, that our children will not have to. Is it too much to want Eitan to celebrate his birthday with a cake, with his classmates in their school?

Counting My Blessings

2011-10-16T06:27:00.000+02:00

My granddaughter Tamar singing new year greetings learned in kindergarten

The month of Tishrei brings a whirlwind of celebration, soul searching, stock taking, resolution and renewal. I was privileged this year to be a guest at my children's homes this year for Rosh Hashana and Succot. It must be a mother's greatest pleasure to see her children raising their own children and passing on traditions. On Rosh Hashana this year I heard my eldest son lead the morning prayers. I heard him say words of Torah to his students both at home and at the Yeshiva where he teaches. The first night of Rosh Hashana at my other son's house included besides the usual symbols of the holiday a quiz aimed at the younger set which had us all laughing and applauding. Having seven holiday meals in three days gave us an opportunity to do justice to all three families of our married children in Mitzpe Ramon.

Succot brought another first opportunity. This time we went to the brand new settlement of Naveh in the western Negev. This is where my other son moved from the temporary settlement at Yated. So not only was this the first time we visited him in his new home, it was also the first time he built his own sukka. After the holiday we were joined by my son from Mitzpe Ramon making it real family celebration.

This post can best be summed up by the traditional blessing thanking god for having kept us alive and sustaining us and bringing us to this season.

ברוך...שהחיינו וקיימנו לזמן הזה!

Baruch Dayan Emet ~ Rabbi Hanan Porat

2011-10-04T15:20:00.000+02:00

report here: Rabbi Hanan Porat Passes Away

Over the years that I have lived in Israel there has been no one person who I felt ideologically closer to than Rav Hanan Porat. His total commitment to Torah both in learning and teaching, his commitment to building up the land and people of Israel and his commitment to social justice will probably remain unequaled for a long time to come. It is not just that he said the right things, he lived them. And he expressed these ideas clearly and what I can only describe as gracefully.
His life was a blessing to our people and may the family find comfort in the rebuilding of Zion and Jerusalem.
יהי זכרו ברוך

Alternative Library in New York City

2011-10-03T21:05:00.001+02:00

Bryant Park is located behind the famous 5th Avenue Library in Manhattan. Before I left New York in 1967 it was a place you walked past quickly or avoided (if you can avoid walking around 6th Avenue and 42nd Street)

It remained a dark and mean place for several decades. And then in the early 1990s it got a makeover and new lease on life. The gentrification made the park livable once again and folks took to eating lunch there on nice days buying coffee and sandwiches at the kiosks. Add some outdoor concerts and other activities and the whole citiscape felt friendlier and safer.

Imagine an island of calm, where you can come with children, choose a book and spend some time reading. And guess what? There's an adult section too!

I love this sign!

Preparing for Tishrei

2011-09-27T06:00:00.000+03:00

I always feel empowered when I am surrounded crowds of Jews in Israel. How much more exciting can it get than two thousand Jewish women converging on the site where the woman who taught us all what prayer is all about. The T'filat Hannah at Shilo featuring the Rabbanit Yemima Mizrahi was an excellent prelude to Rosh Hashana which is after all about reaffirming God as our king, doing tshuva (repentance, but the English lacks flavor) for our sins, recalling our past and praying for our future. The chapter of Hannah's prayer is read as the haftara on Rosh Hashana.
Rabbanit Yemima is an interesting phenomenon and this was my first direct encounter with her stand-up sermonizing. She is knowledgeable and well versed in sources and in between her jokes and impersonations she has deep and serious messages. She keeps the crowd interested and the time passes quickly. It was a moving experience and I was overcome by emotion by the time she had finished speaking and we had come to a moment of silent prayer. She challenged us to take the opportunity to single out three things on which to focus our prayers; one personal, one for another individual close to us and the third for Jewish people. It was an exercise in soul searching which I am still mulling over. Batya tells me that Rabbanit Yemima also gives talks in English but I wasn't able to find an example of this.

There are many fine programs here in Israel and everyone has something special going on leading up to the high holidays. My personal favorite shiur is a podcast from Yeshivat Har Etzion's KMTT (ki mitzion tezei torah) series given in April 2007 by Dr. Yael Ziegler which you can listen to here. Rabbanit Ziegler addresses what we associate with the Yom Kippur ceremony done in the Temple by the Cohen Gadol (high priest) of sending one goat away and sacrificing the second goat on the altar. In less than half an hour she teaches us how this ceremony, while associated with Yom Kippur is really a paradigm for the different kinds of tshuva required by different situations. She brings ideas from Rabbi Soloveitchik, Rav Kook, Rav Bruer and Talmudic sources tying it all to our patriarch Abraham's experiences with his two sons. On the first day of Rosh Hashana we read about how he must distance Yishmael from his household and on the second day we read of his taking Yitzhak to be bound before God as a sacrifice on Mt. Moriah. This parallels the two goats, one driven away and the other brought before God. [The word קרבן translated as sacrifice in English actually reflects the Hebrew root krv which means closeness.] These two actions can be related two ways of viewing tshuva. One is by distancing the bad deeds and inclinations from ourselves and the other by harnessing the energies and using them to become closer to God and to the person we want to be. Each way is appropriate in certain situations and probably totally out of place in others.

You should really listen to Rabbanit Ziegler because she says it much better than I do. You can find more of Dr. Ziegler at Matan an institute for women's Torah studies in Jerusalem, where she teaches.

And if you're still with me here's something to help me wish you all a happy and sweet new year!

Preparing for the New Year!

2011-09-26T06:30:00.004+03:00

Like my sisters and brothers around the world I am busy getting ready for the upcoming Rosh Hashana holiday. This year the New Year begins on Wednesday night and on Thursday and Friday we gather in our synagogues to hear the shofar blown. Then without any further ado we go right into Shabbat. All this heralds a marathon of eats and on Rosh Hashana we go all out with symbolic foods signifying all the good things we wish for ourselves and our community in the coming year. For a thoughtful discussion of these symbolic foods you should read this post by The Rebbitzin's Husband . You might also be interested in this post of Leora's about the symbolic foods.

While we're on the subject of cooking for this amazing holiday let me remind you to take a look at the Tishrei edition of the Kosher Cooking Carnival at Cooking Outside the Box a delightful blog with lots of interesting ideas while the Elul edition of the Kosher Cooking Carnival is up over at Me-ander .

Batya Medad

Rabbanit Yemima intoduced by Tzofia Dorot

And speaking of Batya, my favorite Shilo resident, I had a lovely experience at Tel Shilo where both she and I attended the Tfilat Hannah and heard the inspirational Rabbanit Yemima Mizrahi. I hope to write separately about this moving experience. She was followed by concert given by Leah Shabbat and Tal Bril.
The event was organized by Ancient Shilo which runs tours of the archaeological dig at the site where the Tabernacle stood. Besides Batya I also ran into a very good looking reservist who was called up especially to guard us and the approximately two thousand other women and young girls who attended this event. This particular reservist also worked as a guide at this site when he lived in the nearby settlement Eli. He also happens to be my son. How thoughtful of the army.

Reservist Shayke Tzohar

September 11, 2001 ~ Tenth Anniversary

2011-09-09T12:45:00.002+03:00

This post is part of a memorial project called Project 2,996 Read more about it here. a memorial post about Ronald John Hemenway who was killed when a hijaced commercial jet was purposely crashed into the Pentagon in Washington DC.. Read more here.

Here is the post about Margaret R. Echtermann.

While you are remembering September 11, please take a moment to remember Israel's terror victims.

Revisiting my childhood streets

2011-08-23T05:04:00.000+03:00

The streets have the same names and numbers as then but close to fifty years have passed since we moved out. I recognize Liberty Avenue and the deafening sound of the "A" train over our heads is, if anything, louder than I remember. That has not changed. I point out the kosher butcher store which now sells mobile phones. The Casino movie where we used to see double features plus a newsreel and cartoons is now a colorful fruit market stripped of its marquee. On the four blocks between the house where I was born and the one we moved to when I was 3 there are four or five stores selling Indian clothing and fancy wedding sarees and other objects of Indian art and culture. Bearded Siekh men in turbans are on the streets as well as their colorfully dressed wives and children. About the only shops that remain the same are the bank (which has a different name now and the laundromat.

We turn up our side street which used to be shaded by canopy of tall oak trees which in summer made our street feel appreciably cooler than the hot elevator covered main street. But today many if not most of those original trees are gone. There is much more cement than front gardens which once flourished. A few tall trees are left and a few more young trees are optimistically planted where the old ones used to be. They give hope, but for now, the street looks sad as if forcibly shorn of its locks.

Everything looks smaller too, as if some alien force shrunk the houses. What I remember as a big apartment house turns out to be just three stories high. And then we are standing in front of my house. The siding has been redone and the front porch taken down and new steps lead to the front door. At first I say to David 'that's not my house'. But that's the door that my father and grandfather installed when we bought the house and they 'fixed it up'. Then I look at the picutre window in the front bedroom where we used to put our Chanuka menoras and it looks more familiar. My mind is racing, flooding with memories and trying to reconcile the proportions. I am expecting to see my Italian and Irish neighbors, but like us, they have moved away making room for the newer immigrant communities.

I am reminded of the summer evening between the 7th and 8th grade. My best friend (from the neighborhood, not the Jewish day school I attended) had graduated Catholic elementary school and her parents made her a party in their backyard. They played records and we danced the Twist ('round and around and up and down we go again!). I didn't eat the hamburgers they served. A friend named Frankie walked next to me from Ginger's house to mine (all 4 houses down the block) and my mother saw us from the window. That was all it took, she told my father it was time to move on to a neighborhood with more Jewish kids. By January we were out of Richmond Hill.

We drive on the street where the shul used to be. I know it is not there. It was sold and then there was a fire. It was painful to see an apartment house standing where the double staircase had been. I couldn't even bring myself to photograph it and we didn't stop the car. I was afraid I would cry. I loved that synagogue with its stained glass windows and crystal chandeliers. My great-grandmother used to be there every week with her green covered t'chinos book. It was where I learned to daven and love Israel. If we had stopped, I might have cried.

Flying (& other news)

2011-08-15T19:29:00.001+03:00

Bunji

That's my almost 6 year old granddaughter 'Bunji jumping' at a local shopping center this week. She is getting ready to go to the first grade. Just two weeks away!
They came to say l'hitraot (see ya) because we are flying to Philadelphia tonight for two weeks of visiting family there and in the New York/New Jersey area.
Meantime Havel Havelim #325 is hosted by To Kiss a Mezzuzah and while there is a lull in posting around the net (I am not the only one going on vacation) take a look at JPIX and Kosher Cooking Carnival.
Here she is with her brand new ready to go rain resistant back pack and trolley set. (The school is about 100 yards from their house and it rarely rains in Mitzpe Ramon, but we are prepared!) Good luck in your new career young lady!

A Meaningful Fast

2011-08-09T23:42:00.003+03:00

It would have been nicer if we didn't have to fast on Tisha B'Av this year. But since we did not merit the rebuilding of the temple in Jerusalem we fasted and mourned the destruction of the first two temples.
This year I had some very meaningful experiences which I'd like to share.
On the night of Tisha B'Av we gather in our synagogues for the ma'ariv (evening) prayer and read the scroll of Eicha (Lamentations). This year I participated in a special reading done by women. It was followed by a program which included reading the Kinot (poems of mourning) with a view to better understanding them. The program moved on to learning other literature relevant to the destruction interspersed with our singing solemn songs a capella. It was a very moving experience.
In the morning I went to my regular synagogue where we had the usual morning service followed by reading the Kinot with historic and contextual explanations by our own Rabbi Aryeh Frimer. That was followed by a lesson about the legend recounted in the Talmud of Kamtza and Bar Kamtza given by another member of our congregation.
Marking Tisha B'Av is not easy for us today. On the simplest level we are talking about events which took place thousands of years ago. It's hard to keep up the sense of loss over so many years. Of course, it wasn't just a building that was destroyed, it was the entire way of life of the Jewish people in their land and their religious observance. It was the start of the exile which has still not come to an end. Over the years Tisha B'Av has become the day for mourning many other serious tragedies which have befallen the Jews all the way from the Crusades through the Holocaust. So while it is not difficult to relate to mourning historically it is a challenge to make it personal.
Experiences like the ones I had this year make the day much more meaningful. And here lies another paradox. Jewish mourning rules do not permit learning Torah because we love it and it brings us comfort. For this reason on Tisha B'Av we are permitted to study only 'bad' things (i.e. about the destruction) or nothing at all. So if I have a sense of satisfaction because I have come closer to understanding the tragedy that is Tisha B'Av is that good or bad?
My hope and prayer is that next year I won't have to deal with these questions.

Announcing the Month of Av

2011-07-31T01:26:00.002+03:00

On Shabbat in synagogues around the world we announced that on Monday we will be marking Rosh Hodesh (the first day of the month of) Av. We are already in the midst of the three weeks marking the period between the time that the walls of Jerusalem were breached (17th Tamuz) before the first Temple was destroyed by the Babylonians and the the 9th of Av 586 B.C.E (and again on that very same date by the Romans 70 C.E.) The 9th of Av, known as Tisha B'Av is a fast day in commemoration of the destruction and the book of Eicha (Lamentations) is read in the synagogue.

