Tikkun Olam

I wrote last year about my new baby grandson and the name that my son and daughter-in-law chose for him after great deliberation and research. This new baby grandchild in Yerushalayim waited until very close to Shabbat before her parents had made a final decision on her name, which heretofore on this blog will be Tiddly (her Aunt Toodles was flying high: she was sure that her brother named her new little niece after her .) I was pondering the significance of Tiddly’s name, not recognizing it as a name from the TaNaCH. It sounded like “the dew of G-d” to me (והמבין יבין ), and I was trying to get my head around it, when I found this very interesting spiritual explanation of the name, and liked it so much, decided to post about it. First of all, let me say that we believe that a person's name is very important; it is already decided "in Heaven" what a child's name will be, even before conception, and the parents are given Divine insight in choosing the correct...

I don't know where to begin first; there are so many ideas that I wanted to write about, starting with Haveil Havalim #192 being UP and also the Kosher Cooking Carnival ( KCC ) at Baila's , and including the importance of naming babies in general and my new grandson's name in particular, the upcoming Thanksgiving holiday and as an adjunct, the horribly high price of kosher turkeys (don't know about you, but I sure can't afford $60 for a turkey), President Elect Obama's cabinet-building choices (will Hillary or will she not? Only her hairdresser ex-president-husband knows for sure), Barkat becoming mayor of Jerusalem (a right-winger after my own heart, though not religious), and a myriad of other topics all of which right now escape me. But I just have no time: I am working, albeit it at a temporary job (whose pay doesn't cover my bills), I am teaching Ivrit twice a week and rehearsing four times a week for a performance to be given at a Chabad Women...

As you can see, today I changed and added some elements to my blog homepage (I really lose track of time when I'm at the 'puter; it's been hours and I'm starving ), so please feel free to give me a little feedback as to how they look.  Right now, I'd like to tell you a bit about one of my new additions: Ohr Chadash . In my opinion, Ohr Chadash is one of the most wonderful sites on the web.  It is run by Rabbi Avraham Arieh and Rabanit Rachel Trugman, who have been involved in Jewish education and teaching Jewish spiritual paths for over thirty years. They have run Jewish programs for adults and youth, in Israel and the United States. For years Rabbi Trugman directed the NCSY youth group (founded by the Orthodox Union) in Denver, Colorado. Way before that, in 1976, the Trugmans were one of the founding families of Moshav Modiim, and the Rav served as the Director of Jewish Education on the Moshav, while Rabanit Rachel was one of the main educators. After their retur...