Making History Today

Today we make history.

Today we inaugurate a President who is not defined by the color of his skin but by the content of his character.

May my children be blessed to know no different in the world.

May God bless Barack Obama and the United States of America.

A Rant....about Turkey

Okay, so as you may know (hi to my 6 readers), I'm a vegetarian.

I don't eat turkey.

But that's not even what this is about.

I just don't get it.

Thanksgiving's biggest symbol is the turkey.

Not this one (although it does seem important to people):

(picture from Butterball.com)

But this one:












Can you please tell me how that cute little guy with the Pilgrim hat, the one that the kids color, make out of their handprints, act like (gobble gobble), read about and sing about....

...ends up on the dinner plate?

I'm quite sure that no one eats the other symbols of holidays. We don't eat the lulav and etrog. And I know that no one eats bunny on Easter (even though that one's not my holiday, I'm pretty sure about that.) We don't eat Uncle Sam on the 4th of July. We don't even really eat pumpkins so much on Halloween, we're much more about the candy.

So doesn't it seem a bit odd that we EAT the primary cute holiday symbol?

I'm just saying.

What's your Tuesday Torah?

I ♥ to read

I don't know if you've ever looked to the left on my blog, down near the bottom. Go ahead, I'll wait while you look and then come back.

Saw it? I'm referring to the list of books I've read in 2008. So far, 74. Not bad for a mom of 3 with a full-time job, ya think?

Back in January, I made a list of 101 things to do in 1001 days. I tried to think of things I've always wanted to to do but never did. I love to read. I mean, I really love it. I am never without a book to read, sometimes I'm reading two at once! I've never kept track of what I read. I really wish I had a list dating back from the beginning....

I remember the day my mom brought my first "chapter book" home from the library. It was B is for Betsy, a book originally published in 1939. (They've been recently re-released, although never out of print, with pretty new covers.) I remember sitting in the living room of our house when she walked in from work with the book. I remember how excited she was to share it with me, to welcome me into the Club of Readers.

And I remember learning my way around our local public library, and discovering that Carolyn Haywood had written a lot of books. I can still visualize the shelf at the library where I found them. When I finished the Haywood books, I moved onto the rest of the library. I would search the shelves for long series, for thick books, for interesting titles. I read my way through most of the children's department and then joined my mom in the fiction section, discovering authors like Jean Plaidy (then my mom's favorite) and learning to love historical fiction among other genres. Go back and look through my list -- you'll see a very varied list!

I really wish this post was the launch of a new blog. I'm really dying to write a blog called The Reading Rabbi. I have even saved the URL with Blogger. But I just don't have the time right now. I just have to enjoy reading and occasionally sharing the books I read with you all! (And the book discussions we do at the synagogue.)

I just finished The Search Committee by Marc Angel. It was excellent - a great look into the Orthodox Yeshiva world. If you are interested in buying it, consider clicking over to my new Amazon Affiliates shop.

Not that I don't have anything to read, but if you have a great book for me, please share!

Closed on Shabbat....not just my blog!

 

Is this a sign you would expect to see at a restaurant in Highwood? (Okay, they claim that it's Highland Park. But I tell you, it's my neighborhood!)

Tonight we finally went to La Casa de Isaac. It's a Jewish-Mexican restaurant that's been in my neighborhood for almost 2 years now. 

The place was packed, on a Monday night! The food, excellent, of course. It was Monday night after a long weekend, so I didn't have a margarita, but they looked lovely. And the sign in the bathroom did seem to say it all: "The only thing better than a margarita a day is 2 margaritas!"

The chips and salsa were on the house and they were fantastic. We ordered guacamole, and mmm....I'm going back for more. I had chilaquiles with sunny-side-up eggs, because they serve breakfast all day and I'm just a breakfast-eating-fool! (Oh, and I asked which was spicier, the red or green sauce. The server then offered me the "extra hot" if I wanted it. When I hesitated, he said he could do "half and half." A wise choice. "extra hot" is not a misnomer.)

