Seeing With New Eyes: Simchat Torah

What a difference one year can make!

This time last year I wrote about comparing my Daughter's mini Torah from her Consecration with that of my own from my Consecration. I had spent days considering endings and new beginnings. The reading of the last part from one Torah and immediately following, the reading of the creation story from our family's second Torah. It is said that each year we read the Torah again, but each time as if with new eyes. We are different people.

A year has passed and I am indeed a much different person.I have moved my office to a better location closer to my Daughter's school and our home. Our family time is simplified without the stress of a long commute. Our practice has Hospital partners in place, so I am called out for deliveries less often. I am a year further in my studies at Gratz. My Hebrew is improving. I am a different person in so many ways.

This Simchat Torah I was honored to be able to carry one of our Temple's Torahs in our celebration! It was the first time that I ever actually held a Torah, other than my mini Torah. An honor that I had not experienced even at the time of my Bat Mitzvah, nor at any Jewish camp or youth group event. I don't think that I ever really gave much thought to what I might have been missing.Not until this Friday that is.

As we were whirling and dancing around the Sanctuary, I heard the Cantor call my name along with three other names. As I ascended onto the Bimah and was handed this beautifully wrapped gift, my heart lept with joy. Singing and dancing through the Sanctuary was amazing: my precious daughter at my side and my partner nearby! Without a doubt, this brief snapshot in my life will be forever one of my most memorable.


My sentiment is not uncommon in this regard. I am following an interesting blog called The Wondering Jew (which I highly recommend) In her installment about experiencing Simchat Torah she expresses the same joy and lack of self consciousness: it is a good read that I highly recommend.

It can be found here:
http://wonderingjew.forward.com/207569/torah-mosh-pit-my-simchat-torah-experience/?utm_source=Sailthru&utm_medium=email&utm_term=WonderingJew_General&utm_campaign=WonderingJew%3A%20General%20%3ALast%20Chag%20before%20Hanukkah 

I am sharing these few photos of my daughter (dressed in white) and I from our Celebration. I hope that as we look ahead we all see the Torah with new eyes, find renewed meaning in our celebrations and form joyous new memories.

Lehitra'ot (see you later) Shalom (peace).




       

Anniversaries : Jewish ways to celebrate as we mark a special occasion

This week marks the happy occasion of this Blog's first " Birthday". For one, in retrospect very short year, I have attempted to research, review, read and write about contemporary events in life from a Jewish perspective including an educational component that would appeal to a wide range of individuals. I have spent an entire week reading different blessings, learning the structure of a blessing and learned ( no surprise here) that there are not blessings appropriate to "machshev" computers or computer based enterprises.

 Since the title of this blog is "studying Torah on the iPhone" and it is computer based,I thought simply that thanking HaShem for technology would work. Then I got to thinking about a story that I had to write for my Hebrew class this past year. My final thought was that after a "lifetime" of working a computer doesn't really die, it instead becomes extinct!
So, if it has a lifetime, and this blog was technically born, then this is truly it's  first Birthday.

During this past year I have become fond of a website called Ritual Well. It can be found at http://www. ritualwell.com . It is here that I read that one way to celebrate an anniversary or Birthday is to recite special prayers: Special times call for special blessings.

Sanctuaries and Summers

When I last posted I was knee deep in my 6 graduate hour Hebrew course. Which for anyone who is interested I passed with a great score and I am ready for round two in The fall semester... But first I get to open this wonderful gift called summer. While sitting in the Sanctuary at our second home, Temple Ahavat Shalom, in Palm Harbor, Florida, I pondered summers past and the idea of using the silent prayer, reflection time to consider the summers of my past. While I enjoyed many summers away at Jewish Summer camp, I had many other summers at Girl Scout camp. We learned all the traditional out door activities at both places: swimming, row boating, kayaking, sailboating, crafts, etc.. But during my many summers at Jewish camp I really learned about what a sanctuary was. The feeling of belonging. The quiet to disengage in. The being lost in your own thoughts. The protection from outside influences. The connecting with others with the same belief system and way of life. The songs and prayers and dances and customs that provided the groundwork for my life! My own sanctuary. Portable, plausible and plentiful. The tools have lasted my whole life. Now I study about the structure of the first stationary sanctuary. I learn about the story of Ruth and her mother in law Naomi and our holiday of Shavuot. Naomi was Ruth's first sanctuary. It is not surprising that she says,"where you go, I will go". Because even when they were no longer physically together, Ruth still had her sanctuary: her teachings that would last a lifetime.

