Why be a Vegetarian? (and contest & 5 places)

Tomorrow is World Vegetarian Day. I'm a big fan of any day that gets people to think about the food that they put into their bodies.

I am a vegetarian, although technically, I'm a pescetarian because I do eat fish on occasion. (Someday, I think our family might end up being best classified as "flexitarian" There are a number of reasons for this. First, I think it's healthier and better for me and my family. When I was beginning to feed my oldest (now almost 6) solid foods, I did a lot of research and was very concerned about food additives/hormones. I decided that the best choice would be to go meat-free for him, and thus for our household. My husband still eats meat, either out or whenever he can convince my dad to make him a steak (which is pretty darn easy). The other reason for eating vegetarian both in and out of the house is the concept of kashrut, or keeping kosher. We don't technically keep kosher, but by not mixing milk and meat (because there isn't any) we keep a form of it. I read labels rather than hechshers (the markings that indicate a kosher certification) because I feel that organic products are often a better "kosher" choice for me -- as in, they are usually environmentally-friendly, worker-friendly, etc., things that a kosher certifcation is largely unconcerned with.

I have a dream (spurred by an article that I read once -- anyone else read this article and can remind me where I read it?) that one day there will be a new kind of kosher certification -- one that takes environmental and fair business/labor/land practices into consideration along with the Jewish dietary laws.

So go veg for a day or for the whole month! I guarantee you won't regret it:-)

Tomorrow....I'll find one of my favorite vegetarian recipes to post in honor of the occasion. (Along with my Best Shot Monday, I'm sure!)

Stop by Crunchy Domestic Goddess (definitely a favorite read of mine) to read more about World Veggie Day and also to see the adorable t-shirt that she's giving away from her online shop Cute as A Bug...which by the way I'm planning to win, so you don't even have to go enter her contest (ha ha).

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Five Places I've Been This Week

Remembering Marcel Marceau (did you know he was Jewish?)

Tees for Change (positive message shirts)

Etrog Liqueur (I am so buying some of this next year. Etrog-tinis anyone?)

One Laptop Per Child

Downtime from Murder (NY Times Op-Ed...SS officers frolicking)

from my del.icio.us
Where have you been?

Do They Like Me? Wrapped Emotions #4

This week's prompt at Wrapped Emotions made me pause and consider....

As you can see from my "about me," I am a rabbi. This means that I am constantly in the forefront of my congregation, constantly the person to whom they turn for words of advice, words of wisdom, lifecycle events, holiday celebrations, and more. One of our great rabbis, Arnold Jacob Wolf, once said that if 50% of the members of your congregation don't hate you, you're doing something wrong. We are also told to "comfort the afflicted and afflict the comfortable." While in my intellectual self, I know that these are laudable goals for me as a rabbi, I also know that in my emotional heart, I want them to like me.

There, I said it. I want them to like me. (I wonder how many of my congregants actually read this blog? Anyone lurking out there?) I think this extends beyond my "job" though, and into my life. I've always wanted people to like me, to be happy with me, rather than dislike me. Sometimes I'm sure that this did not serve me well (think middle school) but overall, it makes me a generally happy person who is happy to do for others as often as possible. I suppose it is part of what makes me "good" at my job. (and by the way, I'm not the only one who feels this way in the clergy. Here's an interesting article, although not totally relevant to my life, that gives a bit of insight into how we feel...)

The past few months, and coming to a head this week, I have been dealing with someone who decided that she didn't like me. It's a long story and of course, confidential, so to paint broad strokes, it involved a life cycle event and a congregant-friend, and some decisions that I made regarding the life-cycle event and this friend's ex-husband. I believe in my heart that what I did was right, and today's event (mostly) played itself out beautifully. But I have indeed lost my friend, who no longer "likes me." I struggled with it all through Yom Kippur. I struggled with it all week. I struggled with it all day.

And now I'm done with it. I have to be. I'm not even sure where the ritual is in this (I know that was part of the prompt) but I also know that I've told myself that I'm going to be done with this. I think the ritual is in the writing, right here, right now, I'm done with it.