I would like to recommend a series of podcasts published on the Internet by KMTT a daily podcast from Yeshivat Har Etzion which is just part of an amazing set of Torah resources made available by the Yeshiva. The series consists of 9 installments of about 30-40 minutes recorded by Dr. Yael Ziegler in 2009 found here. Dr. Ziegler teaches at the Herzog College in Gush Etzion and at Matan Women's Institute for Torah Learning in Jerusalem. She looks at the book through literary analysis and historic perspective without loosing sight of the religious message for all generations. I have listened to the series once and plan to listen again this week in preparation for this year's fast.

May we merit that this year the fast be cancelled and we all instead celebrate instead the rebuilding of Jerusalem and the temple. Amen.

In Real Life!

2011-07-28T14:27:00.000+03:00

Last night the Jbloggersphere welcomed Hadassah of In The Pink and William Daroff.

Also there were many folks from my sidebar like the Medads of me-ander, Shilo Musings, My Right Word etc. and Mom in Israel, Life in Israel, Benji of What War Zone etc. etc. There was lots of cheer and good food and drink. A good time was had by all.

Definitely worth doing if you're visiting Israel!

It's all about perspective

2011-07-18T23:36:00.000+03:00

These last few weeks have gone by in a haze of almost normalcy here in Israel.
The New York Times even ran an article showing Israel in a downright positive light proclaiming: Where Families Are Prized, Help Is Free

Jewish and Arab, straight and gay, secular and religious, the patients who come to Assuta Hospital in Tel Aviv every day are united by a single hope: that medical science will bring them a baby...

...Demographics here are also political. Israel has historically focused on promoting Jewish birthrates to retain a Jewish majority and more recently as a counterweight to higher fertility rates of Palestinians in the occupied territories. Arab citizens of Israel, however, have the same rights to state-paid fertility treatments as their Jewish counterparts.

While Libya, Egypt and Syria are dealing with the 'Facebook revolutions' involving violence, overthrowing governments and gunning down opponents, we have had our 'Facebook uprising' involving the price of cottage cheese and this week it's the price of rentals for students in downtown Tel Aviv.
There is comfort in the middle-class-ness of it all. You could close your eyes and almost imagine we are a regular bourgeois country.
But the conflict hasn't gone away. However if Facebook and Youtube have become the venues for change take a look at this latest entry in the war of our legitimacy in the region. Think about it and pass it on.

A Night at the Movies

2011-06-13T06:30:00.014+03:00

This week's Haveil Havalim is here.
I love the theater. There is something magical about seeing real live people on the stage. Movie theaters on the other hand are noisy places where I usually don't enjoy myself. When I do watch movies, it is usually at home where I can get up in the middle and move around The last time I went to see a movie in a movie theater (not counting with my grandchildren during summer vacation) was when I went to see Yochai Rosenberg's "The Yard" documentary in Tel Aviv. That was a lovely experience where we got to visit with the filmmaker and the film itself was a moving piece of Jerusalem experience.
Last night, my daughter and I went to see Joseph Cedar's new movie "Footnote" הערת שוליים which won the prize for best screenplay at the Cannes festival this year.

We both enjoyed the movie immensely. The story is about a father and son, competing for recognition. It's also about the academic world with its own special brand of jealousies and intrigues. It is believable and the main characters are well drawn. There are a few (but really very few) scenes about relationships that are not so well developed and maybe should have been left out. Mostly the story moved along smoothly playing off family relationships against academic rivalry, truth playing against love and loyalty. Can they coexist?
Add to the story a backdrop of great scenes in Jerusalem which strike a nostalgic chord and I am captivated. The professor walks from Rehavia to the Hebrew University through the valley which is today criss-crossed by roads, public buildings and whatnot but the film ignores that. There are scenes in the Jewish National Library on the Givat Ram campus of the Hebrew University as well as of the Rehavia neighborhood.
Something I usually don't notice is the background music in a movie but this time it just seemed to fit making the entire movie experience very pleasing.
Keep this up and I just might go to the movies again, one of these days.

Jerusalem's Special Day

2011-05-31T14:16:00.000+03:00

Tonight we mark the 44th anniversary of the re-unification of Jerusalem.
For a poignant account of the war that led to the liberation of the city you really must read this account by Chanan Porat. Rabbi Porat was evacuated as a child from Gush Etzion in 1948. He was a paratrooper in the Six-Day War when he fought to free the Old City of Jerusalem from the Jordanian occupation.
Money quote from his article:

" It was a war of survival against the arrogant Egyptian President, who spoke about a war of "annihilation and Jihad.”
"...[our} unit was actually headed towards the Sinai Peninsula. “The same morning that we were supposed to land on the outskirts of El-Arish to prevent the Egyptian army from carrying out its plan to reach Tel Aviv, it was announced that [Jordanian King] Hussein had joined the war and began to bomb Jerusalem. It was decided to change all the plans and go up to Jerusalem. It was no longer a war to defend our existence but a war over Jerusalem, a war of redemption."

While we're on the subject of Jerusalem, here is a clip worth watching:

Happy Holiday!

Hair we go again!

2011-05-18T09:57:00.002+03:00

This week's Haveil Havalim is here.
Chaviva of Kvetching Editor fame is doing a series called The Tzniut Project where Jewish women are answering questions about " their practices, people's assumptions, and more" regarding what is being called tzniut (modesty) but really in this context is about dress codes. One of her questions is:

"What do you think other people infer from your clothing and hair covering choices? Has anyone ever said anything to you outright that expresses a judgment based on your appearance? (Ex: “You don’t cover your hair or wear skirts, so why do you keep kosher?”)

Funny you should ask.
Last night the phone rang and it was a survey about a newspaper we subscribe to. I usually cooperate with phone surveys because it gives parnasa (support) to a Jew in Israel. So I tell him on a scale of 1 to5 what I think of various sections of the paper, whether on a scale of 1 to 4 I will subscribe again next year, on a scale of 1 to 7 whether I agree or disagree with certain political and moral statements, etc., etc. And then the young man got to the demographic section. So, how do I define myself. Well, there was a really broad spectrum from haredi, haredi leumi, dati leumi, dati, masorti leumi and several other configurations that I don't remember this morning. I picked one and then we went on to the next question obviously designed to further sharpen the demographic division:

How do you cover your hair?

which was followed by a list of possibilities from 'always a wig' through 'sometimes a wig and sometimes a hat', 'only hats and scarves covering all or most of the head', 'hats and scarves covering most but not all of the head' 'some of the head', sometimes, always, never??? The next question was about pants.

Conclusion: around here there seems to be plenty to be inferred from my hair covering choices!

Memorial Day

2011-05-09T00:03:00.000+03:00

Eli Solomon H"YD

Tonight we went to Rehovot's memorial service held in the "Defender's Park" where there is a memorial wall on which the names of Rehovotites who gave their lives for our country are inscribed. It was an impressive and moving tribute lasting over an hour and attended by hundreds of our fellow citizens. A man who lost his father, a Holocaust survivor, at the age of 4 in 1953 (which makes him exactly my age) shared his feelings about growing up without a father and slowly piecing together his father's legacy. He visited the cemetery yearly with his mother and younger brother, but no one talked about his father. Over the years he began asking about him and learning more about him. Nowadays, he comes to the cemetery with his brother and their families, wives, children and grandchildren, over twenty member of the generations. They tell of the heroic efforts of the Holocaust survivor to get an education and become a teacher in the new State of Israel. They pass on that legacy now to the fourth generation.

Chaim (Chuck) Hornstein HY"D

The Chief Rabbi of Rehovot, Rav Simcha Hacohen Kook spoke passionately of his participation in the War of Independence as a member of the Moriah brigade in Jerusalem where they tried to get through to the Jewish Quarter of the Old City and save the starving soldiers and residents. In the end they did not succeed and it took 20 years until Rav Kook was able to walk through the Mandlebaum gate, the house near the Eastern gates of th old city which he fled with his mother's family just before the Arabs blew it up killing Haganah defenders inside.Today he is, in addition to being chief Rabbi of Rehovot, the Rabbi of the newly rebuilt Hurva Synagogue in the Jewish Quarter of the Old City. He ended with an emphatic statement that Jerusalem must remain in our hands.
Most of the speakers expressed the wish for a speedy return home in good health for Gilad Shalit . The ceremony ended with Kaddish, El Maleh Rahamim and the singing of Hatikva.
Of course the ceremony started with the siren and the minute of silence when each of us reflects on our memories Among those I think about are, of course, my two friends 'from the old country' Eli and Chuck. May God avenge their blood.

Take a few moments to watch this clip. It graphically represents the bereavement we remember today.

What's black and white and Re(a)d all over?

2011-05-08T14:04:00.000+03:00

A blushing zebra?
No, in the old days the answer was "a newspaper"

Reading is no longer black and white, nor are newspapers.
The JBlogsphere is up to its eyeballs in color as witness this week's carnival reviews. Enjoy!
Ilana-Davita, our favorite blogger in France hosts JPix. I imagine it took lots of work to set up such a fine review of photos posted by the JBloggers around the web. A hearty 'kol hakavod' to her.
Ben-Yehudah put together the overview of JBloggers, Haveil Havalim entitled "One Wedding & A Funeral" with lots to read.
According to the site Leora of Here in HP is busy getting the Kosher Cooking Carnival together and we are hungrily awaiting the post! Judging by Leora's lovely blog, it will be well worth reading.

Honoring my father's memory

2011-05-02T07:00:00.003+03:00

Oz Avraham 'Finishing' a Tractate a few months ago

On the Shabbat before Passover my whole family all my children and grandchildren were in Mitzpe Ramon where we enjoyed each other's company and had our meals together in a local guest house, so that no one had to interrupt their Pesach preparations to cook and we didn't get any new chametz in any one's house. A lovely time was had by all. On Saturday night we all gathered together to mark my father's eleventh yahrtzeit (anniversary really, but it sounds so much more appropriate in Yiddish).
A traditional way of commemorating a yahrtzeit is by making a siyyum. studying a book or a tractate (of Talmud or Mishna) and gathering a minyan, reciting the last sentences of the book, teaching the meaning of that section and then reciting a formula in which the one who learned acknowledges that he has finished learning the section and promises to return to learn it once again. A special kaddish is recited.
David did a siyyum marking the culmination of his studying a tractate of Jerusalem Talmud. (Hopefully, he will write about that himself.)
My first-born son and his first-born son (named after my father) learned a tractate of mishna together in time to do a siyyum too. So we had three generations participating. I felt particularly blessed that we were able to be together and remember my father. Both David and I spoke about him and I explained to my family the significance of the direct descendants of the deceased doing mitzvot especially (but of course not exclusively) on his yahrtzeit. (I explained it here but my kids don't really like reading in English.)
My father, Abraham Rich was the son of hard working Jewish immigrants, educated in New York City's publics schools and also in the traditional Jewish synagogue after school program, where he learned to read Hebrew for prayers and prepared for his bar mitzvah. Richmond Hill was a warm community, I know that because it was my first synagogue experience too, and my father's teacher, Mrs. Tombeck, taught me the ins and outs of shabbat prayers. I have been told he was known as 'honest Abe' and I know that he always believed in fairness and equality.

I remember my father only with a mustache

He and my mother were determined that their children would have a better Jewish education than they were able to get. To that end they looked for a school that would be suitable. They enlisted my mother's cousin, a Hebrew teacher and her husband a Rabbi to help find a school in the wilderness of Queens. (Yes, in the 50's orthodox Jews lived in Brooklyn.) I clearly remember sitting in the sunshine in my grandparents backyard in Richmond Hill when he came out calling 'who's got my girl?' with a braod smile on his face. My mother looked up and asked 'you found a school?' and he answered 'certainly looks like it!' And in the end, it did work out. (Along the way, there was a point when money was tight and someone suggested that maybe it wasn't necessary for a girl to have a day school education. My father told the man, if my daughter doesn't get the education, my son won't either. I have always more than appreciated that.)

This is the Saba my kids knew

A very early memory of mine is of my father putting on tfillin in the morning and standing at certain parts and then sitting down again. I remember asking about why he sometimes stood and sometimes sat. As we learned more, he learned more and as a family our observance became stronger. By the time my parents planned my brother's bar mitzvah keeping shabbat had become so important to them that instead of a party their invited the whole family to a hotel for the entire shabbat, so that no one would have to desecrate shabbat to come. I remember a long difficult phone conversation of his with a first cousin (of his) who wanted to come only to the service in the morning. He did not give in, she did not come. Everyone else did and it turned out to be a wonderful celebration.
My father became an active member of a number of shuls and was gabbai for a while. He was not the gabbai concerned with giving out the honors, he was the gabbai who had the key. You could rely on him to get there first and set things up. And of course, tell people to keep quiet during the service.

Savta & Saba

Another thing about him was his amazing patience. I don't think I every would have learned the multiplication tables if he hadn't made flashcards and taken the time to drill it into me, over and over and over again. I can also say that I did not learn long division in school. I learned it from him. And when my kids were being taught some new-fangled system for 'understanding' division I sat them down and said, "I'm not sure what they want you to do but let me teach you what Saba taught me." And I taught them the way he did. (My mother taught me to 'borrow' when subtracting. Most of my arthmetic skills I learned at home.)

I always felt secure in my home and with my family. Whether it was at the beach with the waves crashing around us or climbing the stairs to the crown of the Statue of Liberty I aways felt safe and secure when my father and mother were around. I am also grateful for the encouragement and understanding shown for my Zionist activities and later when I came to Israel. He was a very creative grandparent and overcame language difficulties to create a lovely relationship with our children.
May his memory be a blessing to us all.
יהי זכרו ברוך

An End In Sight?

