Dealing With Change

As readers of my other blog, A Jewish Grandmother must know, we're in the midst of getting a new kitchen.

I'm not exaggerating to say that a new kitchen is a life changing event, certainly shouldn't be compared to illness and death, but it does demand numerous decisions, deprogramming, reprogramming and causes sometimes severe disorientation.

My need for a new kitchen stemmed from a need, not just a simple gimme desire for two full-sized ovens. There was no way we could fit them into our old kitchen, which had been designed with a niche barely wide enough for a narrow stove with two tiny ovens underneath. The size, about 57 centimeters, was very popular in 1971 Israel when we bought our Jerusalem apartment, but as time went on it became almost impossible to buy replacement stoves. The last one we got, just over ten years ago, if not more, was just a bissel too wide which prevented us from opening the sliding kitchen door. Luckily, we could enter the kitchen from the dining room part of the "L."

It also took so long to cook in tiny ovens. I couldn't do more than one small tray at a time.

We've been in our house close to thirty-three years now, and the kitchen plumbing was problematic, too. So, after squirreling away money for the past few years earmarked for "new kitchen," Over a year ago, I began trying to find out how such a thing becomes a reality. Choosing workers and a plan aren't easy. The nitty-gritty of that aspect is more the style of  A Jewish Grandmother, not this blog.

Now, thank Gd the heavy destruction, deconstruction and construction necessary for a new kitchen have been mostly completed. Yesterday I got the green light from our "kitchen guy" to start filling the new cabinets. In all honesty, it's easier said than done.

Most storage space is "drawers." I don't mind change, but my husband finds it traumatic, so I planned regular upper cabinets for the Meat/Fleishig dishes near the Meat/Fleishig sink. The Dairy/Milchig sink and counter are totally different and I'm storing in drawers.

It's also so difficult to accurately just space requirements and convenience. I am glad I didn't take an "expert" to help. After close to half a century as a housewife, I have a pretty good idea of what I need and how I work. Also, I'm blessed with a fairly good skill at spacial judgment/measurements. But even I, while planning, vacillated between confidence that we would have more space than needed and panic/acceptance that I'd be giving away or throwing out lots of my kitchen items. I did get rid of a few things while packing up the kitchen, and that includes all of my cookbooks and health/diet books.

There's a certain excitement in moving into a new kitchen and embracing the challenge of change.

We are now in the Jewish Month of Elul, the time of the year when we're supposed to make extra efforts to rid ourselves of sin, confess to Gd and try to live a more Torah Life. I see the parallels between Teshuva, Repentance and reordering my kitchen possessions and priorities.

Well over fifty years ago I made the momentous decision to live a Torah Life, while at the NCSY National Convention 1965. I've treasured the changes I've made ever since. It wasn'[t in the Month of Elul, but in a way I've been in the Elul State of Mind ever since.

May my new kitchen be used for good, for observing the mitzvot, chesed and smachot, Gd willing.

Rosh Hashanah Countdown, Teshuva Anytime

How many of you catch yourself saying something and wonder if it's really a nice or right thing to say? If so, does it happen more in Elul and the beginning of Tishrei than the rest of the year?

Think about it...

Be honest. Yes, like when we're wondering why we've been gaining weight we usually forget to consider/calculate the calories of all sorts of "small things" we "just tasted."

In actuality, Teshuva, Repentance is supposed to be a 24/7 job. How can we keep track of our sins if we reserve it for just a few weeks a year?

We should have a clean slate before dying, and we never know when that will be...

Gmar chatima tovah...

Mass Women's Prayers Before Rosh Hashanah

A week before Rosh Hashanah, three quarters through the Jewish Month of Elul, and this year's deadline to do Teshuva, repent to Gd is getting closer and closer. Some Jews have been going to Uman to the grave of Rabbi Nachman, but there are other Jews who don't like the idea of praying to dead man or traveling far from the Holy Land.

Last night was the humongous gathering of women, from young girls to grandmothers and great-grandmothers at Shiloh Hakeduma, Tel Shiloh. Prayers, tours, words of Torah and song. Rabbanit Yemima Mizrachi was the featured speaker, and Etti Ankori was the star entertainer.

Let the pictures speak, though they barely give the true spirit of the evening.

Almost Elul, Time for Teshuva, #BlogElul

The imabima has been blogging her #BlogElul and #ElulGram for quite a few years now. She takes various aspects Teshuva and assigns them to a day of the month of Elul.

Teshuva is translated as "Repentance," but what it really means is more complex. A few years ago, I attended a course by Rabbi Reuven Grodner in Pardess which taught us about the concept, the act of repenting and what it is for Jews.

Teshuva is multi-dimensional. It's not just a simple act of being "sorry." We must reach the level that if/when we find ourselves in the same sort of position, we now act properly and don't sin. Proper Teshuva demands a lot of growth and change in ourselves.

Teshuva is a never-ending process. None of us will ever be perfect enough to say that we no longer have to "do Teshuva."  As high a level we achieve in our spiritual quests, there's always a new challenge.

