What can you prepare for Shabbat if you absolutely do not want to leave a blech or a crock-pot on in your desire to not add any additional heat to already overheated apartment? Salmon, turns out to be that fish that can easily be eaten cold with pretty-much any sauce. So, I decided to make…
Category: Shabbat
Limmud International – Loving It!
This past weekend I got a chance to go to Mexico City for Limmud volunteer training where limmudniks from all over the Americas and our British partners have gathered trying to help each other be more efficient and productive while preparing and running our respective Limmuds. Limmud as an organization had started in England over…
Emor – Three Years
Today, 11 of Iyar, is my dad’s third Yortzait. Because in my shul, there is no way a woman can speak in front of the congregation, I asked a male friend of mine to say this on my behalf during our Seudah Shlishit: In Memory of Shimon ben Nachum This Parshat has a few lines…
פקודי
It’s been a while since I posted D’var Torah hear, but today I read a short beautiful d’var from a long-distant Rabbi, Ben-Tzion Spitz. Here it is for your pre-Shabbat pleasure: God is shadowing us (Pekudei) Everybody, soon or late, sits down to a banquet of consequences.-Robert Louis Stevenson The main architect,…
Sushi Salad
Lately, I’ve become obsessed with sushi salad. I’ve got the idea at one of my friends’ Shabbat tables, where three young daughters of the family made one and decided to create my own version. So far, I’ve tried it three times with slightly different ingredients, but it worked magically every time to the delight of…
Parshat ha Shavuah Verses –Trumah
Originally posted on Noshing Across the Nation:
Once in the desert and having received the 10 Commandments, the Jews are told to start building a “dwelling place” for Divine Presence. To start the process everyone (every man to be precise) is asked to bring an offering, but only if they wish. ב דַּבֵּר אֶל-בְּנֵי יִשְׂרָאֵל, וְיִקְחוּ-לִי תְּרוּמָה: …
Old and New
It’s been a while since I have written here about food. Life, surprisingly the pleasant part of it, gets in the way and we are almost in the middle of winter with the cold penetrating my body and wind hauling outside my window. This is not the weather I like. I feel frozen inside and…
From the End to the Beginning
It may be strangely fitting that the first Parshah of the Book of Exodus (Shmot) is coming on the last Shabbat of the calendar year this time. Thinking about it, I was struck by this phrase: כד וַיִּשְׁמַע אֱלֹהִים, אֶת-נַאֲקָתָם; וַיִּזְכֹּר אֱלֹהִים אֶת-בְּרִיתוֹ, אֶת-אַבְרָהָם אֶת-יִצְחָק וְאֶת-יַעֲקֹב. 24 And God heard their groaning, and God remembered His covenant…
Just Because
Today, when we are about to read Parshat Toldot talking among other things about a family, all I can think of is the prospect of it – a fleeting tiny breath of fresh air. These days my heart races from heaven to hell and back twenty times a day. Being used to misery in my…
Parshat ha Shavuah Verses –Chayei Sarah
Originally posted on Noshing Across the Nation:
There are not too many women whose stories are told in detail in the Torah. Sarah is one of these unique women that merits this validation from the Rabbis:”Avraham was secondary to Sarah in prophecy” (Shemot Raba 1:1). This woman was outstandingly beautiful, wise, modest and strong-willed at…
וַיֵּרָא? Do I see or do I just Imagine?
Reading this Parshah – Parshat Vayeira, I kept thinking about myself. After so many struggles and so much pain, do I even have the ability to “lift [my] eyes” and really “see” – לראות – רואה? In this Parshah we have characters who see, and those who, clearly, do not: כז וַיַּשְׁכֵּם אַבְרָהָם, בַּבֹּקֶר: אֶל-הַמָּקוֹם–אֲשֶׁר-עָמַד שָׁם, אֶת-פְּנֵי יְהוָה….
יְשַׁעְיָהוּ – Haftarah
This chapter of יְשַׁעְיָהוּ – Isaiah looks like a song to me. A song of promise that we need right now so desperately. Does it always seem that times are as difficult as they can be, or they are, indeed, more challenging than before? I suppose that this is not a politically correct chapter mentioning women…
Noshing Across the Nation 