When I was an Episcopalian growing up in Covina, California, we always ‘gave up’ something for Lent, that season before Holy Week when we were supposed to commemorate Jesus’ fasting in the wilderness for forty days (remind me some time and I’ll give you my thoughts on the use of numbers like three, seven, forty in the Bible).
I usually gave up chocolate; actually, I should say my mother gave up chocolate for me. I don’t remember the things she gave up; I can assure you, however, that my dad would have loved it if she’d given up her ‘charge-a-plate’ cards (what they used to call credit cards back in the Stone Age) for Lent.
When I was a grown-up Episcopalian I used to give up meat for Lent. I ate a lot of pita bread and Jack cheese and tuna and always lost some weight (after a while the boredom sets in but the shame of breaking Lent was greater than the desire for a Bob’s Big Boy).
When I grew away from Christianity and into the Judaism that has always been my soul’s home, there was no Lent. There was, however, Passover. For the first few years, Passover’s eight days made memories of Lent fond memories of….bread! No bread, no cupcakes, no crackers, no oatmeal, no cereal if it was made from leavened grains, no wheat, oats, rye, barley or spelt (spelt?) that wasn’t grown kosher, harvested kosher, and made into, you got it MATZAH!
Matzah brei, matzah kugel, matzah ball soup. Oy vey is mir!
But only eight days.
As I’ve learned more and more about Judaism, I’ve come to realize that we have our own Lent in reverse. We have a whole month of holidays called Elul, the month before the High Holy Days begins on One Tishrei with Rosh Hashanah.
Okay, we can do something with that. But then, of course, our Rabbi thought of a something first. Give up gossip for the month of Elul and take on one more positive thing we haven’t been doing before.
Do you know how fracking hard it is to give up gossip – lashon hara (tongue of evil) – for one day, let alone one month?
And what is this, a holiday month, in which I have to give up something? Aha (you have to say it ‘aaaachaaaah’ with that good Jewish ‘ch’)! That’s the trick. Not engaging in lashon hara is a mitzvah, a commandment, and every time you obey a commandment, it’s a yom tov, a good day. And you should celebrate all good days.
So here’s what a bunch of us decided: every time we engage in lashon hara (saying gossip or allowing someone to pass gossip), we put a quarter in our lashon hara jar.
So far, $17.50 and counting….
Monday, September 7, 2009
Hopes of an Early Fall
As most of you know, we’ve been plagued with early wild fires this year. They used to call them forest fires, but since the fires in California will burn anything they come in contact with, the better term is wild fires.
It’s been smoky and hot here for the past ten days or so and breathing clear air is at a premium. In my travels to serve as a Temporary Judge, I was in El Monte twice last week for the afternoon calendar. We talked about the big fire, of course, and our court interpreter noted that the kids from the two Catholic high schools in the Alta Dena area were all home after one day of school because of the smoke from the fire and the fear that the fire would come over the top of the mountain and reach the schools.
Thankfully it did not, but it’s just amazing to think how close we are, all along the foothill communities, to the danger of fire.
I’ve noticed, though, that the nights are getting a little cooler and the mornings a little damper. The evening sea breeze is cooler and five or six o’clock is a pretty pleasant time to be outside. It means fall is coming, and with it, more flying tennis balls around the bird feeder and greener grass in the front yard and the necessity of saying goodbye to the tomato and pepper plants that have supplied us with red and green feasting all summer. I imagine the birds and the bugs will miss them as much as we will!
Himself and I were just talking about whether or not to get a new washer and dryer and I told him I’d really rather spruce up our rather dilapidated patio and buy a new barbeque.
We spend too much time indoors, on the couch, on the computer (although with a wireless network and our net books, there’s no reason not to sit outside and follow our media).
I think some of this is from the fact that I haven’t yet fully returned from Israel. It made a profound impression on me about which I will write ever-so-many-posts in the next few weeks (particularly as soon as I learn to upload pictures to the blog).
So I’m hoping for an early fall; one in which the cooler air will infuse me with something other than heat fatigue and provide some fall-cleaning energy to inspire gatherings in our home as the colder weather sets in and we switch from smoker and grill to slow cooker and soup pot.
Less than 15 days until the Equinox….
