Jewish musings, Tuesday, April 16

[gazelle18]

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
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!

[gazelle18]

Hi everyone,

A couple of days ago, Louise posted a link to Passover readings from the Hartman Institute. I’ve been reading this collection of writings, and have found them so moving. One of the first ones is a poem written by a kibbutznik years ago. Unfortunately, this author was a victim of the Oct. 7 attack. The poem he wrote celebrates the first glass of wine at the Passover Seder. It is so ironic, because wine is a symbol of both joy and freedom; to read this poem now, after what happened to the author, is difficult.

Unlike Beryl and me, many of you all are not great lovers of wine. At the Seders I host, because wine is something DH and I truly enjoy, we like to serve wines which are (in our opinion) lovely and fine, and we take great care in selecting the wines for the evening.

Whether or not you are a true wino (or simply tolerant of Manischevitz), what does lifting the cup(s) of wine during seder/shabbat/other holidays mean to you?

[peachymom1]

I like a nice glass of dry white wine from time to time, or occasionally a Chianti or other red wine that isn't sweet. I rarely drink it, so one glass is usually my limit, even at Passover (I switch to grape juice). One notable exception was DD35's wedding - I managed two glasses of wine that evening, but over a period of time which included a hearty dinner.

I especially enjoy raising a glass of wine to sing the kiddush together on Friday night and on holidays. I love that feeling of connection and community.

I had a pretty crappy day at work today and was going to have a glass of wine before dinner, but dang it, I got busy with more Passover cleaning and forgot about it. Ugh! Oh well, I got over my work irritations without it, so maybe I'll aim for tomorrow night instead.

[lee058]

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

Re today's topic: I don't drink wine or other liquor because of possible interactions with my meds.

Have a peaceful day, Lee

[hollygail]

I'm so impressed! So many of you have already posted; it's not even 6am here!

I just finished reading yesterday's responses. Beryl, thanks for the words about the olive to symbolize peace. I'm adding it to the seder plates at the sedarim I'm leading this year. And I agree with you about the groups of women not standing up for other women; "shameful" barely describes it. Louise, thank you for emphasizing list-making; I just made mine (it's pretty short: I'm bringing the haggadot to the two sedarim I'm leading, plus I'm making Sephardic charoset and my friend (who's hosting the first night) asked me to bring a jar of horseradish for the maror. And I added "orange" and "olive" to the list. And Peachy, while I appreciate your feelings about sometimes choosing being quiet over speaking up, I don't agree that women's organizations are in the same situation as individual women; I think it's worse than a shanda that they're silent about the violence toward the Israeli women as a result of Oct. 7.

I'm in the "tolerate" category when it comes to Manischevitz. In my life, although I don't drink with any regularity at all, I enjoy a full-bodied red wine from time to time. I have an opened bottle of pinot noir in my fridge (since last Passover) and someone recently gave me a bottle of 2019 Cab which hasn't been opened yet... One year, DS found Manischevitz loganberry wine (KLP) (which showed up on her table for numerous years since that first one) and it's considerably more than tolerable, so I'm hoping she found it again this year... I've never seen it in San Diego.

[brgmsn]

DH insists on getting kosher wines for Passover, even though we don't turn over our kitchen or do any of that, but that's fine. He finds some very nice dry white and red ones, and since he works part time at a liquor store (Jewish owned) there's a good selection.
We joke in our house we go through the 4 glasses before the seder ever starts! And we're not far wrong,usually!
This year we will have non alcoholic wines because one of our guests no longer drinks and my DIL is pregnant, so we'll have plenty for them. Plus the kids. I buy them the sparkling cider or whatever and they're happy with their "wine"

[louise]

I'm not much of a drinker but I do at least a sip for each cup. I respect the ritual. I really Bratenura Moscato which is pretty sweet but still "good". I may have mentioend that my synagogue had a kosher wine tasting at a local wine shop (with 20% discou nt). I stopped the nexy day and bought a mixed case of the most poplar red and white for the community secder and yesterday I added 3 bottle of the Moscato to the order! I also like the sewwt wine (we use Kedem Cream Red) with seltzer.

I finished all of the synagogue seder shopping today and most of my own passover shopping. I for sure have what I need for what I'm bringing to the first seder (passover rolls and my Chocolate Oblivion Truffle Torte with whipped cream and raspberry sauce).


food52.com/recipes/40780-rose-levy-beranbaum-s-chocolate-oblivion-truffle-torte

[louise]

Check out this Had Gadya!

www.youtube.com/watch?v=UdwTuToxW9s

[brgmsn]

louise, do you do all the cooking also for the synagogue seder? I don't get how there's no committee? We had our Women's Seder the other night (it was tremendous!) and it was a committee, plus they hired security and servers/clean up to do that part. It took a village.