I'll explain at a later date, but I'm back to blogging and blogging back on Blogger. Appropriate on the first of Elul, the Hebrew month of Teshuvah, of return. So you can now find me at the other DivahWorld site - www.mdivah.blogspot.com I"m going to try to keep this going, writing at least once a week. So change your bookmarks, and I'll see you there.........
Like my friend Danya, I know I should say something about the Israeli disengagement from Gaza, but I don't know what to say. It is so painful. Israeli forces had to seize control of a synagogue using force. A settler kills four Palestinians with no regrets and hopes that someone kills Prime Minister Ariel Sharon.
So much violence. Jews fighting Jews. Terrorism on all fronts. Again, like Danya, I can only pray that somehow peace will come.
It just seems so far away right now.......
Shabbat at Beth Sholom doesn't end with services and kiddish. Todd, Tracey, and their daughter Gavriela have graciously made their house a gathering place where we eat, drink, discuss and generally continue the joy of Shabbat--a day not just of rest but of taking time to just be without any outside influences or pressures. It's a gift we give ourselves and to our children--and something that is not easy to find in this over-scheduled 21st Century existance. There's no work, there's no soccer, there's no shopping. We pray together, sing together, connect with each other. It's something that fuels the rest of the week.
Yesterday, at Gavriella's urging, a group of us played "Torah Charades," an original game that Gavi created. The rules are simple--you act out a scene from anywhere in the Tanach - the Torah, the Nevi'im (Prophets), the Ketuvim (Writings). You can't use words, you can use props. The rest of the group has to guess what you are portraying. The group consisted of 3 girls, ages 9 - 11, and 4 adults, women ages 25 - 62. As you can imagine, the girls did most of the acting. In fact, the only adult who acted out a scene was--no surprise here--me. I've got to tell you, these girls know their Tanach!! One scene they did was Moses passing on the leadership to Joshua before dying; another was Jacob tricking his father into giving him the blessing instead of his brother Esau and then fleeing. And they could guess mine, one of which was Moses at the burning bush. I'm not sure my acting was great, but as soon as I took my shoes off, they had it.
I've written before in the post L'Dor V'Dor about the gratification I feel when I see girls involved in Judaism and given the same opportunities as boys. It was so wonderful to see these girls have such an affinity for their Judaism. But the best part for me came when Gavi's grandmother proudly asked her (knowing what the answer would be, of course), "Gavi, what do you want to be when you grow up?" And without hesitation and somewhat matter-of-factly, Gavi answered, "a rabbi."
When I was a girl there was a time that if someone asked me that question, I would have said "a rebbitzen." That was before I found out to that to be a rebbitzen you had to marry a rabbi. There were no women rabbis when I was a girl. I'm not sure what I thought a rebbitzen did, but you can see where I wished I could go.
Hearing Gavi's answer, my heart soared. It gave me faith in the next generation---l'dor v'dor.
The beginning of my baseball season was grim. On May 27, I wrote "With the A's in a horrible downslide, I can see it's going to be a difficult season for me."
That was then, this is now. The A's are now the hottest team in baseball. At the beginning of June, the wild card looked far away. Two months later, the A's are looking at taking the division.
On thing that's been missing for me in these past years, even the successful ones, is what I consider a quality closer. I know Jason Isringhausen and Keith Foulke were touted by the media as aces, but they were not popular with me. I did not have confidence when they came in with a one run lead. I seem to remember them letting a lot of players get to first base. Ken says that I am spoiled, since Dennis Eckersley was the A's closer in the early years of my fandom. I got too used to a closer who was basically boom, boom, boom game over.
But now, the A's once again have what looks to be my kind of closer - Huston Street. He's young, just out of college, but he's got the stuff. In today's game against the Twins, he struck out the side in the ninth. My kind of guy.......
As I sit to do some office work, answer emails, etc. I decided to plug in my iPod to my computer, put it on shuffle and see what that was like.
I've made my own mix tapes before, but then, of course, I had control of what music was and in which order it played. That can still be done easily with an iPod, but I wanted to experience this random shuffle of my music. With a lot of different genres input, would it work for me?
The answer is......emphatically, yes.
Once again, I have to say....pretty cool.......
Coming home from Oakland this afternoon, I was stuck in a huge traffic jam--one of those highway into parking lot experiences. Luckily, I wasn't on any specific time frame and there was a baseball game to listen to, albeit a losing effort on the part of the Giants.
Near the toll plaza, at the point where a lot of different roadways merge and circle around, I saw this sign. You can click on either photo for a larger view.
What does this sign mean? What are they warning us about? Should I worry about trucks tipping over on my car? Should truckers worry about their trucks tipping over. And now that they've gotten this far, what can they do about it?????
Any light that can be shed on this matter would be greatly appreciated.......