2011-04-11T08:16:00.003+03:00

Halutza, May 2010

Esser Agaroth: Haveil Havalim #312 - It's Time To Talk About The Elephant In The Room begins with a discussion by Ya'aqov Ben-Yehudah, this week's esteemed host, of pluralism which I guess would mean including all the posts submitted vs.editorial selection and exclusion of posts which the host deems 'offensive'. Ideally, I come down on the side of inclusion, except that I know that when I hosted there were one or two posts that I did not include because they were from missionary type sites. So, I guess we all have our boundaries for good taste. It's good to talk about it and if a host does disinclude a post it should be noted why. Thanks Ya'aqov for a thoughtful and well done review. (I like it when you can tell that the host actually read all the posts.)

Bibi Netanyahu is talking tough (here) about meeting 'further fire' with a 'harsh response'. In the meantime the Hamas has escalated the shelling only to be thwarted by 'Star Wars" style technology. Iron Dome. Today, as the Viflic family face grief and sorrow of watching their only son Daniel fight for his life in Soroka Hospital (Iron Dome does not protect school busses from anti-tank missiles) there are some mumblings from Gaza about a 'cease fire'. But as has been pointed out, there has been not one month since Cast Lead without shelling from Gaza.

In some personal news my son's family has moved from their temporary settlement in Yated to the new home of the Atzmona Pre-military Prep Yeshiva in the new settlement Naveh in the sands of Halutza. The place is so new that Google maps doesn't even name it. But it is really close to where they were temporarily.
View Larger Map

I can not help but see the irony here. Atzmona is a settlement which existed in Gaza and it's residents were exiled in 2005 in order to 'give peace a chance'. So far the least cynical thing I can think of to say is that this is ironic.

Not exactly Gaza, but definitely in the same vein, I'd like to share this video of a constructive initiative. A hearty Kol Hakavod (more power to them) to these women in Gush Etzion:

I am looking forward to a week of Pesach preparations and I hope to be thinking mainly about matzoh.

Happy Passover! !פסח כשר ושמח

Learning to Ask ~ Passover Preparation

2011-04-05T06:53:00.010+03:00

ראש חודש ניסן תשע"א

Rosh Chodesh Nissan 5771

Frume Sarah's World is hosting Haveil Havalim #311- The Warp and Woof Edition here. Ima on (and off) the Bima has the latest Kosher Cooking Carnival here.
Like everyone else, I am getting ready for Pesach. Of course I'm cleaning, planning menus and ~~shopping~~ planning to shop. There is Pesach in the air here. The day after Purim, all the stores are advertising cleaning materials and housewares. Pesach has taken over the airwaves and the advertising.
Our shiurim (classes) are all about Pesach, getting ready for the holiday spiritually and practically. This Shabbat we announced the coming month of Nissan and read the Maftir emphasizing the importance this month, calling it THE month. And what a month it is!
No holiday beats Passover for nostalgia. I believe that some of my earliest memories are of the seder night. I remember sitting at the table in my grandparents house and my grandfather getting up to go to the kitchen to wash his hands and my mother calling me over to take a matza from the table. She said "we"ll hide this in the other room while grandpa is washing" and we went into the small closed porch where there was no light on because my baby brother was asleep there (just shows how long ago that was) and she said to me "we'll wrap it in this diaper and put it here near the baby so they won't see it". I remember feeling vaguely confused as to why my grandfather was making such a fuss about getting up from the table to go to the kitchen and why we needed to put the matza near the baby.
Then first grade rolls around and I am attending an all day Jewish school where we learn Jewish subjects and Hebrew reading in the morning and the three R's in English in the afternoon. We have been given a Hagada and we must learn the Ma Nishtana (4 Questions) by heart in time for the seder. We spend what seemed like weeks repeating the Hebrew words alternately with the Yiddish translation.

Tate, ikh vil dir fregn de fir kashes
Ma nishtana halayla hazeh mikol haleylot.
Farvos iz di nakht fun peysekh andersh fun ale nekht fun a gants yor?

The Yiddish, it was explained to us, was so that our grandparents would understand (and be impressed with us). My memory of getting up that year and singing this is of a great feeling of accomplishment at having done it and lots of smiles and encouragement from the assembled mixed with a total blank as to understanding what I was saying. I'm glad my grandparents understood what I was singing, because I certainly didn't. Oh well. What I did understand was what the English teacher taught us and that was this song:

At the time, I didn't know it was associated with slavery in America. I really did think it was about Moses and the Jews.Over the years I have developed an understanding of the significance of feeling that I too was led out of Egypt and have tried to pass it on to the next generation. Now, dozens of seders later I am getting ready once again. Only now it's my turn to prompt grandchildren to 'steal' from their grandfather and ask questions. What a privilege!

And you shall live by them וחי בהם

2011-03-27T11:54:00.000+02:00

Last week Susan B celebrated with Haveil Havalim #309 the Purim edition and this week Izgad has #310 the Hangover edition.

Then, there are those of us (mostly women) for whom post-Purim means pre-Pesach and pre-Pesach means cleaning or stressing-out over cleaning. Just look at my friends Batya and A Mother in Israel.

OK, so today I decided that enough is enough and attacked my bedroom. Now, we don't often (if ever really) eat in the bedroom but I do sometimes have stuff in my bag which sometimes comes with me into that room. Anyway our bed is heavy and I move it only once a year. So, while this doesn't actually count as looking for chametz it is something I do every year before Purim and Pesach (whether it need it or not ;)) So today was the day. Besides moving the bed, I took out the shoe drawers at the bottom of the closet and swept there (no chametz there either) and moved a few other pieces of furniture that we have and gave the whole thing a dusting and wash. OK, so besides finding a few (OK more than a few) stray socks and some other odd things on the floor I also found some coins. Aha! Fruit of my labors. I thought it was significant and worth sharing that under the bed I found 18 shekels. Surely a good sign. (18 in Gematria - the system of assigning numerical value to Hebrew letters - is chai or life).

Then under the heavy bureau I found 1.20 shekel (120 agorot) and we all know what 120 signifies. (The longest life expectation we have. Based on Moses having lived a full life of 120 years.) Definitely a good sign.

And then it all got spoiled by another shekel found next to the bookcase by the door. But of course I could say that that is one for good luck!

Enjoy your post-Purim pre-Pesach season!

Thursday Challenge - GREEN

2011-03-24T07:03:00.000+02:00

This photo was taken this summer in the Biriya forest in the Galilee.

The Jewish National Fund has been responsible for reforesting projects in Israel (and before that when Palestine was controlled by the Turks and then by British Mandate) making us the only country to finish off the 20th century with more trees growing than at the beginning of the century!
Read more about the JNF here
See more Thursday Challenge here.
Two more photos from that trip:

Birds in the Biriya Forest

Olive Trees in the Galilee

Happy Purim!

2011-03-20T01:13:00.002+02:00

Happy Purim!

Photos taken on Friday morning of children on their way to pre-Purim celebrations in the kindergartens and elementary schools.

OK, not really a costume!

More Straight Out Of the Camera

Wild flowers, spring and hopes for better times

2011-03-18T07:00:00.006+02:00

Wild flowers

Yesterday we fasted the 'Fast of Esther' commemorating the fast Esther and the Jews kept before she risked her life to go to the king and get Haman's decree revoked. Tonight we will be lighting Shabbat candles and tomorrow we will read the 'Zachor' describing the attack by Amalek on the weakest of the travelling Israelites during the travels in the Sinai after leaving Egypt. The tradition is that Haman, the villain of the Purim story, was descended from Amalek and so we read this portion which includes a commandment to remember (zachor זכור means remember) the attack by Amalek and wipe out Amalek. This public reading is done on the Shabbat before Purim and both men and women are required to hear the reading. Then on Saturday night we will be reading the Purim story and celebrating yet another deliverance.
In the Megilat Esther (the Purim story is read from a scroll named after Esther) there is not one mention of the name of God. How could that be? How could there have been deliverance without God's intervention. There have been many many interpretations given through years but the one that rings especially true this year is that God is not mentioned in order to show us that the evil decree is an example of hester panim (when God figuratively hides his face) as the word hester is alluded to in the name of the queen Esther. The deliverance came not by supernatural miracle - as in the parting of the Red Sea - but through Esther's brave deed along with the moral support of Mordechai all the Jewish people. This teaches us to look at all of life as a miracle through which God manifests his presence in the world. Sometimes his plans for the world are in tune with our expectations and we consider that state 'natural' and other times it is harder for us to accept events because we fail to see their meaning. This week has been one of those weeks when it is difficult for us to understand God's presence in our world.

This week began with the funeral of the Fogel family of Itamar.Over 20,000 people accompanied them to their graves. It was difficult even to watch the broadcast and I can only imagine what it must have felt like to be there in person. All the eulogies were emotional and raw reflecting the shock of the brutality. The former Chief Rabbi of Israel Rav Yisrael Meir Lau, who was the youngest survivor of the Buchenwald concentration camp (7 years old at the liberation) said

"it appeared as though the cycle of terror closed 66 years ago, when the blood of infants was spilled like water, when a million an a half children were trampled at the hands of beastly people. "Sixty-six years have passed. We announced a State, we achieved independence. We established the magnificent Israel Defense Forces. And still, this cycle of terror and the river of blood flows, and we stand here helplessly."

In addition he addressed remarks to twelve year old Tamar Fogel saying that she will now take on a role of 'little mother' to her surviving brothers (8 and 2 years old) who will have to be the 'kaddish' for their parents' memory in the years to come. I noticed many well-meaning folks, mostly women, who felt that this thought was out of place. Let the little girl remain a child. Don't burden her with this responsibility. Would that we could! But Rav Lau knows different. His life is a testimony to to just how resilient a child can be. But no matter how much everyone wants to help, and will help, those children will ultimately share with each other an emotional tie that is like no other. .
(If you haven't read his autobiography אל תשלח ידך בנער in Hebrew you will apparently be able to read it soon in English and everyone should read it!)

Cyclamen

And in another one of those weird 'only in Israel' ironies an IDF army medic saved a new born Arab baby girl in the Neve Zuf settlement where the Fogel's parents are sitting shiva.

It's been a sad week for us in Israel and around the world. The earthquake in Japan and the bad to worse condition of the nuclear power plants have yet to be fully understood. When we empathize we usually call upon a similar emotion or reaction in our memory to help us feel the pain of others. But the horror that is happening in Japan, I have no parallel experience to call upon. I can only imagine. Japan is the only country to have experienced nuclear fall-out and that was in wartime. I always imagine that what Japanese must feel towards nuclear destruction is similar to the horror which we feel about the Holocaust. I am trying to imagine an earthquake killing thousands followed by a Holocaust and no end in sight.

Anemones

And so it goes. Life is made of cycles, grief and danger, joy and deliverance. Through all of it certain things stay the same. The winter is drawing to a close and next week is spring solstice. There are wild flowers blooming in Rehovot and as the seasons change the flowers bring hope of nature's renewal.
And now we can only pray that God bring order back into our lives and give us strength to go forward.
עושה שלום במרומיו
He who keeps the peace in his world
הוא יעשה שלום עלינו
He will bring peace (and order) upon all of us
ועל כל ישראל
And on all Israel
ונאמר אמן
And we will say amen!

We are all Settlers!

2011-03-13T13:18:00.000+02:00

So, we unplug ourselves for Shabbat and then after Havdala we realize that while we were happily enjoying ourselves with our children and grandchildren in Mitzpe Ramon a family was murdered in their beds in Itamar a settlement in the Shomron.
This morning, the first person I spoke to asked me how my Shabbat was.
I replied that Shabbat was lovely, until it ended and we heard the news.
He asked.
"Did you know them?"
Did I?
They were a couple in their mid-30's with six kids, none of them yet even in their teens, living in an isolated settlement with a fence around it keeping Shabbat, teaching Torah and building Eretz Israel.
Do I know them?

International Wormen's Day - We Could Be Doing A Lot Better!

2011-03-09T07:15:00.001+02:00

Hannah Katsman brought a few quotes from an interview with Tzipi Hotovely in HaAretz over at A Mother in Israel along with a reaction by Elana Stzockman.

The interview is the of the genre we've been seeing for the past few days leading up ti Internation Women's Day. You know, that day when at work they give you a rose and the the newspapers and radio (probably TV too) are busy hurling statistics at us. So we've heard this week that over more than a century of Zionist civilization women in Israel are living longer than men but earning less (here). It's painfully obvious that although women have had the vote from just about the start of the Zionist movement there are still only 23 women in our 120 member Knesset. And on the managerial fron: of 4,820 positions on corporate directorates in Israel 590 are women (more statistics here in Hebrew).
So, Ha'Aretz asks the 32 year old Rehovot resident Knesset member Tzipi Hotovely if she has come up against a glass ceiling. Well, they may have found the one of the very few women around who hasn't (yet) hit the glass ceiling. The young legislator also says that when she has a family of her own it will be necessary to set different priorities where her career is concerned. This really enrages Stzockman who calls Hotovely naive and condescending and ignores a lot of important bills she and others have introduced to ensure quality daycare and more reasonable maternity benefits. I would send her over to read Avirama Golan's brilliant description of a 33 year old pregnant woman getting ready to join the ranks of those "combining a career and family" in Israel:

"This nasty phrase is the front for an entire system of social codes, all of which demand the young woman be an exemplary mother who will nurse her baby, take him to all the developmental groups, and swimming and yoga classes; that she be an excellent cook and a sweet wife; but also that she keep her trim figure by taking exercise classes, and give off an aura of sexiness (but not too much, of course ) and charm - and all of this without losing the momentum of her success at work."

and concludes

"Instead of a holiday, could we perhaps just have a little rest?"

