I miss snow days... Shabbos songs #3

Nisan is one of the beginnings of the year given to us by the Torah. So it's the right time to "start over"... I've been mulling over the last 12 months since last pesach, and while I can't say that I've been a great success, I have grown and want to start building upon some of the rubble of the last year.
1. Utilize the only time I'll ever have to really devote myself to yeshiva study at the highest degree possible.
2. Emulate my mentors, I know the life I've wanted to live and who are already living it, I'm going to try and connect to those who are "doing it" and get their advice as to how to do it.
3. Let things happen, G-d's in control.

Hopefully in the coming year I'll be able to live up to my new year's resolutions and bounce around like a pinball a little less.

so the question is:
what do I listen to when I'm not allowed to listen to music?

the answer:
David Sedaris

Definitely a candidate for "things white people like" which honestly should be "stuff hipsters and ex-hippies are into".

This shabbos I'm off to the famous Rav Machlis. it should be an experience... gut shabbos (see the R. Eiger footnote #13)!

Labels: David Sedaris, music, Pesach, Shabbos songs

Matzoh matzoh man

Someone once said to me, “I wish I was one of those people that felt fulfilled by just putting my nose in a gemara and never coming out… but I’m not”. I plan on becoming a man who lives in a house made of books, but I’m definitely drawn to the parts of Torah/Torah-lifestyle that provide an opportunity to create “real” things. My response to reading commentaries on the construction of the mishkan was to try (impossible without nes-dik materials) and construct a diorama; my favorite holiday is succos, it’s the most “architectural” of the chagim. So when it comes to making my pesach meaningful activities like baking my own “bread of affliction” help make the chag more significant.

Here’s where a geshmak piece of shmurah begins:
Months ago we went out and harvested the grain using the same instruments that people have used to harvest since wheat was first domesticated. This year was particularly hard because we needed to harvest 2 years of wheat since it’s shmittah. I don’t have a picture of the next step, but the harvested wheat is put through a combine to separate the wheat from the chaff, and bagged for the next step.

Quite often there are aspects of non-Jewish life that create advantages for the frum world; from chapters in the Torah, or shas-pods. So B”H that there are survivalists and back to nature groups (read: nutjobs) who keep the hand-powered food preparation industry in business.

So at a rate of 8 cups every 5 minutes we used hand powered mills to grind the wheat down in two steps, first something resembling bulgur then into whole grain.


The recipe for matzoh is REALLY REALLY COMPLEX… in that it’s the simplest recipe ever.
Water+wheat in less than 18 minutes.
The first step is to mix the water and wheat together:

Then a shaggy ball is handed to one of three guys who slowly turn the mixture into a dough ball


Then it’s handed off to a series of “gomrim” who flatten the dough ball out in stages till it’s a thin disc.

The last step before the cooking is the “reidler” the guy who puts all the little holes into the matzoh.

Then it’s shoved into the oven.

Matzoh tastes best when it’s cooked until the very last moment before it’s about to burst into flames. Unfortunately even I, in my perfection, screw up occasionally and leave the matzoh in the oven past that last second… When that happened I yanked out the burning dough and flipped it into the air in the hope that the rushing air would put out the fire.

And the result is this:

The best parts of doing this is the feeling that I’m a small part of seders all over Yerushalayim, I learn a few more phrases in yiddish, and I'm sure that during the baking hours I'm doing ratzon H' ; the worst part is that the hair on my right arm is burned off.

Chag kasher v’sameach!

Labels: judaism, Matzoh, Pesach

This is one way to get it done

Labels: Pesach

Tov and Rah

As I mentioned, I enjoy helping make my own matzos for any Pesach when I’m in Israel. Today’s activity was to transform the grain, harvested long ago, from something resembling bulgur into regular old flour. We do this with a one of these, a small manual grist. So another volunteer and I did our best imitation of the motor that ordinarily could be used to drive one of these things. The work is slow, and really tiring, think of a rowing machine but with an opposite direction of work, one person pulling while the other pushes. Teamwork is the key to not making the grinding process unbelievably hard, but getting into a rhythm can be slow at first…

The solution is wisdom from the goyim:
Work Songs

If I sang "Po' Lazarus" the chassids that hired me would probably have me killed, so I had to do a little “outside the slave spiritual” box thinking. My first try was “Am Israel Chai”; but that didn’t really take and if a work song isn’t sung enthusiastically it’s useless… After trying a few songs I found one that worked, “Boruch elokeini avosaini…” And to the rhythm of blessing our G-d we ground out almost 20 kilos of flour in about 3 hours.

I’m sad right now. I’m sitting in Coffeebean, on the corner of Yaffo two, maybe three, blocks from the old city and who is sitting next to me: Jews, who were born that way, who (at least half) are Israeli discussing tactics for evangelizing in Israel. A few weeks ago a large evangelical organization took out a full page ad in the NYTimes, apologizing for what the church did in the past while affirming their right to preach to the unconverted. I have no real beef with them, other than the fact that they are completely wrong about everything and can only lead our people into spiritual galus, they are practicing what they preach… Except for the last two points of their “apology”:

• We recognize that it is good and right for those with specialized knowledge, history and skills to use these gifts to introduce individuals to the Messiah, and that includes those ministries specifically directed to the Jewish people (1 Corinthians 9:20-22).
• We deplore the use of deception or coercion in evangelism; however, we reject the notion that it is deceptive for followers of Jesus Christ who were born Jewish to continue to identify as Jews (Romans 11:1).

I ask this question to the Christians, “if what you believe is ‘the way the truth and the life’, why must you use deceptive practices to encourage people to come into your ‘life’?” If you can make the argument based on the strength of your faith, the correctness of your doctrine, why must you come like wolves in sheep’s clothing under the guise of “messianic Judaism”. You are correct, a Jew is a Jew until he dies, but when he/she is missionizing, he/she is a lost Jew, a sad manifestation of the calamities that have befallen our people from time immemorial. And a Jew that is lost in this way is not acting as a Jew when he/she represents Christ, he/she is a Christian. If your beliefs are correct, then shout proudly the convictions of your faith and identify yourselves as such. It is a war crime for soldiers to dress as civilians and fight the wars of man; why are you committing those same crimes to fight this far more essential one?

Labels: Matzoh, messianism, Pesach

It begins

The season of matzoh is upon us!
Each year that I've been lucky enough to be in Yerushalayim I help a chaburah make matzoh. This year shall be no exception. Pictures to follow

In other news:
Everything that has ever been posted on this blog applies to me... Probably surprises no one at all.

What's more surprising is that I actually match up with a lot of these too. Especially this one. I have a friend who grew of frum, yet still uses lil' C's name as an exclamation... I don't really get where he got it, it's not like church was ever a part of his life. There was a guy here at yeshiva from (or has family from, I can't remember) Ireland; when he got really excited I'd hear him yelling down the halls, "Jesus, Mary and Joseph!" OK, I'm done

Labels: Jesus, Pesach