Blog/March 2014/Mar 14th

Mar 14th (See this week's devar torah)

Comments or questions? Click here!

---

Hi, again!

Things are topsy-turvy: “ונהפוך הוא”. The previous shabbat was hot and the week before it had temperatures well above average. This shabbat is forecast to be cool, and we had temperatures well below average (and quite a lot of rain). Last week a large number of ḥareidim protested changes in Israel’s draft laws which would require them to participate in the first Jewish army in many centuries; this week, the ḥareidim living in the Ukraine got draft notices from the very Gentile army there. I just found that quite humorously ironic.

Anyway, what’s new? My friend and teacher Yoḥai Makbili has just published a new edition of Rambam’s “Mishne Torah”, which includes all sorts of explanations (charts and maps, etc.). It can be purchased for a limited time at a discount directly from his website (discount code WOW10); but the book is entirely in Hebrew — which is a good opportunity for you to improve your Hebrew!

Once again we were all very busy. Esther and I have been given a homework assignment by our business consultants, which is to come up with a “short paragraph” which explains why our product is a “must have”. Since neither Esther nor I are well versed in writing ad copy, this is a very difficult task for us, and I hope we are successful at it so we can “move on” to things more in keeping with our strengths.

Purim is coming up just after shabbat is over. We are, quite honestly, not at all ready for it. We do have the advantage of doing the purim meal at our friend’s house (every year, we do purim with them, they do pesaḥ with us), and besides giving tsedaqa and hearing the megilla there’s not really a lot to prepare for. Still. I think it’s that pesaḥ comes so soon after purim that it makes me (us) feel unprepared.

Esther raised the point that perhaps when we are “under the influence” on purim, we may be inspired with some slogan etc. with which we’ll be able to complete our homework assignment. That may be true, but we’ll probably forget to write it down…

This week we’ve got guests: Sarah’s friend (our emergency backup daughter Dinah), and our neighbor who is my shul-mate on shabbat. On the menu for this round of festive fodder:
chicken soup, peanut soup, baked turkey drumsticks, vegetable lasagna, green beans, stuffed grape-leaves, braised short-ribs, roasted potatoes, blueberry muffins and spice-cake.

Until next week,
shabbat shalom and purim sameaḥ!

---

Top: Blog

Prev: Mar 7th

Next: [[Blog/March 2014/Mar 21st|]]

---