Tikkun Olam

I hadn't been to the mountains in such a long time, I started to think I was living in Florida. So yesterday for the first time this year, we visited Rocky Mountain National Park, in order to drive upTrail Ridge Road and picnic in the Park. Trail Ridge closes for the winter after Labor Day weekend and re-opens, weather permitting, on Memorial Day weekend, and is a very popular tourist spot, especially on opening day(I bet you didn't know that June 21st, the day of the summer solstice, isn't really the start of summer. It's Memorial Day weekend. Everybody knows this. June 21st is the freaking middle of the summer , for gosh sakes). "What is Trail Ridge Road?" you ask (well, you didn't--but you should have). I will now tell all you flatlanders out there: It is 'the highest continuous major highway in North America.'(-to paraphrase the Rocky Mtn. National Park brochure). It reaches 12,183 feet above sea level (for Americans) at its highest point, or...

Well (didn't my teachers tell me never to begin a sentence with "well?"), another Work Project has been completed. I always enjoy the camaraderie with my colleagues but this time there was an added dimension: I enjoyed a special cohesiveness with my "group," as I entered into this project as a Team Leader. I feel as if I developed a special rapport with several of the members, but I think that our group in general had a special connectedness . It was also wonderful working with people from such diverse backgrounds and religions. We were Jews, Christians, Muslims & Bahai. We hailed from places such as Zimbabwe, Nigeria, India, the Philippines and West Virginia. We felt, uh, group-like. It was a bit sad when people began being cross-trained in other areas and placed elsewhere, because some of us felt as if our little 'family' was being split asunder. So I wanted to in effect, say 'thank you,' au revoir and le-hitra'ot to everyone with wh...

Haven't posted for a long while; work and busyness and tiredness (tired-itude?) have precluded and prevented my posting. I thank my loyal readers (ok, it's really just that they have nothing better to do with their time...) for their patience. I have actually had people - friends and acquaintances - ask me when will be my next post; that they looked periodically, searching, and (-to their consternation, of course) gurnisht* - or as they say in the vernacular in our commercialized, cerealized America, "nuttin' honey!" Ok, so I'm finally posting. About Pesach Sheni . What is that, you say? (What you really mean is, 'isn't ONE Pesach enough already?!) Pesach Sheni is a special day one month after Pesach (on yud-daled Iyar, the 14th of Iyar) which was set aside for those people who, because of being tameh - impure - were not able to bring the Pesach korban , or sacrifice, on the night of the 14th of Nissan, the first night of Pesach (the 15th being the f...

I have not posted for a while because many things were happening. First of all, Pesach knocked me for a loop (-my mother used to say that; where did that expression come from and what the heck does it mean?!) Finally having recovered from Pesach (it took the two of us three days to convert back to chametz --you Yidden know what I mean), I had intended to post over this past weekend, but we had a rather difficult one: I had to take my husband to the E.R. on Shabbat, because of an infected facial cyst which began spreading. We left motzai Shabbat with an IV in place, and had to return to the E.R. twice on Sunday (still with the IV) and once Monday morning. I returned to work exhausted after staying with my husband in the hospital all morning, and then driving him back home. My great plans of blogging about the history and connection of the Jewish People to the Land of Israel, and of the founding of the State, and the miraculous circumstances surrounding Israel's victory in the June,...