No, it wasn’t the birthday party of any of these nursery school children. It was a Birthday Parade for the 63rd birthday of the State of Israel. When my daughter was in nursery, she wore one of these shirts.
Now she is in third grade, and she was taking photos along side her mom (me). And chatting with her friend. I’m not sure why she so wants me to be at the annual school parade for Israel, but there I was. I’ve been doing this for a while: here is the 2008 post of this little parade.
Some of her focus was on this dog named Winston. He is a therapy dog.
Getting back to the parade, there were children, teachers, parents and neighbors in our little march around the block for Israel. I had a great time chatting with a fellow blogger, Pragmatic Attic.
Thank you to the policemen of Edison, New Jersey who guarded our parade.
Purim, the Jewish holiday of costumes, festive food, hamantaschen and the Book of Esther, falls this year on March 20. We have begun preparing our annual oatmeal containers that we decorate, fill with edible treats and hand out to a few friends. My daughter created the scene above; I scanned it into the computer, and we plan to print it in a variety of sizes to paste unto the containers.
If you are celebrating, have you done anything to get ready? Any thoughts on the upcoming holiday? Questions?
A drawing by my daughter: what does this ballet dancer and Ancient Egypt have in common? Perhaps someone who knows ancient Egyptian history can help. Or maybe you are familiar with some midrashim related to parshat Shmot? (I’m not, but I gather that’s how my daughter got the idea).
Neot Kedumim Kitchen: Was this what cooking was like in the time of Avraham?
Mrs. S. hosts the Kosher Cooking Carnival for the first month of Adar (we have two this year – extra happiness). There’s tamarind date cake, eggplant filled with bulghur, lemonade, brownies, creamy parsnip soup and more.
Chanukah is over, but I still have photos to share. My husband’s chanukiah has a spot for the shamash, the candle helper that lights the oil wicks underneath. It was nice that the chanukiah was built with a place for a candle, but did the designer have to put the candle directly above the oil cups so every year it bends over like this? It would have made more sense to put the candle holder on the side, although it would take away from the chanukiah’s “classic” look.
Thank you to everyone who has thus far submitted to JPiX, the Jewish Photo Blogger’s Carnival. Here is the submission form (you have until Thursday to submit). Next edition will appear this coming Sunday on this blog.
Our rabbi, Rabbi Bassous, gave 5 reasons why the rabbis chose to celebrate the miracle of the oil on Chanukah. An alternative question might be: Why emphasize the oil instead of the military victory?
(My apologies if I restate any of his talk incorrectly).
Humility: in crushing the olive to make the oil, we learn humility. We should learn to be humble in our lives.
Permeation: Oil permeates the skin if we rub it like an ointment. Just as Joseph was involved in Egypt in a good way, so we Jews should be involved in the world around us.
Water and oil separate: water does not mix with oil. We should not mix in and dissolve in greater society. Joseph was involved in Egypt, but he retained his Judaism.
Oil floats to the top: if we are good, hardworking people, we can rise above in society.
Light unto others: the lighted oil is symbolic of being a light unto others.
If you need further explanation or elaboration, feel free to ask the comments (especially if you don’t celebrate Chanukah or if you just don’t understand one part of what he said – I’m open to questions).
Tomorrow night, December 1, is the first night of Chanukah. Are you ready? Set up those chanukiot, bought those potatoes and oil, found last year’s dreidels? If you celebrate Chanukah and own a camera: take a photo, post it on your blog and submit it to JPiX.
An unknown number of 8 year old girls will be descending (ascending? proceeding to? invading? gracing?) our home on Sunday morning. A treasure hunt has been prepared by middle son, and I will be short order cook in charge of latke and sufganiyot (doughnuts) creation.
We are looking forward to Shabbat guests that we haven’t seen since we visited them in their home in Hashmonaim in 2008.
Last Thursday, Veterans Day, I (along with other parents) had the pleasure of driving my son’s eighth grade class to a small gathering of Jewish War Veterans. We met by the dough boy (see bottom photo) in Highland Park, New Jersey, one half hour before the official Veterans Day Parade. According to my son, the way this got started was one year the teacher who organized the meeting saw some veterans saying kaddish (prayer for the dead) without a minyan (ten men). So she asked the school if she could arrange to bring the eighth grade boys. In the photo above, Rabbi Shostack of RPRY (far left) is talking with the students and the veterans. The 90 year old veteran on the right invited the boys to join them at a special prayer service the next day in Menlo Park. I kept thinking, but the boys have school the next day.
The veterans shared tales from World War II, the Korean War, and the Vietnam War. My friend David on the left (a father of one of the boys) recorded their talks. One told how he became a medic with only a high school education. Rabbi Poleyoff, who is a retired teacher from RPRY, talked about his service in Japan immediately after the Korean War.
This *is* a Ruby Tuesday post, so here’s a red veterans’ car!
These older women wore bright red uniforms. I didn’t get a chance to hear their story. They are standing in front of the Highland Park Doughboy (What’s a Doughboy?).