We have a long way to go. We need to make it possible for women with young children to work outside their homes and earn more than it costs to keep their children in daycare. We need to recognize that professions like teaching and social work deserve compensation that equals hi-tech, advertising and engineering, and that keeping society educated and stable is at least as important as keeping the electricity flowing.

Rosh Chodesh Adar, Second Time Around, Two Carnivals!

2011-03-06T23:14:00.000+02:00

Miryummy has the Kosher Cooking Carnival and Ben-Yehudah has the Haveil Havalim #307, both in honor of Rosh Chodesh Adar Bet and both full of stuff to read and think about or do. Enjoy them both !

Old House in Downtown Rehovot

2011-02-28T20:11:00.001+02:00

21 Ya'akov Street in Rehovot is one of the remaining old homes built in the early days of the city. Way before it was actually a city. Most of the homes of that era have been razed to make room for apartment buildings, as you can see behind the tree in this photo. Number 21 is still in good repair. I wonder how long it will be before the owners are tempted to sell the house to developers?

On Tuesdays, just post any photo you like (it must be one of your own) that contains the color RED and then link to this blog.

"New" Halachic Ruling by Rav Ovadia Yosef on Women Saying Kaddish

2011-02-23T22:27:00.000+02:00

The grandson of Rav Ovadia Yosef, who was the Chief Rabbi of Israel from 1983-1993, maintains a website where he records halachic rulings (psak) that he learns from him grandfather at the Yeshiva 'Yachveh De'ah' in Jerusalem. It was pointed out to me that there is a ruling involving a woman sitting shiva whose parent died and there is no son to say kaddish. Rav Ovadia rules (here in Hebrew) that she may say kaddish when ten men are assembled for prayer or learning (the times when a man would be saying kaddish in this situation).
(You can read about this psak - with a short excerpt translated at the Vos Is Neias site.)
Although the practice of women saying kaddish is referred to historically it still is not universally accepted practice. It is interesting that the custom is becoming accepted in many synagogues as well. (Rav Ovadia specifically does not allow the practice in synagogue - but only in a private home.) Rabbi Hershel Schachter of Yeshiva University in a very encompassing lecture available at the YU Torah Online site "Halacha and Modern Family" states that the merit of saying kaddish in memory of a parent is specific to the children of that parent.Rabbi Schachter tells us that the deceased is judged not only by his own deeds but by the legacy s/he leaves behind in the world. The deceased direct descendants therefore show their devotion to mitzvot by saying kaddish and doing other mitzvot in their memory over the period of mourning. The yahrtzeit is considered a date when not only the judgement of soul of the deceased is reviewed in heaven but also the actions of their children and grandchildren are scrutinized. He brings up the practice of asking someone who is not a relative say kaddish in the case say where there are no sons to do so. He says that some women are not comfortable saying kaddish in shul so they might ask someone else to say kaddish for their parent. But the direction that he is taking is definitely that in terms of the effect on the parents soul in heaven it is well served if she herself says the kaddish. In the shul where I go, women do say kaddish (along with the men) and it is satisfying to see that this is becoming more widely accepted.
In poking around on Rav Ovadia's halacha site I found this psak in English this time relating to women saying the HaGomel blessing upon being saved from some catastrophe or recovering from an illness. He maintains that the women can and should recite this blessing in the synagogue with ten men answering amen.

Sunny Day in Rehovot

2011-02-14T16:21:00.000+02:00

We got quite a bit of rain last week but for the most part we have been having very mild weather here in Rehovot. These photos were taken walking on the main shopping street (actually the only shopping street) Herzl Street.

On Tuesdays, just post any photo you like (it must be one of your own) that contains the color RED and then link to this blog.

25 Years Since Natan Sharansky Returned Home

2011-02-13T15:50:00.007+02:00

Don't forget Haveil Havalim at The Rebbitzin's Husband!
So where were you on February 11, 1986? Me? I was living on a farm in the Golan Heights raising 5 kids and wondering how it would all work out. I had been living in Israel almost twenty years. I'd seen the euphoria of the aftermath of the Six Day War turn into the pessimistic depression of the aftermath of the Yom Kippur War. In 1975 we moved to Ramat Magshimim where all six of our kids were born.
The seventies ended with the upheaval caused by the Likud's Menachem Begin forming the first ever government not run by Labor. They made peace with Egypt and instituted far reaching economic changes. Our middlemost daughter (at the time our youngest) was a few months old when the whole moshav (or just about) went down to Yamit on Chanuka to express our solidarity with the settlers there on the eve of their eviction. The twins were born the following year during the first Lebanon war which we called Shalom HaGalil (שלום הגליל) and it was meant to bring peace and quiet to the settlements along the northern border. By 1986 Peres (Labor again) was Prime Minister and Yitzhak Shamir was Foreign Minister. Inflation was rampant and we were in need of some good news.
In February 1986 the Kinar resort on the northeastern shore of the Kinnert was just being finished and had not yet opened for business. My older daughter (8 at the time) and her friend were taken down there one afternoon a few weeks after Sharansky came home and she was very excited when she came home because she and her friend had seen Natan and Avital walking along the beach. (She told me, they didn't go over to them because they knew that they needed to be alone together and it was a secret that they were there.) When she told me the story you could see that it was as if she had glimpsed the fairy princess and her prince charming. Such is the Zionist mythology. For us, this is our nobility.

An ironic footnote. Sharansky was released in exchange for two Russian spies handed over the US. It was about two and a half months after Jonathan Pollard and his wife were arrested. Pollard remains in jail in the US.

Song Worth 1,000 words!

2011-02-09T16:09:00.000+02:00

I've got to admit that US President Obama and his Secretary of State Clinton's reaction to the 'student unrest' in Egypt came across to us ex-pats here in Rehovot (representative sample of 2, me & David) as being only randomly tangential with reality. It was a flower children view of 'protest' conjuring up Pete Seeger-esque scenes. Sandy Cash, who is maybe a tad young to remember the sixties has captured the spirit of our response in this lovely ditty she posted on Youtube.
Apropos Sandy here's a personal favorite of mine.(non-political) Enjoy!

New Moon Over Rehovot

2011-02-07T00:12:00.002+02:00

This year we have an extra month in the Jewish year. It's 13 months instead of 12 so that Passover will be celebrated in the spring. and not in early March which is usually not very spring-like. Although this year, we could have pretended it was spring in December. For now, it is raining and has been, on and off, for the past few days giving hope that we might get a bit of winter this year after all. You can see the clouds in the twilight and that little smile in the top left corner is the new moon.

New moon in the Jblogsphere brings a with it a slew of carnivals and reviews.

Mrs. S is hosting her first-ever Kosher Cooking Carnival over at Our Shiputzim.

The JackB is hosting the Haveil Havalim #303.

Esser Agorot has a round-up of the Kehilla Bloggers.

So while there are really no holidays for another 6 weeks you can take advantage of the lull and read everyone's blogs. Or you could start baking for Purim. Or you could start cleaning for Pesach.

Blog Gems!

2011-01-31T15:41:00.001+02:00

Jen, a British 'mummy blogger' with a blog called "The King and Eye" has a lovely idea to which I was introduced by rikismom over at "Beneath the Wings" (a blog about life in Israel, dealing with her daughter's handicap and meeting life's challenges). Its called Blog Gems and it's a meme for 'dusting off and airing your old blog posts'.

I like the idea, so I have linked to my post My Baby's Baby and have begun reading other folks choices beginning with rikismom's Motivation Discipline and Willpower which is especially relevant to me as my dieting efforts while initially successful have reached a plateau. I am trying very hard to motivate myself. Rikismom is an inspiration.

So go on over and read some good stuff. Dust off your old posts as well.

Blog Gems!

Strange taste in food but good taste in reading...

2011-01-30T17:01:00.001+02:00

Chaviva, with her brand new logo, has been at it again. This time it's Haveil Havalim #302 done in her cheerful friendly style. She's taken the title MacFalafel w/Mustard which sounds pretty awful but don't let that scare you. Click on over and see what's been posted in the J-blogsphere this week. Special thanks to Chaviva for including my post about the Modzitzers.

One Melody - Two Renditions

2011-01-27T15:56:00.001+02:00

Modzitz is well known as THE most prolific and melodious of the chassidic dynasties. The founder Reb Yechezkel of Kuzmir zt"l was a student of the Baal Shem Tov. the founder of the chassidic movement. The history of the group is fascinating and you can read more about it here in English. The second Modzitzer Rebbe, Reb Shaul Yedidya Elazer Taub zt'l escaped Poland to the US in 1940 where he remained until 1947 when he came to the Land of Israel to join his son Reb Samuel Eliahu Taub zt'l, with whom he had traveled to Eretz Yisrael in 1935 and who had remained in Tel Aviv with his family. Reb Shaul arrived in 1947 to join his son and lead the chassidut. He took ill and died on November 29, 1947, the very day that the UN voted on partition. He was immediately buried on Har Hazeitim (Mt. of Olives). He was the last Jew to be buried there and his family did not even have a chance to put a stone over the grave. It was not until Jerusalem was re-unified in 1967 that the family was able to do this. The musical chassidic court thrived in Tel Aviv and later moved its headquarters to Bnai Brak.
Over the years the rebbes and their followers have composed and sung hundreds of melodies. But, as happens with folklore, the melodies were sung but not written down (none of the rebbes had musical training). All that is changing now. There is a group (site only in Hebrew) which is recording the melodies and archiving them. They are collecting tapes and interviewing chassidim and have published two disks already.
Both David and I like this kind of music. A few weeks ago we attended a concert in Tel Aviv by the Israel Philharmonic Orchestra, the Yuval Cantors Choir and five guest cantors in a program of chassidic music. It was amazing! The clip below is of a Modzitz melody. (recorded with my still camera acting as a video so the quality leaves much to be desired but you get the idea)

Now, listen to real chassidim singing the same melody celebrating Tu B'shvat. (The melody starts around 5 minutes into the video right after the l'chaim.)

Enjoy!

A Pile of Kids

2011-01-18T23:36:00.000+02:00

ערמת ילדים -A Pile of Kids

When my kids were young they sometimes used to pile on top of each other and sing out 'areimat yiladim' (pile of kids) and then role over in all directions and laugh and giggle. I felt very nostalgic when one of my sons sent me this photo he took catching my oldest son's family (ranging in age from 9 years to 7 months) in that familiar pose. I feel so blessed.

And here they are arranged horizontally

Aging in the Computer Age

2011-01-13T17:06:00.002+02:00

Computers for Every Age is the name of a program for helping older adults learn to operate and enjoy our digital age. Yes, the Government of Israel and American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee started this program to help golden agers take advantage of the computers and especially the Internet. Last week I became a volunteer instructor in this program. I tutor one on one in a special classroom with a few computers in the offices of Aleh (על"ה) which is Rehovot's very own Association for Aiding the Elderly. It's been around since the 80's with the mission of improving the quality of life for Rehovot's elderly.

Lecture about Internet use at Cafe Aleh this week

Besides the dedicated lessons there are also two computers connected to the Internet to be found in the Cafe Aleh in downtown Rehovot. The lovely cafe, run by volunteers serves coffee and cake all morning and folks come in to be together, socializing or playing cards or reading the newspaper. They have two computers connected to Internet and a few times a week there is someone there to answer questions and give tips about using the computers. On Wednesday mornings I am that 'expert'.
Many of the folks I meet are using a computer for the first time. I show them how to use email and to search for articles and sites in their field of interest. Another popular topic is using the Internet for making doctor appointments through the various HMOs here. Not surprisingly a big hit with this crowd is using Skype to keep in touch with the children and grandchildren.
Besides helping introduce people to the fascinating world of modern communication. meeting people at Cafe Aleh is an education in modern history. These people, in their seventies and eighties are the generation that built the state. They are the younger survivors of the holocaust, the young soldiers of the infant Israel Defense Forces and the young people who came in groups with Aliyat Hanoar (Youth Aliya) before their parents or without their parents in the early days of the State. They are people who remember the ma'abarot (temporary housing) in one of the worst winters Israel has seen (1950 when it snowed even in Rehovot).
I am learning just as much as I am teaching!

It rained in Mizpe Ramon!!!

2011-01-09T23:02:00.002+02:00

Hooray for winter! We spent Shabbat in Mitzpe Ramon with some of our grandchildren. It was cold and windy as we have come to know winter in the hills of the Negev.

On motsaei shabbat (Saturday night) just as we were getting the car packed a cloud burst and it began to rain. So the kids ran to get their umbrellas and run outside to romp in the rain. The rain lasted just about long enough for us to get all excited, turn on the camera and snap the photo. But up north it did rain quite a bit, they say, and when we returned home to Rehovot we got caught in a downpour.

Speaking of winter Batya hosted and posted the latest Kosher Cooking Carnival #62 celebrating Rosh Chodesh Shevat here. I'd also like to take this opportunity to wish Batya good luck in her new job which began today.

Esser Agoroth has the thoughtful and well organized edition of Haveil Havalim #299 here. .

#1 grandson has begun guitar lessons and we hope to be hearing more chords from him soon while his little cousin is very enthusiastic about her art work.

Bright and early, Haveil Havalim!

