Jewish Musings, Friday/Shabbat June 21

[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 sh

[louise]

Thank you for your stories yesterday.
My boss came up a way to help me with my computer set-up - I am able to reach my home computer from the office. I'm going to switch that ability to my new computer and then he will be able to fuss with it remotely. There will still be a lot for me to do but I will hopefully be able to connect to the office server once he addresses that, which is something I very much need to be able to do..

There’s a lot of really nice stuff in this week’s torah portion and Haftarah. I know some of you are very sophisticated readers so please bear with me while I qvell about some of the low hanging fruit – all well worth it. Starting with the name of the parsha which is Beha’alotcha. The word means to raise up and it is used when God tells Moshe to “raise up the lights of the menorah”. This is a very particular usage – to “raise up” rather than the verb “to light”. Much can (and is) made of this as the light itself being uplifting. I am reminded somehow of a line I often pause on at the end of the Amidah – the translation we are currently using (Siddur Lev Shalem) gives it as: Bless us, our creator, united as one with the light of your presence; by that light, Adonai our God, You have given us a guide to life, the love of kindness (and so on). My point here being the double usage of “light”.

You won’t wonder why this one speaks to me:
“Moses says ‘I cannot carry this people by myself, for it’s too much for me!
If this is how it is — if this is what you’re doing do me — then just kill me, I beg of you.'
Moses faces life and reality, and he sees no way of going on. He is asking — no, begging —God to end his life. And what does God do? First, he instructs Moses to gather together 70 people. Seventy is a fascinating, mystical number, as seven is a symbol of eternity, and 10 is a minyan , or quorum for prayer. Multiply the two and you have a community blessed by the Eternal. In other words, God commands Moses to gather a sacred community” (My Jewish Learning)
Okay – nothing that extreme for me but we do need to know it is not just okay, but blessed to ask for help!

And then there’s a favorite and much quoted line in the haftarah: Not by might nor by power, but by My Spirit,' Says the LORD of hosts. I love chanting that haftarah and will be doing so this shabbat. This works back to Judaism about being about love. We have come full circle.

I welcome your comments. Also, please feel free to toss in another chestnut or two from the parshah!

PS Tonight we have our annual synagogue summer barbecue. It has become a huge event. Dinner, then services, then back outside for dessert. I don't eat real beef hamburgers very often so it is a major treat for me and there will be so many other foods as well. I will be making a chickpea couscous salad and have already baked flourless peanut butter cookies and a chocolate chip carrot cake. Yum!

[lee058]

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

louise, Good week! Thanks!

Re today's topic: I am even more of a baby about quotes and readings than anyone else here, I think! I appreciate the opportunity to learn more about Judaism. As for secular Judaism, I think I know a reasonable amount, but I know so little about formal Judaism that sometimes I read this group's writings and just go, Huh? Well, it's better to learn than to be totally ignorant, so thank you, everyone!!

This morning, I had fasting lab tests, and am still feeling a bit unsettled. I need more food and beverages, and then will feel better, I'm sure.

More medical stuff: I've started my pre-colonoscopy restrictions (no raw fruit, no nuts or seeds, etc., for a week). I have my med list written out, with the RN's instructions. Wish me luck!!

The weather here is unbelievable. It's supposed to be around 100 degrees or even more for the next week. Thank goodness for air conditioning!!

Have a peaceful day, Lee

[peachymom1]

Louise, thanks for the insights on the Torah portion. I tend to ignore this one because I hate the unfairness to Miriam at the end (she and Aaron both talk against Moses for marrying a Cushite woman, and Miriam is punished while Aaron is not). I'm chanting a few verses tomorrow and had not really studied much of the text itself, but after reading your post, I went and studied. Thank you for inspiring me, and thanks for a great week!

The summer barbecue sounds wonderful. A good friend of mine from high school just lost her mother, and we invited her to come with us to bffs' house for Shabbat dinner. She hasn't seen bffs since our DD35's wedding (six years ago - ulp!); she and they are really looking forward to seeing each other tonight. It should be a good distraction for my friend, who is up to her eyeballs in executor duties and a PITA of a brother (her only sibling).