So why the Closed on Shabbat sign? The restaurant is owned and operated by Isaac and Moishe Nava, Jewish-Mexican brothers who really are running a family business. It's not a kosher restaurant, although they don't serve pork and shellfish. There is milk and meat mixed on the menu (and the plates) and I'm pretty sure the meat served isn't kosher. (Not that I eat it...but, you know.)

The brothers have made it quite clear, however, that they are not willing to compromise on the Shabbat thing. They're closed. Period. I think that shows an amazing conviction - this is a pretty hard-core restaurant area and I am super-impressed that they're succeeding so beautifully while continuing to be closed on Shabbat.

The food is absolutely stunning. The commitment even more so.

If you're in the neighborhood, please make sure to check it out and support this excellent restaurant.

And that's my Tuesday Torah. What's yours?

P.S. Be sure to check out this week's Haveil Havalim.

Freedom from Fear...

Today is Election Day.

In many places, that is a day of fear and trembling.

Many people in many countries have waited for generations to vote. (This photo is of Soweto, South Africa, as the lines to vote snaked around in only the third truly democratic election in that country in 2004.)

In our country, we are free from the fear that bad things will happen to us in polling places, and because we exercise our right to vote as we wish.

I have had the privilege to vote since I was 18. On my 18th birthday, I marched into the Village Hall and registered to vote. I get teary-eyed every time I even think about fulfilling my democratic right. 

On Monday, I joined with 2000 other people at the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum Risa K. Lambert Author Luncheon here in Chicago.

The speaker was Father Patrick Desbois, a French priest who has devoted his life to finding mass graves of Jews killed during the Holocaust in the Ukraine. The whole program was marvelous. Leo Melamed shared some of his own story as well, in a moving tribute to Chiune Sugihara, a Japanese diplomat who gave visas to Lithuanian Jews during the Holocaust.

I couldn't help but think about today's events as I sat in that room and listened to the stories of people who were trapped, really trapped, by the events around them. They were not free.

But today. Today I exercise my freedom.

Today I VOTE.

Consumer Culture Was Created....Tuesday Torah

Did you know that our American consumer culture was specifically created by economists? I had no idea.

This is just one of the remarkable things I learned when I (finally) sat down to watch "The Story of Stuff" with Annie Leonard. It was a truly eye-opening video, well-done and interesting. I have been putting off watching it since...well...I bookmarked it back in January. Please do not wait 8 months from today's post to go and watch it.

Actually, go watch it now. I'll wait.

....

Okay...you're back? Good. What did you think?

The part that was most striking to me was when Leonard quotes Victor Lebow, a 20th century economist who said:

"Our enormously productive economy ... demands that we make consumption our way of life, that we convert the buying and use of goods into rituals, that we seek our spiritual satisfaction, our ego satisfaction, in consumption.... we need things consumed, burned up, replaced, and discarded at an ever-accelerating rate."

She goes on to explain about the concepts of "planned obsolescence" -- that most stuff is just destined for the trash bin as it's being made. Computers, cars, ipods, radios, cell phones, you name it. We're just waiting for the next model. There's a whole bit in the video about the seasonal variance in women's shoe heel-size; it's completely done so we can see clearly when someone hasn't bought into the latest fashions.

Wow.

I have to tell you: this movie strikes a chord in me for so many reasons. Obviously, we all know we use too much stuff. We all really want to do better. Some of us try harder than others and we take on personal challenges all the time to try and improve our "green-ness."

Aside from the environmental impact, however, I'm even more struck by the concept of obsolescence not in things but in ideas. Each week, constantly, Jews are studying and reading the Torah, the Five Books of Moses. The same words, the same book that has been studied for thousands of years is still being read and discussed on a consistent and regular basis all over the world wherever Jews are. Not obsolete at all! Pretty amazing in our "throw-away" society, isn't it?

(Not only do we read the Torah, but we also cherish reading from the scroll, a scroll that is hand-written on parchment over a period of about a year. It's not something that we can just whip off an assembly line! And reading it from a computer screen, while possible, just isn't quite the same.)

It makes me very proud to be a part of a people and a culture that have survived and thrived, that have kept the idea of "planned obsolescence" at bay for quite a long time.