2010-12-05T00:23:00.000+02:00

Well, I don't remember when I saw HH up before I went to sleep on Saturday night. That's good because tomorrow we"ll be hosting a whole bunch of kids and I guess I won't have time (and certainly not have quiet). So without further ado I point you towards this week's Haveil Havalim:
Lots of latkes edition of Haveil Havalim at West Bank Mama.
B'tayavon!

Happy Chanuka DeLuxe - L'mehadrin min hamehadrin!

2010-12-02T18:21:00.001+02:00

See Mrs. S for the latest in Internet Chanukah lore.

If you are looking for ways to make eight days with the kids educational and interesting you can get some really inspiring educational ideas and learn a little something yourself at this special Hanuka site called Women and Wonder: A Family Hanukka Website. There are stories, projects and music to keep you busy and interested. A nice touch is that it available in English (which I linked to) and Hebrew and Russian. For me, this is good since I have enjoyed reading the English and now can share it with our kids and grandchildren in Hebrew next week without having to make any extra effort!

Haveil Havalim is up at the Home Shuling  which is  nice Jewish parenting blog and Miriyummy is getting ready to post Kosher Cooking Carnival (or should be so be prepared).  

Two Rabbis, A Rebbitizin, A Rabba and Rabbanit and one more Rabbanit

2010-11-29T02:59:00.003+02:00

http://www.kesher.org/centennial/events/WomenFutureofJudaism.shtml

Orthodoxy at a Turning Point: A National Conversation

Panel #2: Women and the Future of Judaism

Moderated by Rebbetzin Sharon Freundel

Distinguished Guest Panel:

Rabbi Dr. Aryeh Frimer, Rabbanit Chana Henkin, Rabba Sara Hurwitz, Rabbi Daniel Sperber

I'd like to recommend watching or listening to this discussion (and the two that proceeded it are definitely worth listening to as well here)
The discussion explores the how the expanding educational opportunities for women in the Orthodox world effect the role of women in the community and in the synagogue. I could have listened to these people for another few hours but the discussion was well planned and the moderator (the Rebbitizin) did a very good job of keeping it going. It also helps that the panelists are articulate and committed to their points of view as well as sincere. Although they do not agree this was not a debate and the general tone was that they are all trying their best to be loyal to the Orthodox traditions while acknowledging the changes that are taking place. Rabbi Aryeh Frimmer, as he himself points out "has been in this business since 1972" and has written major articles and given hundreds of lectures on the subject. He has seen himself go from the being among the only Rabbis seriously discussing change to the right-winger on this panel.
It's easy to loose track of what has happened in this area since the seventies. A discussion like this one was impossible in those years because the questions just hadn't even been addressed. But many of the issues that Rabbi Frimmer addressed over those years have become in his words "non-issues". Take for example the fact that in many Orthodox synagogues women are saying kaddish.
Look at higher Torah studies for women. Rabbanit Henkin's program training Yoatzot Halacha would have been out of the question as recently as 50 years ago. Not only are these women learning Talmud on a high level but they are applying what they learn and women are listening to them. All this was accomplished by steady hard work and serious learning by dedicated students and teachers with a commitment to Torah and a constructive attitude.
Rabbi Sperber's position is more far-reaching and has not become as accepted yet. Although he advocates giving women a more active role in the ritual we have yet to see the Orthodox mainstream adopting this. Rebbi Frimmer is against it on halachic grounds and Rabbanit Henkin gives the impression that now is not the time for it although she is not outright against it. My feeling is it just won't happen, not for a while anyway.
Rabba Sara Hurwitz is the youngest member of the group and this actually put her at a bit of a disadvantage. Rabba Hurwitz is serving in a communal position in an Orthodox synagogue in New York City after being ordained by Rabbi Avi Weiss. There has been a lot of controversy over this step and I confess that I am not convinced. I do not understand what her role is meant to be or what theYeshivat Maharat of which she is the dean is actually intending to do. It seems the idea is to develop Orthodox feminine leadership. Now, that is a good thing, but I don't understand their model. Perhaps it is unfair to compare her with the other three panelists because this is just the beginning but her presentation here didn't convince me that this a constructive path to be following.
All in all, this is an important discussion and it is encouraging to see that we have such learned and talented women and men in our generation. Rabbanit Henkin hit the nail on the head when she pointed out that our goal should be to enhance the observance of Torah and take advantage of the talents of women. Amen!

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

historical footnote

As to the title "Rabba" I really can't see the point. There seems to be a lot of energy going to waste on this subject. I'd just like to make an aside here. Some of you may know that I have been helping to transcribe The Montefiore Censuses which are the best 19th century records of the Jews who lived in Eretz Israel. (The Turks didn't really keep records.) The list that I just finished working on is the Kollel Vohlyn listing for 1866. These are Hassidim from what is now the Ukraine who settled in Jerusalem. There are folks on this list from Bratislav an Berditchev among other Hassidic towns. The census was done so that Sir Moses Montefiore could get an idea of how many people there were and how much financial help they needed. The lists are interesting in that besides names there is some information about age and vocations. Almost none of the men on my list were listed with a title. One was listed as Rabbi. There is a list of widows and on that list is Hannah Rachel of Ludmir otherwise known as the "Maid of Ludmir" who functioned as a Hassidic Rebbe. She had her own synagogue where her Hassidic followers prayed and she prayed in a adjoining room. On Shabbat afternoon she would speak from her room giving them divrei Torah. What is amazing is that she is the only other person on the list to have a title listed and that title is Rabbanit!

Rabbanit Rachel Hannah, from Ludmhr, age 60, 3 years in Eretz Israel

New in Rehovot!

2010-11-21T00:48:00.002+02:00

Rehovot's municipality has been hard at work redoing the playgrounds in our area. Above is a brand new facility installed in place of what was a really run-down example of neglect. The workers completley dismantled all the old equipment, built the new paths and installed the colorful new stuff. They also put up those sunshades solving a really annoying problem. In summer that colorful plastic is very very hot and not fun to slide down at all. These shades should make the playground more fun to hang around in the hot summer mornings. Also, there is no grass so I imagine that will save the taxpayers money and conserve water. The periphery of the park is planted with flowersbut that area is fitted with drip irrigation. All in all it looks like a nice deal. One thing still missing - some benches. Hopefully they are on their way!

For more Straight Out Of the Camera go here

Memories and Music in Gedera (of all places)

2010-11-17T06:45:00.004+02:00

Gedera holds pleasant memories for me. When I came to Israel after the Six Day War in June of 1967 our group ended up right near Gedera. There wasn't much to do after we finished work, so we ended up going to Gedera a few times, mostly on foot. Once we got to Gedera we usually had a felafel and a drink at one of the two places on the main road. For lack of much else to do we watched the traffic on the road. What we saw was mostly tanks and other military vehicles many of which still bore the Egyptian markings. These were the spoils of war being transported.

Gedera was founded by members of the Bilu movement in 1884 and was one of the first settlements of the modern period. The main street in Gedera is Biluyim street after these first settlers. It is tree lined and is home to some very nice restaurants and galleries set up in these renovated old homes.

Badolina is a cafe and bakery in Gedera. We celebrated my daughter's college graduation there a few years ago so I have particularly warm feelings about the place. The food there is very good and they have really excellent cakes. Badolina has a new branch in the restored Port in Tel Aviv which was the first and for a long time איקonly kosher restaurant in the area.

This week we spent a lovely evening in the yard listening to the brothers Ehud and Shachar Ariel sing accompanied by guitar and harmonica and a drummer who drummed on a wooden box. They performed mainly songs by their father, the late Meir Ariel.

Meir Ariel (from the official site)

Meir Ariel was a paratrooper in the Six Day War and helped liberate the Old City of Jerusalem. He later recorded a song to the tune of Naomi Shemer's Jerusalem of Gold called Jerusalem of Iron. It was considered at the time very cynical because he mentioned smoke and blood and the black of mourning the soldiers.After that he lived in the US for a while where I guess he picked up his own style. His songs are in the vein of Bob Dylan in his folk-rock period and some of them lean toward blues. You know, the kind of music that appeals to those of us who came of age in the sixties. (Remember don't trust anyone over 30? sigh) The evening was very successful. We arrived early and heard the performers warming up. The weather here has been warm so sitting outside was very pleasant. (We are praying for rain, should I feel guilty for enjoying the mild weather?) and in honor of the occasion I even had a drank a glass of sparkling wine. David had beer. We also ordered some light food to nosh on which was very good. I had salmon in teriyaki on skewers served over a salad and David had penne noodles with mushrooms and cheese.
The music was great. Ariel's two sons have become religious and sometimes it seems a little incongruous because this is not what you would associate with Breslever Hassidim. Well, that's not totally true because Shuli Rand does music in this style but his lyrics are of a more religious nature. Ehud is a very talented guitarist. The drummer Omer Seri was amazing because instead of a set of drums he sat on a box and drummed on it. They did add a medley of Jewish songs and the audience sang along enthusiastically. (It is much easier to sing along with these songs than with the folk-rock - at least for me.) All in all, we agreed that it was a very special evening and look forward to doing this again some time.

Creativity in the face of challenge

2010-11-15T09:50:00.001+02:00

Raise Your Spirits Theatre is a community theater group in Gush Etzion founded by Sharon Katz and Toby Klein Greenwald. The group puts on shows which involve many women in the planning, production and performance. Any profits are channeled toward helping victims of terror, families in need, emergency medical equipment and other needs.

"In 2001, amidst an atmosphere of grief and terror,a group of women in Gush Etzion joined together to the raise spirits of their community and all of Israel. Rather than succumb to the depression caused by daily terror attacks, they decided to start a project that would give them a positive outlet and something wonderful to look forward to. They decided to put on a show. The rest, as they say, is history. (from their website)"

Orthodox Jewish women don't have a lot outlets for their creativity if they are talented in the performing arts. But in the last generation there have been some serious efforts to encourage more opportunities. Emunah Teachers College in Jerusalem has a drama department and Orot Israel College in Elkana has a dance department. The graduates of these programs have been working in girls schools around the country setting up classes and in some cases departments where the girls of the religious Zionist community can learn, practice and perform.
The Raise Your Spirits group is different. This group is a group of everywomen or at least a nice cross-section of ages and interests. Some families even had three generations participating.
The book of Judges שופטים is the story of the early years after the Jews entered the Land of Israel and is about their struggle to conquer and rule the land. After Joshua's time there was a lack of central leadership and ups and downs regarding faith and unity among the people of Israel. Many see parallels to our situation today.
The Song of Devora is an upbeat story of charismatic leadership, faith and inspiration. The writers Toby Klein Greenwald and Yael Valier reach out and ignite our imaginations and the music by Mitch Clyman makes you want to get up and dance. Speaking of dance Sara Orenstein is an honors graduate of the Orot Israel dance and education program and did a fantastic job.
The performance is a patchwork of scenes which set the background to the story and then introduce each character center stage all leading to the great confrontation. The performers, some have professional training but most are just regular folks, carry this off beautifully. All through the show, besides performing admirably they show us that they are not just individual performers but a cohesive unit and most of all they seem to be having a really good time.
After all the finales we were asked to stand for Hatikvah and Ani Ma'amin. The auditorium at the community center in Gush Etzion became a very intimate place as the dozens of players and production helpers who were on stage face the scores of women in the audience and sang together. In those moments you could feel the unity and faith that is the common denominator for all of us there. It was very very special and I hope to see more of these moments.

Kol Hakavod Canada!

2010-11-14T07:38:00.002+02:00

Cynics who find the Land of Israel's charms limited bemoan the the fact that Moses wanted Canada as the chosen land, but being slow of speech he uttered c-c-c-c-canaan instead and we ended up in this land instead of (what would have been better?) that one. The Rebbitzin's Husband brings honor to Canada with his 6th (!) hosting of Haveil Havalim The Tribute to Stephen Harper Edition
Yahser Koach!

A low-carb recipe inspired by lunch with Batya

2010-11-09T21:13:00.003+02:00

Yesterday I had lunch with Batya at her home in Shilo. Batya has lost quite a bit of weight and champions a low carbohydrate diet. Indeed we had fish cooked with vegetables and salad for lunch. It was very tasty. Inspired (and a little jealous) I decided to try my hand at a low carb dish for lunch today. Having hosted the Kosher Cooking Carnival this week, I noticed that although I enjoy reading everyone else's food posts I haven't really shared my kitchen adventures. All that's about to change. Here goes:

3 medium eggplants (the dish is the size I use for the first course so you can get an idea of what I mean by medium sized)
500 grams ground chicken
1/3 cup ketchup (or tomato sauce and add spices)
2 eggs (separated)
1 cup chicken soup (on hand, left over from Shabbat or water)
salt, pepper, basil, parsley, garlic to taste

Rinse the eggplants, cut them lengthwise in half and scoop out a well.
Dice the eggplant that you cut out to make the well.
Cook the diced eggplant with the chicken soup, ketchup and spices until it's soft. (I did this in the microwave.)
Mash the cooked eggplant and add the ground meat/chicken.
Beat the egg whites till stiff.
Mix the egg yolks with the meat mixture.
Fold the egg whites into the meat mixture..
Arrange the eggplant shells in a baking pan. (It probably should be lightly greased but I forgot to do that.)
Spoon the meat mixture into the shells. This will make mounds but since the shells fit snugly in my pan they supported each other.
Bake at 175° C (at least that's what it says on my oven, I have never checked if it's true) for about 20-25 minutes.

