sarah in nyc

Being away has its pleasures. it is really nice to be in charge of your own food though. This was the rub that went onto the chickens. Let me see if I can remember what actually went into this now that mixing up this melange of spices took place many hours ago. I think but can't swear to it that this was made with sweet paprika, smoked paprika, sumac, cayenne turmeric and black pepper. This was the result. This was also a challah baking week.  A friendly reminder to those of you new to challah baking. Make your strands short and then pull the strands as you braid. Long and skinny braids make for anemic looking challah. Pull the strands hard, as if you are a mean and impatient mother walking down Broadway with a pokey child. My older son and I once witnessed such a mean mother and child. My son was horrified. Years later I taught him how to properly braid challah by pretending to be the mean mother, grab a challah strand and yell "C'mon you lousy k...

We got home late last night. We had checked our bags. Because I learned well from my mother, I looped each pair of zippers on my suitcase together with bright ribbon. I do this for two reasons. the first is to help identify my black wheeled duffle from the ocean of black wheeled duffles on the baggage claim belt. The second reason I do this is I had noticed on some other trips that during handling the zippers sometimes come open. Yesterday we shuffled a bunch of luggage between my suitcase and my husband's.  I actually paid attention to the looping together of each and every pair of zippers on my suitcase. Yesterday I noticed as my suitcase emerged off the baggage claim belt that one of the side compartments was open and empty. I would have chalked that up to perhaps the ribbon had gotten loose, not that likely but vaguely possible. I did notice that the main compartment of my suitcase was secured not with the ribbon, but with a zip tie which I had to...

Coming as I do from New England where the landscape is made up of hills and low mountains, I unconsciously expect the landscape to enclose you. I then in my early adulthood moved to New York where the tall buildings enclose you and keep you safe. The first time I was in the midwest I was uneasy the whole visit. The flat landscape made me feel vulnerable. I felt unprotected. As we traveled from the east coast of Florida and back at first I was bored by and annoyed with the endless flatness. Yesterday though I had an epiphany. Florida is all about the sky. Yesterday we drove back to the east coast of Florida and in the late afternoon. As we drove we encountered one of those quick Florida storms. We could see it approaching. It looked like an illustration of the beginning of the Genesis story. We stopped for a pit stop. The sky took my breath away.  We stopped at a parking lot to eat supper. As we continued our drive east, the sun bega...

My husband and I have been in Florida for the past week and a couple of days. Our main reason for this adventure was my cousin's wedding. But right before we left for Florida we got the sad news that there was a loss my husband's family.  Cousin Ruthy's long time partner Connie had died. We weren't able to attend the funeral but could come to pay a Shiva call. I  realize as I grow older that there are times we show up not just as ourselves but also as stand-ins for our dead relatives. My husband and I came as ourselves and at the same time as represenatives of my no longer living in-laws. With that task completed we were ready to attend the wedding.  The bride was radient. The gathering of all of the generations of the family was pretty wonderful. A few days later, I was once again a stand-in for those no longer living while we were in Sarasota. Two women from Quincy,Temi and Rivka both live in the s...

This was quite an extraordinary weekend. Just about one hundred people gathered to celebrate fifty years since the founding of Havurat Shalom in Somerville, Massachusetts. It could be that you never heard of Havurat Shalom or that you never were part of that community or even attended services there. Even if that is true, it is awfully likely that if you have ever been in a synagogue in the past few decades you have experienced something that germinated in that house on College Avenue. If you have ever sat through a service that included a nigun,  a wordless tune, to help set a mood, or attend services where synagogue members share in the reading of the Torah or attend a service where a community member delivers the d'var Torah , the sermon,   or attend an egalitarian synagogue where men and women have the same rights and responsibilities you have been touched by some of the experiments that began at Havurat Shalom. If you consult with a rabbah,  have create...