Love Songs: A great way to learn Hebrew

February is flying by at the speed of light it seems. In our Hebrew Classes we are challenged each week by our Morah (teacher). We are making conversation, congugating verbs and writing in cursive. Much the way school children learn by repetition and determination we are mastering our language. One splendid weekly event is singing! As a child I hated singing, although I was pretty good at it.. If only my parents didn't keep comparing me to my Grandmother's operatic voice( which was also quite good- she was one of our Synagogue's soloist at the High Holidays). I didn't care for opera! Now however, I do enjoy listening to music and singing on occasion. So , in the same way that language binds a people, our songs bind us as a class. We are silly, off-tune and clumsy with our pronunciations and grateful for the "la-la-la's." Magically, with each song (Shir) we sing we accelerate our aquistion of our vocabulary and have fun doing it. As we appreciate the songs in thier own right, we also are learning more about Israeli pop culture and are beginning to feel like we too belong. Really, how cool is it to know of a cool music group that tours and has a website? Especially when your not a kid anymore? So in this blog I am going to provide the links for one of my current favorite groups: I thought I would like to share Gaya, an artist that can be found on ReverbNation. Here are some links to check them out. Profile Page Link: http://www.reverbnation.com/gayagroup Songs: http://www.reverbnation.com/artist/artist_songs/433401 Show Schedule: http://www.reverbnation.com/artist/artist_shows/433401 Videos: http://www.reverbnation.com/artist/artist_videos/433401 Photos: http://www.reverbnation.com/page_object/page_object_photos/433401 Never underestimate the power of a Love-Song. L'heat (cool for see you next time!)

Nak Hon, Lo Nak Hon: Correct, Not-Correct. Correcting Children & Derech Eretz

As you know from my last post, I am taking Hebrew this semester. It's pretty intense and given that my class is from 9-10 pm a couple of nights a week, after an already long day of being a Doctor and a Mom, I am never quite sure how much I am actually retaining. Well actually, up until yesterday morning, I wasn't sure how much. What event happened yesterday morning that assured me that I was retaining something, you may ask? The total melt down of my now 7 year old darling Daughter (DD)! Yup, over french toast which she spit out at me! I was accused between her tears, my screaming and her gulping for air, that I was trying to poison her! "you're trying to kill me she said (hysterically and dramatically), it tastes like MEAT!!" After trying to assure her that there was no meat in , on or around the pan that the french toast had come from and telling her about children in other countries who had nothing to eat (yes Mom I DID SAY THAT), she still refused to eat said french toast. We are not vegetarians, but DD prefers a meat-less diet. As my blood was boiling, over the lack of food in her tummy before school and her melt down, I screamed at the top of my lungs , "LO NAK HON!! LO NAK HON!!" at which point DD looked at me and stopped her hysterics and said perfectly calmly, " you don't make any sense you are so mad.. what did you say?" I said, " Lo Nak Hon!" , "It means this is not correct. Not acceptible. NOT, NOT, NOT." It wasn't acceptible to me that I went crazy because she spit out nourishing food, or that she spit it at me, or that she wasn't eating, or that she accused me of trying to poison her. Then it occured to me. I was getting it! Yippeee. Nakhon is correct in Hebrew when used as an adjective. And, Lo means NO. Nakhon comes from the root of (being) true. I laughed. And DD laughed and then she told me the french toast needed... Maple syrup!! When once applied, she ate! What I wasn't getting was that I needed to be teaching my DD about the concept of Derech Eretz. Derech Eretz is "the code of proper behavior that binds us to each other as human beings and as Jews. According to the midrash, derekh eretz "precedes" the Torah (Leviticus Rabbah 9:3). We can understand this to mean that even before we begin to do important things like study Torah and live in accordance with the mitzvot, we must live with derekh eretz. Helping your child to learn common decency and appropriated hehavior is crucial, and one of the most difficult parts of parenting." 1 In my case, not only did I forget the Maple syrup which should have preceeded the attempt at feeding my DD, I forgot what was age appropriate. As a good parent I needed to remind myself that a 7 year old needs more than 35 minutes to dress and eat in the morning and it was my responsibility to provide the setting where she could be successful in meeting my expectations for her in the morning. I want to teach my DD that there is always room for both of us to grow and change and be better people. This morning she had a full hour to dress, eat and get herself ready for school. There were no melt downs on either side. I was surprized and delighted when she said, "Nakhon?" and I replied, "Nakhon". We were both correct. So until my next post, no meat for us and lots of time and sweetness in all forms including maple syrup! _____ 1. www.myjewishlearning.com , Teaching Your Children about Derech Eretz. How to raise a family of mensches. by Sara Shapiro-Plevan, pulled from the internet Jan.30, 2014.

