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Finding Unity in Tradition: The Power of Wearing Judaica
How will you receive the Torah this Shavuot?
What is Lag Ba’omer?
What is Lag Ba’omer?
Starting tonight, Jews around the world celebrate Lag Ba’omer, a holiday that occurs on the 33rd day of the Omer, — the 49-day period between Passover and Shavuot. During this one-day holiday, the Jewish people cease their mourning practices adopted during the Omer period and celebrate, typically with bonfires and music.
What is the deeper meaning of Passover?
Tu B'shevat is coming!
What is Tu B'Shevat?
Tu B'shevat literally translates to the 13th day of the month of Shevat. It is known as the birthday for the trees or the new year for the trees. It dates back to the Talmud in reference to the laws of Orlah, that the fruits of a fruit bearing tree cannot be eaten for the first 3 years.
In modern days, Tu B'Shevat is an ecological celebration. Its customary to plant trees have a Tu B'Shevat seder full of wine, dried fruits and fresh fruits.
The dreidel game!
Since we post so many pictures of dreidels... here is a little background!
A dreidel is a 4 sided top, each side has a Hebrew letter on it. In Israel, the letters are an anagram for A great miracle happened here (Nun, Gimel, Hay, Pay). Outside of Israel you find the letters Nun, Gimel, Hay, Shin - for a Great miracle happened there. The word dreidel is in Yiddish. In Hebrew its called a Sevivon, which means turn around.
Here are the quick instructions for how to play dreidel!
Positive Jewish Identity
2020 Hanukkah Gift Guide!
The Show Must Go On - Passover in the time of Corona
When I planned out my blog post schedule for the year a few months ago, I never could have imagined the topic for my Passover post would be the Corona Virus. In fact, only a few short weeks ago I had never heard the phrases “social distancing” or “safer at home” and now they are ubiquitous. We live in a crazy time yet it feels like we are living in biblical times and enduring one of the 10 plagues. My daughter’s preschool teacher told me that she she is confident quarantine will be over on April 19th, as initially discussed, because that marks the end of Pesach and we will be led to freedom like the Jews leaving Egypt. I really hope she is right, not just because I CANT WAIT for my 2 young children to be back to school, but because that will mean there is an end in sight to this terrible virus that is plaguing the whole world.
The big Jewish question during quarantine is what do we do for Pesach? If we have all been in quarantine for 2 weeks can we come together? Can we break our social distancing just to be with our closest family in a small group for the Seder? Do we risk our parents’ health and bring their grandkids over? Or do we let grandma make the food, each eat it at our own house while we have a zoom Seder? How to we navigate this? It’s one of the most important holidays of the year and we are instructed to invite others into our home to retell the story of the Jews being let to freedom, it seems unfathomable that a single person will be left to have a Seder at home on their own. This is so hard!
The rabbis in Israel came out with a declaration that you can have Zoom on during your Seder as long as you set it up and connect before the holiday begins (read more). Its not often that the ultra-orthodox bend the rules but in this case, it is Pikuach Nefesh, or saving a soul, which states that preservation of human life overrides virtually any religious rule. This comes after telling people not to kiss the mezuzah, stop visiting the mikvah and attending synagogue. So, I guess the rabbis are encouraging Zoom. (As a side note, who had heard of Zoom before a few weeks ago?)
One thing is sure, the show must go on and one way or another we will have a Seder. With a heavy heart I’m leaning towards a zoom Seder myself, but I’m curious what you are all doing. Please feel free to comment below, we would love to get this conversation going and maybe figure this out together.
We hope you all stay safe and healthy and wish you a Chag Pesach Sameach! Wash your hands, stay home and lets pray we can put this behind us sooner than later.
Under $50 Hanukkah Gift Guide
Tu B’Av
Tu B’Av
ט ו באב
Ah, Valentine’s Day. A joyous occasion of roses, chocolate, and eating ice cream by the tub alone in your room. While Valentine’s Day has gained notoriety around the world, Tu B’Av is still very unknown. A Jewish holiday with uncertain roots has transformed into a whole day devoted to love and human connection.
Since this holiday is very old (as many things are in the Jewish religion), there is no set “beginning” of this tradition. The story goes that one day, the daughters of Jerusalem danced in a vineyard wearing white dresses, and the men were asked which one they would want to be their wife. That’s why the modern take of this day is all about love. The men were said to find their one true love dancing in the vineyard. To celebrate and signify the white the dancing women wore, here is a beautiful white gold chai pendant. This pendant not only symbolizes the white frocks the women wore, but also embraces the femininity of the women. The swirl cutouts are reminiscent of the vineyards women danced in.