As most of you know, we’ve been plagued with early wild fires this year. They used to call them forest fires, but since the fires in California will burn anything they come in contact with, the better term is wild fires.
It’s been smoky and hot here for the past ten days or so and breathing clear air is at a premium. In my travels to serve as a Temporary Judge, I was in El Monte twice last week for the afternoon calendar. We talked about the big fire, of course, and our court interpreter noted that the kids from the two Catholic high schools in the Alta Dena area were all home after one day of school because of the smoke from the fire and the fear that the fire would come over the top of the mountain and reach the schools.
Thankfully it did not, but it’s just amazing to think how close we are, all along the foothill communities, to the danger of fire.
I’ve noticed, though, that the nights are getting a little cooler and the mornings a little damper. The evening sea breeze is cooler and five or six o’clock is a pretty pleasant time to be outside. It means fall is coming, and with it, more flying tennis balls around the bird feeder and greener grass in the front yard and the necessity of saying goodbye to the tomato and pepper plants that have supplied us with red and green feasting all summer. I imagine the birds and the bugs will miss them as much as we will!
Himself and I were just talking about whether or not to get a new washer and dryer and I told him I’d really rather spruce up our rather dilapidated patio and buy a new barbeque.
We spend too much time indoors, on the couch, on the computer (although with a wireless network and our net books, there’s no reason not to sit outside and follow our media).
I think some of this is from the fact that I haven’t yet fully returned from Israel. It made a profound impression on me about which I will write ever-so-many-posts in the next few weeks (particularly as soon as I learn to upload pictures to the blog).
So I’m hoping for an early fall; one in which the cooler air will infuse me with something other than heat fatigue and provide some fall-cleaning energy to inspire gatherings in our home as the colder weather sets in and we switch from smoker and grill to slow cooker and soup pot.
Less than 15 days until the Equinox….
Sunday, September 6, 2009
It Says What It Says, Part I
It Says What It Says
A few weeks ago our Rabbi and his wife opened their home to us on Saturday morning for a study of the Torah. They wanted to do this for years, but there was Rabbi’s school and a toddler in the house and other things that needed to mature first. Now was the perfect time to start, and start we did.
Now studying Torah is what a Jew is supposed to do. And in one way or another, most Jews ‘engage’ in Torah study at some point in their lives and then they don’t. There are some fewer number of Jews who go on to study Talmud (you look it up, it’ll do ya good) and the more scholarly pursuits. THEN there are some who spend their lives studying Talmud and Torah; of those some are self-supporting and some – don’t get me started on THEM – live their lives on the charity of others and the support of the government while having many children. Feh!
Rabbi’s goal is to really sit down and study the Torah, all five books, one book, one chapter, one verse, one WORD at a time. Yup, one word at a time. So we started at Bereishit, Chapter One, Verse One, Word One. (A few words of explanation might be helpful here. There are five books that make up the Torah: Bereishit, which is also called Genesis, Shemot which is called Exodus, Vayikra, or Leviticus, Bamidbar, or Numbers, and Devarim, Deuteronomy. If the Hebrew names are new to you, you might want to write them down, as I do not refer to the English names.)
Okay. The next thing to learn is that Hebrew has no vowels. It’s all consonants. How do we know what vowel to put where? That’s another story for another post. We DO, however, do something with Hebrew that makes it easier for those who use the Latinate alphabet to learn; we transliterate. We use the Latin script to approximate the sound of the Hebrew.
Since I don’t have a Hebrew script writer, I’ll use the transliteration for the first verse to illustrate what happens when you go word by word:
Bereishit bara Elohim et hashamayim v’et ha’aretz. There are seven little words in that sentence but, oh, how much has been written about them over the centuries.
We aren’t going for the interpretation in our study sessions; we are going for the literal meaning of the Hebrew.
It’s a fascinating study because our modern society is so hell-bent-for-leather on having things all tidy and neat and politically correct that the true, literal words get lost.
Here it is, literally:
Bereishit: be=in, reishit=the head or beginning (rosh=head, beginning, leader)
bara: created (this is the divine, God-only type of creation, not one of the other two)
Elohim= one of the descriptives/names of God; that it is plural is interpretive, not literal
et hashamayim= the heavens; the use of et signifies particular heavens, THE heavens
v’et ha’aretz= THE earth, same construction
So this is how I spend my Saturday mornings.
