Jewish Musings, Friday/Shabbat December 29

[louise]

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!

[louise]

Happy to say I'm feeling better. I made a couscous salad. Still a bunch to do today, but ot that much

Going back to my old habit of a shabbat poem, here's one that to me, speaks to tikkun olam.

Holding the Light
by Stuart Kestenbaum for Kait Rhoads

Gather up whatever is
glittering in the gutter,
whatever has tumbled
in the waves or fallen
in flames out of the sky,

for it’s not only our
hearts that are broken,
but the heart
of the world as well.
Stitch it back together.

Make a place where
the day speaks to the night
and the earth speaks to the sky.
Whether we created God
or God created us

it all comes down to this:
In our imperfect world
we are meant to repair
and stitch together
what beauty there is, stitch it

with compassion and wire.
See how everything
we have made gathers
the light inside itself
and overflows? A blessing.

shabbat shalom

[hollygail]

Lovely. I sent a copy to a poet friend of mine (who lives near Princeton; Louise, you're not the only woman I know in NJ).

I don't have the patience to open a pomegranate, much less remove the arils to add to a recipe. I'm glad I know other people who do!

I admit to not having followed exactly who swapped weeks with whom this time around. Would someone please remind me who's up next to open the thread? Thanks.

Another typical Friday in front of me. I'm reading the shortest aliyah I've ever seen (#4 tomorrow morning) at the Conservative shul where I used to teach and am still on the list of bnei mitzvah tutors. It's located 18.something miles from here. DH said he'd come with me (that's subject to change on a moment's notice) and I may have one or two friends who may come too.

Gut Shabbes / Shabbat Shalom, all!

[lee058]

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

I'm still not feeling so great after yesterday, but I may go out anyway. I would like to go to our favorite Jewish deli and have chicken soup and a kasha knish. Besides, we have a coupon that expires tomorrow for a free knish. If they don't have kasha, I will get potato, but I really hope they have kasha. Also, I would like to stop at the hair salon and get "beautifed" for 2024.

I hope everyone has a great weekend and a happy and healthy 2024, plus a peaceful day today, Lee

[gazelle18]

Good shabbos everyone, on this last Shabbat of 2023! I love the poem, Louise, and I am glad you are feeling better.

[peachymom1]

Hello everyone, and thank you, Louise, for a great week. I'm glad Louise is feeling better, and I hope Lee will be soon as well.

Well, I ate like an idiot this week, and it showed up on the scale this morning. Ugh! But what did I expect? Rather than beating myself up, I am thinking of the good things I did do for myself last week, like go to the gym. Today is a new beginning.

I'm off work today, so after I got up and went to the gym, I went to get a manicure & pedicure, and I got a shoulder massage too. Fabulous. Then I went to buy birthday cards for two of my sisters, who both have birthdays next month. I stopped to buy bananas and a yahrtzeit candle, and I resisted the urge to buy cookies or doughnuts or some other goodies. I got home in time for lunch, and now I have the whole afternoon to loaf and to practice my Torah readings for tomorrow.

I love the poem, Louise, and I'm going to send it to my sisters and some friends. "What beauty there is, stitch it." Shabbat shalom!