Join me, Mimi (Israeli Kitchen), and other English-speaking bloggers
for an evening of networking and discussion. Nosh provided by Mimi.
The event will be held Saturday evening, October 17, at 8:00 PM, in Petach Tikvah.
Update: We had a great time! The report can be found here.
It would be expected that I would think about my mother, as my daughter and I sat down for Kol Nidrei. From my seat I could see the daughters of the woman who died last Rosh Hashanah, the wife and daughters of another shul member who died a few months ago, and behind me were the wife, daughters and granddaughters of the Holocaust survivor whose eerie, yet moving, funeral we attended at 11:30 PM the previous night. And the next morning we would say the Yizkor prayer for deceased relatives.
So there we sat, and something made me remember that I had once checked a perpetual calendar and learned that my mother’s birthday, September 27, 1925, fell out on Erev Yom Kippur—or theoretically in the evening, on Yom Kippur itself. I don’t usually mark her birthday, my mother always played it down when she was alive and never admitted her age. I asked my daughter the date and sure enough, it was September 27, even though we were not in the same year of the 19-year cycle. But the eight and the 19th year are usually close together, and in 1925 Erev Yom Kippur also fell out on Sunday.
What I find bizarre is that my mother, assuming the documents are accurate, was born on a significant day of the Jewish year and that this fact did not become part of the family folklore. We all knew that my brother was born around Rosh Hashanah and my parents asked the rabbi what would happen if the brit were to fall out on Yom Kippur (in the end he was born on Erev Rosh Hashanah).
Was this part of my mother’s natural reticence? But it’s exactly the kind of thing my grandmother would have talked about. Maybe, being the youngest and having the least contact with my mother’s extended family, I was somehow out of the loop?
(The title is the literal translation by one of my children of shaon choref, otherwise known as standard time.)
Yom Kippur begins this afternoon (Sunday), with candle-lighting at 4:52. Last night we changed the clocks to standard time. After much wrangling and never knowing when the clocks would change until the last minute, a compromise was worked out in the Knesset to change before Yom Kippur every year. In most years, we will change them back in time for the Passover seder. Changing it last night was a dumb idea for several reasons:
Several years ago, before this compromise was reached, the political party Shas suggested changing the clocks just for the day of Yom Kippur and changing them back the next day. Now that was laughable, but the current system makes even less sense. If they changed the clock for one or two days we could just ignore it.
To my readers, if I have offended you in any way it was not intentional. Please write to me directly if something is on your mind, so I can make amends.
Posts of interest:
Fasting on Yom Kippur for Pregnant and Nursing Mothers (from 2007)
Benji Lovitt presents a funny Haveil Havalim.
Israeli Kitchen gets some unusual company.
Baila cuts her water bill. Click here for more water-saving ideas.
My post on the sign advocating segregation of immodestly dressed women drew many responses. The biggest debate, notably in the comments on Rabbi Harry Maryles of Haemtza, revolved around Rabbi Kanievsky’s rulings and whether he could have advocated such a position.
Wishing all my Jewish readers a Gmar Chatimah Tovah, an inscription in the Book of Life for the new year.
Southern Lyctus Beetle Commonly Infecting S'chach
Yated Neeman has a letter from Rabbi Moshe Wye on a little-discussed halachic issue for Sukkot: Insects falling from your s’chach into your food. [See note below.] The Hebrew text appears on the Jerusalem Kosher News blog. I summarized the most important points below:
“Permanent” s’chach, usually made of bamboo and stored from year to year, is the most likely to have bugs. S’chach of all types, whether old or new, needs to be checked. Rabbi Wye advises spreading out a white surface such as paper or a tablecloth, holding the branches at an angle, and banging them on the ground. The white surface should then be examined for bugs.
If you see small insects, spray the s’chach with insecticide. A few hours later, shake the s’chach to disperse the dead insects. A brush or vacuum cleaner can help remove them.
Lyctine beetles, dark brown and about three millimeters long, often infest dry s’chach. They chew narrow tunnels under the thin skin of the bamboo stalks, and you can see round holes on the outside of the stalks. If you find these, use a professional exterminator and ask for a guarantee. If the infestation is large, don’t use the s’chach at all.
To store s’chach from year to year, spray with insecticide, let dry completely, and wrap in a sealed waterproof plastic bag. Check again after opening.
Note: During the week-long festival of Sukkot (Tabernacles) beginning October 2, observant Jews eat and often sleep in a temporary booth, called a sukkah. The roof is made of branches or other vegetation, known as s’chach. Aside from hygienic issues, bugs, whether dead or alive, are not kosher.
Related posts:
Don’t Bite the Bugs: How to Avoid Insect Infestation in Food (at CookingManager.Com)
Neve Yaakov: Immodest and Modest Women Asked to Sit Separately
According to the religious Zionist weekly Matzav Haruach, the following sign appeared in a playground in the haredi neighborhood of Neve Yaakov in Jerusalem:
According to the suggestion of our teacher the great rabbi H. Kanievsky, women are requested as follows, to divide seating in the city according to groups of women. Women dressed appropriately (wide clothes, a properly covered neck, a modest scarf [MiI: to cover hair]) will sit on separate benches. Women dressed immodestly [bepritzut] Heaven forbid, (tight clothes/open collar/bandana) will sit by themselves. And in this merit the women [MiI: there's no question as to which women, even though the wording is vague] will merit viable offspring, a comfortable living, and true comfort [nachat] from their children.
Notice that the suggestion is not directed at women who wear pants, show cleavage, or (married women) who leave their hair uncovered. The target appears to be women who more or less follow the rules, but fall from the community standard or the standard of whoever wrote the sign. There is even a subtle dig at wigs, as they are not mentioned in the description of modest clothing. Wigs are verboten in more modest circles.
Somehow I don’t think ostracizing women in the park is going to make anyone start dressing more modestly. And the implication of this sign—that a woman who wears a bandanna is contaminating someone who wears a modest scarf—is scary. We should be glad that children of prutzot are still allowed to play in the park with the children of righteous women.
Related:
An Uninspiring Letter to the Women of Beit Shemesh
VozIzNeias: Jerusalem Home Tznius Campaign (thanks to Joel Katz for the link)
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