WhatsSap?

The purpose of this blog is sweeten Shabbat table conversation. Please print and share...
Happy Birthday shoutout to Emuna!

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This time of year, maple syrup is on my mind. 

And often around now I'm nonplussed when someone I know reveals that they have never tasted real maple syrup. 

Anyone who has tasted pure maple syrup knows that it rivals chocolate for the status of the main reason why God created the universe.

Yet here's a stumper for your table - Do you know how maple syrup is made?

The maple syrup story starts in spring and summer when the tree is full of leaves and via the magic of photosynthesis, creating energy that we call sugar.

It uses a lot of that sugar to grow bigger and taller. But it stores some of that energy in its roots in the form of starch.

In the fall of course it drops its leaves and goes dormant. 

During dormancy, trees develop freeze-resistance through cellular changes. They dehydrate their cells, convert starches into sugary antifreezes, increase fatty acids (which keep cells supple), and are thus able to withstand temperatures far below freezing.

Then at a certain time - here in Maryland in mid-February, farther north, in March/April - the tree starts to bring that sugar up through tubes near the trunk. It must do this in order to have the energy to produce the new leaves in the spring. 

Question for your table - How does the tree know when to start pumping sap up from the roots?

Here's a clue: It occurs when the temperature is below freezing at night and above freezing during the day.

Still can't figure it out?
 
Don't feel bad, it's not at all obvious. Here's a summary:

During the warm (above freezing) days, living cells convert that starch into sugar. They also generate carbon dioxide gas. This gas diffuses into the xylem. As the temperature cools at night, the gas dissolves, lowering the pressure and pulling the sugary water from the living cells into xylem. This water is replaced from adjacent cells, which form a conveyor belt for water down to the roots. As night comes and the temperature drops further, water freezes along the inside walls of the xylem and in between its cells. The remaining gas is compressed and locked in this ice. With morning, things warm, the gases expand and force the now liquid sap out of the trunk or stem and into the tap. As the day cools in the afternoon, the process repeats itself. The process stops when the temperature remains above freezing and the buds begin to open.

So that's the first part of the magic.

But if you tap a tree and taste the sap, it tastes nearly like pure water, not at all sweet. In order to convert it to syrup, it has to be boiled way, way down - to the tune of 40:1. I.e., it takes 40 cups of sap to make one cup of syrup. 

I assume that whoever discovered this secret stumbled upon it by random accident.

Question for your table - Could it have been a random accident, or was it meant to be?

Here's a harder question for your table - Would the beracha (blessing) on maple syrup be the same as an apple - borei pre ha'eitz - who has created the fruit of the tree?


Shabbat Shalom

PS - the above image is from the Library of Congress: making maple syrup in Vermont, 1906.
PPS - If you'd like to try tapping a tree, click on the image.

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Point to Where You See Me

The purpose of this blog is open eyes and minds at the Shabbat table. Please print and share...

Happy Birthday shoutout to Marc A., Lily K, and Joel W.!

Everyone knows that two people can see the same thing differently.

For instance, a certain world leader who sees what he wants to see.

So try this one at your table:

"Point to where you see me."

Most people will of course point straight at you, because they don't realize it's a trick question.

Here's another way of asking the question... Hold up an image - of any common object, it doesn't matter what; let's say of a chair, and say, "Do you see this chair?"

Then point to an actual chair and say, "How is looking at an image of a chair different than looking at a chair?"

After they ponder that one, here's the clincher:

When you look at something, what you're really looking at is light that is bouncing off that object, entering your eye, stimulating nerves, which send an electrical signal to the back of your brain, where your brain forms an experience that we call an image. You may be looking at me over here, but you're seeing me in the back of your head!

This fact of anatomy raises a difficult question for your table. It means that seeing = interpreting; it also implies that seeing = believing. But can seeing ever = knowing?


Shabbat Shalom
 

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We Barely Know What We've Lost

The purpose of this blog is for a happy Shabbat table. Please print and share...

Happy Birthday shoutout to Suzanne, wherever you are!

In Daniel Kahneman's book that I linked to last week, he shares credit with his deceased colleague Amos Tverski for their world-changing psychological theory.

They began their partnership in Israel at the Hebrew University. Eventually, they both moved to the US and Tverski's final career stop was at Stanford.

Even at Stanford, Tverski was a star among stars. His colleagues joked about the "Tverski test" - an intelligence test that worked like this: when one first meets Amos Tverski, how long does it take for the newcomer to realize that he's smarter than you are?

I suspect that Tverski was a distant cousin of the Chassidic Twerskis, many of whom are great rabbis and many of whom became world-class secular scholars as well, such as Isadore of Harvard and Rabbi Dr. Avraham J. Twerski who passed away this week, of COVID-19, at 90.

It's impossible to capture the greatness of such a man. His life as both a rabbi and a world-class psychiatrist impacted thousands if not hundreds of thousands of people. The mere fact that he wrote some 90 books and thousands of articles should give one pause.

I haven't read even half of them, but can recommend to anyone Addictive Thinking or his collaboration with Charles M. Shultz.

Here's a short article he wrote in 1993 to explain how the 12 Steps are consistent with Jewish thought, opening the door to thousands of Jews to join recovery programs.

He was also a musician and composer. Here's Shlomo Katz singing Rabbi Twerski's most famous composition, in tribute.

Hoshia es amecha, uvarech es nachlasecha, uraym unasaym ad olam.
Save your people and bless your inheritance; shepherd them and carry them forever.
(Tehillim/Psalm 28:9)

The name Twerski in all of its variations apparently comes from Tiveria (Tiberius) — the family can presumably trace their ancestry to exiles from there 1,900 years ago. Here is Rabbi Twerksi telling his favorte story about his family history.

A few more great nuggets from the master:

How to conquer anger
How to manage stress
How to be happy
On prayer

Here is his brother HaRav Michel Twerski eulogizing him yesterday.


Shabbat Shalom
 

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