Lee, good luck with your colonoscopy prep. Everyone have a wonderful weekend! Shabbat shalom!

[hollygail]

I just came across something I found interesting (I'll get to today's topic in a sec). I saw the original blurb from NJOP. Here it is (with my edits...)
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With the summer solstice arriving today [it was dated yesterday, June 20], let us contemplate one of summertime’s favorite heat-quenching beverages. June 20th is Ice Cream Soda Day.

The ice cream soda, sometimes called an ice cream float, was invented by Robert McCay Green in 1874 in Philadelphia. According to the leading theory that “serendipity is the mother of invention,” the creation of the ice cream soda was certainly fortuitous. Mr. Green’s inventory of ice was depleted as he was selling cold fountain drinks on a hot day. He asked to use some ice cream from a neighboring vendor to chill his beverage. The rest, as they say, is history. However, in a self-authored account appearing in a 1910 edition of Soda Fountain Magazine, Mr. Green disputed that account. He wrote that he wanted to stand out above the other vendors and aimed to create a superior cold drink. Mr. Green requested that his tombstone read “Originator of the Ice Cream Soda.”

Those growing up in New York City may be familiar with a similar drink whose mere name will make mouths water: the “Egg Cream.” Those unfamiliar may be gagging, thinking about a drink with raw eggs in it. Don’t worry: egg creams contain no eggs, or cream [for that matter]. An egg cream consisted of milk, seltzer and flavored syrup (usually chocolate or vanilla). [My recollection is that if you asked for an egg cream, it would come chocolate syrup. One day, I can't tell you why as I have no recollection why, I order a vanilla egg cream and LOVED it! And you all know how much of a chocolate fan I am...] Most assume that this drink originated with the Eastern European immigrant Jewish community of New York City.

Why then was the mouth-watering drink called an egg cream? According to the grandson of the alleged inventor, Stanley Auster, no one is sure where the name came from. But it is likely that the heavily accented English of the immigrants played a role. Auster suggested that the word egg was really the Yiddish term “echt,” meaning genuine or real. Another suggested origin for the term is that someone requested “chocolat et crème,” a drink enjoyed in Paris, and the French “et crème” [may have] morphed into “egg cream.” Legend claims it was the celebrated Yiddish Theatre star Boris Tomashefsky who requested the Parisian delicacy. A food expert, Andrew Smith, however, claims that in some poorer neighborhoods, a drink made from syrup, cream, seltzer and yes — raw eggs — was popular. Eventually, Smith posits, a less expensive version of this “egg cream” was made, without the cream and eggs.
- - - - -

Whodathunkit?!

I kind of like the "cloud by day and fire by night" concept of God's presence, leading the people by day and keeping them warm and safe at night. Then, when the cloud lifts from the portable sanctuary, the people leave Sinai, setting out on their journey, tribe by tribe.

About the skin disease Miriam is struck with (while Aaron seems to get off scott free): Chapter 12 verse 13 also gives us Moses' one-line prayer to God to heal whatever is wrong with his sister and we use those same words in lieu of a formal "mi sh'beirach" blessing in today's world (well, at least some of us do; I'm pretty sure the Renewal movement uses it more often than the formal "mi sh'beirach" blessing)...
וַיִּצְעַ֣ק מֹשֶׁ֔ה אֶל־יְהֹוָ֖ה לֵאמֹ֑ר אֵ֕ל נָ֛א רְפָ֥א נָ֖א לָֽהּ׃ {פ} 13
13 So Moses cried out to יהוה, saying, “O God, pray [please] heal [please!] —her! ” [or “it,” meaning the illness itself; Hebrew has grammatical gender; transliteration: eil na r'fa na la]

[lee058]

hollygail, When my parents were in the South (can't remember just where) during WW2, my mom asked in a shop for an ice cream soda. The people were baffled; they'd never heard of it, didn't know how to make it, what to charge, etc. Finally, she ordered a Coke and an ice cream cone and put the soda and ice cream together! This story was told and retold to me when I was growing up.

Lee