Saturday, April 27, 2024

Sunday the 28th

 



                MILK!  COWS!  DAIRY!  

1.      All 50 states in the U.S. have dairy farms.

 

2.      U.S. dairy farms produce roughly 21 trillion gallons of milk annually.

 

3.      Dairy farmers are paid by the gallon.  

 

4.      Less than 50%  percent of all U.S. households purchase milk.

 

5.      The average American consumes almost 25 gallons of milk each year.

 

6.      It takes 1 pound of milk to make one pound of cheese.

 

7.      It takes 12 pounds of whole milk to make one gallon of ice cream.

 

8.      It takes 21.8 pounds of milk to make one pound of butter.

 

9.      The average dairy cow weighs about 14,000 lbs.

 

10.   Cows have  64 teeth, 32 on the bottom, 32 on the top, most of them are molars. 

 

11.    Cows have an stunted  sense of smell, and can only smell something less than six feet away.

 

12.   A cow eats 90–100 pounds of food and drinks about 35 gallons of water (the equivalent of a bathtub full) every day.

 

13.   A cow spends about 6 hours eating every day.

 

14.   There are approximately 90 million dairy cows in the U.S.

 

15.   Only 15% of the calcium needs of the U.S. population are supplied by milk and dairy products.

 

16.   Cows can not see the color blue as they lack the blue “cone” or retina receptor. 


 

What's a SHEVUOS?   

 

https://www.bimbam.com/judaism-101/shavuot/

Hebcal and the time to get sad in summer

             

 

 

YOM KIPPUR

TISHA B’AV

MINOR FAST

START TIME

Sunset

Sunset

Sunrise

END TIME

Sunset

Sunset

Sunset

Eating or drinking?

 Duh.

No

Guess.

Working

No

Hope not

Yes

Leather Shoes

No

No

Yes

Perfume or Cologne

No

No

Yes

Greeting People

Yes

No

Yes

Torah Study

Yes

No

Yes

Bathing

No

No

Yes


Calendar Period leading up to 9th of Av

Practices to get sad

 (some do all, most do some)

 

The Three Weeks (17th of Tammuz to 9th of Av)

No weddings (pretty universal),

No live music,  

No haircuts

The Nine Days (from Rosh Chodesh Av)

The above,  plus:

no eating meat,

no wine or grape juice (aside from Shabbat), no planting seeds or saplings,

no shaving,

no new decorating the home.

The week where Tisha B’av falls

Shavuah She’khal Bo                    

The above, plus:

no swimming or bathing for pleasure,

no freshly laundered or dry cleaned clothes,

no buying new clothes

         




 

  איכה!?  Aichah!? How can it be!?

That lonely sits the city, once teeming with people!

She that was great among nations is as a widow.

Great among the nations, A princess among states, become a prisoner!

 

She weeps and weeps in the night, her cheek wet with tears,

There is none to comfort her among all her friends.

All her allies have betrayed her; they have become her foes!

 

Judah has gone into exile because of misery and harsh oppression;

When she settled among the nations, she found no rest,

All her pursuers overtook her in between one narrow place and the next.

 

Zion’s roads are in mourning, empty of those coming for the festivals;

 All her gates are deserted, her priests sigh,

 her maidens are anxious, all is bitter to her.

 

Her enemies are now the masters, her foes are at ease,

because Adonai has afflicted her for her many transgressions; 

Her infants have gone into captivity before the enemy.

 

Gone from the daughter of Zion are all that were her glory, her leaders were like stags that found no pasture;  They walked without strength before the hunter. 

 

Jerusalem recalled,  in her days of longing  and misery, all her precious things

 that she had from days of old. When her people fell by enemy hands with none to help her, her enemies looked on and made sport over her downfall!


