It's camp time!

As I said yesterday, we are off to Olin-Sang-Ruby Union Institute, an incredible camp in Oconomowoc, Wisconsin. It truly is an amazing place filled with kids celebrating summer and embracing Jewish life.

Here's what we brought last year to camp...

This year we managed to do it in ONE minivan...with just a teensy help from a friend in her car along the way.

We brought....
- 1 minivan
- 1 pack-n-play
- 1 computer (mine is...ack!...in the shop
- 1 printer
- 1 camera
- clothes for 5 people
- 5 shower towels
- 5 beach towels
- toothbrushes
- 6 new BPA-free water bottles
- 1 box full of books for me to use with campers
- 1 box full of books for my kids to read
- 3 boxes of toys (1 per kid)
- 3 blankets
- 5 pillows
- swimsuits for all of us (I hope)
- something like 10 pairs of shoes

I'm sure there are many more things stuffed into these two rooms with us, but by and large, we went light this year! I think that each year it will get easier as we have to pack less and less extraneous things and can just bring the kids, the clothes, and the bedding. Right? I'll keep you posted on that progress....>>>laughing<<<

So check back often for some dispatches from camp, and hopefully some nice pictures if the weather holds up!

See ya on the camp side...

Haveil Havalim #171: The Packing for Camp Edition

Whew, it's been a crazy week here at Beit Ima...we are packing up for 2 weeks at Olin-Sang-Ruby Union Institute, the Reform movement's camp in our region. I was a camper at OSRUI (as it's fondly known) as a kid and now I love going back as a rabbi...of course, I bring the whole family, which requires quite a lot of packing and prepping. So, of course, why not host Haveil Havalim at the same time, right?!

Without further ado....Haveil Havalim #171, the Packing For Camp Edition!

Read more about it:
Founded by Soccer Dad, Haveil Havalim is a carnival of Jewish blogs -- a weekly collection of Jewish & Israeli blog highlights, tidbits and points of interest collected from blogs all around the world. It's hosted by different bloggers each week and coordinated by Jack. The term 'Haveil Havalim,' which means "Vanity of Vanities," is from Qoheleth, (Ecclesiastes) which was written by King Solomon. King Solomon built the Holy Temple in Jerusalem and later on got all bogged down in materialism and other 'excesses' and realized that it was nothing but 'hevel,' or in English, 'vanity.'
Please please please publicize HH on your own blog and share the news about it!

Bring Your Flashlights...Illuminating Jewish Life

Lion of Zion shares this story of A Pasul Sefer Torah...sad but preventable.

Daf Yomi presents Angels, Aramaic and Language of Tefillah.

A Simple Jew presents a guest post from A Bas Noach Learning Tehillim.

Ben-Yehudah shares his Shabbath In Tapu'ah With Dov Shurin! posted at Esser Agaroth.

Dan Illouz presents Question of the Week - Parashat Korach posted at Tzipiyah.com. The answer had to be in before Shabbat, but do you know? I would guess we could all stay tuned for more questions and prizes! Also at Tzipiyah.com this week, 10 Questions with Dov Lerner of CAMERA, ZOA and Kedma, and also Parshat Korach: Korach's Mistake, and The All-Spiritual Afterlife, the Torah, and Me. Part One.

If you haven't heard, the Reform Movement just founded its own blog. A few interesting posts from this week's RJ.org blog...Does Judaism Go on Vacation in the Summer? and a discussion on Reform wearing Tallitot.

Bar Kochba explains what Moshiach will really look like at The Truth About Moshiach, and he reminds us of our responsibility as a generation that will live without Holocaust Survivors at For Zion's Sake.

Cosmic X presents Rabbi Druckman, Rabbi Sherman and the Conversion Crisis (Part 11), George Carlin, Seven Dirty Words and Our Living Soul, and Windows of Opportunity.

Here's a sweet view from a mom of a binding mitzvah posted at In the Pink.

Ilana-Davita, Leora, and Frumhouse are studying Pirke Avot together this summer. Cool use of blogland for an international chevruta study! Check out Leora's list of books, Frumhouse's explanation of Chapter 1, and Ilana-Davita's explanation of some of Pirke Avot's peculiarities.

