November 10, 2018

It seems far off, right?

It's Sam's Bar Mitzvah date. 2 Kislev 5779.
His parasha will be Toldot. It's a good one. One of my favorites.

Sam's 13th birthday is on a Thursday AND it's Rosh Chodesh Kislev. But I figure we'll wait two days until Shabbat to make it more convenient for folks. Time is on our side.

I like to plan ahead.

There will be many many many milestones between now and November 10, 2018.

But this is what I'm focused on right now.
With three rounds down and one to go...a mama has to make plans.

Because even though sometimes God laughs at the plans, they are exactly what we need to keep going. Plans grow from hope. Or perhaps they ARE hope. Either way, it's one of the things that is driving me through all of this.

I'm not going to write about cancer forever. I'm going to write about other stuff - B'nai Mitzvah, weddings, and a whole heap of other good, NORMAL things.

My friend Anne imagined it right at the beginning.

I've latched onto it...it is my beacon. I can feel the handle of the Torah scroll in my hand as I watch and hear him read Torah. I can hear him chanting the brachot. I can even imagine him playing an instrument - some days it's sweet, like a flute. Other days, I cringe when I imagine him setting up a drum-set on the bima. I play it out in my mind. The bagels and kugel. The frog-and-turtle-green kippot. The hand-made tallit with love woven into every stitch. The count - how many years that he has been cancer-free? The tears. The reluctant hugs. The wide smiles.

Mark your calendars now.

A Sweet & Healthy Happy New Year

May this new year bring health, happiness, blessing and peace.

From our family to yours...l'shana tova - Happy New Year and many blessings.

P.S. this is still our favorite shana tova video...

#BlogElul 29: Justice

Justice.
It seems like a strange ending to BlogElul. What could I have possibly been thinking?

Maybe I meant "social justice" - those words are so often used together. It's such an important part of the holidays, right? We talk about all the problems in the world and how we can fix them. We collect food and set up volunteer programs.

But maybe I meant the vast unfairness of it all. Maybe I was wondering how we can speak of justice when we know darn well that the world is full of injustice.

And maybe that is it - maybe we speak about justice just like we speak of peace - if we abandoned our talk of it altogether just because it seems so totally out of reach....then we would for sure lose hope. So we continue to speak of it fondly, like it's just around the corner, like it's in the next room waiting for us.

Someday it will be.
For all of us.
For the whole world.

Okay, maybe justice was a good ending to BlogElul. As Elul draws to a close, we hold our hopes for the new year so tightly and we speak of them as though they have come true. If our highest aspiration is justice for the whole world, then let us go into the new year feeling, breathing, hoping, believing that is just around the corner. Just in the next room.

May it be so.

The Jewish month of Elul, which precedes the High Holy Days, is traditionally a time of renewal and reflection. It offers a chance for spiritual preparation for the Days of Awe. It is traditional to begin one’s preparation for the High Holy Days during this month with the Selichot, the prayers of forgiveness. We look to begin the year with a clean slate, starting anew, refreshed. All month, along with others, I'll be blogging a thought or two for each day to help with the month of preparation... I will be blogging here, and sharing #Elulgram photos on the same themes at imabima.tumblr.com. Follow me on twitter @imabima for all the #BlogElul posts, not only mine but others' as well! 

Today is the last day of Blog Elul! Leave your blog Elul post in the linky below!

#BlogElul 28: Responsibility

The Jewish month of Elul, which precedes the High Holy Days, is traditionally a time of renewal and reflection. It offers a chance for spiritual preparation for the Days of Awe. It is traditional to begin one’s preparation for the High Holy Days during this month with the Selichot, the prayers of forgiveness. We look to begin the year with a clean slate, starting anew, refreshed. All month, along with others, I'll be blogging a thought or two for each day to help with the month of preparation... I will be blogging here, and sharing #Elulgram photos on the same themes at imabima.tumblr.com. Follow me on twitter @imabima for all the #BlogElul posts, not only mine but others' as well! 

Leave your blog Elul post in the linky below!

#BlogElul 27: Good and Evil

The Jewish month of Elul, which precedes the High Holy Days, is traditionally a time of renewal and reflection. It offers a chance for spiritual preparation for the Days of Awe. It is traditional to begin one’s preparation for the High Holy Days during this month with the Selichot, the prayers of forgiveness. We look to begin the year with a clean slate, starting anew, refreshed. All month, along with others, I'll be blogging a thought or two for each day to help with the month of preparation... I will be blogging here, and sharing #Elulgram photos on the same themes at imabima.tumblr.com. Follow me on twitter @imabima for all the #BlogElul posts, not only mine but others' as well! 

Leave your blog Elul post in the linky below!

#BlogElul 26: Readiness

This is the time of the year when people start to greet each other with "are you ready?"

Sometimes they're referring to their holiday menus or food prep.
Are the challot baked?
Kugels ready?
Brisket marinating?
Tables set?
Guests invited?

Sometimes, in the case of rabbis, they're referring to our sermons.

There's a lot to get ready for the holidays. A lot of order to be made from chaos. A lot of arrangements to be made and plans to be created.

But we should all be greeting each other with "are you ready?"

Are we ready to face the New Year having thought deeply about the previous year?
Have we begun to think about where we've been and where we're going?
Is our list of goals and intentions at the forefront of our minds?
Do we have the right frame of mind with which to begin the holy days?

Are we ready?

The holidays will come regardless of our preparation.

But each year I tell the story of the carwash. There are two kinds. The first is the kind where you drive your car in, and the carwash cleans only the outside. When you drive away, your car is squeaky clean. But then you look around and see that there are still cookie crumbs and smudges and a whole bunch of miscellaneous things still left behind stuck to the rug. The other kind of carwash is the one where they open up the doors, and vacuum and dust and scrub the inside and the outside. When you drive away from that carwash, you really feel as though you did something to change your outlook.

When we are ready for the holidays, when we have done the work and the preparation...we open ourselves up. We invite the holidays to help us sweep out the crumbs. Being ready allows us to open ourselves up to the possibilities of growth and change...not just coasting along, waiting for it to happen.

So...are you ready?

The Jewish month of Elul, which precedes the High Holy Days, is traditionally a time of renewal and reflection. It offers a chance for spiritual preparation for the Days of Awe. It is traditional to begin one’s preparation for the High Holy Days during this month with the Selichot, the prayers of forgiveness. We look to begin the year with a clean slate, starting anew, refreshed. All month, along with others, I'll be blogging a thought or two for each day to help with the month of preparation... I will be blogging here, and sharing #Elulgram photos on the same themes at imabima.tumblr.com. Follow me on twitter @imabima for all the #BlogElul posts, not only mine but others' as well! 

Leave your blog Elul post in the linky below!

#blogElul 25: Forgiveness

Yesterday was September 11.
Our nation is not usually focused on forgiveness on this day.
We talk about remembrance. About honor. About patriotism and pride.
Can we, should we, also talk about forgiveness?



The Jewish month of Elul, which precedes the High Holy Days, is traditionally a time of renewal and reflection. It offers a chance for spiritual preparation for the Days of Awe. It is traditional to begin one’s preparation for the High Holy Days during this month with the Selichot, the prayers of forgiveness. We look to begin the year with a clean slate, starting anew, refreshed. All month, along with others, I'll be blogging a thought or two for each day to help with the month of preparation... I will be blogging here, and sharing #Elulgram photos on the same themes at imabima.tumblr.com. Follow me on twitter @imabima for all the #BlogElul posts, not only mine but others' as well! 

 Leave your blog Elul post in the linky below!