Happy Whatever

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Blue moon, shmoo moon…..

People are really jazzed up about the blue moon occurring on New Year’s Eve. What is a blue moon, you may ask (besides a song that was featured in the movie of Grease, but not the Broadway production?) It’s the second full moon in one month.

I must admit, this hullaballoo reminds me that I find the Gregorian calendar just, well, stupid. There’s not much about Judaism that strikes me as logical, but the calendar? Very much so. Marking months by the phases of the moon — new moon means a new month, full moon means the middle of a month, and once again, back to a new moon and a new month — is so darn grounding in its predictability.

If I were going to make a New Year’s resolution (and how can I do that with my head held high after deriding the Gregorian calendar??) it would be to start following the lunar cycle with my girls – going outside, looking at the moon, and recording what we see. Make a fuss over rosh chodesh. (Currently, I make hard-boiled eggs. Really.)

Stay tuned to see if I keep the resolution I’m not making for the holiday I’m not celebrating.

Oh, and by the way, Happy New Year.

shaken, not stirred

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When tragedy hits (really) close to home

I’ve written before about my attempts to engender a sense of social responsibility in my daughters. We donate bags of food and clothes, as well as tzedakah money, to our local food bank, and they’ve helped distribute bags throughout the neighborhood for the annual “Stamp out Hunger” food drive. We’ve talked about poverty and homelessness as pressing, and very local, issues, but at the same time I’ve always reassured them that papa and I have  good (enough) jobs, and that we have lots of friends and family who would help us out if we were ever in trouble. I don’t think talking about those in need has ever caused them to worry about having a roof over their heads or food to eat, and I consider that a good thing.

A few days ago, our small community was hit with a tragic wave of arson – nine or more fires were set in a neighborhood a stone’s throw from ours (pretty much all neighborhoods here are a stone’s throw from each other….) – 2 people were killed, and several families lost their homes. One of those families is part of the Jewish community, and I taught with the mom at the Hebrew school last year.

I’ve been riveted to my computer, trying to find any information I can about what I can do to help. I’ve gathered up a bag of clothes for my former colleague, who wears about the same size as I do, and am awaiting more lists of what is needed. The community is working impressively hard to gather and disseminate information about how we can help one another.

I’m torn about whether or not to share any of this with my daughters. On the one hand, I want them to see how people reach out and band together when a neighbor (or entire neighborhood) is hurting. I want them to see that their parents are a part (albeit a very tiny part) of this effort. I want to do all I can to make sure this kind of response becomes second nature to them as they grow up. At the same time, I don’t want to scare the crap out of them. Because of course, this could happen to them. That is, to us. And because we’re all a little on edge around here, I’m not prepared to field their possible questions with the breezy confidence I feign in the face of queries about other, less imminent, threats.

So far, I’ve mentioned that someone we know had a house fire. I added quickly that no one was hurt – and exclaimed something really stupid and cheerful like “It’s so great that we all have smoke detectors!”

A little later in the day, Ella caught me alone in the kitchen. “You know that fire that happened to your friend?” she asked quietly. “How did it happen?”

I thought for a moment about what to say. “I don’t know,” I lied.

But on second thought, I have no fucking idea how something like this could happen, so I guess I wasn’t lying after all.

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Announcing a contest!

red rabbi and his lulav

My dear friend Danielle had a great idea for a blog post. As it happens, I’m not nearly creative enough to pull it off myself. The idea came from a conversation we were having this morning on the phone, in which she asked me if I had a Christmas tree cookie-cutter. I joked that I didn’t, but I had a Tu B’shevat cookie cutter that I thought would do the trick.

Her suggestion: write a blog post about how to use clearance Christmas merchandise to celebrate Jewish holidays. It reminded me of a story I once read (can’t remember the source) about an insulated community in Israel where the children decorated their sukkahs with santa claus ornaments. When asked who the bearded fellow was, they excaimed delightedly “It’s the red rabbi!”

Prize for the most creative answer – a set of 10 beautiful alef-bet postcards designed by my first grade students:

Entries due by Jan 1 – good luck!

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Limmud NY

For the first time ever, I’m going way for a long weekend. Without my kids. To learn Torah. I am so, so, totally excited.

I’m going to Limmud NY, a “gathering, a festival, and a retreat from daily life. Over MLK weekend, January 15-18, 2010 hundreds of people will be studying, eating, singing, praying and relaxing together in one of the most diverse Jewish communities in the world.”

Woo-hoo!

Any readers going to be there? (Oh, and anyone need a roommate?)