I hope you’re not too bored, because I intend to post every week about this marvelous study we’re engaged in, so in between pontificating on things political, personal and philosophical, I’ll be sharing a little Torah with you.
A few weeks ago our Rabbi and his wife opened their home to us on Saturday morning for a study of the Torah. They wanted to do this for years, but there was Rabbi’s school and a toddler in the house and other things that needed to mature first. Now was the perfect time to start, and start we did.
Now studying Torah is what a Jew is supposed to do. And in one way or another, most Jews ‘engage’ in Torah study at some point in their lives and then they don’t. There are some fewer number of Jews who go on to study Talmud (you look it up, it’ll do ya good) and the more scholarly pursuits. THEN there are some who spend their lives studying Talmud and Torah; of those some are self-supporting and some – don’t get me started on THEM – live their lives on the charity of others and the support of the government while having many children. Feh!
Rabbi’s goal is to really sit down and study the Torah, all five books, one book, one chapter, one verse, one WORD at a time. Yup, one word at a time. So we started at Bereishit, Chapter One, Verse One, Word One. (A few words of explanation might be helpful here. There are five books that make up the Torah: Bereishit, which is also called Genesis, Shemot which is called Exodus, Vayikra, or Leviticus, Bamidbar, or Numbers, and Devarim, Deuteronomy. If the Hebrew names are new to you, you might want to write them down, as I do not refer to the English names.)
Okay. The next thing to learn is that Hebrew has no vowels. It’s all consonants. How do we know what vowel to put where? That’s another story for another post. We DO, however, do something with Hebrew that makes it easier for those who use the Latinate alphabet to learn; we transliterate. We use the Latin script to approximate the sound of the Hebrew.
Since I don’t have a Hebrew script writer, I’ll use the transliteration for the first verse to illustrate what happens when you go word by word:
Bereishit bara Elohim et hashamayim v’et ha’aretz. There are seven little words in that sentence but, oh, how much has been written about them over the centuries.
We aren’t going for the interpretation in our study sessions; we are going for the literal meaning of the Hebrew.
It’s a fascinating study because our modern society is so hell-bent-for-leather on having things all tidy and neat and politically correct that the true, literal words get lost.
Here it is, literally:
Bereishit: be=in, reishit=the head or beginning (rosh=head, beginning, leader)
bara: created (this is the divine, God-only type of creation, not one of the other two)
Elohim= one of the descriptives/names of God; that it is plural is interpretive, not literal
et hashamayim= the heavens; the use of et signifies particular heavens, THE heavens
v’et ha’aretz= THE earth, same construction
So this is how I spend my Saturday mornings.
I hope you’re not too bored, because I intend to post every week about this marvelous study we’re engaged in, so in between pontificating on things political, personal and philosophical, I’ll be sharing a little Torah with you.
Saturday, September 5, 2009
The Health Care Debate Just Sucks
First of all let me say I am not astro-turf, nor am I a member of any mob, but I AM fed up with the guilt trip the statists are trying to lay on me for my position on their push for socialized medicine.
I am, to use my youngest daughter's term, a grown-ass woman with more than the usual life experience. I've had great health care for about fifteen years now, and before that, no health care. We have never been poor enough to need MediCal nor have we been rich enough to pay it all ourselves.
I LIKE my health care provider, thank you very much, and I do not see why, as much as we hate Richarde Nixon and his era, we couldn't look back to him when he pushed for a Kaiser Permanente-type health care system. Yes, I have Kaiser. I consider that they saved my life, or at least extended it, even though I had to jump through two years of hoops to get what I thought was the best for me. I also am pleased with the way they've worked with us on Himself's health issues: they took no chances, kept him as long as they needed to determine the severity of his condition, and have steadily moved us toward the surgery he will be having to resolve his problem (a very common problem for a white male over 50, thank you).
I DON"T want anyone to die because s/he can't obtain emergency treatment or life-saving treatment, but, likewise, Himself and I pay a good chunk of change for our health insurance even with our employers picking up the major part of the tab.
