Jewish Musings, Wednesday 1/24

[lee058]

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 who stop by to read this thread without posting — you are welcome to, but you are also welcome to chime in. Don’t be shy!

[lee058]

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

Today's topic: What's something you do that makes you feel useful?

For me, it's doing whatever chores I can manage, considering my health limitations. When DH cooks, I am the sous-chef; I peel garlic, strip herbs, etc. I keep track of times when foods need to come out of the oven or on the stove.

I help DS with the laundry. Mostly I sort clothes and when they're done, I fold them and the linens.

One thing I do for DS is to encourage him to get up, get dressed, have breakfast, and catch his early ride to work on Wednesdays. Today, for example, we got up at 4AM as usual, and he still barely made it to get out the door on time.

There are lots more things, and I feel that I am participating in my family's life.

Have a peaceful day, Lee

[hollygail]

As I look through what I do in a day, I find I do lots of useful things. I show up at morning minyan (the local Conservative shul's rabbi's mother died last week, so he's back and coming to daily morning and afternoon minyan to say kaddish; in essence, he's doing "shiva" at the shul),; while there (during regular weeks), I often lead the Torah study session on Torah reading days in the absence of a full Torah service (like when we have fewer than 10 people); sometimes I'm called on to do the mi sh'beirach for the ill and/or the ending prayers for the hostages and the IDF; I teach adults how to read Hebrew (and sometimes more than only how to read); I teach pre-b. mitzvah students in their preparation for their b. mitzvah; I make breakfast for DH (and for myself; for the most part, each of us takes care of our own other meals, since we eat quite differently from each other); I listen to friends who need to unload...

For myself, I read (mostly online) to understand more of what's really going on (whether in the world or among health issues near me among family or friends). I research topics I may be teaching. I attend readings (in English) of ancient Greek plays performed in the light of current events (during the pandemic, there were always panels of health workers comparing what they could to what they saw in hospitals, etc.). I attend webinars about topics that interest me to know more about them. I attend a weekly review of the pages of Talmud being studied that week (called "daf yomi," whereby students [not unlike me] read one full page [front and back] of Talmud; it takes seven and a half years to read the entire Talmud, and yes, I read using English translation, not the original Hebrew and Aramaic, neither of which I understand well enough to understand what the hell I'm seeing), so attending a weekly review is useful to me (as well as learning from the actual text itself). I sometimes lead services (useful not only for myself but also for whoever else is in the room, whether chapel, sanctuary, or wherever). That's all that's coming into my head at 5:30am...

I think I do a lot of "useful" things.

[louise]

I'm a problEm solver and so I feel useful when I get/keep myself or the team on the right track. I have several books right now that require me to find a good path quickly and economically. I put out the bones of the Mishloach Manot schedule yesterday as a lot of people need to do various preparations and now they have target dates.

[gazelle18]

I find the concept of usefulness to be challenging and shifting in my retirement. Since I no longer work at a “day job”, I have had to redefine this term. At home, I’m the chief finder of lost items, the cook, the packer, the social plan-maker, etc. One of the things I do which I believe is incredibly useful is host Shabbat dinner every week for our family. We keep the local grandkids overnight on Friday. So DD and DSIL get a break from cooking and and kids each week, and the family gets a good shot of Jewish tradition. (Recently, my daughter and her family went to another Jewish home on a Friday evening for dinner. It was very nice, but there was no Shabbat observance. My 14 yo granddaughter later told me that it felt “weird” to eat on a Friday night without saying the blessings.)

[peachymom1]

At my job, I do a lot of things for a lot of people that they could do for themselves, but it would take too much of their time. I was basically hired to be useful to them, and I feel gratified by being useful for them. I hope they never realize they can live without me!

I am definitely useful at home, and we taught the kids to be too. If someone was sick, everyone else had to pitch in to get that person's work done, but nobody was stuck with all of it. I feel like a family especially needs to be able to work together; certainly the rest of the world will expect it, especially once you're in the working world. Each time I've had surgery, DH and DS33 had to pitch in and do my share, and the reason I didn't feel like a slacker is that I know my time will come too. When DH had his hip replacement, I didn't think twice about filling in for his household duties. That's just what we all do, and as far as I know, it hasn't occurred to any of us to resent it. Being useful is rewarding, IMO, especially when it's appreciated.