According to the Jewish calendar, today is my father’s fifth yortzeit. Fittingly, the Parshah that we are going to read tomorrow is Acharei Mot – אַֽחֲרֵ֣י מ֔וֹת – After the Death. It is really strange to live by the two ways to count time. All of us have two birthdays, two ways to commemorate many…
Tag: dad
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…
Pesach Food at my House
One can write shelves of books about preparing for Pesach and cooking and organizing delicious meals, especially if one hosts many times during just one week of the “holiday of our freedom.” A lady in my office just proposed that Jews are not smart because of hundreds of years learning Talmud, but because of even more…
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…
A Small Anniversary
Today marks an interesting anniversary for me – it has been three years since I have started this blog sharing first recipes, then a few verses, and finally some of my own thoughts on Torah with you, my readers. I remember after my first week my amazement at the fact that people who don’t know…
Just an Article About Jewish Food
Right when I was giving a recipe for knafe, someone posted an old article from Forward, the paper that I read very rarely as I have lots of disagreements with its usual stand. This time, the article was about food, so I couldn’t possibly pass that over, especially that it was talking about foods mostly…
Sad Anniversaries in My Life Paving the Road for the Better.
Last year, on this day I wrote something: Pain, scream, blood, night – again and again in my family How many times, G-d? Loving eyes asking me silently “why this torture?” – again and again How many times, G-d? Sparkles of hope come and go – again and again How many times, G-d? Girls of…
The End of Kaddish Era
Today, 11th of Nissan marks the end of an era for me. Today is the last day of the kaddish for my father, Shimon ben Nachum z’l. Had it been just yesterday when I started? Or ages ago? Today I am looking back to my short runs to the huge historical shul near my work with a minyan (or…
Lost in Winter
It’s one of these days when I feel I am lost again. Lost without the people in my life gone forever. Lost without the main man in my life, my dad whose birthday is coming up in two days. Lost without my sister who was the epitome of the things a true woman possesses. Lost…
Parshat ha Shavuah Verses – Vayechi
Over roughly 3000 years after מתן תורה – the revelation of the Torah, there has been written numerous commentaries on every parshah, every pasuk, and pretty much, every word of the Torah. So, most of the times I am asking myself, no doubt as many do, what can I say that is different from other sayings, especially knowing that such…
Praising Gd Through Tears
I spent my morning at the cemetery. It’s been half a year. What is time, anyway? Here, on this side of the door we all dread, and are all fascinated with, time is precious. It’s tangible. We all run to finish things we need to do, making plans for the day – don’t forget this, remember…
At the Crossroads
I was listening to this song the other day Is this how our lives go? The road to eternity is long – I will yet come back. What we do here on earth in our lifetimes, does it really make an effect on eternity? Do we really meet the souls we loved here somewhere in the…
Noshing Across the Nation 