It is not moral, ethical or legal for a government of strictly-limited power and authority to engage in the old socialist hack "From each according to his ability, to each according to his need." That's just crap.
I am prepared to engage in civil disobedience if it comes down to it to keep this country from sliding further into a statist, socialist morass where those who work are deprived of what they've earned and those who won't live off those who work.
I am, to use my youngest daughter's term, a grown-ass woman with more than the usual life experience. I've had great health care for about fifteen years now, and before that, no health care. We have never been poor enough to need MediCal nor have we been rich enough to pay it all ourselves.
I LIKE my health care provider, thank you very much, and I do not see why, as much as we hate Richarde Nixon and his era, we couldn't look back to him when he pushed for a Kaiser Permanente-type health care system. Yes, I have Kaiser. I consider that they saved my life, or at least extended it, even though I had to jump through two years of hoops to get what I thought was the best for me. I also am pleased with the way they've worked with us on Himself's health issues: they took no chances, kept him as long as they needed to determine the severity of his condition, and have steadily moved us toward the surgery he will be having to resolve his problem (a very common problem for a white male over 50, thank you).
I DON"T want anyone to die because s/he can't obtain emergency treatment or life-saving treatment, but, likewise, Himself and I pay a good chunk of change for our health insurance even with our employers picking up the major part of the tab.
It is not moral, ethical or legal for a government of strictly-limited power and authority to engage in the old socialist hack "From each according to his ability, to each according to his need." That's just crap.
I am prepared to engage in civil disobedience if it comes down to it to keep this country from sliding further into a statist, socialist morass where those who work are deprived of what they've earned and those who won't live off those who work.
Sunday, June 7, 2009
This year in Jerusalem
In less than a month I get on the big metal bird and fly off to Tel Aviv for twelve days in Israel. We'll arrive in time for dinner on July 2 and fly off shortly after midnight on the 13th.
This is a trip I've wanted to take for about fifty years, can't really afford it, but I'm going. Hubby wasn't interested in going at all, so I'm rooming with a friend of mine.
Our little congregation has been planning this for four years; we're celebrating our Rabbi's formal ordination (no more calling him our "acting Rabbi") and four or five women in our group of fourteen will become bat mitzvah at a ceremony in Jerusalem.
We'll be going on a camel ride and dining in a bedouin village, hiking up to the top of Masada, going up onto the Golan Heights where we'll be able to see Syria and Lebanon as well as Israel. We'll be swimming in the Dead Sea and the Sea of Gallilee, shopping for Druse glassware (some of the most beautiful and sturdy in the world), and candles in Safed (pronounced "S'fat").
I've a new camera and have spent time learning how to import and tag photos today. I need to practice with the camera (hubby spent 'way too much on it and the accessaories) so I can take some decent pix to attach here and make it a little more interesting.
Now, this is for my family:
I am not afraid to go to Israel. I WILL be traveling along and, maybe, in parts of the West Bank. I'm not going any where near Gaza (who would want to?). If you're nervous for me, get over it. I go to Compton, Pomona, El Monte, Bellflower and other places sane people hesitate to go, and even spend time in San Bernardino, one of the least safe cities in the U.S. I'm not worried, so don't you all be worried.
This is a trip I've wanted to take for about fifty years, can't really afford it, but I'm going. Hubby wasn't interested in going at all, so I'm rooming with a friend of mine.
Our little congregation has been planning this for four years; we're celebrating our Rabbi's formal ordination (no more calling him our "acting Rabbi") and four or five women in our group of fourteen will become bat mitzvah at a ceremony in Jerusalem.
We'll be going on a camel ride and dining in a bedouin village, hiking up to the top of Masada, going up onto the Golan Heights where we'll be able to see Syria and Lebanon as well as Israel. We'll be swimming in the Dead Sea and the Sea of Gallilee, shopping for Druse glassware (some of the most beautiful and sturdy in the world), and candles in Safed (pronounced "S'fat").
I've a new camera and have spent time learning how to import and tag photos today. I need to practice with the camera (hubby spent 'way too much on it and the accessaories) so I can take some decent pix to attach here and make it a little more interesting.