This dish got good reviews from 2 other people who were home for lunch today. I think it might not have been necessary to separate the eggs and next time I will try that way.

Update: I made this again this week. I tried three changes.

I used ground meat instead of ground chicken. It tasted very good this way too.
I didn't separate the eggs. The result was that it still tasted great but wasn't as high. It looked pretty much the same.
I made half in the microwave (12 minutes at 70% power with some liquid in the container so it doesn't get too dry). It came out very good but not brown on top.

Protection on the ground and in our hearts

2010-11-08T10:09:00.002+02:00

Yesterday I traveled to Tel Shiloh for the the Rosh Chodesh visit to the site where the Mishkan (tabernacle) stood for 369 years and where Channa prayed to God to grant her a child. She become the model on which our sages based the halachot (rules) for prayer, until this very day.
The tel overlooks the road which goes from the Shiloh settlement to Eli and onwards to Ariel.
Once again we witnessed an 'only in Israel' moment!
At the tel we met a group of soldiers fully equipped who were passing through. One of them took out tfillin and put them on. As they were leaving I asked them how they happened to be in the area and they explained that they were on patrol. The Hebrew word for patrol is si'ur (סיור) which is also the word for touring around and so it could also mean just passing by and looking at the sights. So we joked with them that they were protecting us with their prayers as well as their guns.
I had a wonderful time having spent the rest of the day with f2f with Batya eating a healthy lunch and redecorating her blogs.
Chodesh Tov!

Run over to Frume Sarah for Haveil Havalim!

2010-11-07T14:28:00.000+02:00

Frume Sarah's World is hosting the 290th Hevel Havalim. 290 in Gematria is ר"צ which is the Hebrew root 'to run' so run right over to Frume Sarah.

KCC #60 Kislev Cooking Carnival

2010-11-07T01:46:00.002+02:00

Welcome to the 60th Kosher Cooking Carnival. Tonight, as I post this it is Rosh Chodesh Kislev. On the 25th of Kislev (December 1 this year) we will light the first candle of Chanukah. Chanukah conjures up the cold crisp air and the smell of potato latkes frying. HA! That's what the calendar says and the sign that greeted us at our local mall on Friday says "When it's cold outside the Rehovot Mall is the warmest there is!" The only thing is we were there because it's airconditioned and it was too hot to play outside in the playground so we took refuge in the mall. As we wait for winter to reach Rehovot here is this month's edition of the Kosher Cooking Carnival!

The Kosher Cooking Carnival KCC is a monthly blog carnival, a "round-up" of blog posts about all aspects of kosher food and cooking. It includes Jewish Law, customs, kosher restaurants, cookbooks and kosher recipes, too. Every month it's on another blog.

Next month Mirj of Miriyummy will make her KCC debut.

If you'd like to host an edition, please contact Batya.

And speaking of Batya check out Shimshonit's interview with her at My favorite foodies, part III: Batya

Anything Kosher? Everything Kosher!

Chaviva, with her usual wit and candor wrote Kosher Fest: The Highs, The Lows about meeting the giants of Kosher cookbook writing and searching for gluten-free and kosher eats. at Just call me Chaviva.

Halacha

Batya asks What Could Be Traif -Wrong/Forbidden- About That Innocent Plain Yogurt? and you"ll see the detailed answer at Shiloh Musings.

Special Occasions

Irresistible Forces posted at Miriyummy, is much more than a recipe (although it's a great recipe for one of my personal favorite dishes) it's a post full of warmth and loving memories of Miriam's mom presented on her first yahrzeit

Kosher Innovations

Leah Aharoni proposed a novel alternative to sandwiches for Fast and Nutritious Lunch Bag Idea posted at Ingathered.

Leora Wenger points us to her friend Debbie's blog Bayit and Garden for a very original recipe. C is for Cookie, That's Good Enough for Me using some unusual ingredients.

Why buy Teriyaki? is the question at Adventures in Mama-Land, and Jay3fer proceeds to give us "Super-easy teriyaki sauce, two ways, for any occasion. Why buy when you can make your own for pennies in less time than it takes to open a jar???" Go for it!

Leah Lipszyc expresses Teacher Appreciation in a sweet and creative way, see what I mean at chossid's photoblog.

Keeping kosher means you never eat anything that's not kosher so when Cary Anderson of Eating Healthy proposes a Part Time Vegan Diet "just a few days a week, every week" it seems to go against our grain, but it's worth giving some thought.

And in the new tool department: "The under-$10 tool that will revolutionize your baking" It’s here! The WHISK is here! posted at Adventures in BreadLand, "And believe me (Jay3fer ), I don't use words like "revolutionize" lightly!"

Economical use of left-overs

Jay3fer sent us Easy Fall “Whatever You’ve Got” Beef Stew (pressure cooker) from Adventures in Mama-Land, saying, "A hearty fall stew, Canadian-style. Use leftover veggies and Shabbos soup (or roast vegetables ahead of time to make this fast and easy!)."

rickismom's title says it all: The “What in the World am I going to do With all Those Dates Left Over from Rosh HaShana” Cake posted at Beneath the Wings.

Every day meals

"Menu Planning Monday isn't my own meme, but I've been participating for a while and there are not enough kosher blogs on there! I'd love to see more kosher home cooks adding themselves to the roster of weekly menu planners... mostly just as inspiration for my own family's meals!" Jay3fer shows you what it's all about at Adventures in Mama-Land: mpm

Hadassah Sabo Milner of In the Pink sent in Kosher Jambalaya in the Crockpot which sounds really interesting. I don't have a crockpot but I imagine one could just cook it slowly in a regular pot, right?

Leora Wenger teaches usto make a tasty lemony millet dish in Millet with Carrots and Zucchini posted at Here in HP.

Ilana-Davita has been using curry a lot recently with tuna and with vegetables.

Desserts

"Does the world need another chocolate cake recipe?" asks Jay3fer and answers: "Well, maybe not, but this one feeds lots of people!" so here it is And in case you need a BIG yummy chocolate cake recipe. While you're at it check out her Pareve Pumpkin Pie for Shabbos posted at Adventures in BreadLand, saying, "And you thought great pumpkin pie couldn't be pareve..."

Freshly Baked Goods Friday: Cinnamon Marble Cake Edition by Mrs. S looks good and easy at Our Shiputzim: A Work In Progress

Restaurant Reviews

Batya at me-ander gets around and reports It Was Worth Checking Out Five Restaurants... and also Salad in Malcha Mall.
Leah Lipszyc's new favorite restaurant in Crown Heights at Basil - chossid - Photoblog.com has beautiful pictures but doesn't really tell us much about the place, too bad.

Cookbook Reviews

Chaviva presents Cooking w/Giveaway, Susie Style! posted at Just call me Chaviva, saying, "I review Susie Fishbein's new cookbook, and host a cookbook giveaway!"

Batya presents Kosher by Design Teens & 20-Somethings: cooking for the next generation - Book Review posted at me-ander.

Batya presents Yes, It's Time, To Choose a Rhyme! posted at me-ander, saying, "Help me choose the winner!"

Mara presents Cookbook Review: Kosher by Design Teens & 20-Somethings posted atKosher on a Budget, saying, "My review of the new Susie Fishbein cookbook."

Here are the previous editions of the Kosher Cooking Carnival:
1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18,19, 20, 21, KCC Meta Carnival, 22, 23, 24, 25, 26, 27, 28,29, 30, 31, 32, 33, 34, 35, 36, 37, 38, 39, 40, 41, 42, 43,44, 45, 46, 47, 48, 49, 50, 51, 52, 53, 54, 55, 56, 57 58 and 59. Click on the numbers to check them out. Blog about them and visit the various links.

That concludes this edition. Submit your blog article to the next edition of kosher cooking carnival-kcc using our carnival submission form. Past posts and future hosts can be found on our blog carnival index page.

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Technorati tags: kosher cooking carnival-kcc, blog carnival.

2010-11-02T07:48:00.000+02:00

Rosh Chodesh Kislev

Women's Prayers at Tel Shiloh

Sunday, November 7 · 9:30am - 10:30am

There will also be a Dvar Torah

תפילת נשים

ראש חודש כסלו

תל שילה

יום א' ל' חשון

7-11 9:30

יהיה דבר תורה, בע"ה

Rosh Chodesh is a special day for women. Our sages tell us that at the time of the sin of the golden calf the women did not actively participate.

ונתן להם הקב"ה שכרן בעולם הזה - שהן משמרות ראשי חודשים יותר מן האנשים

ונתן להן שכר לעולם הבא - שהן עתידות להתחדש כמו ראשי חודשים פרקי דרבי אליעזר

God gave them their reward in this world - they mark Rosh Chodesh more than the men.
And he gave them their reward in the world to come - they will renew themselves as does the new moon.

Pirkei D'rabbe Eliezer

Join us on Sunday at Tel Shiloh where we will be singing our Hallel together and sharing divrei Torah

Haveil havalim - the good name edition - Tributes to RivkA

2010-11-01T09:25:00.002+02:00

Batya was active in finding this clip of RivkA capturing her spirit and style. Soccer Dad put together a mini Haveil Havalim with observations about the Jblogsphere and links to many posts honoring RivkA's memory.

What Women CAN do!

2010-11-01T08:22:00.001+02:00

RivkA bat Yeshaya of Coffee and Chemo was a longtime member of the Shirat Sara a women's tefilla group which meets regularly in Jerusalem. This is a post on a subject I began writing a few times since Simchat Tora and now I dedicate it to her memory.

It has been established that men and women should be separated during the rituals and worship.

Gender separation is a defining characteristic of the Orthodox synagogue, especially as this became a hotly contested issue in the US in the middle of the Twentieth Century. The Talmudic source is Sukkah 51b which tells of the Simchat Beit Hasho’eva in Temple times. While men and women were in separate sections, this proved inadequate to maintain decorum during this festive occasion, and it was decided to build a balcony for the women. It is fairly remarkable that the authorities of the time changed the design of the Temple, since it was designed by the Architect of architects, but that shows how serious the issue was. In an open letter Rabbi Soloveitchik described the fundamental importance of gender separation in synagogue. He said that separation is biblically required, while the mechitza is rabbinic.(more discussion here)

(As a child I remember commercials for "the family that prays together, stays together" which it turns out was a commercial for Catholics - who knew?) Clearly this did not apply to Orthodox Jews. Even in shuls where there was mixed seating the women were just there, alongside but not participating.

In the 70's that began to change..In the Reform movement Hebrew Union College admitted a woman to its rabbinical ordinations program. Some Conservative synagogues began giving aliyot to couples (the woman accompanied the man when he blessed the Torah). In the Orthodox community we began examining the possibilities.

One avenue was to separate and set up a minyan (quorum of 10 required for public prayer) for women. On closer examination we found that ten women (or 100 or 1,000) don't make a minyan. But still maybe there were ways we could remain within Orthodoxy and still have more participation.

Reading Megillat Esther (Book of Esther) turns out to be something that women have an equal obligation and according to most can read the megilla and recite its blessings. (See "Women's Megilla Reading" by Rabbi Aryeh A. Frimmer here.) These readings are especially delightful for me and I attend them whenever I can. Here in Rehovot we have one in the morning at our synagogue and I know of several other places where women read the Megilla. This has become a very widespread practice in certain circles in Israel. RivkA organized , participated in and taught her daughter to read Megillat Esther.

Sara Friedlander Ben-Arza, a poet, editor and lecuter in the field of chasidut, midrash, piyut and music wrote an eloquent article in the Succot edition of Hebrew newspaper 'Makor Rishon' about the Shirat Sara women's prayer group of which she is a member. (Unfortunately the article is not online.) The group was organized to celebrate the Shabbat Kallah (Shabbat before the wedding) of a woman around 16 years ago and later was named in memory Sara Rachel Duker one of the participants who was later killed in a Jerusalem bus bombing. The group meets at intervals of five to six weeks. The women sit in a semi-circle and sing the prayers together. They sing the parts they would be saying if they were praying individually but not the parts that require a minyan which would turn the service into t'fila b'tzibur (public prayer). The Torah portion is read from the Torah scroll. As each woman is called up they recite a verse in lieu of the Torah blessing and another one at the conclusion of the section. The service includes lessons in Torah and Jewish law as well. Sara Ben-Arza points out that the young girls who attend these services are growing up with the expectation that they to will take their place next to their mothers and make this a tradition. See RivkA's proud post about her daughter's Bat Mitzvah here.

I participated in a service at Shirat Sara and it was a wonderful experience. It is not a mimicking of a 'real' service but something else. It is uniquely feminine and you can feel the effort, preparation and love that goes into making this so special. Ben-Arza's article describes how the group deals with the halachic issues. This search for alternatives then brings the women a deeper study and understanding of the prayers and the solutions are just that much more meaningful because of this confrontation.

I like the Shirat Sara model. If I lived in Jerusalem I would be there often. There is a lot of preparation that goes into the Torah readings and it will be a long time before we have enough women who can deal with that kind of preparation on a wide basis. Here in Rehovot there have been a few Bat Mitzvah celebrations where the young lady prepared the Torah reading and her friends and family came and a service was held. It is, of course exciting and uplifting to participate in these services as well. But it does not come close to a group that meets at regular intervals.

But there is a tension between the two worlds that the women live in. The group doesn't meet every week because they want to stay connected to their community and family. This way most of the time they are part of the general community and on these special weeks they are part of their own special women's community. One of the wormen put it this way:: "On the other Shabatot I pray in a regular synagogue. There I am not an integral part of the community prayer experience. In that setting which halahically is tefilla b'tzibur (public prayer) I feel as if I am praying as an individual. But at the women's prayer service which is not technically deemed t'fila b'tzibur I feel the experience of participating. In the women's service I am the community. My absence would be noticed."

