A Real Treet

The purpose of this blog is to add something tasty to your Shabbat table. Please print and share.

The emails are still coming in in reply to my wish for a "good news" news service.

As a reader pointed out, there already is the goodnewsnetwork.org. Someone else has nominated upworthy.com.

But then there were the readers who directed me to websites dedicated to good news from Israel, such as this facebook group and Israel's Good News Newsletter and Take A Pen and Israel21c.

On that note, last week marked the greatest Jewish holiday that nobody seems to celebrate. According to the Talmud, it's one of four Rosh Hashanas.

Here's a clue from the Seinfeld celebration:



It's called "Tu Bishvat" - the New Year of the Trees.

Some have spun it as a paen to the Land of Israel. I'm not opposing them, but I see it differently.

Trees are worth celebrating in their own right.

They are a frequent subject of poets.

Remember this one?

I think that I shall never see   
A poem lovely as a tree.   
   
A tree whose hungry mouth is prest   
Against the sweet earth’s flowing breast;   
   
A tree that looks at God all day,
And lifts her leafy arms to pray;   
   
A tree that may in summer wear   
A nest of robins in her hair;   
   
Upon whose bosom snow has lain;   
Who intimately lives with rain. 
   
Poems are made by fools like me,   
But only God can make a tree.

- Joyce Kilmer 

So in honor of the trees, please allow me to introduce the muricata, from this week's Amazing Nature series.



Ever seen one of these in the grocery store? Probably not. But it's a pity.

The muricata is a juicy edible fruit cultivated in Central and South America. It has a delicious, tangy taste. Some say it tastes like candy.

One muricata fruit will give you about the same amount of energy as a candy bar, but it’s a different kind of energy — it gives you a sustained energy that doesn’t make your body’s insulin go crazy like processed sugars.

Plus, unlike candy bars, when you eat one of these you also get a lot of protein, fiber and vitamin C, plus vitamin B6, magnesium and potassium and even some copper — all essential vitamins and minerals for good health.

Some people claim that muricata has medicinal value as well. An extract from the leaves has been reportedly successful in lowering elevated blood pressure (by decreasing peripheral vascular resistance).

In laboratory studies, muricata extracts can kill some types of liver and breast cancer cells that are resistant to particular chemotherapy drugs. (But we need more studies to know if it can work as a cancer treatment.)
 

Ma rabu ma’asecha A-donoy kulam bechachmah asita malah haaretz kinyanecha —
How great are Your works, God, all of them you made with wisdom, filling your Earth!
Tehillim/Psalms 104:24

Is the muricata what King David meant when he wrote that?
 
Photo: © Muhammad Mahdi Karim, www.micro2macro.net


Shabbat Shalom

PS - The muricata is a sample of our Amazing Nature program.
PPS - We are still adding new Purim and Pesach ideas to bestjewishkidsbooks.com
 

"My Gradulations"

In honor of 2 special anniversaries this week - you know who you are!
Also in honor of Devorah (see below)!
(To dedicate a future Table Talk, send an email.)

For weeks, our Devorah has been preparing for what she calls "My Gradulations".

She means, of course, her graduation from kindergarten.

The graduating class of six-year-olds were able to summarize a year's worth of learning in fifteen minutes of song. Very impressive.

If you'd like to compare how she looked just a year ago, click here.

Devorah is the first child in our family to have the dubious distinction to have no memory of the Land of Israel.

I'd hate for her to wait as long as this couple, but I guess better late than never.

By the way, if you are interested in the latest stunning archaeological finds in Israel, bookmark this link.

The flow of discoveries is almost like a river, too many to keep up with. Here is a cool one sent by a TT reader.

Question #1 for your table - On a scale of 1-10, how important is it to instill in American Jewish children a love for the Land of Israel?

Question #2 - What are the best ways to do this?

Shabbat Shalom


My iPhone app: http://tinyurl.com/amazingcalendarlink
Android version: http://tinyurl.com/amazingandroidcalendar
Bar and Bat Mitzvah gift suggestions at bestjewishkidsbooks.com (a service of JSL).