Now, this is for my family:
I am not afraid to go to Israel. I WILL be traveling along and, maybe, in parts of the West Bank. I'm not going any where near Gaza (who would want to?). If you're nervous for me, get over it. I go to Compton, Pomona, El Monte, Bellflower and other places sane people hesitate to go, and even spend time in San Bernardino, one of the least safe cities in the U.S. I'm not worried, so don't you all be worried.
Well, better late than never, I always say.
Thanks too all for the comments on theMarch post. It's not gotten any better out here. Of the six folks I saw with eviction cases one day last week, four involved foreclosures.
My latest information from the real estate world is that the banks who took the houses back -- whether they could have or should have worked with the former owners on saving the houses -- is that those same banks are holding on to the properties, parceling them out like rations to investors who will, guess what, turn into landlords.
Real estate brokers are selling houses but they have to sell twice as many to make the same amount in commissions and there are bidding wars for the reasonably-priced houses. One friend of mine and her family bid $40,000 over the listing price and they're still waiting to hear about how high the bidding might go.
Thanks too all for the comments on theMarch post. It's not gotten any better out here. Of the six folks I saw with eviction cases one day last week, four involved foreclosures.
My latest information from the real estate world is that the banks who took the houses back -- whether they could have or should have worked with the former owners on saving the houses -- is that those same banks are holding on to the properties, parceling them out like rations to investors who will, guess what, turn into landlords.
Real estate brokers are selling houses but they have to sell twice as many to make the same amount in commissions and there are bidding wars for the reasonably-priced houses. One friend of mine and her family bid $40,000 over the listing price and they're still waiting to hear about how high the bidding might go.
Sunday, March 29, 2009
Here Goes Nothing
Well, here we go, the first entry on the blog. As you can see, I am a greenhorn novice to all of this but since I always seem to have an opinion and no place to share it, I thought I'd start out here.
Today's topic, folks, is: Where is the TARP money going and who is getting it?
I have the good fortune to be pretty chummy with the attorneys who represent the people who are suing my clients; landlord-tenant law is like that. In talking to one landlord attorney who is also a buyer/renovator/landlord himself, he said that the buzz in the real estate world in California is that the banks are getting TARP money, building up their reserves and have begun holding back houses to drive up the price because people are starting to buy again.
SAY WHAT?
I checked this out with a broker friend of mine and she said that looks like what is happening.
The part of this scheme that ticks me off is that there are about 91,000 foreclosure houses sitting empty in San Bernardino and Riverside Counties but there are nowhere near that many listed for sale.
Both sheriff's departments are reporting that these empty houses are being gutted of fixtures, copper, carpet and anything else the vandals can carry off. THEN the houses are being used for drug deals and by squatters. The crime rate in neighborhoods rises proportionately to the number of derelict houses.
The way I see it: the banks need to list these houses for sale as soon as they are empty and cleaned up or the government needs to take back their TARP money.
I'd like to hear from you reading this. Maybe we can start a little grass-roots noise and get some attention. If it's happening in SoCal, it's happening elsewhere, too.
Today's topic, folks, is: Where is the TARP money going and who is getting it?
I have the good fortune to be pretty chummy with the attorneys who represent the people who are suing my clients; landlord-tenant law is like that. In talking to one landlord attorney who is also a buyer/renovator/landlord himself, he said that the buzz in the real estate world in California is that the banks are getting TARP money, building up their reserves and have begun holding back houses to drive up the price because people are starting to buy again.
SAY WHAT?
I checked this out with a broker friend of mine and she said that looks like what is happening.
The part of this scheme that ticks me off is that there are about 91,000 foreclosure houses sitting empty in San Bernardino and Riverside Counties but there are nowhere near that many listed for sale.
Both sheriff's departments are reporting that these empty houses are being gutted of fixtures, copper, carpet and anything else the vandals can carry off. THEN the houses are being used for drug deals and by squatters. The crime rate in neighborhoods rises proportionately to the number of derelict houses.
The way I see it: the banks need to list these houses for sale as soon as they are empty and cleaned up or the government needs to take back their TARP money.
I'd like to hear from you reading this. Maybe we can start a little grass-roots noise and get some attention. If it's happening in SoCal, it's happening elsewhere, too.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)