Collaboral Damage?

 

 

 

 

 

 

The purpose of this blog is to make the Shabbat table more collaborative... Please print and share...

Here's your countdown to Shavuot. (Rather count up? Click here.)
Dedicated to the memory of Dovid Shalom Pesach ben Yaakov Zev.

This morning we buried a good man, Mr. David Glick.

A neighbor and friend, older but not elderly; after a lifetime of medical challenges, his time was up.

(This photo is the only one I have of him - taken on Purim this year.)

At the burial his nephew commented that Dovid never complained about anything. From my experience with him, it was absolutely true (and I had seen him during some of his most difficult challenges).

Without a family of his own, one of the things that kept him going was his frequent shul attendance. The shul had become family to him. He did something that I never saw anyone else do. At the end of the Friday night service, everyone always chats and are friendly enough to those around him. Dovid would walk (with difficulty) up and down the aisles to wish a "good Shabbos" to everyone he knew, extending his hand. And if you were sitting down out of his reach, he'd hold his hand there until you got up to give him a shake. 

The last time I was able to physically visit him, he was practicing his bar mitzvah parsha (Shmini), hopeful that he'd be able to lein (chant) it in shul. That would have been last Shabbat; it wasn't meant to be.

His leining that parsha was one of the few constants he had in his life, it kept him going year after year, and I'm sure it broke his heart last week when he could not lein from a Torah scroll. A few days later his heart stopped working.

It is sometimes hard to work together, and Skyping and Zooming have their pros and cons.

Question for your table - What's better for collaboration: video, phone, email, text... or none of the above?


Shabbat Shalom

PS - Here's an creative and uplifting video collaboration that appears - at least in the end result - to be none of the above: https://www.inbflat.net/

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No One Here Gets Out Alive?

 

 

 

 

 

 

The purpose of this blog is to set your Shabbat table free ... Please print and share...
Here's your countdown to Shavuot. 

Earlier this week I was invited to give a somewhat impromptu Sefirat HaOmer class - it may be viewed here.

Try this at your Shabbat table:

During our final matzah meal yesterday, I asked the kids, "What's the one prison in history that no one ever escaped alive?"

The question was prompted by the fact that the Hebrew word for Egypt - Mitzrayim - can also be read mitzrim - borders. It symbolically represents a state of confinement (from which we were famously freed).

They had all kinds of reasonable guesses - Alcatraz, Rikers Island, etc.

All wrong.

Try asking at your table and see what kinds of answers you get.

The answer I was looking for: the human body. No one ever escaped their body alive.

(Don't bring up NDE or astral projecting - that's only a furlough, not an escape.)

Yes, we're stuck in our bodies.

So the next question to ask them is, What does Passover and matzah teach us about how to live while stuck here?

Some parents and a lot of kids are feeling like their home is a prison right now.

Do you know any such parents or kids?

Here are a couple recommended games that we recently added to our rotation:

Anomia
Magnetic dart board

(The rotation idea is to put away games after a few weeks of use, pulling them out again 6-10 months later — renews their interest.)

Please send your recommended new games or activities and I'll try to share them in this space.


Shabbat Shalom


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What Connects Us?

 

 

 

 

 

 

The purpose of this blog is to make Shabbat great again... Please print and share...

Here's your countdown to Pesach.

2 Announcements:

1. Please join me for a special Passover class on Monday, April 6 at 9:00 PM EDT / 6:00 pm PDT via Zoom. DETAILS BELOW

2. Amazon is still delivering. For my updated personal list of Passover gifts, games and gimmicks, send me an email (you can start by clicking on the image below...)

I hope you and yours enjoyed last week's time travel to the future.

(And I trust that your TP didn't run out by then.)

This morning, someone who under normal circumstances works from home told me that he's finding it hard to stay focused.

Current events have a tendency to do that.

First question for your table: What would you advise him to do about it?

Just about everyone you talk to has their own interpretation of current events. I started keeping a list of such interpretations, and so far I'm up to 11.

Of those, here's the one I hear the least chatter about:

One of the undeniable elements of this historic period is the globalism. Have you noticed how - even during this crisis, even with the Olympics cancelled - there is a 20th Century-style international competition going on? China is trying to save face, various countries bluster, everyone's comparing how various countries are coping.

Could Covid-19 become the tipping point from competitive to cooperative globalization?

To help promote this very Jewish idea, today I'm launching a new MEGA campaign (not to be confused with MAGA).

MEGA — MAKE EARTH GREAT AGAIN.

Here's your opportunity to show what side you stand on - deck yourself out (and your family and friends) with caps, mugs, postcards, car magnets, water bottles.

Locally, today someone told me there has been an increase in people strolling around the neighborhood.

Question for your table: Why do you think that is?


Shabbat Shalom

and

Happy Pesach!

PS - Once again we've updated our downloadable Pesach Kit of ideas, activities, games, and miscellaneous wisdom. Get the 2020 edition as a thank you gift for your small donation - Click here.

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Details for Monday night's Zoom Passover class:

Meeting ID — 508-730-902
Meeting Password — 613 

You can join by opening the Zoom app on your device and entering the above info, or use this link and then entering the password. (Never used Zoom? The link will prompt you to download and install the app - please test it in advance of the class.)

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