I hope we can keep it that way.

That's my Tuesday Torah this week.

What's yours? Leave your link in the comments below.

Tuesday Torah: Making Do....

Sometimes you gotta make poetry with whatever life gives you....
(or whatever you find in the kitchen drawer)

What's your Torah today?
Leave your link...

Why Send Your Kids to Jewish Summer Camp?

After reading this great post on"Jewish Hogwarts" at the Rebbetzin's Husband it got me to thinking...

(To summarize, he compares Jewish summer camp to Hogwarts...Harry Potter discovers, when he attends Hogwarts, that there are others just like him! For many kids, going to Jewish summer camp is that same eye-opening experience.)

While here at OSRUI, I definitely think a lot about the choices that parents make when they decide to send their kids to this camp versus any other summer camp experience. We rabbis spend a lot of time discussing recruitment strategies, how to encourage our parents to send their kids here, and bemoaning the fact that we can't get more kids to join us here at our favorite summer spot.

To me, of course, it's a no-brainer. Summer is the time to connect with Jewish life. With the incredible opportunity to expand our Jewish horizons so accessible, I can't imagine how my kids would NOT go to Jewish summer camp.

It's a chance for them to meet other Jewish kids from all over.
It's a chance for them to see that Judaism is not limited to their home synagogue or even to their home!
It's a chance to learn in a totally informal environment about the joys of living a Jewish life.
It's a chance for them to see amazing Jewish role models in the staff who work so closely with each of our campers.
It's a chance to gain a sense of independence about their Jewish identity, realizing that they can "do Jewish" without the direct impetus of their parents. And that they can control that Jewish activity in some way.

Why NOT send your kids to Jewish camp????

And that's my Tuesday Torah. What's yours?

I've Been Waiting for Gilad Shalit for 2 Years - Tuesday Torah

From this website:

Gilad Schalit was born on August 28th, 1986, in Nahariya and raised in Mitzpe Hilla in the Western Galilee by his parents Aviva and Noam with his siblings Yoel and Hadas. At the end of July 2005 Gilad began his military service in a combat unit of the armored corps. For the two months prior to his kidnapping, he has been on duty guarding and ensuring the security of the settlements around Gaza.

On Sunday, June 25th 2006, in a terrorist attack on an IDF post at Kerem Shalom during which his unit friends have been killed, Gilad was taken captive and has been held since in the Gaza Strip by Hamas.

To this day Gilad didn’t receive any visits from an official faction, including the Red Cross, and there is no reliable information about his well being.

Two years have passed since his abduction. Lets remind everyone that he has yet to come home and demand his quick return.

On June 25th, the two year anniversary to his abduction, please replace your personal profile picture with Gilad’s picture on Facebook, Windows Live Messenger, ICQ, Tapuz, bona, Mekusharim, news groups and any other social network or blog you’re a member of, and show the world that you are waiting for Gilad Schalit’s return.

And he's not the only one. We still await the return of Eldad Regev and Ehud Goldwasser as well, both abducted at about the same time.

Their abduction, unfortunately, was part of what launched my interest in blogging. I started reading Israeli blogs as they "live-blogged" the war in Lebanon. I definitely felt like the blogging community was telling the news in a far more reliable and "on-the-scene" method (than the mainstream media). I was fascinated by articles that explained the media bias in ways that I thought were blatant and shocking.

It does seem hard to believe that it's been 2 years. And that we haven't heard anything from them at all. And that the world media is largely ignoring them.

May their return come speedily and safely.



What's your torah this week?

Tuesday Torah: Jews are Not All Alike

There are many of you out there, readers of my blog, for whom I am the only Jew you know.

You might think that all Jews are like me!

You might be...I'm sorry to say...wrong.

We are a very diverse bunch, we Jewish people.

Much like any other group, we are not all the same.

I love to know that there are Jews of all stripes out in the world.

Like this young man and his family.

The expression we use in Hebrew is "klal Yisrael," the community of Israel.

We are a community under a very large tent, encompassing so many different people around the world.

