Jewish Musings, Sunday, Nov. 5

[hollygail]

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:

Frieda (hopefully)?
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!

[hollygail]

Hadn't heard anything from Frieda about whether or not she's ready to take the lead for a week, so, just in case she isn't, here goes.

This week's portion of the week is Chayei Sarah. Toward the end of the portion that just ended, Abraham has taken Isaac up the mountain to offer him up as a sacrifice to God. How much does Sarah know about what's going on with her husband and her long-awaited offspring? The midrash assumes she's broken-hearted over the whole situation and loses the will to live. So, although the name of the portion is the "Life of Sarah," it's about her death.

Abraham learns that his wife has died and returns home to bury her. There's a beautiful scene in which he finds the perfect place: a cave (the "Cave of Machpelah," it's often called) on a piece of property owned by someone named Ephron. He asks Ephron how much it will cost, and Ephron offers it to Abraham for free, speaking about good will and so on. Abraham, however, makes it clear that he wants to purchase it. Why? The scholars tell us he wants to make sure there's a legal piece of paper (our terminology, mind you) so that in the future no one can say he stole it or used it to bury his wife without having obtained permission from the owner and so on. Ephron says the equivalent of "what's 400 shekels of silver between friends?" Apparently, that's a WHOLE LOT of money in general, and probably WAY too much for the piece of property being discussed. However, Abraham agrees to the price right away, not bothering to bargain. He then buries his dead wife Sarah there. Later in the Torah we learn that in addition to Sarah, Abraham is buried there along with (still later) Isaac and Rebecca, Jacob and Leah (not Rachel who dies giving birth to Benjamin, so Jacob buries her near where she died). As a result, sometimes the place is called the Cave of the Patriarchs (and Matriarchs).

And then Abraham realizes his son Isaac is not yet married! (Where's Abraham's mind been all this time?) He sends his servant back "home," in more modern parlance, perhaps, to "the old country" where Abraham originally came from and where his relatives still live (he apparently doesn't want his son to "marry out," as it were). And the servant finds Rebecca who agrees to accompany him to marry Isaac ("love at first sight!" we're told because she falls off her camel when she first lays eyes on Isaac). A little postscript to the story: Abraham remarries and has more children! And when Abraham dies, Isaac and Ishmael come together to bury their father. (Could this be a foreshadowing of when Jacob and Esau come together many years later?)

Lots of things going on in this week's Torah portion. How many things do you juggle in your everyday life? Care to share some of the current items you have up in the air?

I'm teaching Sunday school today (it's my carpool buddy's turn to drive). We're going over some of the Friday night prayers and blessings that my students will have some responsibility for over the weekend of their b. mitzvah. And then we'll continue looking at the phenomenon of Torah trop. That's my #1 for today. After coming home, I want to finish sending the tutoring invoices for October (I think it have only a couple I haven't done yet.)

[louise]

Funny you should mention juggling a lot of things. I am on kippah number 3 of the 4 that donations were made for. I promised 100 pretzels (dipped in chocolate & nuts or sprinkles) for a bat mitzvah this shabbat. I have to leave the bat mitzvah a litle early to get to a memorial service for my niece's parents 3 hours away and I offered to make stickers and put them in our siddurim with the Acheinu prayer (for captives and people in distress). I almost hope the labels don't come in time for me to print and apply them this week! And our synagogue board meetings, which are ususally on zoom, will be in person this week. All good stuff, but, sigh.

This morning a few of us spoke to a woman in a small town in Israel who is in on the board of her Masorti synagogue there. They are in a relatively safe spot so a number of evacuees have moved into the area and they are working to feed them. She also volunters to pick crops since there is no one to do that. There are several Arab villages nearby and the women get together to keep lines of communication open between them. I don't know if the call did any good but I think we are all trying whatever we can think of! (Who would have thought I would be contributing by crocheting?!).

[lee058]

Good afternoon everybody. Hope you are all well and SAFE! Please pray for Israel.

hollygail, since you are doing the leads this week, I will assume that I will be doing them during the week starting 11/12. This is actually much more convenient for me than the week starting 11/19, as I will be doing a lot of Thanksgiving prep and cooking. The only day that might be a little difficult for me is Tuesday, 11/14, as I have an early GYN appointment. I will probably write the lead Monday evening, so it's really NBD. I can manage; that is, if (as usual) I can think of topics!!

I've lost another two pounds, which brings me to not almost exactly 50 lbs. over the last two years, and almost 15 since I started the Ozempic.

Are we doing our Zoom on 11/19? I don't recommend trying to do it over Thanksgiving weekend.

Re today's topic: Am I juggling a lot of things? Hmm. I don't want to jinx myself, but actually I am handling everything pretty well. My main task is to keep track of appointments, plus making phone calls and/or writing emails about them. As you know, I keep lots of lists and calendars, so as to help myself keep track of what's happening when. They are a big help. Which reminds me, it's about time to pick a wall calendar for the kitchen. I usually get ones with gardens or nature/wilderness scenes. Time to go to Amazon and check out what's available!

Have a peaceful rest of the day, Lee

[peachymom1]

Louise, I'm glad to hear about those women helping the evacuees and with crops. My shul is planning a trip to Israel next month for the purpose of helping with general work that needs to be done (like picking crops). I wish I could go, but I can't do the physical work required, and I don't have a valid passport at the moment. This trip was just announced a few days ago, and lots of people were saying in shul yesterday that they were interested in helping, so I hope all the slots are taken quickly.

The rabbi yesterday was telling us that his brother, who lives near a beach in Israel that is being patrolled by IDF members, called him to ask for their parents' brownie recipe. (Their parents owned a bakery when they were growing up, and they all especially love brownies.) The brother then made a huge batch of brownies and took them to the soldiers. A simple gesture, but it must have meant a lot to those soldiers. The rabbi's father (who used to own the bakery) was in shul yesterday, and he was smiling from ear to ear.

I'm not overloaded with tasks at the moment, just ordinary everyday stuff. I just did my dance workout and plan to do some housework with DH today, and that's about it. I read all 7 aliyot yesterday, and I am doing a lot of loafing today!