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Post by louise on Oct 15, 2023 22:43:55 GMT -5
What’s on your mind — how to make kugel? This week’s Torah reading? Life goals? Prayer? We are all engaged in weight loss/weight maintenance journeys and we are all Jewish or at least interested in Judaism. We like to eat, we like to discuss. It is our goal here to provide each other support on our journeys, to share experiences, to call on our rich cultural heritage and texts, and to help each other grow spiritually.
Some of us take weekly turns starting the thread:
Holly
Lee
Louise
Lynne
Peachy
And for those of you that stop by to read this thread without posting — you are welcome to, but you are also welcome to chime in. Don’t be shy!
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Post by louise on Oct 15, 2023 22:47:08 GMT -5
I have a wedding to attend this Sunday. It’s black tie and fortunately I actually have a beaded chiffon gown that fits me. A friend lent me a satin bag that matches and I have low silver heels that I might be able to last the evening in. I have known the young woman all her life, her family being active in our synagogue. I have been asked to sign the ketubah as a witness – am very honored and have been practicing. Her father, who is Israeli, was once our synagogue president and has long been in charge of our synagogue security. His brother, now living in Israel, also has been our president. Her aunt is a clothing designer and made the lovely dress the bride-to-be wore at her aufruf on shabbat. She also made the wedding dress. Obviously the family now in Israel will not be coming to the wedding. An aside: someone anonymously left 2 vases of flowers at our synagogue on Friday signed from “Friendly Neighbors”. They adorned the bima for the aufruf.
I can’t wait until Friday to share this poem that my rabbi’s wife, also a rabbi, posted this week as the duality expressed is critical to where we are right now:
A MAN DOESN'T HAVE TIME IN HIS LIFE Yehudah Amichai
A man doesn't have time in his life
to have time for everything.
He doesn't have seasons enough to have
a season for every purpose. Ecclesiastes
Was wrong about that.
A man needs to love and to hate at the same moment,
to laugh and cry with the same eyes,
with the same hands to throw stones and to gather them,
to make love in war and war in love.
And to hate and forgive and remember and forget,
to arrange and confuse, to eat and to digest
what history
takes years and years to do.
A man doesn't have time.
When he loses he seeks, when he finds
he forgets, when he forgets he loves, when he loves
he begins to forget.
And his soul is seasoned, his soul
is very professional.
Only his body remains forever
an amateur. It tries and it misses,
gets muddled, doesn't learn a thing,
drunk and blind in its pleasures
and its pains.
He will die as figs die in autumn,
Shriveled and full of himself and sweet,
the leaves growing dry on the ground,
the bare branches pointing to the place
where there's time for everything.
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Post by gazelle18 on Oct 16, 2023 8:25:11 GMT -5
On a similar note, DH and I attended a niece’s bat mitzvah this past weekend. There were a lot of family out of towners, so we caught up with folks we hadn’t seen in a while. The rabbi at the bat mitzvah ceremony talked quite a bit about the necessity of engaging in simchas despite the fact that Israel is at war. It is hard to hold both joy and sorrow at the same time, but if we waited until everything was “in order” before allowing ourselves to be happy, we wouldn’t ever get there.
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Post by peachymom1 on Oct 16, 2023 9:07:28 GMT -5
I love the poem, Louise. I'm going to print it out and keep it. Thank you so much for sharing it; I'll be rereading it and thinking about it all day, I know.
I did get up and go to the gym this morning, so I'm feeling good about that. Exercise does good things for my mind and mood.
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lee058
This space for rent
Posts: 23,286 
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Post by lee058 on Oct 16, 2023 9:27:52 GMT -5
Good morning everybody. Hope you are all well and SAFE! Please pray for Israel.
Re today's topic: What struck me was the idea that if you wait for circumstances to be perfect, you will never get anything done. Too true!!
I'm going to the doctor today, as my legs and knees are really bothering me. I also made an appointment with my orthopedist, but he had no openings until 11/6. Hopefully, my primary doctor will have some good ideas. At any rate, I like and trust him, so a visit will help me feel better, I'm sure.
Have a peaceful day, Lee
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