September 27, 2011
If you missed the 7:00 p.m. broadcast of the interview of Joe Rosenstein by "Radio 613", you can hear it on the CFRC archive at http://cfrcradio.com/blog/programming/archive .
On the pull-down menus, enter "2011", "09" and "26", and, for the time, "19:00" (which apparently is Canadian for 7:00 p.m.). The interview begins 10 minutes into the program. The Machzor can be purchased here. September 28, 2011 It's a good day. That is, any religious holiday is called "a good day" around here (Of course it is clear that men make the language decisions, because for women there's soo much to do.). The new year is one of the good days. And we're going to be celebrating for the next four and a half days for sure. It's one dinner after another - no matter that I'm still recovering, no matter that we won't be seeing much of the synagogue, no matter that the master pathologist is still relaxing somewhere in Portugal and whatever he says determines our plans for the next six months at least. But, as my brother has written, there are fish to be gefilted, chicken to be souped... It's amazing that there is a holiday where your whole life begins over. You can start new - old enemies can be made into friends, old compulsions can be just broken, old governments can be revised. But we're starting off all wrong - with enemies that we have helped make ourselves. Who are you supposed to make up with if not your enemies? So my tsimmes is different from my mother's only in that I added prunes and sweet potatoes instead of potatoes and raisins. And spices - ginger, cinnamon, nutmeg. And salt and pepper. Tonight we're doing fish and tomorrow a stuffed shoulder. kugel. salad. And compote. Fruit Salad. Honey cake according to today's Haaretz recipe and old fashioned chocolate chip muffins. Fish is bottled fish disguised to look real. May this New Year be filled with love and giving.
September 29, 2011 Nobody fell for the fish, And of course I spilled the beans immediately. Which reminds me. This is the first year I ever heard about the new year "seder" where you eat all kinds of things like beans and fish and leeks and beets and carrots because their names in Hebrew can be linked to words that can be included in blessings for the new year. It was fun doing, and the whole ceremony at the dinner table brought out a wonderful conversation, but I can't take it seriously. It's like a substitute for prayer. Still, just hearing the shofar on an iphone add-on has an effect at this time of year.
October 1, 2011 "Did you make it through?" my friend asks as if Rosh Hashana was Yom Kippur. In truth, we are quite exhausted. One friend and group of relatives after another, and Ezi seems to be even more tired than usual. I mean almost four days of endless holiday is too much. Tomorrow let's hope the pathologist has time to look at the biopsy. Are you expecting me to say something wise about the world? Look at how crazy it is - take just one thread of what's going on for example in American policy. Some guy shows his private parts on his iphone and sends them all over the place and gets booted out of congress, causing a little election. the Jewish population send a message to the president about his Israel policies by electing a republican in his place. The president reacts by giving a pro Israel speech in the UN, and the day after in response Israel declares new settlements by Gilo. and none of this has to do with the real situation, the real people involved. It's true for almost everything - the little, irrelevant details determine what really happens in the world.