The Holy Queen Esther Coffee Mug -- Get 'em while they're hot!

Yom revi'i, 22 Adar 5769.

 Ahhhhhhh...  Just settling down to my morning coffee, which tastes just a little better these days.

According to Egyptian cleric Safwat Higazi, Starbucks Coffee has been using its "siren" logo to promote Jewish history's lovely Queen Esther. 

Who knew?  All this time, I thought it was a picture of a mermaid.    (I guess Queen Esther is just preparing a couple of really nice salmon for Maahi Kabab for Shabbat.)

 

Thank you, Safwat Higazi, for bringing to the world's attention that Starbucks is as holy as all those folks on line at the airport coffee shops have always said it was.  I will never again make fun of someone who orders a Venti Grande Macchiato Cappuccino with a Quad.

Don't I always say that the first cup of coffee in the morning deserves it's very own bracha?

Hat tip to Charlie Shrem for sharing the memri.org article.

Another good article on this subject is by Melanie Phillips, entitled "The Protocols of the Elders of Coffee." My favorite line is "Ah yes, Starbucks: home of the Zionist genocidal apartheid bean."    

Kudos to my children in the States for rushing out and buying for me the Holy Queen Esther Coffee Mugs.  The coffee really does taste better now, guys.

You are so special!

Yom sheni, 20 Adar 5769.

This sweet film by Kurt Kuenne is SO worth 16 and a half minutes of your time. Enjoy!



Hat tip to Tamar Yonah.

Jews 1, Haman, zip. Bli ayin hara, puh-puh-puh.

Yom chamishi, 16 Adar 5769.

This Purim, we put a serious dent in the devil's dump truck.

 

We started the day with our traditional "healthy breakfast," which has been a staple of our Purim celebration since the boys were little kids.  Cereal boxes, emptied of their air-puffed contents, filled instead with candy.  "Orange juice" tasting suspiciously of RC "Q" orange soda pop.  (I love to say "soda pop," because it drives East Coasters crazy.)

  

Breakfast is served in pots and pans, instead of bowls, and eaten with wiggly plastic flatware that we have managed to hang onto through 15 Purims.  If we would ever decide that the boys had outgrown this peculiar custom, they have informed us that we would be traded in for more sensitive parents.

 The kids were funny.  Their self-designed costumes were cute and inexpensive, and fulfilled the time-honored concept of letting one's "true self" shine through.   Clowns, and seriously unthreatening "punks."  The young hopefuls.  (Sigh.)

We were blessed to start the day with an email from our dear friend, Nisan Jaffee.  He had written one of his famous grommens.  (How do you say that?  Grommenim?  Grommenot?  You know you're no longer an olah chadasha when you are now inept in two or three languages...)  Nisan sang a funny and sad tune about all of his old friends who had made aliyah.  Since he is a master of capturing one's character, and we could "hear" his voice rich with the Virgin Islands, singing the tune -- it gave us laughter and smiles and sighs.  It touched on the one difficult aspect of our Purim in Israel:  We really miss our dear friends in Baltimore.

We shared the seuda with two neighboring families -- our Sephardi Israeli landlords, and an Ashkenazi Israeli family that lives across the street.  We shared pieces of languages; and everyone patiently and humorously attempted to communicate.  I actually got little Yinon's joke, b'Ivrit!  

"Which radio station is mentioned in Tanach?"  The answer is "Kol Yisrael."  I got a nice smile out of Yinon, and a visual "atta girl," when I said, "Not Galgalatz?"  (For anyone not yet in the know, Galgalatz is a very funky radio station designed to entertain soldiers.  A fuller explanation can be found at What War Zone???, Benji Lovitt's blog.)  Before and after a delicious potluck feast, we shared a common language, known for leveling the playing field.  Everyone brought out instruments, and made joyful music together.  We discovered that Rav Reuven has remarkable rhythm playing that famous instrument, the fancy wine corkscrew.  A natural percussionist!

There were interesting discussions about (I think, if I translated correctly,) the nature of good disguised behind evil in the world, and questions of what can the Jew of today gain from the celebration of Purim.  How does the observance of Purim b'zman hazeh help to bring the Geula?

A lovely night was topped off with the Stunt Man's tribute to Nisan Jaffee, which he wrote on and off through the day.  In it he included verses about many of our friends in Baltimore, and some about new friends here.  Since he is a budding master of capturing one's character, his performance filled us with laughter and smiles and sighs.*

For me the most precious thing is that our teenangels kept our contract:  We simple Jews do not in this day understand the inyan to drink oneself silly quite well enough to "get so drunk, one cannot tell the difference between blessed is Mordechai and cursed is Haman."   They drank enough wine to tear down the walls between Jews; but nobody got sloppy and sick.  Nobody forgot for Whom he works.