Someone doesn't like me.

I'm sure there are more out there, people who just haven't told me yet, but in this world, I know, this person is now out there, not liking me.

And I have to believe that that's okay.

How to let go of it? I tried my hand at some art, of course. (Thanks, Melody!) Using my trusty new journal, I ripped and glued and stuck and just mucked around, all with the intention of "letting go" of this need, this fear, of being un-liked. (As I did it, my husband's PC Magazine was on the table, and the cover headline caught my eye: "Who can you trust?" At first, this seemed in total to belong in my art. Trust is, after all, possibly one of the most important parts of this. But thinking more, I decided just to use the word "trust?" because I thought that the whole sentence perhaps illustrated that I hadn't quite done the letting go that I was working on!)

Here's the result:


And you know what? I do feel better. Much of this occurred, by the way, before Yom Kippur, the Day of Atonement. The day that "does not atone for the sins of one human being against another until they have made peace with one another" (that's from our liturgy for the holiday)... and I couldn't do it. It was too fresh, too raw. But I don't have to wait until next Yom Kippur to let it go....

See more Wrapped Emotions folks here...

Shabbat Rest...

Shabbat is almost here.

It's supposed to be the day of rest, the day of peace.

For me, not always so.
It's often a day to run around, to serve others, to be present for them.

But I still feel Shabbat.

Even with all the running, all the craziness that is coming up tomorrow morning
(A little more on this in tomorrow's post...oy)
I feel Shabbat coming on like a wave...

Blowing over me.

A cool breeze.

And I can't wait!

13 Things I Love About Sukkot

The Jewish holiday of Sukkot began Wednesday night. Here are some reasons that it's my favorite holiday:

1. The myrtle. It is part of the arbah minim, the four species, that we use to celebrate the harvest holiday. I love the smell of the myrtle...it brings me back to the Sukkot of my youth... (plus, the shape reminds us of the eye, through which we see the world...)

2. The etrog. A citron, bright yellow, it smells delicious. I love the feel of it in my hand, cold and heavy, bumpy and smooth... And it reminds us of the heart, a heart full of love and joy at the holiday of Sukkot!

3. The decorating. I am so loving the decorating thing...sometimes I wish we could put the sukkah in the front yard so the whole world can see it. (our front yard is too much of a hill but also that just isn't the custom!)

4. A chance to put up lights. Okay, I know that this isn't totally a typical Sukkot thing, but it's the chance for me to string up some pretty lights and turn them on at night...

5. The weather. It always cooperates by cooling down. Sometimes it chooses to rain (which is supposed to happen, actually, since we're now praying for rain) which does make it harder to celebrate outside in the sukkah. Whole holidays have gone by (it's a week long) without being able to eat in the sukkah.

6. The gourds. They always come out at the same time as we're decorating for Sukkot. They're so cool looking and fun and festive at the fall time.

7. Remembering Israel. Eating out in the sukkah reminds me of living in Israel, where most restaurants had their own sukkot in which you could eat during the holiday. How cool is that?

8. The Sukkah Trolley. Each year, our congregation takes a ride around town in a trolley to visit sukkot around our congregational community. Usually we go aroudn the synagogue, but this year, because of our construction, we are going closer to our temporary site for Religious School and so the trolley is coming to my house!

9. The food. Sukkot for me means the return of wintery food like chili, soup, stews, etc. Yum!

10. Our indoor sukkah. Our first year living in Chicago, we didn't have a sukkah so I put one up in the kitchen. I strung up decorations like leaves and fruit as well as a little string of shiny stars (you're supposed to see the stars through the roof, hence the stars on the ceiling). It's more of the decorating fun but it also means that we are eating *every* meal in a "sukkah" more or less, even though it doesn't really follow Jewish law, it still is fun. Plus, as I said before, it often rains (or even snows, like last year) and we can't get out to the Sukkah. This reminds us of the holiday's presence...