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Jewish. Goyish.

Let me start by saying that I love my in-laws. They are wonderful people who have been not only tolerant, but supportive, of our Jewish family. They send high holiday and Hanukkah cards, prepare vegetarian meals for us, and attend grandparent events at Ella’s Jewish Day School. They even offered to make a donation to her school this year.

With this in mind,  allow me to comment on our choice of holiday gifts for one another.

In Laws’ Hanukkah gift to me:

these long-burning jars provide hours of true fragrance enjoyment

My Christmas gift to them: soup.

Really. Three half-gallon containers of homemade soup. I’m making the chicken soup right now.

Jewish. Goyish. And never the twain shall meet.

(If you don’t already know the Lenny Bruce monologue by heart, you can read it here.)

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Peace Oil – olive oil just got even better

From another former Mosh-nik, David Sokal. Thanks, Judi, for the heads up about this worthy project. (Oh yeah Mosh, you look so good to me…..)

I sell a very special olive oil for Jews and anyone else who cares about peace and Israel: Peace Oil.

Read my Hanukkah web page at

http://www.peaceoil.net/html_1/gift_hanuka.html

Make sure to turn up your speakers to hear the hanukkah music. The music is part of a Flash presentation that appears at the top of the page. The whole idea behind the page is to show how olive oil is a link between Jews and Palestinians, between Judaism and Islam.

Explore the website to learn more about this one-of-a-kind project and product. Let me know what you think:dsokal@peaceoil.net.

I have been selling Palestinian olive since Sept. 2006. I buy it from three fair trade groups two of which are Israelis working with Palestinian farmers. See http://www.peaceoil.net/html_1/israeli_groups.html.

The third group, Canaan Fair Trade, is owned and operated by Palestinians in Jenin. They buy olive oil from 1700 West Bank farmers. They are now the largest exporter of Palestinian olive oil. See http://www.canaanfairtrade.com.

There’s still time to order for Hanukkah (or for gifts for non-Hanukkah celebrating friends, family and co-workers).

Happy Hanukkah!

David

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Tis the season for olive oil

Thanks to my brother Tom for a guest post on Olive Oyl olive oil:

My friend Mike is a connoisseur of olive oils. He can taste an olive oil and tell you the oil’s country of origin, the blend of olives used, the time of year the olives were harvested, the type of stone used to press the olives, and other such arcana. Now that my sister has asked me to write something about olive oil for her blog, I wish I had paid closer attention to Mike when he was discussing his fixation, because I don’t know a whole lot about olive oil, truth be told.

I do know what I like, though. What I like is rustic olive oils that taste really olive-y. Wait, you might ask, don’t all olive oils taste olive-y? Isn’t that the point of olive oil? There is, in fact, a surprising variety of olive oils. Some are buttery, some are peppery, some are delicate, some are lemony… you get the idea. They taste different, and not always all that olive-y.

My olive oil of choice is Novello di Macina from Barbera. I’ve been told it’s the first pressing of the year (hence “novello”), which makes it the Beaujolais Nouveau of olive oil, except that Beaujolais Nouveau is vile and monochromatic and Novello di Macina is awesome and nuanced. It is robust and delicious, like distilled olives. The stuff usually appears in stores around this time of year and lasts a month or two. Then it’s gone until next year. I buy two bottles as soon as they arrive, and they last me through the year.

Novello costs about $30 a bottle. That makes it my ‘good’ olive oil, meaning I use it to dress salads and to finish cooked vegetables and pasta dishes. I’ll also use it in uncooked dips such as skordalia and taramosalata.

Olive oils lose their distinctive qualities during long cooking, so I use a cheaper olive oil for sautéing. Usually I just buy a jug of extra virgin olive oil from the Costco. It’s cheap and it’s perfectly fine for cooking.

Finally, do not call extra virgin olive oil ‘E V O O.’ Please. The whole point of an abbreviation is to abbreviate. It takes about as long to say extra virgin olive oil as it does to say E V O O, and the former does not bear the mark of the beast. The latter does. Thank you.

link for olive oil: http://www.pastacheesestore.com/banothmaoloi.html

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Have an oily Hanukkah

Every year, I spend a few weeks drooling over boxes of fancy-schmancy Hanukkah candles – you know, the beautiful beeswax, hand-dipped kind that don’t look like fruit-flavored twizzlers. I ruminate for a good long time over whether or not to spend $10-$15 on each box of candles. Then, before I know it, it’s about five minutes before Hanukkah starts, and I’m forced run over to the supermarket and buy the fifty cent variety. With at least 5 broken candles per box guaranteed. So much for hiddur mitzvah.

