sarah in nyc

 Ezra is having his bar-mitzvah on Shabbat B'reishit, the Shabbat when we read the story of creation. After a whole lot of discussion, some of it on Zoom and some in real life we decided that his tallit would be made up of seven stripes (on each side), each stripe representing a day of creation. Because Judaism has a less than comfortable relationship with imagery we decided that the depictions of what is created each day should skew towards the abstract. I haven't yet made the first day of creation but  I have it designed, at least in my mind. Day one of creation, in case you forgot is the separation of light from the darkness. I had made the stripes for day two of creation, the separation of the waters above and below the firmament or horizon.  It was time to tackle some of the other days. In my usual manner, I am not creating these strips in biblical order but in the order that strikes my fancy. I began work on day five, the day that the creatures of the water and thos...

I realize that several of my posts over the past few weeks have focused on death and loss. I promise that this topic is not discussed at all in this post.  My friend asked up to pick up her CSA farm share this week and our Shabbat dinner is heavy on goodies from the farm-share produce. There were four beets, a small handful of string beans, and a small head of cauliflower. All of them got roasted together with lemon juice and olive oil. Usually chicken looks better cooked than raw. That rule of life is proven wrong here.  The beautiful bunch of flowering dill was chopped up along with onion greens. I added lots of lemon peel and lemon juice to the chicken. I am sure that it will taste delicious despite looking less festive when cooked. I hadn't posted about our Shabbat dinner last week. For the first time in a year and a half, we were guests for Shabbat. It felt awfully luxurious to not have to cook. It was also wonderful to spend an evening with our dear friends Alfie and Jud...