Tikkun Olam

. . . To do Shabbat: My kosherkook husband is in the kitchen, putting together a vegetarian cholent and chicken with Zatar, while I am at the computer, blogging. (I just read on someone's blog, " A woman's place is in the kitchen, tellling her husband how she likes her steak! ") After feeling that 'missing my children' feeling the day before yesterday, I spoke, in one manner or the other, with all five of them yesterday, and I feel better. We also bought ourselves a new, teeny-tiny crockpot, into which my husband is throwing various and sundry ingredients: cut-up white and sweet potatos, onions (which he sauteed first), three kinds of beans, lentils, garlic, and after cooking on high for an hour, he will add whole oats, barley, salt and pepper. As far as the kids go, yesterday I Instant Messaged with my soldier-daughter who was home (she now lives with her brother and sister-in-law outside of Tel-Aviv) for Shabbat. We had a nice video conversation, and I co...

You might have seen this earlier (the date is October 16th), but I only just saw this video today, sent to me in an email by a friend, a mother of a young man who fought with the IDF in Jenin. Read the entire speech at the U.N. Watch site. This is what the world, for some reason, doesn't want to know. Can you figure it out?

The latest Jewish Blog Carnival, the famous Haveil Havalim #240, Aliyah Edition--is up and running at Artzeinu . Be sensible: read it! *Copyright alert: No infringement of any text or graphic copyright is ever intended on this blog. If you own the copyright to any original image or document used for the creation of the graphics or information on this site, please contact the blog administrator with all pertinent info so that proper credit can be given. If you wish to have it removed from the site, just say the word; it shall be, ASAP.

I received a comment to my last post which incensed me, and after writing a long rebuttal comment I decided just to run it as a post. Here it is (read that comment first). You say I think that Jews are not capable of 'Run of the mill buffoonery? Lust? Depression? Drug use? A penchant for petty thievery? Adultery?' Unfortunately, Jews are not immune from any of these sins you mentioned in your comment. If what you got out of my post that was that Jews are always innocent of the above, you seriously misread it and missed my point entirely. What I am averse to is not necessarily depicting Jews committing crimes (I say "necessarily" for a reason, which I will address in a moment); rather I am opposed to the Coen brothers pernicious depiction of Jews in the manner of classic Antisemitism and Antisemitic cartoons, as utilized (among others) by the Nazis. In addition, they created an amalgam of nefarious and ridiculous characters which are exaggerated stereotypes, right...

One week ago, on Wednesday, I canceled my evening adult Hebrew class to see, along with two of my students and spouses (mine included) a free preview of the Coen brothers' new film, A Serious Man, which hadn't yet opened. It was set in the late 60s, supposedly about Jews in Minnesota. I was interested. I am always interested in movies with Jewish themes, especially those produced by non-Jews purporting to depict Orthodox or Chassidic Jewry, as in the movie "A Stranger Among Us." I usually sit there in the theatre with clenched fists, taut muscles and gritting my teeth, as I watch an embarrassing, often painful rendering of what the producers and/or directors think "Jewish Life" is really like. With all their production assistants and dialect and behavioral and cultural "coaches" and trainers, they rarely get it right. In contrast of course, the Israeli film Ushpizin (in Hebrew, ha-Ushpizin) was outstanding. It was produced, directed and acte...

(first, the lateset Haveil Havalim #239 is up at ImaBima's, here .) Okay, better late than never as they say. Have been at the computer daily, but for work, not for blogging; I guess in a very gashmi'ut way that is a good thing; but there is a big void where blogging used to be. . . so I'm making an attempt to return to the blogosphere (when I should be sleeping, of course. When else do I have the time?) The title* of this post I borrowed (ok, I plagiarized. sue me.) from Batya , but only because she tagged me with the Super-Power Meme on September 24th. Good Lord. Where has the time gone? What with working, and the chagim, everything. Just. STOPPED. Because with the world slowly but surely vilifying Israel and condemning her for "atrocities in Gaza,"-- withdrawing from military maneuvers with terrible Israel because her soldiers murdered Palestinian women, children and babies in cold blood -- and this, from a country that had full diplomat relations with ...

What a wonderful Sukkot is has been. We worked so hard in preparations before the chag, which paid off and culminated in davening with great kavanah and meaningful, happy festive meals in our Sukkah with good friends and acquaintences. Our sukkah was especially "HOLEY" this year: as my husband and friend (thank you, Y.) took the plywood boards apart they discovered yet another 'squirrel hole' (see photo)filled with fluff as padding, which my husband discarded. That made hole number three, second largest in size to the two we found last year. As we did last year, we covered the biggest, longest jagged hole with a picture of the Gedolim. We covered the small one with a creatively-done yellow paper chicken with a moveable head representing kapparot that was made years ago by my youngest (which of course explains why she is in Officer Training Course today. Such talent.). To cover the newest and largest hole, we were racking our brains when I came up with the p...

I recently discovered (hat tip, my friend Neil) that Benjamin Netanyahu, the current Prime Minister of Israel had an audience with the Lubavitcher Rebbe (ztz"l) Rav Menachem Mendel Schneerson , twenty-five years ago, when he was Ambassador to the United Nations. The Rebbe ztz"l spoke with him for 40 minutes, and told him that when he speaks to the United Nations, a bastion of lies and eternal darkness, he should always "light one candle of truth." In this video (video is in Hebrew with English subtitles) Netanyahu is speaking with the Israeli media who asked him if he thought he had legitimized Ahmadinejad, the president of Iran, by addressing the issue of the Holocaust. Bibi is telling the interviewer about his meeting twenty-five years ago with the Rebbe and what the Rebbe told him to do; and how telling the truth repeatedly with dignity and strength transcends time.