Your Inner Archaeologist

The purpose of this email is to dig a little deeper at the Shabbat table.... Please forward / like / tweet....
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Did this ever happen to you?
It happened to me yesterday.

A certain website isn't accepting my saved password, so I have to reset it.

It then starts the usual prove-you're-you questions.

But it turns out they are nothing like the usual questions, like your father's middle name or model of your first car. Because obviously any junior-high hacker could find out that kind of stuff about you.

Instead, this site is asking some really unusual questions:

1. In what month was your best friend born?

Wait a second. Before we go there, who is my best friend? Do I have a best friend?

Hmm, the rabbis say that a man's wife is (or should be) his best friend. But is it true? Hmm.... I think so, I'm pretty sure I have no better friend than my wife .But they also say you have to work hard to "acquire" a friend, have I really worked hard enough to make her my best friend? Well (perspiration starts) I guess I could try her birth-month....

Phew, got it right.

2. If you could meet a former US President, who would it be?

Sheesh, who knows? I mean I know what I might say today, but who knows what I said way back whenever I joined this website?

But there are only five choices, and in that group, FDR wins. Because I've always wanted to ask him how he reconciled being so compassionate with abandoning us.

3. When you were a child, what did you want to be when you grew up?

This one has a drop-down list of about a dozen professions. But surely it doesn't have... let's see... sure enough, there it is - Archaeologist.

What a smart and friendly website to know this intimate detail about my childhood....

But why, pre-Indiana Jones, did I want to be an archaeologist?

It might have had something to do with discoveries like this.

(By the way, that tomb may have been built by Israelites and most certainly the judge who occupied it judged and enslaved them.)

Or maybe it connected me in a real way to the mythical past like this amazing story.

Or.... maybe I just liked to dig?
2 questions for your table:

1. What's the appeal of archaeology? (did you know there a shortage?)
2. What do (or did) you want to be?

Shabbat Shalom

PS - Yes there is a hidden "easter egg" in this message....

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What You Can Learn From a Tomato

The goal of this blog is to create an heirloom-quality Friday night  - please print and share, repost, forward, tweet, etc.

Before today's main topic, a correction from last week.

Many people tried to view the video about the "Humanity Being" and the link was initially broken.

It was later corrected. If you haven't seen it, or want to see it again, here is the working link:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jmN3ubufUA4

Now, what's this business about tomatoes?

I'm not much of a gardener, but how hard is it to buy a couple starters from the Home Depot and stick them in the ground?

Well, it turns out I have a lot to learn.

First of all, my thoughtful wife reminds me, you have to prepare the soil. Mix in all of that compost you've been making all winter.

That's not so hard to understand.

What surprised me was when I read the instructions on the starter plants. They write them in tiny print on the plastic label around the plant. I would ordinarily just ignore such things, but on whim decided to read it:

"Plant deep enough for soil to reach the base of plant. Plant tomatoes deeper, covering 2/3 of plant."

Did I read that right? Bury 2/3 of the plant?

Yep, say the experts. Especially if you're trying to grow succulent heirlooms.

Here's a superb blog that tells you how to do it.

Why 2/3 deep?

They say it allows the plant to grow stronger roots. It will actually grow roots right out of the sides of the plant.

With those stronger roots, it will grow taller and stronger and produce better fruit.

I didn't know that.

I think maybe there is something to learn here, but I'll put it in the form of a Question for your table:

How is a person like a tomato?


Shabbat Shalom

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