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.

Purim is coming.  Ve-nahafoch-hu.  (Look it up.)

Here is a good post from Jewish Israel about the holiday confusion in galut (the diaspora), symbolized by the so-called Chanukah video by Matisyahu. People may not understand why an American who loves America would consider leaving this great country to live in a tiny little, old-new country such as Israel.  If I were a Christian, or another non-Jew, I would be out of my mind to leave this country.  But I am a Jew.  I want to be in a country where my holidays, my religion and my culture are prominent, and are the "official" ones of the land in which I live.  That is why my long-term goal (hopefully shorter than longer) is to move back to Israel.  Although I love seeing the lights, colors and decorations of the holiday season--I have always loved lights and colors, my artistic nature craves it--I ache to see chanukiyot in people's windows and in doorways. This excerpt of the Jewish Israel article might help explain some of my feelings to you, my loyal reade...

Had nothing to do today as I took an unpaid day off to see a doc about my carpal tunnel syndrome which has been festering for over twenty-seven years and getting worse (it hoits ) and in the early evening I visited Dov Bear's blog (boredom can drive one to do strange things sometimes...) and read his dissing of the Maccabeats relative to another group singing a Chanukah song.  I hadn't been on the bandwagon, and so hadn't heard the Maccabeats sing. After reading DB's post and listened to the group whose video he posted, I decided to watch one the Maccabeats' videos.  I am hooked.  There is no question that the latter (that's the Maccabeats, to you) is better.  They have a great ear for music, are on key, harmonize beautifully, and do it a cappella, for gosh sake.  Basically, it's like this: if I were a guy, I would've gone to YU and been in that choir.  That's it.  Maybe in my next gilgul ... I mean, they sing Matisyahu better than Matisyahu ....