It happens, very often, that we discount each other's contributions. But trust me, it's best if we all stick together. We might not always see eye to eye. But I believe, in the long run, we do best when we support and care and love each other. Please?

That's my torah for this week. What's yours? Leave a comment below.

Help a Girl, Help the World...

And that's my Tuesday Torah for this week.
What's your Torah? (leave your link in the comments)

Tuesday Torah: Flags of Memory

I drove by Wisconsin Memorial Park this weekend.
They had their annual Avenue of the Flags...for Memorial Day.


I had to stop and try to capture a few pictures.


We're not good at Memorial Day here in the U.S. It's not like in Israel. And maybe it should be.

That's my torah this week. What's yours....leave a link.

Growing My Own...Tuesday Torah

It's amazing how people are impressed by something that you can grow on your own...

This was me, on Sunday morning (okay, the picture was taken Saturday night):

Thanks to some good genes, I have a lot of hair. And it's curly. And I like it...which is something of a change from high school and even college, when I hated it.

But, I digress.

Since I've arrived in Chicago, I have had 2 haircuts (the pulpit) of our synagogue. Each time, I did it with a group of kids and adults who were also donating 10 inches of their hair to Locks of Love.

This time, it was a little different, since we're out of our building.

There was still a group of kids and adults who were doing it with me. But it felt different, somehow, to be standing on the stage of Highland Park High School's auditorium, where we've been holding our Sunday School.

And yet, at that moment of the cut, the whole room felt holy to me.

(btw, my kippah says "ima" for you non-Hebrew readers out there)

Each time I say it's going to be my last haircut of that magnitude. But then I start to grow it...and it just feels so right. After all, how many of us can grow our own mitzvot? It seems almost a shame not to do it.

That's my Torah this week.
What's yours? (Leave your link in the comments)

P.S. Check out my newest crush.

Tuesday Torah: It's *always* Mother's Day!

Mother's Day has come and gone.

And while I appreciate the gesture, I really feel that we have the obligation to honor our moms (and dads too) all the time, every day.

And while I know how much of a break most moms need, why do they only get it one day of the year, and why do we celebrate motherhood by spending time away from the kids?

And yes, we all have a mom. And yes, we all made someone a mom. So it seems like a rather benign holiday, right? Until things like this. Why is there some insistent need of the media to classify parents in certain ways? Why can't they accept families as they are and want to be, why do we need to create a hierarchy of mom-ness? I am really horrified by this crazy story, horrified that someone approved this project, that someone could really be so ridiculously out of touch with the ways that families are created. ("Adopting mom"? "chairman of everything mom"? Who are these people!?)

One of the problems with mom-land is the "competition"...you know: "my kid is reading at a third grade level..." "well, little Johnny has already completed his black belt..." etc... Perhaps it's one of the things I love and appreciate about the blogosphere -- we are not afraid (most of us) to post our kids successes and failures, we are not afraid to talk about our own successes and failures.

Being "supermom" isn't necessary out here. We can just be ourselves.

And you know what? We are enough.

What's your Torah this week?

Disappointed...

I know, I know, I'm not supposed to say things like this. (Which is, I suppose, a different post)

But I was really disappointed with the Walk With Israel on Sunday.

Granted, we missed the "rally" at the beginning. But that was because it took 20 minutes to park the bus and another 20 or so to get through security.

There wasn't really anyone along the walk route to tell us where to turn for the "family walk"...the only person who was really noticeable as a staffer was asking for tzedakah. Each participant signed a JUF pledge card before they came...and you're asking for spare change?

The news coverage was almost nil.

Someone told me that there were 12,000 people there. I didn't really get that impression. But maybe it's true...

Either way, I think that the "Walk with Israel" has lost its purpose, its steam. A nice stroll along the lake wearing a t-shirt with an Israeli flag is nice but doesn't really create connections with Israel.

I think it's time to do something big, to ask people to commit. Why not a 25 mile walk? Or a 60 mile bike ride? (I might not be physically up for it, but we could train right?) Or a big carnival/festival instead of a not-very-purposeful-or-worthwhile-walk...