American Jews: Learn Hebrew!

Well, my Winter School Vacation from Gratz is almost over and accordingly I am back to blogging as well. It seems that even before the Pew Study was published this Fall, there has been an initiative to promote Hebrew literacy among American Jews. To be Jewish means different things to different people. Some of us are Jewish because we were born into a Jewish Family. Others have chosen to live as Jews. Some of us live a Jewish way of life and others don't. We are social, cultural or religiously Jewish, or identify ourselves as "other" - Jewish by name or genetics only. There is one thing though that does seem to bind a people together: a common language. In the case of American Jews according to a recent article in the Jewish Daily FORWARD, ONLY 10% OF US CAN CARRY OUT A CONVERSATION IN HEBREW! The article published Ddecember 03, 2013 by Julie Wiener can be found at http://www.forward.com/...initiative-promotes-hebrew-literacy-among-amer/. In Wiener's article she quotes Arnee Winshall, CEO of Hebrew at the Center,one of the groups who helped start the Hebrew Language Counsil of North America, who said, " Judaism in not just a religion, it's a people,.. and a language is part of what distinguishes a people." It is a sad statistic that even for kids who go to Jewish Day School, that less than 1/3 of students after 10 years of education can carry on a conversation in Hebrew. There are many excellent websites and apps available to learn Hebrew with if you don't have the luxury of being able to take a formal course at a Temple, JCC, college or university. For instance the apple app store has the following FREE apps: Learn Hebrew- Ma Kore, Learn Hebrew- Free WordPower, Learn Hebrew FREE AccelaStudy, Hebrew English Dictionary Box & Translator, Rabbi SHALOM 1 FREE-Learn Hebrew Blessings,Learn Hebrew (Speak & Write), Hebrew in a Month DH Free, Gus on the Go: Hebrew for Kids (which my darling daughter loves!), Learn Hebrew Flash Cards for iPad... well you get the idea. For those of you who would like to whet your Hebrew Whistle, I offer these few words to get you started. You can intersperse them with English and amaze your friends and neighbors with your emerging bi-linguality :-) boker- morning; Cain- yes; Dah-ven, to pray' E-rev, evening; KHE-sed, kindness; KOH-akh, strength; Lo, no; mah, what?; tov, good; tze-DAH- kah, righteousness, the root of charity; who, He; he, She; As for my Jewish Learning and Hebrew studies I have a full semester, all in Hebrew this spring for which I will need KOH-Akh (strength) and lots of it! Shabbat Shalom