Pack the Sheets and Towels...Wrapping up Israel & The World This Week

Yisrael Medad makes us giggle and cringe with Ehud Olmert: Between Gaza and Iran.... And he also takes on some erroneous reporting with Can You Believe This? And he made the Society Page!

Soccer Dad takes on Nicholas Kristof of the NYTimes in Anthony lewis ii.

Batya reports on Olmert's doings...The Higher He Goes, The Harder He'll Fall at Shiloh Musings. She also wants us to come visit for Rosh Chodesh Tammuz. Batya also shares this guest post...Expellees and Illness by Hadassa DeYoung.

With more about Olmert, Esser Agaroth encourages his resignation...and he also shares this post about doings in Yitzhar: Curiouser And Curiouser....

Shira0607 thinks about the need for safe rooms and building walls.

A Conversation I Once Had recounts Eric's conversation with an African Muslim.

Aliza from Tzipiyah.com shares these thoughts ...To Define and to Defend...on Jewish life in Israel. Also from Tzipiyah.com comes

Read this interesting post: The BBC's Take on Jewish Refugees from Arab Countries: posted at The Volokh Conspiracy. Judeopundit talks about the same topic in MPAC-UK reacts to the suggestion that we should remember Jews expelled from Arab countries.

BritishYosef reminds us that Gilad, we miss you. (how many of you changed your profile pics this week? It was pretty amazing to see them all change on Facebook.) Gila isn't so sure about the trend: Am I Waiting for Gilad Shalit?.

Gila also presents Alyn Wheels of Love is Hitting the Road, and Collect the Whole Set.

Back on the subject of Gilad Shalit (maybe this should have been the Waiting for Gilad Shalit Edition?), Daled Amos shares that Gilad Shalit’s Book is now on YouTube.

Golan Heights 6: The White Falls from Planet Israel has gorgeous shots of waterfalls and reminds me how nice it would be to hike there again soon! And hey, Leora is in Israel!

Unfortunately, Seraphic Secret reports on recent violence against Jews in France: The Jew-Hating Savages of Paris.

On the upside, Ilana-Davita shares good news about the French-Jewish community. Are there any other French-Jewish bloggers out there?

Harry presents a Jerusalem pizza smackdown at the Jerusalemite blog. My 2 shekels: I like Pizza Sababa myself. Maybe it's just the name. But I remember it as being pretty yummy.

And don't forget the Toys and Games....Culture, Politics, Interesting Posts, and Other Fun Stuff

JackB shares his adventure with the Sprinklers.

Writes Like She Talks has seen this around town: Jews not confused on Obama. She wonders if this were in Arabic, what would the message be? Hmmm....interesting question.

Yid with Lid presents The Official Secret Political CODE to Make People Afraid of OBAMA, and also Joe Klein. Your Grandma Would Be Ashamed of You.

Here's a conversation with Raz Hartman, musician and spiritual leader - Jerusalemite.net from the Jerusalemite Blog.

The Rebbetzin's Husband rants a little in The Condescending Tzedakah Collector, and he also shares this lesson on how To Coach a Committee.

Batya muses about politics with Sung To The Tune Of... and she wants us all to know her Big News.

The Babysitter expounds on Communication and Fear.

Here's a short story from Mottel: The Sky's Tears, and also these pictures of Brooklyn -By Night and Day.

Happy Birthday, Treppenwitz! A great list of things to do before....

Heshy makes us laugh with his take on the Shidduch Resume at Jewish Comedy. For more funny stuff, check out this post from Child Ish Behavior: Bai’Iss Kosher©.

Raizy presents Info for Special Children posted at SuperRaizy.

What *does* a rabbi do at camp? My colleague Paul Kipnes shares what he does. (Stay tuned for what I do!)

Leah Koenig of the Jew and the Carrot wants to know why the food world is obsessed with lobster and bacon. And, as though she intuited my camp theme here, she posted this piece on the ethics of camp food.

The Parve Baker talks about eggs and Torah.