Maybe American Jews aren't connecting with Israel because we're not making it real enough for them.

What are we going to do!?

That's my torah today. A bit muddled but still frustrated.

What's yours?

Seder night...

matzah crumbs
horseradish stains
wine drops
parsley blooms
salty tears

same old jokes
same old stories
like a well-worn sweater
not ready for Goodwill yet.

add a little flower and it's like new again.

on Seder night, we come home again each year...

--------
What's your Torah this week?
shared in Scribbit's Write-Away contest...

Walking in Right Paths

We bought my daughter, Yael, her first pair of shoes yesterday.

New shoes are an exciting thing. The *first* pair of shoes is even moreso.

(And the pink-mary-jane-ness of them doesn't hurt either!)

She will walk many steps in her lifetime.

Will she walk towards goodness? Will she run to help others? Will her feet carry her forward into a life filled with passion?

I do hope so.

May she walk in right paths.

And may her shoes always sparkle.

What's your Torah this week?

Savoring the Season...Tuesday Torah

As I've said before...it's that time of year.

Yes, Pesach is just around the corner.

For many Jews, this season brings a little bit of fear. Fear of the work, fear of not getting it all done, fear of the family get-together, fear of the week's worth of strange food.

For me, it is a season to savor. I love the the preparations, I love the cooking and the cleaning and the shopping. I love knowing that this is happening all over the Jewish world. I love knowing that generations of Jewish women before me have embarked on the journey of getting the house ready for Pesach.

I love the learning and the study that I do each year. Re-reading the Haggadah, looking for new stories and ideas for the Seder, finding new recipes, learning new songs. Just as the spring begins to blossom, I find the chance to renew myself in this holiday.

The cycle of the year feels so right to me. My body, my heart, my mind, my home, are all ready for spring to be here, and all ready for Pesach to come in with its cleansing effect...body and soul. I'm ready!

What's your torah this week? Leave a comment and join in.

Written also as part of MamaBlogga's March/April Group Writing Project "Savoring the Season." Why don't you join in too?

Introducing Tuesday Torah...

We each have our own Torah*. It may vary from day to day or even from hour to hour.

(*Torah is the Hebrew word that means "doctrine or teaching" and refers to the Five Books of Moses: Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers and Deuteronomy. It is often used to refer to the bulk of Jewish teaching in a general sense. Aside from the power that it holds for me as my favorite book, I like to think of "torah with a small-t" as our own personal stories, our own personal truths.)

We all hold these ideas inside us that are screaming to get out.

Sometimes they are profound.

Sometimes they are inspiring.

Sometimes they teach us.

Sometimes they are brave or revelatory or interesting or funny or silly or sad.

But they are the truth, and they are ours.

So I invite you to seek truth, to share truth, and to open yourself up to truth...every Tuesday here at Ima on and off the Bima, we will celebrate our own Torah, our own truth.

What's yours?

This week, in honor of Purim...my Torah:
I much prefer the character of Vashti in the Purim story. Vashti was the one who said "no way" to her husband when he demanded that she dance naked. Vashti stood up for what she believed in, and she didn't mess around when his indiscretions (what an annoying term) came out.

Esther did what she was told. She listened to her cousin Mordechai, she dressed up in her pretty clothes and went before the king. I'm not discounting her own bravery, but I'm saying that she did what she was asked to do. She wasn't the type to say no to her family. She baked cookies and did what was expected of her.

I'm not always interested in what others expect of me. Like Vashti, I want to be able to say no to the things I don't want to do, the things that I feel are a contradiction of my own personal values and beliefs.

Vashti was sent away from the presence of the king. She won her freedom - she won the right to own herself and say and do what she wanted. She earned it. And we all earn it every day.

I'd rather hear her story, I think, than the story of Esther. I know, I know, the Book is named for her. I know, I know, that she is the heroine, the savior of her people in a tight spot. But the stories of the girls like Vashti tend to be a bit more interesting.

And that's my Torah this Tuesday.

What's yours? Leave a comment linking to your Torah post. See you here next Tuesday!

Join the Purim Party! Check out what Frume Sarah has to say today too!