Rebbetzin Rachel's Alaska Cruise Blogging!

The trip so far is an amazing combination of viewing the wonders of the natural world and praising Hashem for the glorious creation and deep connections with the wonderful people who have been hosting and attending our teachings and Shabbat experience. Today as we were sailing at 25 knots out at sea after leaving Seattle we were in the lobby where they were playing a "name that tune game". We correctly identified Bob Dylan's - the answer my friend in blowin' in the wind" when I spotted a whale spout and then a fluke (whale tails) up in the air above the rippling silver ocean waves and then more spouts until there were 40-50 flukes dancing in the air. All the people in the lobby ran to the windows to ooh and aah, us included.
More to come soon!

Modern Times and the Crises in Relationships

In a recent discussion with my good friend George Gumbiner he pointed out a certain crises in relationships and self identity that seems to exist in society and in so many areas of our lives. This ambivalence manifests in many ways: in the growing confusion surrounding sexual identity, the weakening of family ties, the distrust in big government and organized religion and in the soaring divorce rates. In the Jewish world this is further seen in the high intermarriage rates and the disconnect that so many Jews have with their Jewish roots and their connection to the State and land of Israel.

Thinking of these ideas surrounding the present state of affairs seems very appropriate for this time of year as we are about to enter the month of Elul and the holidays of Tishrei - Rosh Hashana, Yom Kippur, Succot and Simchat Torah. As is well known the acronym of the Hebrew words ani l'dodi v'dodi li (I am to my beloved and my beloved is to me) spell the word Elul. 

Although we are entering into a period of deep introspection and judgment we should always remember that it is the context of the love relationship between man and God. In other words the key to Elul is a yearly review of our own relationships: to God, to family and friends, to our commitment to Jewish life and Israel as well as our relationship to the earth on which we live and the greater society that surrounds us. On a deeper level this review demands of us to probe the relationship of our inner selves and our outer persona, and the correspondence between our dreams and goals and the reality of our lives.

It seems to me that the crises in relationships are directly connected on some level to the amazing technological advances of the last hundred years. Although these advances have brought great progress and blessing to mankind they have also brought ecological disaster and exaggerated expectations of what society owes us and the place of the individual in the bigger scheme of things. Now-a-days if we have to wait an extra second for a computer response, a fax to be sent, a phone call to go through, or an extra minute for an international flight to arrive we are up in arms. We all have hundreds of friends on Facebook but no one to really talk to when the chips are down. So many people are connected to the whole world in cyber space but feel more distance between themselves and others than ever. Our idea of relationships is too often what is in it for me and not the true give and take involved in a real relationship. More and more people are putting off marriage to build a career and see the world and then, when they are finally ready to make a commitment, they find they might have missed the boat.

So here comes Elul and a new opportunity to look at ourselves in the mirror, to examine our direction in life and where we are coming from and even more important, where we are going. A new year is coming and we all have opportunity to work on our relationships in all their manifold expressions and to renew ourselves once again.

L'Shana Tova!!!

According to tradition, one can begin to greet others with L'Shana Tova (Have a good year) from Tu B'Av (the 15th day of Av). In as much as I am writing this on Tu B'Av I want to bless everyone already with a year of good health, spiritual growth, deep Torah learning, the highest Shabbeses, livelihood, peace in the home, peace in our hearts and peace in the world.

And now comes the question - why do we begin this greeting from Tu B'Av which is 45 days before Rosh Hashana and not Rosh Chodesh Elul which may seem a more likely time as Elul comes exactly one month before Rosh Hashana and the whole month of Elul is considered preparation for a new year.

According to Chassidut and Kabbalah the fact that Tu B'Av is 45 days before Rosh Hashana is very significant and is connected to the Talmudic debate over which month the world was created in: Tishrei, the month in which Rosh Hashanah, the New Year of years falls, or Nisan, the month in which Pesach falls and which is the New Year of the months (Rosh Hashanah 11a). Both sides make numerous arguments, but the Talmud reaches no definitive conclusion. Rabbeinu Tam, a later commentator, explained the underlying unity of both opinions: the world was created in potential or in thought in Tishrei and in actuality in Nisan.

