Nearly Shabbat

It has been a busy week.

Hanoch came up from Philadelphia to tie his titzit.

Yes, he was really happy with the tallit.

He had purchased really beautiful tzitzit in Jerusalem.

He was really happy with the result.

I am still working on the atara and will ship the tallit as soon as it is completed and stitched in place and I have trimmed all of the loose threads from the tallit.

We celebrated my sister's birthday.

And tonight I made Shabbat dinner.

I soaked dried limes in boiling water

and then broke the hard shells

before stuffing them into whole chickens. The dried limes pack a flavor punch.

I know this doesn't look terribly pretty but it should taste wonderful.

I didn't take a photo of the roasted vegetables or the semolina that I made. But I did make two pies.

I made a blackberry pie that is topped with an almond milk custard that has been flavored with rum. There is a little drizzle of pomegranate molasses to cover the less than beautiful color of the custard.

I also made a blueberry pie.

Tomorrow I am joining Shawna's husband and his family to make Shawna's Yahrzeit. I am leaving out the drama that went into the making of both of these pies. Let's just pretend that the disasters didn't take place and i will smile broadly when I serve them.

When I opened the freezer to take out two challot for Shabbat I discovered that a dinner guest from a couple of weeks ago had brought us a container of blueberry lemon sorbet! I wish I had served it when our guest was here but it just might be the perfect thing to serve with the pie.

There is still a giant stack of dishes to wash before dinner.

I know that this isn't the most beautiful melody, but this is how we sang this text. I could listen to this family all day long.

Below is a more melodic setting for this same liturgical poem.

And something to help you get ready for the high Holidays.

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מְחַיֵּה הַמֵּתִים

וְנֶאֱמָן אַתָּה לְהַחֲיוֹת מֵתִים: בָּרוּךְ אַתָּה יְהֹוָה מְחַיֵּה הַמֵּתִים You are faithful to restore the dead to life. Blessed are You, Adonoy, Resurrector of the dead. That particular line is recited at every single prayer service every day three times a day, unless you use a Reform or Reconstructionist prayer book . In those liturgies instead of praising God for resurrecting the dead God is praised for giving life to all. I am enough of a modern woman, a modern thinker, to not actually believe in the actual resurrection of the dead. I don't actually expect all of the residents of the Workmen's Circle section of Mount Hebron cemetery in Queens to get up and get back to work at their sewing machines. I don't expect the young children buried here or the babies buried here to one day get up and frolic. Yet, every single time I get up to lead services I say those words about the reanimating of the dead with every fiber of my being. Yesterday, I e...

Connecting with the past

A few months ago I had a craving for my father’s chicken fricassee. If my father were still alive I would have called him up and he would have talked me through the process of making it. My father is no longer alive so I turned to my cookbooks and the recipes I found for chicken fricassee were nothing at all like the stew of chicken necks, gizzards and wings in a watery sweet and sour tomato sauce that I enjoyed as a kid. I assumed that the dish was an invention of my father’s. I then attempted to replicate the dish from my memory of it and failed. A couple of weeks ago I saw an article on the internet, and I can’t remember where, that talked about Jewish fricassee and it sounded an awful lot like the dish I was hankering after. This afternoon I went to the butcher and picked up all of the chicken elements of the dish, a couple of packages each of wings, necks and gizzards. My father never cooked directly from a cook book. He used to re...

Revisiting a beloved piece

About thirty years ago I was asked to make an atara to be a gift for Jerry. Jerry was one of the founders of an alternative Hebrew school in our neighborhood. Jerry was also one of the people who forged an alliance between the older mostly German members of our synagogue and the young counter culture former ( and still hippies) that were the new lifeblood of our congregation nearly fifty years ago. At that point, it wasn't the easiest marriage between the old guard and the new guard but Jerry helped to break down the barriers between the suit wearing older folks and the ripped up jeans wearing younger folks. Jerry has prepared thousands of kids for their B'nai Mitzvah. He is a frequent and excellent Torah reader and for many years he organized Morning Minyan. Jerry had often said that his favorite biblical text is the following: (יא) כִּ֚י הַמִּצְוָ֣ה הַזֹּ֔את אֲשֶׁ֛ר אָנֹכִ֥י מְצַוְּךָ֖ הַיּ֑וֹם לֹֽא־נִפְלֵ֥את הִוא֙ מִמְּךָ֔ וְלֹ֥א רְחֹקָ֖ה הִֽוא׃ (יב) לֹ֥א בַשָּׁמַ֖יִם הִ֑...

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Nearly Shabbat

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מְחַיֵּה הַמֵּתִים

Connecting with the past

Revisiting a beloved piece