I just love this message from Rabbi David Booth of Kol Emeth in Palo Alto. Don’t make your introspection on the High Holy Days negative, find the joy. It is Good to be Joyful I feel the need to advocate for joy this week. We’re entering a time traditionally associated with introspection. Yet too often…
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Parents’ divorce set young Jew adrift at the Holidays
The High Holy Days can bring up some intense feelings for every Jew. One young man contacted me with a unique issue around the Holidays – his interfaith parents’ divorce and the subsequent lack of clarity about his status. My dad is Jewish and my mom converted before they got married. Her conversion was…
Read More »May You Be Inscribed for a Good Year
A wonderful message from Rabbi Larry Milder of Beth Emek in Pleasanton – with both heart and humor. I couldn’t say it any better. Happy 5774! God Writes a Blog At the beginning of the Jewish New Year, it is customary to greet one another with a special wish: L’shanah tovah tikatevu, may you be…
Read More »Sunken Apple Tart for Rosh Hashanah
From Kosher by Design, one of the books in the fabulous cookbook series by Susie Fishbein The wonderful and talented Paige Kaplan made it for our Rosh Hashanah cooking class at Beth Am in Los Altos. Makes 8-10 servings Ingredients: 1/3 cup honey 2 tablespoons fresh lemon juice 3 medium Granny Smith or Rome…
Read More »Rosh Hashanah Bird Rolls
Why Bird Shapes? According to “Joan Nathan’s Jewish Holiday Cookbook” (Schocken, 2004), bird-shaped challah rolls, called feygelekh (Yiddish for “little bird”) symbolized “the protection of God’s people as stated in Isaiah 31:5: ‘As birds hovering [over their fledglings], so will the Lord of hosts protect Jerusalem.’” Another interpretation, offered by Linda Burghardt in “Jewish Holiday…
Read More »Dulce de Manzana – a Rosh Hashanah Treat
Dulce de Manzana (sweet apple) 3 cups sugar 1 ½ cups water 2 pounds apples – Jonagold, Gala or Delicious (I used different apples and it all turned out fine) Juice of ½ lemon 1 tablespoon rose water Place the sugar and water in a 3-quart saucepan and bring to a boil over medium heat….
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