We must also remember that Teshuva is not reserved only for the Jewish Month of Elul, it's a process that should fill every single day of the year, Gd willing.

Elul, The Month of Repentance

This has been an awful summer for the Jewish People. The State of Israel has been under attack, children were kidnapped and murdered and the defensive war was stopped before we had done the job of destroying our enemies.

But our calendar, that very amazing Jewish Calendar that so accurately combines the solar and lunar cycles, keeps ticking on. It is now the month of Elul which is the month leading up to the holiest days of the year, Rosh Hashannah and Yom Kippur. In preparation, we must repent, and to do that we must reflect on everything we've done this past year, good and bad and try to make it better according to G-d's criteria. The very popular Jewish blogger, the "Bima Ima," has a wonderful way to do it, which she calls the #BlogElul .

I think it's a very good guide, especially for those of us who do not to shul daily for the Slichot Prayers. According to Jewish Law, there are mitzvot and their antonyms, sins, that affect not only our relationship with G-d but also our relationship between fellow man, other people. They can be public or private. If we sin against a person, it is just as serious, if not more so, than sinning against G-d. Repenting, apologizing and trying to undo the damage is all part of doing Teshuva, repenting. So I will begin this with the following:

I publicly apologize to anyone I may have wronged, whether willfully or unintentionally. I will do my best never to harm you again. Please forgive me.

And now, since it's the fifth day of Elul, I'll write a short reflection on the first five categories in the Bima Ima's chart.

1. Do: Starting the process of intense Teshuva is the hardest. I hope that this post will get the ball rolling for me and help others, too.
2. Act: Learning to act differently is difficult. This Month of Elul, thank G-d, I managed to work better with someone. That doesn't mean being socially friendly. It's being pragmatic. We don't have to love or like everyone, but we must know how to establish a working relationship. Acting can be superficial, but that doesn't mean that it's bad.
3. Bless: As a salesperson during the most stressful season, before school starts, I've been learning to bless the young customers which helps them and their stressed out parents leave the store feeling better.
4. Accept: Not only do I have to accept my limitations and make sure that people don't push me into going beyond, but I must accept and respect that others, too, can't do as much as I would like them to do. But accept does not mean that we must be lazy; we should still try to do more and stretch ourselves.
5. Know: The word "know," ידע from the Hebrew root of yud, dalet, eyin appears very significantly in the Bible. It's not an academic knowledge, it's more of an acceptance of G-d's power over everything. It's also a comprehension, seeing events in a multidimensional way. A leader without ידע true knowledge/comprehension/recognition of G-d makes horrendous and dangerous mistakes. We have to know and accept that it is G-d that makes the world go around. We have the Free Will to join or fight Him. It's our challenge to make the right decisions even when most difficult. I wish to bless our political leaders with this knowledge and the faith in G-d to act in the right way, do what must be done to rescue our embattled country, the State of Israel. I accept that they are weak humans, no better or stronger than me or anyone else. I am not in their position. May G-d strengthen them and forgive us all.

Please take on this challenge, too, and add or links via my comments, thanks.

-- Voted for Feiglin And Got Barak or The Jewish National Psychosis

Many Israeli voters are pro-Jews for Land of Israel, lots more than the numbers who voted for Ichud Le'umi, The National Union. The NU was the only political party not willing to compromise on our Jewish National Civil Rights.


Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu has no pride, endangering the country to please U.S. President Obama. What's the point of restricting Jewish life?



In all honesty, what's the difference between Bibi's policies and what Tsippi Livne and Ehud Barak support?

• Why have successive Israeli Governments, whether elected as Right, Left or Center given such authority to the United States?
• Why is our government negotiating with the United States about our basic rights as an independent country?
• What is wrong with us?

Ever since I began sending out my articles, and later on blogging and getting published in a few periodicals, I'm asked the same question:

Why aren't Israelis out in the street protesting?

There seems to be a serious national psychosis, personality disorder, which affects most Jews both in Israel and the galut, abroad.

Jews are always in the forefront of all civil rights protest movements, except when Jews are the victims!

Even though successive "gestures" to our enemies have only brought us terrorism and war, we keep trying to give them more.

Patriotic Israelis who support Jewish Rights in the Land of Israel voted for the Likud, even though Bibi Netanyahu made it clear that he was pushing "Center" policies and disenfranchising the more Right wing members of the Likud, especially Moshe Feiglin.

I'm a pragmatist, maybe simplistic in my logic. I see things clearly. I look at the facts, the actions. Don't try to sway me with theory and wishfulness. It just doesn't work on me. I'm probably a bad candidate for hypnosis.

My priorities are simple.

• The Land of Israel for the People of Israel, the Jewish People!
• We can't trust anyone but ourselves and G-d Almighty!

The Jewish Month of Elul, the preparatory month before Rosh Hashannah and Yom Kippur, the High Holidays, begins tonight.

Chodesh Tov

May it be a good month,

A month of Tshuva (Repentance) and Blessings.