              

Community

 

Eastern Ashkenazi

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z142bdJp5-Y

Iraqi/Baghdadi

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L3i1HQ27ScY


Morroccan

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pHYMH_YjgoA

Yemenite Choral

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L1gNVpHsEGQ

S&P

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wAu4SGfuCPE Eicah starts  at 16:10

 

 

 

          Tu B’av- The Jewish Alternative to Saint Valentine and his day- 

a.   Original: 

אָמַר רַבָּן שִׁמְעוֹן בֶּן גַּמְלִיאֵל, לֹא הָיוּ יָמִים טוֹבִים לְיִשְׂרָאֵל כַּחֲמִשָּׁה עָשָׂר בְּאָב וּכְיוֹם הַכִּפּוּרִים, שֶׁבָּהֶן בְּנוֹת יְרוּשָׁלַיִם יוֹצְאוֹת בִּכְלֵי לָבָן שְׁאוּלִין, שֶׁלֹּא לְבַיֵּשׁ אֶת מִי שֶׁאֵין לוֹ. כָּל הַכֵּלִים טְעוּנִין טְבִילָה. וּבְנוֹת יְרוּשָׁלַיִם יוֹצְאוֹת וְחוֹלוֹת בַּכְּרָמִים. וּמֶה הָיוּ אוֹמְרוֹת, בָּחוּר, שָׂא נָא עֵינֶיךָ וּרְאֵה, מָה אַתָּה בוֹרֵר לָךְ. אַל תִּתֵּן עֵינֶיךָ בַנּוֹי, תֵּן עֵינֶיךָ בַמִּשְׁפָּחָה. שֶׁקֶר הַחֵן וְהֶבֶל הַיֹּפִי, אִשָּׁה יִרְאַת ה' הִיא תִתְהַלָּל (משלי לא). וְאוֹמֵר, תְּנוּ לָהּ מִפְּרִי יָדֶיהָ, וִיהַלְלוּהָ בַשְּׁעָרִים מַעֲשֶׂיהָ.

Rabban Shimon ben Gamliel said: There were no days as joyous for the Jewish people as the Fifteenth of Av and as Yom Kippur!

 

 For on them the daughters of Jerusalem would go out in white clothes, which each woman borrowed from another. Why were they borrowed? They did this so as not to embarrass one who did not have her own white garments.  [Borrowed garments would not only have concealed who was poor but who was wealthy.]

 

And the daughters of Jerusalem would then go out and dance in the vineyards [under a full moon]. And what would they say? “Young man, please lift up your eyes:  what are you looking for? Don’t give yourself to the sight of beauty, but set your eyes toward a (woman from a)  good family!” As the verses in the book of Mishlei/Proverbs state: Grace is deceitful and beauty is vain, but a woman who fears the Lord, she shall be praised (Proverbs 31:30), and it further says: Give her the fruit of her hands, and let her works praise her in the gates (Proverbs 31:31). 

 

b.    Modern:  https://www.timesofisrael.com/eat-pray-and-love-on-tu-bav/

צָפוֹן

Tzafun

Tzafon

Tzapun

Tzapon

Harpoon!

 

 דָּרוֹם

Dadom

Dadoom

Darom

Daroom

Harpoon!

 

 

 

 מִזְרָח

Mizerach

Mayzerach

Mizrach

Mizracha

Mariachi

 

 מַעֲרָב

May’erev

Ma’arav

May’arav

Me’erev

Ma Aravi

 

 מֶרְכָּז

Mercaz

Meercaz

Merecaz

May’recaz

Mayer Kaz

 

 חוף.

Hof

Huf

Chof

Chuf

Hope.

 

 רַכֶּבֶת.

Rekeves

Rekevet

Rakavat

Rakevet

Harpoon!

 

מָטוֹס.

Matus

Matis

Matos

Masot

Mascot

 

 

 כְּבִישׁ מָהִיר.

Keveesh Mayhar

Keveesh Mahir

Kevees Mayhar

Kevees Mahir

Keanu Meeves

 

 סִירָה.

Goat

Note

Boat

Moat

Rote

 

 מִנהָרָה.

Meenehara

Meenhara

Mehnehara

Meenhar

Menhara

Harpoon!

 

 

 רַכֶּבֶת קַלָּה

רַכֶּבֶת תַּחְתִּית.

 

Light Rail and Subway

Subway and Local Train

Subway and Light Rail

Subway and Express Train

Subway and Harpoon!

 

 

 

 


Thursday, April 25, 2024

The World's largest Matzo Ball, Count the Homer, and Dew the right thing

 



This is the world's largest matzo ball.  for more info:  https://www.mashed.com/833376/this-is-the-worlds-largest-matzo-ball/


         

I)              COUNTING THE HOMER?