With the passing of RivkA these remarks take on another meaning. RivkA personified the modern Orthodox Jewess taking the tradition building on it to include our womanly connection. Her absence will most certainly be noticed.

RivkA bat Yeshaya
רבקה בת ישעיה
יהי זכרה ברוך

Baruch Dayan Haemet ברוך דיין האמת

2010-10-29T13:28:00.003+02:00

RivkA passed away this morning.
Funeral arrangements here.

Her spirit will live on in our hearts as we take with us the wisdom and cheer which she brought to so many lives.
May her husband and children and extended family be comforted among the mourners of Zion and Jerusalem.

Haveil Havalim #288 Please Pray for RivkA

2010-10-24T06:00:00.025+02:00

Founded by Soccer Dad, one of the founding fathers of the jblogosphere, Haveil Havalim is a carnival of Jewish blogs - a weekly collection of Jewish and Israeli blog highlights collected from blogs all around the world. It's hosted by different bloggers each week. It is now managed by Jack, who will be ecstatic if you'll agree to host the carnival on your blog.

I have enjoyed HH at other blogs and have discovered interesting people and ideas through it and I'm now returning the favor and hope to add my own take to some of the submissions this week. But first I have an important request for you bloggers and readers. One of us, whom we have come to know online and in person, RivkA of Coffee and Chemo, has been hospitalized and needs our prayers. Batya has pointed me in the direction of a Tehilim group. You can sign up to join in saying Tehillim for her recovery at this link.
And now on with the posts:

Jewish Identity

David examines the beginnings of Jewish identity in Avraham Avinu, Ha-Yehudi Ha-Rishon and relates it to modern life.

A Simple Jew tells a delightful story about a chassidic rabbi "Greater than an Angel" at A Simple Jew.

Batya is making up for lost time and suggests that study of the bible is as important as keeping mitzvot"Nothing's New..." posted at Shiloh Musings.

Ilana-Davita submitted Remembering & Acting

A New/Old Jewish Superhero points to a novel way of spreading the word about 'the Jewish idea' at Cosmic X in Jerusalem

What is more a sign of Jewish identity than brit milah? Velveteen Rabbi discusses this important ceremony from the parent's point of view Brit Milah: A Parent's Q-and-A.

Susan Barnes reveals the develoopment of her thoughts on phylacteries Tefillin Barbie join her as she explores her connection to Jewish symbols at To Kiss A Mezuzah.

Mistaken Identity?
Maya compares some of Israels celebrities to America's well-knowns in fun post about Israeli-American dopplegangers Israeli Famous People who look like American Famous People posted at How to Be Israeli.
Israel

Rabinfest 2010 is the name given by Cosmic X in Jerusalem to the marking of the 15th yahrtzeit of Yitzhak Rabin. He reports on the atmosphere surrounding this year's marking of the day.
Harry's blog ISRAELITY features a potpourri of good stuff about Israel including inviting the Chilean Miners for Xmas, an examination of the housing boom saying Israeli property market is hot…maybe too much so, and another about Hellacious Holon a city which is experiencing a cultural rebirth. I am putting it on my 'must see' list.
Torah
I'd like to point you to my discussion of women's Torah study in Israel Reaching for the Stars or Slippery Slope?

Neil Fleischmann who calls himself funny has a serious word on Vayeira Stars and Dust Forever - Vayeirah posted at NY's Funniest Rabbi.

Rabbi Yehoishophot Oliver is a prolific blogger who sent in The real Iskafya which is about purification through spirituality rather than abstinence, The meaning of creation ex nihilo, Cultivating a Tefillah state of mind about preparing for prayer and Levels of the Neshamah (not for beginners, Jewish philosophy).

Injustices?

The Rebbetzin's Husband examines the biases of Ageism in the rabbinic search process.
Independent Patriot/Elise posted this impassioned plea Ellen Degeneres Speaks Out About Bullying at Liberty's Spirit essentially saying before you give up on life, ask for help.
Rahel has a legitimate complaint about being taken advantage of by a 'friend" Getting the Picture read about it at Elms in the Yard.
Right here on Isramom I told a true story involving ill-put input over hair covering.
Events and Invitations
Batya reports on the women's visit to Tel Shiloh, Rosh Chodesh Cheshvan, October, 2010 posted at Shiloh Musings and invites us to Women's Prayers at Tel Shiloh, Rosh Chodesh Kislev
After celebrating Rosh Chodesh you can look forward to Jacob Richman's Invitation to Virtual Chanukah Party see what it's about at Good News from Israel.
Personal

Elianah-Sharon gives us a peek into the world of a family dealing with ongoing mental health issues in Collateral Damage. It is emotional, perceptive and realistic.

Minnesota Mamaleh: About Books | TC Jewfolk is about her love of books and her book club. I have belonged to a book club here in Rehovot for over a decade and readily identify. Check TC Jewfolk. for her recommendations.

The Rebbetzin's Husband asks whether Rabbis friending children on Facebook is acceptable. I would say that if the kids ask to be your friend it's OK but don't go looking for them. Another thing, I am 'friends' with Rabbi Dr. Abraham J. Tweski on Facebook (he is a chassidic Rabbi and psychiatrist who has written many books some of which I have read and are very good) but it seems weird when I get a message about "Abraham".

Lady-Light presents Too Much Work, Too Little Time...To Blog! posted at Tikkun Olam a thought we can all appreciate at one time or another!

QuietusLeo of The Sandman needed a vacation and took his family to Bulgaria (of all places) and took some great photos as well.

Communications

Ben-Yehudah gives his opinions of the opinions in Israel's press My Local Rag posted at Esser Agaroth.

and points us to a new Battle for Jerusalem described at TOMER DEVORAH.

Humor

Jacob Richman sent in the link for The Noach Page posted at Good News from Israel and although it's now after Va'Yera there are some good things there which you shouldn't have to wait another year to look at. Eespecially don't miss the Bill Cosby monologue! While you're at Good News from Israel don't miss They Spoke Hebrew!! which is really cute and might even be educational.

Neil Fleischmann is funny about shoppers posted at NY's Funniest Rabbi.

SnoopyTheGoon, whose name is funny enough finds The funny side of French strikes over at Simply Jews.

Mazal tov to Benji Lovitt who is Employed. Which Means I Get Emails Like This over at What War Zone???.
Lady-Light sends us to see a great video by the Latma crew.

Kosher Cooking
I will be hosting the KCC (Kosher Cooking Carnival) for the month of Kislev so you can send me your submissions through the BlogCarnial here.
Shimshonit is busy interviewing food mavens and this time around it was my friend of many years and the person responsible for introducing me to bloogging My favorite foodies, part III: Batya over at Shimshonit.
If you have been living under a rock you might not have heard that Suzy Fishbein has a new cookbook and the whole Jblogshere is busy competing for free copies so enter early and often! Try me-ander or Jew In The City, or In The Pink and I'm sure many many others.

Please keep RivkA in your prayers and thoughts

2010-10-20T21:30:00.002+02:00

I met RivkA of Coffee and Chemo at the first Jblogger conference organized by Nefesh b'Nefesh. I met her a few times since in other contexts and she is always optimistic and cheerful.
RivkA has been hospitalized and needs our prayers. Batya has pointed me in the direction of a Tehilim group. You can sign up to join in saying Tehillim for her recovery at this link.

Review with Shadows

2010-10-17T01:15:00.001+02:00

These photos were taken in a park right near my office in Rehovot. The site was originally a winery and the park was planned around the restoration of the area. I was walking in the area one afternoon as the shadows lengthened and shot these photos.

Haveil Havalim, a review of Jewish/Israeli blog posts is over at Cosmic X in Jerusalem. Next week I will be hosting.

A Mother In Israel points us to interesting posts about food, family and life.

One of my favorite food bloggers, Miriyummy shares links to other food blogs along with wit and insight.

And since I mentioned food, this month's edition of Kosher Cooking Carnival is over at me-ander. Next month it will be here at my place.

For Shadow Shot Sunday visit Hey Harriet.

Stay OUT of my hair!

2010-10-14T09:42:00.001+02:00

A Mother In Israel linked to this opinion in the Jerusalem Post and both are about 'objectifying women'. The gist of it is that the treatment of women in the public space is taken to extremes by two separate and diametrically opposed forces in Israel's society. On the one hand the charedim would like women to just disappear, stay out of their face, so to speak. On the other side is the unabashed unrestrained exploitation of women, young girls and children in advertising on billboards, buildings, bus stops and other venues that can not be ignored. Like it or not, we are confronted by skinny come-hither females in provocative poses meant to grab our attention and focus it on some commercial product. Often I have nothing against the product, but the message about and to women and girls that comes through is objectionable and often disgusting.

Jews on the street in Tzfat

So instead of being able to just be out on the street and go about my business I am forced to be conscious of both these forces, the ones that exploit femininity and the ones who would just want it to go away. Aaargh!
The other day I was walking with my husband in a little southern town we frequently visit when we were approached by a leader of a Hassidic group associated with outreach who began asking us where we were from because we were speaking English to each other. After some chatty back and forth with David the guy asked him if he could ask him a 'personal' question. The question was if 'your wife' (I was standing there) had ever worn a sheitl (wig) and continued with the admonition that he encourage me to do so as my present hair covering is insufficient and 'everyone' knows that all the 'gedolim' (great rabbis) agree that the wig is the most modest hair covering. At that point I walked away leaving David to argue that many many contemporary rabbis do not consider wigs modest at all, blah, blah, blah and the black suit/hat guy blah, blah, blah back at him.
You'd think a person could just walk down the street and mind their own business?
You would be wrong. .

Reaching for the Stars or Slippery Slope?

2010-10-12T07:00:00.007+02:00

This is one of a series of posts I have been wanting to write for a long time!
If you think 'Orthodox Jewish Feminist' is an oxymoron you are in good company. Still, I'd like to make the case for an Orthodox Jewish acceptance of Torah and mitzvot which takes into account the changing role of women in the modern world.
The feminism of the 21st century is not the hysterical outcry of the 1970's with its bra-burning and motherhood rejection and man-hating/baiting. What we are looking for today is the recognition that woman can be judged on their merits and not limited in their opportunities because of their gender. A woman should be able to develop her true potential and be paid equal pay for equal work. This view is widely accepted in academia now and in there is growing acceptance of women in the business world as well. It's about being able to be in a room and be taken seriously and not treated as a decoration. It's about recognizing that sexual harassment in the workplace is not acceptable behavior.

Orthodox Judaism, on the face of it, seems to be sending us a very different message. Adult Jewish women are exempt from many mitzvot (time bound positive commandments such as tfilin and tzizit) and as result of the different level of obligation we are not counted for a minyan and can't be called to bless the Torah. Separation between the sexes is required during services and so in addition to not actively participating the women sit in the balcony or behind a wall or curtain. Dress codes require us to cover up arms, legs, collarbones and for married women even our hair. Formal Jewish education (in a school) for girls is less than a century old.
So, what can we do if some of this makes us feel that there is an imbalance between the way we see ourselves in the modern context and the way we want to express our commitment to Judaism and halacha. Some women just 'leave it to the men' keeping all the negative commandments which include keeping Shabbat, kashrut and leaving the synagogue and Torah study to the men. Many Orthodox Jewish women who take this path have rich professional lives but remain on the sidelines of Torah study and public prayer.
One very positive change that has taken place over the past generation is the acceptance and encouragement of higher Jewish learning for women in an Orthodox setting. The well loved and respected Nehama Leibowitz brought the study of the written Torah to great heights and is revered in the Orthodox community both here in Israel and in the diaspora. But her base was in the University and although she brought the values of the beit midrash to the university it did not make the university an option for the study of Torah.
Today we have women's institutions like Matan, Nishmat, Middreshet Lindenbaum where women study and teach Torah on the highest levels. These midrashot have produced a cadre of learned women who have become, in addition to excellent teachers, toanot (counsels who can represent clients in divorce cases heard before rabbincal courts) and yoatzot (advisors regarding hilchot nidda - mikveh family purity and women's health issues). The women who initiate and maintain these illustrious institutions are learned Orthodox Jewish women. They have no formal title which reflects their learning achievements and they are not recognized by any religious distinction.
You can find a lot of discussion back and forth about the move made by Rabbi Avi Weiss of Riverdale NY in granting smicha (ordination?) to a woman and calling her first MaHaRat and then Rabba and what that will do the future of Orthodox Judaism. (See about 20 posts and innumerable comments on Hirhurim; Rabbi Riskin here; Rabbi Herschel Schachter here and many many more.) In Israel, for now anyway, we have not come to this and I don't think it will happen soon. For one thing a rabbi here doesn't have the same communal position (for better and some might say for worse) as a shul rabbi in the US. Having the title just doesn't lead to the same career opportunities.
Make no mistake about it when Rabbanit Malka Piotorkovsky, Rabbanit Oshra Koren, Rabbanit Channa Henkin, Rabbanit Malka Bina and so many others teach us we call them Rabbanit not because of their husband's titles but because of their own achievements. These women have become our spiritual leaders.

