Tikkun Olam

I haven't blogged since January 2015, I believe it was. There was a time when I would blog before or during every chag (which means holiday, for my non-Hebrew speaking friends), but a difficult year health and other-wise (more on these, possibly at a later date and blog post) and lack of patience to research subjects which interested me precluded blogging. But it's erev chag sheni (the eve of the last days of Yom Tov, the holy days of Pesach/Passover) and I revisited my Previous Pesach Posts (note the alliteration; she said wryly) to see what I had written over the years, and decided -- the lazy woman's exit strategy -- to repost the links here, so you can peruse them all over again; that is, if you actually even read them to begin with... A few points come to mind: -Pesach cleaning and switching over? Hard?! Understatement of the year. Now, in 2015, with my mobility issues (osteoarthritis, fibromyalgia, decrepiting-as-we-speak knee cartilege), nearly impossible without...

They have become very professional, in their harmonies and staging. Very different from when they first started as an a cappela group. The lyrics tell the Passover story in a different way. Have a very happy Pesach.  And to my non-Jewish friends, have a very happy holiday as well.

I posted this video before Pesach 2010, and I decided it's so compelling, that I will repost it again. And then, for all those chumra-of-the-week people, here's how to really clean for Pesach:

No time nor energy to research subjects for a new post, nor time for even writing my extemporaneous thoughts, so I am reposting a previous Pesach post here.  'Finding stuff' applies to each year, as well: this year, I found my Rambo's (youngest daughter, former combat engineering commander, now in wheelchair with RSD/CRPS) Tai-Kwon-Do yellow belt certificate.  Can't throw that away...but have to put it away--it had a food stain on it! Funny, though: in two years, while cleaning for Pesach, I haven't yet found my old SanDisk little pink MP3 player; I fear it's gone for good.  So last week, I bought myself a new one: a SanDisk Sansa Clip, 4 GB (the old one was 1 GB only).  But the new one isn't pink.  It's purple... Thursday, March 11, 2010 My Pesach-Cleaning-Findings-of: STUFF I dislike cleaning for Pesach, not only because it's hard on my knees and back, but because I always unearth something of personal value which becomes very em...

Latma TV does it again.  I bet Aretha Frankliln never dreamed her "Freedom" song would be used like this . The message rhymes both in Hebrew, and English-clever.  This will probably be my last post before Pesach, so, thanks, Batya --and chag kasher ve-sameach to you, Caroline Glick (Latma is her brainchild), and everyone!

 With the fast approaching, incredibly awesome holiday of Pesach*, I am posting a message for us, to assist us in finding our clarity of purpose, as Jews.  Think about it: there is nothing like the miracle of the Jewish People who, against all odds, live on today, flourishing and thriving.  Here is a moving video (thank you, Margarete) by the Chief Rabbi of South Africa, Rabbi Dr. Warren Goldstein, featuring singer Yaakov Shwekey, which shows the "miraculous sweep of Jewish history," and expresses just that: we are living in an age of miracles, at least as great as those in the days of the Exodus. *Pesach : Passover

In honor of the approaching holiday of Pesach (Passover), I am posting this funny Israeli commercial (hat tip to Jacob Richman, here , and here, too ). Now I know the real reason why the Jewish people wandered 40 years in the desert after the Exodus from Egypt.  They, uh, got lost...until in the 40th year The Lord finally sent them...the new GPS by Ituran, heheh. Watch Aaron admonishing his brother Moses for 'getting lost,' using the Hebrew slang word   התברברנו (transliteration: "heetbarBARnu," or "heedbarBARnu") which is also a play-on-words for the word for desert: מדבר (transliteration: "meedBAR"). A Pesach kasher ve-sameach* to you all! *Pesach kasher ve-sameach: Hebrew holiday wishes we say before Passover, meaning 'a kosher and happy Passover.'

Don't know how this will look on the Web, Cause I'm typing this from my smartphone (and  I'm not exactly sure how smart it really is), besides which it is taking me forever to type this out on the tiny keypad. But I rarely post these days because of my job, and now Pesach is upon us, and my grandson and his aunt-my middle daughter, Toodles, are here for the Chag, so I have no time anyway-but I decided, at midnight, that I'd write something, just to confirm that I'm still around. I sorely miss blogging. Suffice it to say for now, that I am having a wonderful chag so far (ptu, ptu, ptu), not having seen my daughter since Rosh Hashanah  and my grandson since last July. This post is experimental, though, so I'll stop here because of the lateness of the hour. Hopefully will post before Pesach ends and I return to my daily grind of exhaustion, running after two year olds. Hope your chag (or holiday) is going well , too.

With the stress of eight people living here for Pesach, the normal whirlwind of the holiday and my being sick with severe bronchitis for the entire chag, I didn't get to  post the notice of Haveil Havalim, the Jewish Blog Carnival, let alone post since the beginning of the chag. So here it is, folks, the latest Haveil Havalim #263 at Super Raizy's --better late than never--and better read it fast, too, 'cause the next one will be out this Sunday. Hope everyone had a wonderful Pesach!

Our Pesach sedarim used to last a minimum of six (6) hours. It was not unusual to end around 3:00 a.m. if we started at 9:00 p.m. the night before. Now that we're older, we have not been able to stay awake so late. . . D. H. was usually nodding off by the time we were in the middle of Hallel, while I still managed to more or less stay awake through the songs at the end (somebody had to!)--but this year we'll do our best to stay awake for the whole nine yards, because our kids will be here. However, for those of you who are really wimpy and can't handle a long seder, here's one that should be just your speed: The Sixty Second Seder!

I thought this would be interesting for you, my readers, especially those of you who are not familiar with the process of baking shmurah matzahs by hand. What are shmurah matzahs? They are matzahs which comply more stringently with halacha , or Jewish law, by being "watched" or "guarded"(-the meaning of ' shmurah ') from the time of harvest so that the wheat will not come in contact with water or anything that would enable it to ferment and 'rise.' The matzah flour has to be prepared and baked within eighteen (18) minutes in order to prevent fermentation and rising ("chametz"). Here is a video depicting the preparation and baking of shmurah matzah, in Bnei Brak, Israel:

I dislike cleaning for Pesach, not only because it's hard on my knees and back, but because I always unearth something of personal value which becomes very emotional for me. I sometimes find myself sitting there by the just-unpacked-or-organized box, turning pages, or sifting through pictures, or looking through kids' toys/backpacks/schoolbags from Israel/drawings, tears coursing down my face. Pesach cleaning, for me, is an emotional roller coaster. Today I was in our laundry/utility room, where we had boxes upon boxes of STUFF, belonging to the kids and us from way back, not unpacked since we sold our house and moved into our current rental town home six years ago. Now, don't tell me that halachically I don't have to unpack those or look through them if I know we hadn't put chametz in them nor eaten near them--I know that! We needed to get rid of some boxes to make room there for other STUFF which we had piled up in other areas of the house which we needed to k...