The main theme of today's post is as follows.  Purim 5769 will go down in the chronicles as the first in a long time in which there was for our family light, joy, gladness and honor...  and good, clean, honest kef.

So may it be for us -- and all of the House of Israel -- for all future Purims.


 *Before you even ask, we are hoping to create a video of Stunt Man singing his grommen for a future blog post.
Glossary:
Haman:  bad guy in the Purim story
Soda pop:  soda, or pop, depending on where you grew up
Grommen:  a short verse, often in rhyme, often poking gentle fun
Olah chadasha:  a female new immigrant to Israel
Seuda:  festive meal
B'zman hazeh:  in these days
Inyan:  main theme
Kef:  fun.  Interestingly, there is no word in the Hebrew language for "fun."  We had to take this from the Arabic.     

Seeking a colorful life among friends in the Holy Land.

Yom rishon, 12 Adar 5769.

The sign says "Please stop at the gate and say hello to the guard."

There are a lot of reasons to love Neve Daniel.  There are a lot of reasons to love the LNO (one of the local online chat lists).  And there are a lot of reasons to love Purim.

Here's what it looks like when all three get delightfully together.

Does anyone know of a costume store or Gemach in the Jerusalem area?

Does anyone have native American squaw moccasins size 8/40 women?

Anyone have a man's necklace we can borrow for Purim? And/or a devil's
pitchfork? Red trousers for a 13 year old boy?

Does anyone have a pirate patch we could borrow please?

I need a cane for Purim -- does anyone have one to loan?

Oh -- will whoever borrowed the pirates and Indian costumes last year please let me know who you are -- I did not write it down, and though I do not need them, several people have asked to use them this year. May we all have a great PURIM!!!

Does anyone have a revolver or gun I can borrow?

Oops!  Forgot the most important word:
Does anyone have a TOY revolver or gun I can borrow for Purim???

I'm still looking for a chickie or duck costume for a 1 year old.
Anyone have one to lend?

Anybody have Chinese or Japanese costume materials for an eight year old girl to borrow?     

Don't forget that today in the Ulam Semachot from 4pm is Ipur-Purim.

There will be make-up artists to make up the kids' faces, and other activities such as costume and gragger making.

Does anyone have a turtle/tortoise costume that I can borrow for this
Wednesday? (Size 10/12)

Anybody have a Minnie Mouse costume for an eight year old? Or maybe pieces of a costume?
Mickey Mouse ears?

Anyone have a size 4/5 or a size 6/7 lion costume (or a 6/7 monkey costume)
that we could borrow?

 looking to borrow fireman or cowboy costume for an almost 5 year old boy

Yonatan wants to dress up as a chassid or Matisyahu.
Have you got square glasses or a jacket/coat thing that will look like a bekeshe??

Does anyone have a costume that we can borrow for Purim...about 12 month size?  Nothing hazardous or too uncomfortable.  If anyone has a lion or bear costume, that would be ideal.  Alternatively, does anyone have ideas for a simple home-made baby costume?

Last minute costume request - nothing in my shoe collection seems to fit the classic, conservative look of early 1900's England, go figure.

If anyone has a size (US) 7-8 pair of semi-heeled, closed dressy shoes (not sandals)  that I could borrow for the week it would be much appreciated.

I'll take any color - gray, black, red, white - somewhat desperate here.

It is my prayer that everyone found what he or she needed to complete these no doubt interesting and colorful ensembles.  And that I may be blessed to watch this delightful costume parade every year, for many years.

Glossary:
Gemach:  "store" offering free or very low-cost items or services, usually for special occasions or purposes
Ulam Semachot:  "Simcha Hall"; community meeting hall
Ipur:  make-up

Chassid:  in this case, a Jew dressed in traditional Eastern European garb, consisting of a long coat, hat, and side curls
Mattisyahu:  important character in Jewish history
Bekeshe:  long black coat worn by various sects of Jews of European descent

Dear Baltimore, here's a chance to connect to your Israeli heart.

Yom shishi, 10 Adar 5769.

I don't have to tell any of you the Koby Mandell and Yosef Ish-Ran story.  I couldn't tell it, anyway.  There are certain memories that are a part of us forever, depending on our place in history.  The day JFK was shot.  Nine-eleven.  Mercaz HaRav.  Koby and Yosef.  Some of them, we can tell over now.  Some of them are just too hard.  Unless the people who were directly affected speak out.  And then our hearts yearn to listen, to connect.  To try to make sense out it.