Welcome Heshvan, Haveil Havalim and the latest Kosher Cooking Carnival

2010-10-10T08:27:00.002+02:00

As I've mentioned before the holiday season is over and life settles down to business here in Israel. At our house we have run out of excuses and we are gearing up to eat more sensibly and try to lose some weight. Batya's latest Kosher Cooking Carnival #59 is posted over at me-ander and she even has a few recipes in the section marked 'Diet'. There, I've even said the word.

I'll be hosting the next edition so keep me in mind and point me in the direction of tasty stuff that will help us stay on the straight and narrow...
I received this quick response to my call for help and it's worth passing on now rather than later:

Tamar Genger MA RD said...

I am a Deititian and try to cook healthy most of the time, you can find my recipes on as member Tamar at http://joyofkosher.com (my site). I am also coming out with an article on cooking with a pressure cooker, it should be up this week and is filled with healthy ideas.
Good luck.
Tamar

And so is the Haveil Havalim! at Ima's where she brings us the "Return to Normal Blogging" edition of the popular Jblogsphere review.

Thanks Ima.

Women, Rabbis, History - 5771 is going to be an interesting year!

2010-10-07T07:00:00.001+02:00

Reform Rabbi Frume Sarah has done a lovely job of Havail Havalim #285 called Back to the Beginning.
And yes, this has been a week of so many beginnings that I had to pick a few to begin this week and few will have to wait till next week. Oh well, happy 'after the chagim' to everyone!

My 5771 beginnings:
Monday evening we returned to our regular women's gemara class at my synagogue led by our amazing teacher Nahum who demystifies (did I just invent that word?) the world of the Talmud and helps us as we slowly but hopefully steadily improve our Aramaic and learn to analyze the gemara's logic.We are learning Brachot. (This dvar Torah is from the siyyum of the first chapter.)

Tuesday morning I went to the first class of the year at the new women's beit midrash (literally: study house) appropriately named Bina Yetaira (literally: greater wisdom*). The class is given by Rabbanit Malka Piotrkovsky is entitled "The wisdom of the sages - selected studies of educational philosophical halachic issues taken from oral Torah sources". The first topic was women and Rosh Chodesh (the new month). Rosh Chodesh is considered a special day for women and we followed the discussion about how the women marked this day and why. We read from the Talmud, midrash and halachic sources. Her teaching style is very interactive and there was never a dull moment. There were about 50 women there from many different cultural backgrounds and some of them shared the special Rosh Chodesh customs of their mothers and grandmothers. There are many women in Rehovot who are interested in expanding their knowledge of Jewish sources and it is gratifying to see that the demand is being taken seriously. Kudos to the Amit women's organization and the Rehovot municipality for sponsoring this program. It was an amazing learning experience and I look forward to participating in this class.

Tuesday evening (in between I did go to work) I went to see the first play in this year's series subscription that I share with my friend Yael (6 plays that are fixed and 1 which you get to chose out of 4 possibilities). I like the subscription idea for several reasons. One is that it's cheaper than buying individual tickets. The second is that it exposes you to plays you might not choose yourself either because they are by new or obscure writers or because you just are not familiar with them and besides I would never be organized enough to find out about and buy tickets to seven plays in one year. The play was Arthur Miller's A View From The Bridge. I will write more about that soon.
Wednesday morning found me at orientation for the transcription and digitization of Sir Moses Montifiore's censuses of Jewish communities in the land of Israel and Egypt and Sidon. I already participated in this project for the censuses of 1855 and 1849 and we are now doing 1866 and 1875. I find it exciting to deal with these real life lists of people who returned to Zion and see where they came from and what they were doing. On Sunday night I missed a celebration of the launch of the online census searchable database in which we volunteers were given certificates honoring our part in the project. I was given my certificate this morning. And here is my name in the credits on the site (my 15 minutes of fame?).

*The Torah says (Braishis 2:22) that G-d created Eve from the body of Adam. The term used is "vayiven", from the verb bonoh, "and He built". The rabbis had an oral tradition that this verb "vayiven" has an additional level of interpretation, from the root "binah". "Binah yeseirah" was given to women more so than to men. Women mature intellectually at an earlier age than men; therefore girls should become bat mitzvah at age twelve, while boys only attain their intellectual maturity at age thirteen (Talmud Niddah 45b) (from here).

The Joy of Torah!

2010-09-29T08:34:00.002+02:00

Soon we will be sitting down in our succa for the final meal there this year. We will be having our traditional meal of chicken soup with kreplach (sometimes known as Jewish won tons). Towards evening I'll light my candles and then we"ll begin a marathon of a holiday. In the evening there will be services which include seven rounds of dancing with the Torah (hakafot - literally 'going arounds'). We eat dinner much later than usual. In the morning we have even more dancing hakafot, all the men are called up to bless the Torah, the children get a special blessing under a huge talit, we finish the reading cycle of the Torah portions and immediately begin the new cycle, we say hallel, yizkor (memorial prayers for the dead) and tefilat geshem (prayer for rain in Israel). Outside of Israel all this is divided into two days. But here it all comes together.

I wrote about how my community manages all this in my Simchat Tora Review. Last year I shared a dvar Torah appropriate for Simchat Torah at Looking forward to Simchat Torah!

Hadassah at In The Pink asks if Simchat Torah is just for men. I certainly don't think so!.

After Yom Kippur come the Memorials

2010-09-20T00:54:00.004+02:00

Yom Kippur is first and foremost a religious experience coming after an intense week of celebration and soul searching. The season invites us to keep in touch with friends and family sometimes serving as a welcome reason to renew and upgrade our relationships. The weeks leading up to Rosh Hashana and especially the week between the holiday and the fast are filled (in Israel at least) with many many opportunities to hear shiurim (lectures) which can often help us in our journey towards Yom Kippur. Yom Kippur itself is a very intense and often emotional day. And when we finally hear that one last long shofar blast and sing 'Next Year in Jerusalem' we are ready to move on to our next mitzvah, building the succa.

But it doesn't really happen that way. Not here, not today, not anymore.

Thirty-seven years ago on Yom Kippur the State of Israel and her mighty army was surprised and attacked and we came so close to losing everything. As the years go by and more is revealed we come to realize how precarious the situation was. Even more so than we realized back then. Over 2,000 men were killed in the official war and many more in the long nerve-wracking months after the cease-fires.

So that day after Yom Kippur is the official memorial day for that war and the military cemeteries fill up for ceremonies and services both public and private.

And so I would like to pause to remember two friends of mine who gave their lives for our country.

These men grew up in the New York City and made the choice to come and live here in Israel. I met them when I was still in high school and we were all members of the Zionist youth movement Betar. We spent many Sundays together at meetings which included besides talking Zionism also much singing and often dancing. Some of us still get nostalgic at a blog we set up "Betarim in North America" where we post old photos and reminisce. (What follows are not biographies but my feelings.)

Next Friday, the 16th of Tishrei is the yahrtzeit of Chaim (Hornstein) Haran הי"ד (Hashem yikom damo, may G-d avenge his blood) who participated in the battle in which the Syrian army overtook the "country's eyes" the post atop Mt. Hermon. He was a member of the Golani Brigade's elite scout unit and was killed by Syrian air fire in the attempt to retake the Hermon.
Chuck (his 'English' name was Charles) was a very bright child. His parents had divorced when he was around two years old and it couldn't have been easy for him. He was close to some of the leaders of Betar and they tried to encourage him to stay in school and fulfill his potential. He came to Israel after the Six-Day-War but he was still too young then to join the army yet. He went back to the US and eventually came back and joined Golani. I wasn't in touch with him when he came back then but I remember vaguely knowing he was in the country.
He was 23 years old when he was killed. He didn't have the chance to marry and have a family.At first we cried because we suffered a loss. Now, as I get older and Chuck stays the smiling good looking teenager I remember I am overcome by a different kind of grief. It is a mourning for those he didn't get a chance to leave behind. Instead of time healing I feel I truly grieve more for him as the years go by.

Eli Michael Solomon הי"ד was one of the first people I met in Betar. I was still in high school then. He is the on the left in this picture playing the drum. Eli was the kind of guy who made sure that everyone was involved in the activity. It wasn't enough for him that he was having a good time, everyone had to be having a good time. People always felt comfortable around Eli.
Eli went off to join the volunteers the week before the Six-Day-War and we all sat around at the airport singing at the top of our lungs while he waited to board the flight. Rena, who he married the following summer, slept over at my house that night because we lived close to the airport. I left a few weeks later for Israel and the next time the three of us were together was in 1970 when Rena and Eli came to live in Jerusalem. I had made many friends in Jerusalem by then but it was so special to have friends who knew me from 'the old country'. It was almost like having family.
I always felt at home with both of them and when their first daughter was born I was happy to babysit. Its odd what scenes come to mind when I think back to those days. I remember visiting them once and finding Eli relaxing, drinking a beer and watching the 1972 Olympics on TV. We all had a good laugh at that scene of him being so settled down. A few days later the whole world seemed very different as the jolly Olympics turned into a bloodbath of terror and death, and then the show just went on. The next time we were together we remarked about that.
When David and I got married Eli was doing basic training in the army. Rena had taken her daughter to New York and I was hoping that at least Eli would be able to come to the wedding. In the end he came to visit us a few days after because they hadn't approved the leave. I was glad to see him but really disappointed that he had not been with us.
Eli and Rena moved to Amatzya (near Kiryat Gat) and visiting became much more difficult. Not only was it far away but coordinating a visit was really difficult because at the time we didn't even have a phone. It's hard to imagine nowadays. When Eli was killed our friends had to come to our house to tell us and then we went to neighbors to call to find out the details of the funeral.
There are milestones and turning points in our lives when we gain a insight or gain experience, Eli's death taught me about a sadness I hadn't really known up close before.
We have all grown older and seen some bad times but also many good times. We have put on weight and turned grey. I look at my friends each year when we gather at Eli's grave (Rosh Chodesh Kislev or as near as possible) and see them as they were then but also as they are now. I guess you could say that Eli is there making sure we all stay in touch. Eli remains for me the cheerful and optimistic young man who rode the subways with me in New York. How I wish I could see him all grey or even bald.

יהי זכרם ברוך
May their memories be blessed be a blessing to us.

Sukkot ~ Old & New!

2010-09-19T09:15:00.004+02:00

Now that Yom Kippur has past we turn our thoughts and efforts to Succot. We came home from synagogue tonight and after some refreshment you could hear the sound of hammers joyfully getting the sukka ready. The fact is one used to hear more hammers but nowadays the succa is just as likely to be of the 'instant' version made of cloth walls strung on an aluminum frame. Just before Yom Kippur I read about an interesting competition taking place in New York City. It's called Sukka City 2010 and it attracted 600 entries from 43 countries. The architects and designers had "to re-imagine this ancient phenomenon, develop new methods of material practice and parametric design, and propose radical possibilities for traditional design constraints in a contemporary urban site." The official website of the contest includes an informative page with the biblical roots of the succa and a summary of the rules (known as halachot in these parts) that need to be followed in order to properly build the succa. It's an interesting mix and if you look at this slide show you will see that there are some broad interpretations of those rules.

The judges have already chosen 12 of the 600 entries and they will be on view in Union Square Park in New York City today September 19 and tomorrow September 20. You can vote for the winner at New York Magazine even if you don't live in New York. The winner stays on view in the park for the duration of the holiday. You can also buy one of the succot and the proceeds will be donated to help New York's homeless. That's a nice touch.

Another one of those 'Only in Israel' days!

2010-09-19T03:23:00.001+02:00

It's not that I think that we need more ways to make our holidays relevant.Yom Kippur is pretty relevant all by itself. In Israel from just before sundown on the afternoon before Yom Kippur until the stars come out the next night all traffic stops. There are no cars on the roads and no planes land or take off from our airports. The radio and television go off the air and everything but the synagogues closes down. There is no law of the state that requires this. It is just what happens in the Jewish State.The result: according to an item in Haaretz

"Air pollution in Jerusalem and the Dan region was 100 times less on Yom Kippur than on ordinary days, when cars are on the roads, air pollution monitors from the Environmental Protection Ministry found.
"According to the figures released by the ministry Sunday, levels of nitrogen oxide in the Dan region over Yom Kippur were two to 12 parts per billion - but when the holiday was over, the figure rose to 205 parts per billion. In Jerusalem, the numbers declined from 250 parts per billion in the afternoon before Yom Kippur to between two and 12 parts per billion during the holiday."

That's such great news that even Dov Hanin who heads up the Hadash (ultra-left and vociferously anti-religious Arab-Jewish party) to tout Yom Kippur as an environmental experiment and brag about how at a European environmental conference the European delegates reported success in attempts to institute experimental 'no car' days of up to 25% compliance, while the Israeli delegate could point to almost 100% compliance. (full article here in Hebrew) It's nice to see even he can find the positive value in Yom Kippur!

WWW = Wonderful Women on the Web

2010-09-16T01:53:00.007+02:00

rutimizrachi of Ki Yachol Nuchal! has put together a Carnival of jbloggers who have banded together and formed Kehila the brainchild of Eric at The Israel Situation. She has put together a lovely collection of blog posts decorated by lovely pictures of food fruits and flowers.

Batya at me-ander has posted the 58th (tfu, tfu, tfu) Kosher Cooking Carnival which she calls "Carnival for the Hungry" because she wrote it on Tzom Gedalya. It should be appropriate for Saturday night when we finish our fast of Yom Kippur.

And speaking of Yom Kippur Adventures in Mamaland found this here a sign of the times that shouldn't need any explanation.

Here's wishing everyone a G'mar Chatima Tova and a meaningful fast
גמר חתימה טובה