Let’s take a look at counting the omer as explained by homercalendar.net ,  a most excellent site for learning about Judaism,  the Simpsons, and more.

www.homercalendar.net

 


 


 

 

 

II)           TEFILAH: TAL

 A) The Big Moment with Chazan Azi Schwartz   https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6Nog89HrOpE

B)    What is with the fancy hat?    https://philippi-collection.blogspot.com/2011/10/jewish-cantors-hat.html  .  They are still made.   https://www.eichlers.com/chazans-cantors-hat-black-or-white.html

C)    What is a kittel?  https://www.myjewishlearning.com/article/kittel/

D)    Summing it all up-The Prayer for Dew | My Jewish Learning

E)    Water in the middle east: 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=taMWUjda3fA



Saturday, April 20, 2024

Hallel Made Easy and a few other things

 

Hallel Made Simple

HALLEL IS six of our ancestor’s prayers known as Teheilim/Psalms (#'s113–118), which are recited as a unit in Synagouge in the morning, on joyous occasions including the Three Pilgrimage Festivals mentioned in the Torah  (Passover (Pesach), Shavuot, and Sukkot,)  as well as at Hanukkah and Rosh Chodesh (beginning of the new month). It is also recited in the Passover seder,  the first two psalms before the 2nd cup of wine and the rest after Birkat Hamazon.

Most of it is sung to happy melodies.

Here’s one Psalm that is part of Hallel in Haggadah- Psalm #114,  “Bitzeyt Yisrael /Mah lecha Hayam”, from a bunch of different times and melodies.  Think of three words you would use to describe each one.

          https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EN8bCwhIyFw

          https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j5UbEMO2Fwo

          https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L48-yy-eZPU  at 2:12

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3kYL9pDNwYc

          https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XFrbPMzeBd8


To read this part of the Haggadah in Hebrew,  take a look at

https://www.sefaria.org/Psalms.114?lang=he



Time allowing:  Give a lsiten to the great Jo Amar,  singing a very Catchy a moroccan chad gadya         37:07

          https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9sFT5yVEVFU


Thursday, April 11, 2024

That's not the way the Seder should be, is it?

 


            The question is not how does it look, but what does it say? 

 

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------




WHAT’S WRONG WITH THIS DESCRIPTION OF THE SEDER?

This is one version of the Passover seder.  Is it correct and accurate?  Write down  what you think it gets wrong.

 %%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%

“Then, it’s time to  pour the second cup of wine.  Once that is done, the kids questions the grownups about the Seder. 

"Now if a kid doesn’t know enough  to ask their  own questions,   the parent teaches them how to ask questions at  a seder, (like this):  What makes this night different from all other nights?  On all other  nights, we eat leavened and unleavened bread, but on this night, we eat only unleavened bread.  On all other nights, we eat all kinds of vegetables, but on this night, we eat only bitter herbs.  On all other nights, we eat meat roasted, broiled or boiled, but on this night, we eat only roasted meat.  On all other nights, we dip vegetables once, but on this night, we dip vegetables twice.  And the parent teaches how to ask questions according to the kid’s  brainpower.

"Then Seder leader beings answering the questions with the story of Israel’s shameful start as a people and concludes with Israel’s fabulousness, and makes Midrash on the Torah from “Arami Oved Avi-- My father was a wandering Aramean” until the end of that whole passage [from Devarim/Deuteronomy].

 %%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%


The Mishnah is the foundation of Judaism after the fall of the 2nd Temple and the first code of Jewish law after the Torah itself. 

 It is the Oral tradition that began at Mount Sinai saved into written form. All of Judaism as we know it,  from ancient to modern times, is based on the two Talmuds (Bavli and Yerushalmi), and the Talmud, in turn, is based on the Mishnah.  

The Mishnah not just a code of law; it is a record of how Judaism came to be where it is, a story of sages and students, and a way of looking at the world.  To study the Mishnah is to study the echoes of God's voice that ripple from Mount Sinai each and every day.



MISHNAH--  PESACHIM 10:4