sarah in nyc

 Like everyone else I am awaiting the return of the hostages. I am not 100% sure that this will take place, so in my anxiety I am listening to various settings of this 17th century prayer. Maybe if I keep reciting the words over and over again they will indeed be free and as the prayer says they will merit life. Shabbat Shalom...and hoping that all of the words of this prayer get fulfilled נוסח הפיוט המלא: נוסח הפיוט המלא (21 בתים): אלוהים אשאלה יוצר מאורים / יגלה קץ עדתו הפזורים וניקבץ לתוך ציון בשמחה / ונהיה שם בכל מועד חברים והכהן שהוא גדול באחיו / יהא לובש כליל אורים ותומים ומי מקטיר ומי מדליק מנורה / ומי ישא לכל דשן וירים בכל יום יעמידו בפְּיָסוֹת / ומכל מום ונזק הם שמורים ומשיח יהא שופט בצדק / והכהן והוא יהיו חגורים ביום כִּפור עבודתו מרובה / וייכנס לתוך חדרֵי חדרִים וישמע קול אלוהים עת ידבר / כמו דיבר עשרת הדברים תחילתן אני האל יְיֹיָ / ואין אחר כמותי ביצורים ולא יסור לבבך משמוע / ולא יהיה לך אלוהים אחרים ולא תזכור שמי שלא לצורך / ולא תרגיל לשונך בשקרִים והזהר בסוד שבת בראשי...

 I truly love the holiday season. And yet, it's a lot. After Rosh haShanah I thought that I had done a pretty good job of keeping up with all of the tablecloths and napkins that get used for holiday meals but by the time Yom Kippur was over I was drowning under  a stack of ironing that needed to get done. This was part of the stack that I tackled yesterday. The cloth with the pink cross stitched flowers also needed a fair amount of mending which I did by hand because I just couldn't manage the thought of taking out my sewing machine. The hand mending is essentially creating a bit of needle weaving. Sorry no photos taken of the mending but I no longer have two large matching constellations of holes on the left and right of the cloth. There was a large stack of napkins that needed to be tended to as well. There are probably more napkins hiding away only to be discovered in a few weeks or months. Sukkot begins tonight, so a holiday meal tonight followed by another one tomorrow ni...

Yesterday, at some point during services my husband, out of deep seated kindness, suggested that I shouldn't set up the meal we eat after the fast until we get home from synagogue. He said that he thought that cutting up vegetables and preparing food platters in the middle of the fast when we are not allowed to eat sounded like torture to him. I thought about what he was suggesting.I also know that setting out a meal for a group of ravenously hungry people as they wait for me to slice and platter cucumbers, and peppers, and tomatoes  and smoked salmon and Cholesterol Death kugel while everyone is waiting to be fed seemed like an entirely stressful operation to be doing while I am dying to eat myself. I assured my husband that dealing with food while I am fasting is actually not torture. I mentioned this conversation to a wise friend. She said that she always felt that setting up for that post Yom Kippur meal felt like  doing the work of the priests in the temple.  My husb...

 

  The Rosh haShanah meals are followed by ironing season. This is just part of what I got through yesterday. I still have a large tablecloth and about a dozen napkins left to iron.  This is what our table looked like on the first night of the holiday. The inside of our holiday challot looked like this. To be honest, not every slice looked quite this cute. Dinner this shabbat is more of what I cooked for the holiday but I will be making some gazpacho we we also ingest some vegetable matter. Yesterday I brought in some boots to be repaired. This was on the wall of the shoe repair place which is actually around the corner from the address in the calendar above. I loved the term "Dead Storage for Automobiles". It took me a minute but I figured out that dead storage for cars is the opposite of live parking. I guess in 1940 it was economically viable to own a car and store it in a long term garage and just take it out occasionally. This is the building that used to house Santini St...

  For me, the foods for Rosh Hashanah are not about the novel and the creative but about recreating the memories of my childhood.  Despite my being more adventurous with the spicing than my mother ever was, ( High praise from my mother was "Mild and delicious".) both dishes struck exactly the right notes for me. I made chicken in my last minute neurotic worry that there wasn't enough food, (We will be eating tzimmes long past the Tishrei holidays and stuffed cabbage through Sukkot.) The chicken was a surprise hit of the table. It was flavored with fresh lime juice, coffee hawaij, dried lime powder and I stuffed some medjool dates into the chicken cavity. After the chicken was cooked I de-glazed the pan with lemon juice and water and poured the results over the chicken when I served it.  It's a more Middle Eastern take on the deep dark flavors of  Eastern European tzimmes and cabbage. You can buy this brand of coffee hawaij online. You can add the spice mix to coffee...