Destroyed

Dedicated by a reader in memory of Chana bas Pinchas (Alzbeta Dolanova), one of the few remaining Holocaust survivors in Nitra, Slovakia, who passed away last week. "Her pride in the continuation of the Jewish people was evident in our every conversation with her."

(To dedicate a future Table Talk, send an email.)

Today you get an amazing Jewish fact, followed by a question for your table....

==========
November 4, 2011
7 Cheshvan, 5772

Destroyed

In contrast to the country’s stunning natural beauty, Israel currently faces several environmental catastrophes, e.g., low rainfall has depleted the aquifers, risking permanent damage; several of the rivers are so polluted with industrial waste that humans are not allowed in their vicinity; there are few municipal recycling programs and a plethora of desert landfills.

Fortunately, organizations such as the Society for the Protection of Nature in Israel (SPNI) and the Jewish National Fund (JNF) are working hard to strengthen laws and teach people new behaviors.

More info:
R. Becher's great class on the Land of Israel
SPNI website
JNF website

==========


From the Amazing Jewish Fact-a-Day Calendar


Android version: http://tinyurl.com/amazingandroidcalendar
Iphone/ipod/ipad version: http://tinyurl.com/amazingcalendarlink

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Question for your table: Is there a difference between "Israel", "The Land of Israel" and "The State of Israel"? And does it matter?


Shabbat Shalom

Where's Your Utopia?

This week, dedicated in memory of my paternal grandparents - Sylvia and Les Seinfeld - whose yahrzeits both fell this week, Sima bas Mordechai Yaakov and Eliezer ben Zelig.

I was lucky to grow up with grandparents around.

My grandfather ("Pop") used to tell us stories about his childhood. Sometimes he would talk on and on until it felt like your mind was going numb, but he was always so caring and always smiling. Nevermind that we'd heard the same stories over and over, we had a sense that it would be wrong to say so, or to appear disinterested.

Here's the kicker: Every story had a point, some kind of moral.

As I reached adulthood, Pop's monologues became more brief, until he was able to distill the moral wisdom in a single sound-byte.

One of these was his attitude towards intermarriage.

He never said that it mattered to him whether or not I married someone Jewish. But he did have a firm opinion:

"Every family should have a religion" with a strong emphasis on the "a".

He told me this at least 6 to a half-dozen times.

Pop explained that having a single religious/spiritual/however-you-want-to-frame-it tradition in the family is important for "shalom bayit" (harmony).

Both he and my grandmother excelled at shalom bayit, that was one of their highest values. They were amazing at modeling how to care for each other. Family meant everything to them. So you can imagine how they felt about my failure to settle down nearby.

But if you had asked me back then to list the top places where I might settle down, my list probably would have looked something like this:

1. Paris
2. San Francisco area
3. French Riviera
4. Rome
5. New York

(not necessarily in that order)

Note that Israel is not on the list.

It wouldn't have even made it into the top 10.

Farthest thing from my mind, absolutely nothing pulling me there.

Imagine my surprise, then, in the mid-90s, when I find myself not only living in Israel, but enjoying it!

...except for one thing: the bureaucracy.

Every country has bureaucracy, but I'd never experience anything like this. My new wife and I would show up at the city office to deal with my property tax (charged to renters) and after an hour in line find out that I needed some document that we'd left at home. So I'd return the next day with that document only to be told by a different clerk that I needed yet another one that we'd left at home.

It would the same routine at every government office.

We finally figured out that we needed an "everything folder" in which we kept triplicate copies of absolutely everything - American documents, Israeli documents, photos, bank statements, water bills, phone bills, insurance documents, rental agreements, letters of reference, etc. etc. etc.

This maddening experience was the one thing that really made life in Israel unpleasant.

In late 2000, we moved to America. Guess what we discovered?

American bureaucracies can be just as maddening. (Especially with the growth of computerized phone systems - invented in Israel by the way - where you never can get a real person on the phone.)

So it took coming to America to feel shalaym (complete) about living in Israel.

Question for your table: Chances are, Israel isn't very high on your list of places to live either. What would it take, hypothetically, to get it into the top 5 or 10?

Shabbat Shalom