The word for "thought" in Hebrew is machshava. When those letters are permuted the spell choshav-mah, "to think of mah [the essence of a matter]" Mah = 45; thus one can read this allegorically as: God began to think of creating the world 45 days before Rosh Hashana!!

What this tells us is that we too should already begin the process of thinking about the essence of our lives and how we can be better, stronger, deeper.

L'Shana Tova!!!

The Conjunction of Time and Place Create a Holy Moment

A few weeks ago my wife and I were in the holy city of Safed on the yartzeit (anniversary) of the great Kabbalist of Safed, Rabbi Moshe Cordevero, known as the RAMAK. He is the author of one of the most important Kabbalisitc texts - Pardes HaRimonim (The Pomegranate Orchard). This book was the very first attempt to take the entire Kabbalisitc tradition and to organize it by subject and make it a cogent system of thought.

As we were getting ready to go down to his grave which is in the ancinet cemetery of Safed a friend pointed out that the day of his yartzeit is also the very day that Rabbi Yitzchak Luria (known as the ARIZAL) revealed himself for the first time. In fact the two incidents are closely related as the RAMAK had revealed to his students that whoever saw the pillar of fire accompanying his casket to the grave would be his successor. The ARIZAL who was new to Safed saw the pillar and directed the gravediggers to the place where the pillar stopped as the place the RAMAK should be buried. Thus his students understood he was to succeed the RAMAK. Less than three years later the ARIZAL passed away and was buried right above the RAMAK.

With all this in mind we went to the grave and for a few minutes I was able to have one hand on the grave of the ARIZAL and my other on the grave of the RAMAK. This was so very meaningful to me as it was the mystic teachings of Judaism which brought me back to Torah in the first place, and Safed had always played a very important part in my life and spiritual development. In fact I proposed to my wife Rachel in Safed.

Then I had a very powerful realization: not only was this the yartzeit of the RAMAK and I was not commemorating it from afar but was at his grave AND that it was the very day the holy ARIZAL revealed himself, but it was in that exact spot that he revealed himself!!!! 

I cannot tell you how powerful  it was to experience the holiness that occurs when time and place come together to create a holy moment of insight and realization.

Evil Inclination, Tag Youre It!

In Memory of Rachel’s Award Winning Cheese Cake

Rebbetzin Rachel's Recipes

In the early days of the moshav we held a baking contest judged by our local cake mavens – the guys. I was up against some stiff competition as the moshav ladies are real pros. This first place cheesecake is now impossible to make because one of the important crust ingredients is long gone. We brought granola to Israel schlepping it literally on our backs in packs to the few little health food stores that barely existed in the 70’s. The Israelis were still eating herring for breakfast! We rented after-hours baking time in a “conditoria” in the Talpiot industrial zone.

At our height our granola factory distributed 25 different whole grain products to all the major supermarket chains including the cinnamon flavored sugarless date bar cookies I used in my cheesecake crust. Then the 80’s hit when inflation was over 300% and we had to import oats from the USA, pay for them in cash dollars on the barrelhead and only get paid from the local stores in deflated shekels 3 months later, oh well. Now our granola factory is being rented out by the Jewish Agency who owns the building to Adama - the largest distribution center for organic food in the country. This alternative recipe will just have to do…

Crust: Use any old cookies instead of date bars; my next best alternative is chocolate coated Petit Beurre  biscuits. Try not to grumble as you crumble them with 3T butter 1-t cinnamon and add ice water until you get stiff enough dough to press into a pie pan.

Filling: Plop a tub of 5% white cheese 3 eggs 1C white sugar 1-T lemon rind, the juice of one lemon and 1-t vanilla into your blender and whiz splash whirr it up to frothiness. Pour the cheesy mess into the crust and shove it in the 350 degree oven for ½ hour or till the top is set.

Topping: Stir 1-T white sugar into a container of sour cream and spread it on top of the mostly baked cake and continue baking for another 10 minutes.

Eating: Stay up all night studying Torah on Shavuot to merit eating this creamy rich delight in the morning with a steaming cup of café.

Happy Shavuot!

Constant Renewal

Rabbi Avraham Arieh Trugman's latest Torah Gems video.
Beautifully insightful!

Please remember to SHARE this video after watching! It only takes a click or two!