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Feeling anxious

 



We did go to the beautiful Brit Milah on Sunday. It was a short visit filled with many big emotions. The drive home was made an extra two hours long because of terrible traffic. However, I got to see lots of good foliage on the way home.






Yesterday I got several hours of good work done on Sarah's light tallit.



One stripe is still left to sew on



I still have a fair amount of work left to do but getting the job completed on time is seeming like much more of a possibility.




Today though---

the news from Israel is making me feel as skittish as the pigeons that have been flitting in a flock

from one side of  Broadway to the other.



I had to pick up a few things to make one of the desserts for Rosh HaShanah.

Most of you have heard of Abraham Joshua Heschel talking about his participating in the march on Selma as "praying with his feet".


Today, as I 

sliced four pounds of plums to make my version of the traditional German Rosh HaShanah tart I thought about asking my no longer living friends נשׁים צדקניות, righteous women, like Herta, and Fanny and Ida to plead before the Throne of Glory for the sake of Israel and the Jewish People.

It took a while to slice up all of those plums, and make the crust, spread it with apricot jam, and then carefully lay out all four pounds of plums and then carefully spoon a custard over the plums so the tart could bake. The entire time I thought about my friends and how good they were at influencing others to do the right things and hoped that this exercise in prayerful cooking might have an impact.




I don't know if my prayers were answered, if my lovely friends from Berlin and Austria delivered my message.


Even if my thoughts and prayers didn't get past my brain...

at least we will have lots of plum tart to eat over the holiday.


Comments

  1. As I listened to the news today, driving between medical appointments, I was praying and remembering where you were last year at this time. Fear is in my heart as I hope for a resolution with little more bloodshed and displacement.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Oh Sue! thank you for thinking of us and caring...a difficult time indeed.

    ReplyDelete

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