Jewish

Review with Maple Leaves

leaves in East Brunswick
Red Leaves in East Brunswick, New Jersey

We visited the Butterfly Park in East Brunswick last Sunday. I was planning to post a Nature Notes about the park (didn’t happen! not enough hours or energy in a week); instead, I have material for next week’s Nature Notes.

On My Blog

compost heap with mums, orange peels, cabbage, leek Rutgers New Jersey Jewish Film Festival 2010 featuring Father's Footsteps Charles Dickens
parrot looks in the mirror bridge under Route 18 faded rudbeckia and verbena
goldenrod bingo the guinea pig 

I have two more interviews with bloggers on writing coming up for this blog – one for this coming week, and one for the following week. I will post the answer to the Film Festival quiz tomorrow morning on Sunday (in the comments of the film festival post). Still time for guessing – thanks to those who already tried!

Elsewhere in the Blogosphere

  • Jew Wishes reviewed Irretrievably Broken by Irma Fritz, saying “Fritz has woven a tapestry that is profound and compelling within the pages of Irretrievably Broken.” She also has a post with photos by Irma Fritz of Wernher von Braun’s lab at Peenemunde (links no longer exist).
  • Shimshonit interviewed Ilana-Davita as one of her favorite foodies.
  • Ilana-Davita shares photos and history of Lübeck’s synagogue.
  • Mimi cooks up a delicious looking tabbouleh.
  • Finally, prayers and thoughts for RivkA: Robin’s love, Batya’s letter, Jameel’s latest update on RivkA’s blog.
  • Update on Friday: “Baruch Dayan HaEmet – Blessed is the True Judge.

    This is the blessing said upon hearing the news of someone’s death.

    About 11:10 AM this morning, RivkA passed away.

    Funeral plans are in the process, and we’ll post them as soon as we know.

    May RivkA’s family be comforted among the mourners of Zion and Jerusalem.”

    One more update, a parsha thought on Hayye Sarah by Jeffrey Woolf: “Abraham came to Hevron to eulogize Sarah and to cry for her. The Rav זצ”ל used to emphasize that ordinarily the order is the reverse. First once cries. Only after time passes and perspective returns, can one eulogize the departed and evaluate who they were.

    Sometimes, though, one is obligated to suppress one’s primal shriek of pain in order to tell the world just who the person was who has gone. That way, the Rav said, we try to involve as many people as possible in mourning the tragedy. Once the eulogy is achieved, we may all let ourselves go and cry out in pain.”

    Guess The Films

    Rutgers New Jersey Jewish Film Festival 2010 featuring Father's Footsteps
    Rutgers New Jersey Jewish Film Festival 2010 featuring Father's Footsteps

    It’s Rutgers New Jersey Jewish Film Festival time, and since most of you reading this post don’t live in New Jersey, I thought we could have a little fun with a “Guess the Film” game.

    1. Without looking beyond the main film page, can you guess which three films are already sold out? The films are listed in the left sidebar (click on the large graphic above to get to the main film page). No cheating.
    2. Can you name the film that my husband and I plan to attend?

    Finally, if you did live in New Jersey, which films would you want to see? Answers to the second question (which film are my husband and I attending) will be posted early next week.

    Tall Towers Tale

    Tower of Babel by Brueghel
    Rabbi Bassous related the following story on Shabbat:

    About thirty years ago when the Soviet Union first opened its doors, an elderly woman arrived in Israel who was visited by many rabbis. She was not religious, but she was the granddaughter of someone famous: the Chofetz Chaim. They wanted to hear about her conversations with and stories about her famous grandfather. There was one story in particular that was related. The granddaughter, against her parents’ and grandfather’s wishes, had attended university. After much education, she came back to her grandfather and said to him, when are you going to give up your old-fashioned ways? The world is moving forward with science and technology; all sorts of exciting new discoveries are happening. The Chofetz Chaim replied, with all these great discoveries, they will build bombs. One day there will be a bomb to destroy the world. While they are building bombs, I am building people.

    Rabbi Bassous then went on to relate this to the parsha, where the people build a tower toward the skies.

    More on Congregation Etz Ahaim in this post.

    •   •   •

    The Kosher Cooking Carnival, post-holiday edition, is on Batya’s blog. Thank you, Batya.

    The painting is Tower of Babel by Brueghel.

    Red Flowers Red Panels

    red mum buds
    How pretty when the buds of my chrysanthemum start to show red. Last week, those buds were closed and green.

    red petunia
    This sole red petunia graces the front of my front yard. My other petunias are mostly fuchsia.

    taking the sukkah down 2010
    This is what the men in my family (my husband and two sons) were doing while I photographed fall flowers – they were taking down our sukkah, the temporary dwelling that we eat in for one week each fall. At this point, all the decorations were already down. The panels are sort of red – a brown that is a cousin of red, perhaps.

    For more red posts, visit Ruby Tuesday:
    Ruby Tuesday

    Yom Kippur Tune


    This beautiful tune, El Nora Alila, is sung at Congregation Etz Ahaim in Highland Park at nei’la time, the last prayer of Yom Kippur. My husband said the first tune on this video, the Turkish one, is the melody used at our synagogue, which makes sense since it was founded by immigrants from Salonika and Turkey.

    Hat Tip: a friend who used to belong to Congregation Etz Ahaim and now lives in Israel; and another friend who was pleased to hear it sung at his father’s Reform temple in a suburb north of New York City.

    Symbols for Sweet New Year

    Click on each thumbnail to find out more about the siman (symbol) of food that is eaten the first night of Rosh Hashana:
     carrot watercolor 
    leek  apples
        dates in front of palm tree, watercolor on paper

    Simanim for Rosh Hashana

    Some people use the head of a lamb (that we be like the head and not as the tail). I now have a post on dates. And I may put out celery, for a raise in salary. Past post of simanim details here.

    Here is a post from G6 of new fruit for the 2nd night of Rosh Hashana. I bought a sabra, a papaya, some fresh figs and a starfruit. The idea is you need a fruit that you haven’t eaten all year, so you can make the blessing called “shehiyanu.”

    Did you get everything you need?

    Leek Watercolor

    leek watercolor
    Leeks are one of the simanim (symbols) that we eat on the first night of Rosh Hashana.

    יהי רצון מלפנך, ה’ אלקינו ואלקי אבותינו, שיכרתו שונאינו
    May it be Your will, Hashem, our God and the God of our forefathers, that our enemies be decimated

    A traditional Turkish dish: Keftes de Prasa (leek croquettes) – and more recipes for Rosh Hashana

    See more posts on Rosh Hashana.

    Tax Raises Cause a Split

    Tel Dan
    More stories from the prophets: Archaelogical Dig at Tel Dan in northern Israel, Where Jeroboam built a cult as an alternative to the Temple in Jerusalem

    My husband told the following story:

    Long ago there was a king. He was a new king. He was trying to get the people who lived far to the north to adhere to his sovereignty. So he asked his elder advisers: What shall I do? They told him to speak gently to the people, and the people will serve him. He did not take the advice of these elders. He then went to the younger advisers. The young advisers told him to say: “My father chastised you with whips, I will chastise you with scorpions.” They wanted him to show the people who is boss and increase their burden. And that he did. And he lost the kingdom.

    For more on this story of Rehoboam, read A Divided Nation on the Aish website or Kings Chapter 12 (Melachim Bet).

    How was this related to last week’s parsha? We learned about the law of jealousy in the ten commandments, and from there, my husband told the story of jealous Jezebel, and then there were more stories from the Prophets…

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