11. Thinking of those in need. The sukkah provides a great visual aid for teaching young children about what it means to be homeless. Imagine if you had to live in a sukkah all the time...

12. Singing Hallel. We sing the Hallel psalms on Sukkot. Bonia Shur has an incredible musical setting for the Hallel Psalms that is performed once a year at Hebrew Union College. We sing one piece of it at Am Shalom to celebrate Sukkot (and other holidays too).

13. The end of Sukkot is Simchat Torah, which might be my other favorite holiday. (Okay, regular readers of my blogs will note that I actually like them all!) That's next week's post, though so I'll hold onto it!

See more Thursday Thirteen here...

Handwashing - Works for Me

We are big on handwashing in our family. Perhaps a mite too much, but I must say that most of it is about keeping my pretty new carpet clean...still, we try to wash hands whenever we come in from playing outside, before eating, and after eating. That's not over the top, is it? (It does seem that way when you're a 5-year-old boy, though -- especially if you eat quickly, it feels like I just told you to wash your hands!)

So the things that "work" to make handwashing go well in our house...

• cool foamy soaps (I don't buy this kind, I usually buy whatever's on sale, especially if it's not antibacterial. I think the kind right now in the bathroom is Sponge Bob. Oy.)



• accessible handtowels so there aren't drips and drops all over



• sometimes allowing playtime while washing -- it's not all about business all the time, is it?



• keeping a plastic cup by the sink to aid in washing the hands of the 2-year-old. He's not big enough to reach the water stream for rinsing, even with the stool, so I've started to use a cup (a la the Jewish handwashing cup) to rinse his hands. This way he's washing at the sink and doing the rubbing of hands together, but I get to help with the rinsing. It works better than trying to pull his poor little arms out of the sockets to get him to reach or squish his tummy against the side of the counter...

What do you do to keep hands clean in your house?

See more Works for Me Wednesday at Rocks in My Dryer...

Learning to be Funny...Knock Knock Jokes!?

We are very into "knock knock" jokes in our house. Like this:

Knock knock.
Who's there?
Who.
Who who?
Is there an owl at the door?

Knock knock.
Who's there?
Boo.
Boo who?
Why are you crying?

Okay, they're not great humor. But my almost 6-year-old is in love with them. He really doesn't always understand any that are more complicated than the ones above...but I'm having way too much fun with them. Who knew that there were so many knock-knock jokes online!? And, wikipedia even has an entry for the knock-knock joke. Wowza.

When my brother was little, he was not very good at telling jokes. In fact, we made him preface all jokes with "this is a joke" so that we'd know we should laugh and not make him feel bad. It took a while, but now (he's 22), he's finally got it:-) It just goes to show that you can learn to be funny.

So how do you teach your kids to be funny? How do you teach them to tell a joke? I think it's a pretty important skill...what do you think?

P.S. Someone in my office told me that about once a month as her kids were growing up, they would have a monthly "joke night" during which each kid would stand up and give his or her "routine" for the family...training stand-up comedians?
P.P.S. My dad, the funniest guy I know, is celebrating his birthday today...Happy birthday, Dad! Thanks for teaching me to tell a good joke!

Angel Touch - my Best Shot Monday

I was having so much fun outside snapping shots as the sun was peeking through the trees. I love the way the rays of light shine down on my little boy, bathing him with angel blessings. And he is blissfully unaware, yet his world is so good and safe (except when Daddy leaves the room...but that's another post!)...

There are some who think that Jews don't believe in angels. We do! The Hebrew word for angel is mal'ach, meaning "messenger." Angels serve as the messengers for God. Angels give God both distance and closeness...for example, God could not really go and wrestle with Jacob so an angel takes God's place. But this angel, God's messenger, brings the Godly spirit closer to Jacob. Both close and far at the same time. Read here for more on Jewish angelology.

See more Best Shot Monday here at Picture This

(and scroll down or click here to see my post about putting up our Sukkah...lots of pictures there too but the light was not good enough for any to be my "best shot" this week...)