Even though this holiday is not widely celebrated, the Talmud (the Jewish book of teachings) considers this day of festivals the greatest of all the holidays, with Yom Kippur a runner-up. Personally, I find it positively insane that I have grown up all my life being told that Yom Kippur is the most important holiday, when in fact it was simply a holiday of dancing, celebration, and love. I would much rather be dancing in the streets than sitting in temple on a day off in uncomfortable clothes.
The thing is, there is no legal “day off” in Israel for Tu B’Av. It is a normal work day. Religiously, this holiday is observed through an omittance of certain morning prayers. For a holiday the Talmud thinks is more important than Yom Kippur, it seems like a pretty measly celebration. However, in more modern times, Israeli culture has celebrated this holiday with celebrations of dancing and singing into the night. Here is a sleek ahava pendant to honor the holiday in a very modern way. The small rose gold charm is 14k of elegant beauty. “Ahava” (spelled אהבה in Hebrew) directly translates to “love.” This pendant can make you feel even more connected to Israel, as it is a replica of the famous statue in Tel Aviv.
It is a good thing this holiday is when it is. It follows the somber holiday of Tisha B’Av, which is a day of remembrance of all of the travesties and genocides the Jewish people have endured. In my eyes, it is a nice contrast from a dark day to one of love and acceptance. It shows the true Jewish resilience that one can go from a day of memorial, moments of silence, and sirens in the street to love, harmony, and peace.
The whole foundation of this holiday is love. Yes, it started out simply for men to find wives. However, over time it has come to mean so much. One single day, devoted to love. Love of self, love of others, love of love. I truly think that is what we, as humans, need right now. In a turbulent time when antisemitism is on the rise, what the Jewish people need is more and more love. To come together, rather than drift apart. Now, more than ever, Israel should stay united under love, and Tu B’Av is the best way to celebrate that.
My relationship with Purim
The last email we sent out got me thinking… I never really realized that Purim has always been one of my favorite Jewish holidays and my relationship with the holiday has changed over the years.
As with most Jewish holidays, there is so much tradition and really fun tradition that goes along with Purim I have so many fond memories from my childhood (yes, I went to Jewish day school!) of dressing up, songs about clowns, the heroes Queen Esther and her uncle Mordechai, booing Haman with a grogger, art projects, getting mishloach manot full of one of my all time favorite desserts… hamantashen!
As I got a little older I found different ways to connect to the Purim story, I was in a play called the Purim Speil where I played a “Shushan girl”, I participated in a Megillah reading and to this day I still know my little 3 line part and I really started to understand what it meant that one evil person wanted to wipe out all the Jews. Haman was the first villain I really learned about although I don’t know if I really understood that something like this could occur in the world I live in.
Then came the teenage years when holidays don’t seem cool anymore and dressing up is for little kids and you don’t really want to be dragged to a Megillah reading even though you know it will be fun. And then when you get closer to drinking age and you realize that all the synagogues have tons of alcohol sitting out for everyone to enjoy, the prospect of going to party at shul starts to become a little more interesting!
College years were all about drinking at shul. But when I stopped to reflect on the holiday, it had a much stronger significance to me. College was the first time I was really living outside my Jewish bubble. A fully diverse university full of anti-Israel and Anti-Semitic propaganda. Close friends who had relatives that didn’t believe the Holocaust happened. A very different world in which the Purim story seemed less like a kid’s tale and more like reality.
And back home after college, the holiday became about indulging in my love of baking and finding the perfect hamtashen recipe (which can be found on this blog). And teaching my niece and nephews how to make them and setting up a hamntashen factory at my parent’s house and coming up with all kinds of fun fillings. Because what is a Jewish holiday without something absolutely delicious to eat and what easier way to connect to the holiday than by baking and eating yummy cookies?
And fast forward to now… with two of my own babies the first old enough to appreciate the holiday I suddenly find myself wanting to do EVERYTHING possible to share in her excitement and create even more. We are constantly singing and listening to Purim song medleys and planning out what costume she is going to wear on what day. I already stocked the pantry full of hamntashen ingredients and I’m thinking that our weekend project should consist of making tons of Michloach Manot. We are going to her school Purim party and 2 Megillah readings! Maybe it’s a little over the top but I can see how much she loves it and I want to foster it as much as possible.
Even though she doesn’t understand the significance of the Purim story now, its important to keep telling her the story and make sure she connects to it. Now more than ever, we see that Antisemitism is alive and well and that there really are people who want to kill us just for being Jewish. My hope for her is that she loves the holiday as much as I did and never has to encounter a Haman in her lifetime.