 In the words of Todd Salovey, the director of "The Blessing of a Broken Heart":

"The play is ultimately about resilience and love.  I don’t know if one leaves the show 'full of hope' – I think that a person who sees the show understands that there IS pain in the world, and that one can face life’s tests, and one can face pain and loss and use it to grow, to become stronger, to be a better person, and possibly even to be happier and closer to G-d.  What’s incredible about the story is that Sherri uses the tragedy to become more filled with purpose, closer to G-d, and becomes not only a more comfortable mother to her own family, but a significant nurturer to hundreds of other kids who have also been victims of terror.  As her daughter Eliana says in the play, they may have a broken heart, but they can bond together with others and make a new heart."


Tickets can be purchased online at www.tiferesyisroel.org or at Hats to Hose, Perns, and the Knish Shop, or by calling:


Ellie Kagan:  (410) 653-1316
Gail Feinstein:  (410) 764-2532
Devory Margolese:  (410) 642-7321


Thank you, Baltimore, for keeping us in your thoughts and prayers.  The more we connect, k'ish echad b'lev echad, the more we together heal the world, and all our broken hearts.


Glossary:  
K'ish echad b'lev echad:  as one man with one heart

 

Purim is coming. Embrace the silly.

Yom shlishi, 8 Adar 5769.

Here is a little Purim wisdom, shared by My Hero, the Dearly Beloved.  You decide.



I think this particular headgear brings out the Norwegian in him.
Disclaimer:  The Dearly Beloved remarks that he is referring to the old TV program, rather than to the movie version, in which he found no redeeming value of any kind.  Stunt Man agrees with his father, stating, as follows:  "I would rather stick nine-inch nails into my eyes than be forced to watch that movie."  [Sigh.]  I am looking forward to returning to our regular pre-Purim programming.

Yes, everything is okay. Thanks for asking!

Yom shlishi, 7 Adar 5769, Moshe Rabbeinu's birthday and yahrzeit.

Doldrums.  Hibernation.  Call it what you like.  Cold, "yucky" weather seems to quiet my keyboard as much as my body and mind.

When the wind is strong enough to walk the lawn chair across the yard (and to later pitch it on its side, like the table), and the hail is the size of peas, I tend to bundle up in soft fleece, and blink my eyes at the world.  For hours.  With prayers of gratitude that I have a home in Israel in which to bundle up.

This post is dedicated to the very sweet friends and relatives who have expressed concern that something might be wrong.  Thank you for loving us, and for worrying.  We are well, baruch Hashem, and happy.  In a very slow, sleepy way, we are even busy.



Let's talk about what is positive about this intense precipitation.  Israel has been working toward a pretty scary drought all winter, with much too little rainfall to bring the Kinneret up to acceptable levels.  So all of this rain is very welcome.  The Dearly Beloved says that the fact that most of the severe weather has been happening on Shabbat is not a good sign.  But he doesn't call me "Suzy Sunshine" for no reason.  I am certain that the rain on Shabbat means that Hashem is rewarding the Jewish people for pulling together -- finally -- during the Gaza War.  "Better late than never."  And there isn't much time left during the traditional rainy season to acquire our quota of rain -- so what did we leave Hashem, but the relatively homebound days of Shabbat?  Time will tell.  We still need a good five meters of water to fill the Kinneret to a less-than-scary level.  Please G-d, bring on the rain!

Being more-or-less housebound has given me the opportunity to do things I like, albeit at a significantly slowed-down pace.  I have hosted guests.  I have played music with my family.  I have made sushi.

Apropos of nothing, I have been wanting to share the joys of the kum-kum for some time.  Has this marvelous invention made it to America yet?

Nothing says "warm and cozy" to me like that practically instant cup of coffee, tea or cocoa from my turbo-heating kum-kum.  Ever since I first started traveling to Israel, back in the mid-90s, I knew that the first purchase I would make after aliyah would be a kum-kum.  It was; and it still gives me joy, every single day.  (Simple pleasures really are the best.)  I wish each and every one of the members of the Baltimore Chug Aliyah a happy third anniversary -- and his or her own Israeli kum-kum, within the coming year!

To end this slightly disjointed "Hi, I'm still here" love note, here is a short film, for your viewing pleasure.



It is often the young who teach us how to find joy in discomfort.  Bring on the weather!

Glossary:
Yom shlishi:  literally "third day"; Tuesday
Moshe Rabbeinu:  Moses, Our Teacher
Yahrzeit:  date of death; observance of one's passing, to celebrate what he has accomplished in the fullness of his years
Chug Aliyah:  a "club" dedicated to fulfilling the hope and dream of moving to the Land of Israel