This year, a children’s book reminded me of another beautiful, and perhaps even better, way to fulfill the mitzvah of lighting the chanukkiyah. Harvest of Light, a non-fiction book by Allison Ofanasky, tells the story of how olive oil is made, as it follows one Israeli family from olive harvest to the Hanukkah table, explaining the process with simple language and beautiful photographs. What I love about the book is that it explains an important question raised, but rarely answered, by the original Hanukkah story. Why did that small flask of  oil have to last for eight days? Why would it take so darn long to squeeze little oil from some olives? Now, we know.

The book also reminded me that while oil is arguably the central symbol of the holiday, it usually plays a fairly limited role in our observance, as a medium for frying latkes and doughnuts. I don’t know about you, but when I’m eating fried foods, the miracle of Hanukkah is not foremost in my mind – it’s somewhere far behind clean-up, calories, and yum (but not Yum-o.)So, this year I’m determined to make our celebration a little more olive-oily.

Tonight, the first night of Hanukkah, falls on Erev Shabbat, which means that the menorah should be lit early and last longer. The perfect opportunity to light an olive oil menorah. Tonight, we’re filling two shot glasses with water, olive oil and floating wicks, and lighting a menorah that will, I hope, actually remind us of the lamp in the Beit Hamikdash. Plus, I don’t need to run to the store, because we always, always, have plenty of olive oil in the house. (Pictures to follow!)

To further the mitzvah of “publicizing the miracle” I’ve also decided to buy bottles of gourmet olive oil as Hanukkah gifts for the adults who are celebrating with us this year. To that end, I’ve asked my brother, professional writer and non-professional foodie, to write a guest post on fine olive oils. (Not, mind you, F-I-N-E-E-V-O-O.) I’ll post it later today, because, you know, I’m late to work.

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The Giving Tree in Ashland – a follow up

I blogged a few days ago about my friend’s decision to remove a Christmas tree from the school where she recently became principal. The letters to the editor in the local newspaper have been overwhelmingly nasty, and mostly not worthy of rebuttal. A few would be entertaining, if only they weren’t so darned depressing. Here’s one, apparently penned by the guy recently featured in The Onion, under the headline “Area Man Passionate Defender Of What He Imagines The Constutition To Be.”

Michelle Zundel, you are a disgrace to your school, community, our state and our country. The U.S. is a country of freedom of speech and religion. You are breaking the law! I, as well as many of my coworkers agree you are violating our Constitution and our freedom in the name of public education.

I also liked this one, whose author reminded me of a cross between Ed Anger and Lazlo  Toth:

…those offended by the innocuous tree display …can either “suffer in silence” or they can find themselves a place to live that does not bother their sensitivities. I remind them that the United States was founded as a Christian nation with our freedoms, and especially with freedom of religion, as principle rights. We do not compromise their rights to worship as they choose, nor are they free to compromise our rights therein. That is what freedom means! The giving tree display is simply a symbol of our charity. Making it otherwise, and making us bow in acquiescence to their request to remove it, is disgustingly short-sighted. Even worse, it is wrong!

(It does bring up an interesting philosophical question, though. Is “wrong” actually worse than “disgustingly short-sighted”? Talk amongst yourselves.)

Apparently, the tree went back up today. I haven’t read more about it or spoken to Michelle. But I did write my own letter to the paper, since the Jewish community in Ashland seems to be holding its collective tongue so far. Here it is:

There’s No Such Thing As A Holiday Tree

As a former Ashland resident and employee of the Ashland School District, I’ve been following the debate at Bellview with great interest. Christmas is a beautiful holiday with many wonderful traditions. As a parent of a Jewish family, I welcome invitations to the homes of friends and extended family who celebrate the birth of Jesus so that my young daughters can learn more about other religions. I understand that living in a country with a Christian majority also means that my daughters will see Christmas celebrated in malls, grocery stores, and almost every other private institution we visit, and I have no problem explaining to them why this is the case. However, I do expect that when they enter a public school or other government building, they should find an environment that reflects all, not just some, of the American people. Why dilute our rich religious traditions? Let’s display our beautiful menorahs, Christmas trees, Diwali lights, and all the other observances in our melting pot with pride and joy – in our homes, our places of worship, and our private institutions. And to those who believe that generosity can only be symbolized by a tree, I suggest it’s time the public schools teach more about why giving to those in need is an American tradition, not limited to one culture, or one time of year.

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