Mother in Israel is still thinking about Modeling for our Children. (It's a continuation of an infrequent series that started with Trusting our Children.)

Robin reviewed a great book called I Will Not Be Broken. Check it out. (my review is coming soon too of this great book)

Check out this nice roundup of food blogs in J-blog-land from Chaviva.

Miriam muses about finding a community and neighborhood for her family.

Please send your posts for the next edition of the Haveil Havalim Blog Carnival via the Blog Carnival Submission Form. If you're interested in hosting or receiving more information about the carnival, please contact Jack at talktojacknow-at-sbcglobal-dot-net (and please, for the sake of our hosts, try not to submit more than 3 posts a week!)
Please please please publicize HH on your own blog and share the news about it!

We now return to our regularly scheduled programming...

It's Alright to Cry

I was riding in the car with my kids and looking for something that everyone could agree on. Sam is insistent on listening to The Lion King soundtrack, but that gets a little old. We had listened to all of the Barenaked Ladies' new CD, Snacktime, and I started perusing my IPod for something else to listen to. David suggested our favorite Chanukah CD which has spoken stories along with singing but that seemed a little out of place to me...in June. So I hit on Free to Be...You and Me.

Perfect. I know the whole thing by heart, it's new to my kids, and hopefully no one would complain. It's like visiting an old friend!

I put it on, and a hush fell over the car.

The only sound was my sniffling.

Yep, that's right...almost every track brought me to tears! I haven't listened to it in a while, and I had forgotten how powerful the equality messages are, and how deep an impact these songs and stories had on my own self-image. These songs and stories have definitely held up over the years - I'd only add a few new ideas to an updated version to make it perfect.

Let's break it down...the 13 tracks (out of 18) that made me cry.

1. Free to Be...You and Me -- "There's a land that I see where the children are free and they say it ain't far to this land from where we are." Yes! This is what I want my kids to learn about and BE! Free to be themselves. "Every boy in this land grows to be his own man, in this land every girl grows to be her own woman..." Tears.

2. When we grow up -- "When we grow up, will I be a lady, will you be big and strong? I don't care if I'm pretty at all, and I don't care if you never get tall. I like what I look like and you're nice small. We don't have to change at all." We can grow up and not change, and we can change immensely. Tears.

3. Parents are People -- "When parents were little, they used to be kids, like all of you...and then they grew. And now parents are grownups. Grownups with children...Mommies are people, Daddies are people..." We live in a house that tries so hard not to differentiate things because "mommy is a girl" or "daddy is a boy" and I definitely work in a job that regularly gets the "women can do that!?" question. Perhaps I was just emotional that day...Tears.

4. Helping -- "Some kind of help is the kind of help...we all can do without." Learning how to pick your friends is hard. Knowing that they're going to be the kind of friends that will help you out and be good to you is super-hard. Tears.

5. Ladies First -- "Ladies first! Ladies first! And she was...and might tasty too." Oy that poor little sweet young thing who thinks that she should have it all because of her pretty dress and shiny shoes. How many people do we know like this and how often have we women worked to change this image in the world...yet there's still the idea that if we put on enough lipstick and show off enough cleavage we can get what we want. Tears of anger.

6. Dudley Pippin and the Principal -- "and he took out his little blue flute and began to play..." Oh how I love Dudley's Principal. A wise and warm and wonderful man who knows that boys need to cry too. I hope that my sons (and daughter) have such a wise mentor in their lives. Tears tears tears!

7. It's Alright to Cry -- "crying gets the sad out of you...raindrops from your eyes...it might make you feel better!" I catch even the most feminist of men saying things that indicate that boys need to "tough it out" and girls don't. We still have a long way to go, baby. Tears of frustration.

8. Sisters and Brothers -- "every mother's daughter every father's son..." We are all in this together, all related in the great family of life. Tears...

9. William's Doll -- "William wants a doll, so when he has a baby someday, he'll know how to dress it, put diapers on double and gently caress it to bring up a bubble..." That Grandma ROCKS. I love that she overrides the dad, who is so insistent that his son not have a doll. I definitely thought about this one when we bought our older son a doll. And I love to think about my children growing up to be parents. Tears. Lots of tears.

10. Atalanta -- "smiling with the pleasure of the race, they ran together, side by side, until together they reached the finish line!" What a fantastic story about a princess who refuses to be pigeonholed by her king-father, and her friend who "gets" her. Love it. Tears of joy.

11. Girl-Land -- "you go in a girl and you never get out!" This one always struck me as a little eerie and scary...what are they trying to say? I do think we've come so far in what girls can do that this song almost doesn't mean anything any more. But I still cried because of what so many girls lived through (and girls still live through in so many parts of the world)...

12. Dudley Pippin and His No-Friend -- "he doesn't have a friend either. We can have a club. We can call it the No Friends Club..." Poor sweet, sad Dudley Pippin who cries with the principal and now has to move to a new town and he doesn't seem to understand how to make a friend. After all the other tracks, I was just a mess. You gotta cry for this poor kiddo.

13. Glad to Have a Friend Like You -- "fair and fun and skipping free...glad to have a friend like you and glad to just be me." I have lots of friends. But there are those few friends who are the ones that help me to skip free, help me to just be me. I hope for my children that they have at least one friend like this in their lives. Thinking about their futures, their friends, their growing up....tears.

If you haven't listened to FTBYAM in a while...definitely go check it out. It's now on CD and DVD and I think the whole thing has weathered the test of time well. Let me know what you think.

And see more Thursday Thirteen here.

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?

Watching...

Sam and David were absolutely fascinated by the man who installed our patio door on Sunday morning. They just wanted to sit and watch everything that he did. My six-year-old had a lot of questions.

Yael, however, couldn't figure out what all the fuss was about. She kept trying to engage them in something else, but they wanted to stay by the door.

Either way, the new door was the highlight of our weekend. It was properly restful, a nice Shabbat followed by the Rabbi's secret summer treat: no Sunday School.

Ahhh....summer.

See what other exciting things caught people's eyes this weekend.

Haveil Havalim #170 is up

Go see Haveil Havalim over at Soccer Dad.

Tell him I sent you cuz I'm the host next week!

Things That Make Me Giggle and Clap

Can you see that really cute little graphic above?

Now, go and look at the top of your screen, or the tab in Firefox or IE, and you will see that same little cute graphic (can you tell that it's my shoes from my blog header?) next to the name of my blog!!!!

It's called a favicon and I have wanted one for a while. But it was too hard to get Blogger to do it.

Then I came across this great blog called Blogger Buster and let me tell you, it rocks.

In this post about favicons, Blogger Buster Queen (Goddess?) Amanda tells you how to make it work in Blogger. And so I did it! (Then I shared with my husband, who agreed that it's cool. Big praise! For the big test: What do you think, Dad?) Personally, I giggled and clapped.

While we're on the subject of Blogger (which I'm quite content using, by the way), Blogger Buster is also running a cool contest.

Since I've never been shy about making my say, here's the feature I want from Blogger:
A simple, easy-to-use method for backing up my blog, for exporting all my posts and comments into an off-line site so that my paranoia about losing all my work on my blog can end. Please?

(Because this is the current method that Blogger recommends for backing up your blog. And it sounds scary and awful. No thank you. I'll stick with paranoia about losing it rather than actually doing the losing on my own!)

Oh, and numbered comments would be nice too. But I'll go with my first wish.

There. I've put it out there. And you can too -- go to the Blogger Wish List or visit Blogger Buster for your own chance to enter this competition and have your say!

What would you change about Blogger?

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Five Places I've Been This Week:

Cottage Cheese Roast (sounds weirdly yummy)

Honey-Baked French Toast (I'm on a cooking kick, obviously. This was made for Shabbat morning in honor of "land of milk and honey" in this week's Torah portion. It was so good.)

Wordle - I think this looks so cool but I can't get it to work, keeps crashing in both Ffox and IE. What's up!?

Official Jewish Tartan - kippah tip to Susan

Ephraim's Crossword Puzzle Pointers - kippah tip to my mom

from my del.icio.us - where have you been?