Last Thursday (April 30th), we held a Simchat Bat at our home in order to rejoice in Aviva, formally name her as Aviva Tzipora, and welcome her into the Jewish community (and, of course, to introduce her to close friends and family as well as eat!). The size of our living room put a cap on the size, so we apologize post-fact, as we were not able to invite everyone.

The ceremony was pretty special, as we performed the naming blessings while standing under our chuppah for the first time since our wedding – in fact, it was the first time the chuppah had been used since then. It was also extremely inspiring to have Joelle’s dad and my mom read letters to Aviva telling her all about Joelle’s Grandfather Ellis, and my Bubie (Grandmother) Jeannette – Aviva Tzipora’s namesakes. Joelle’s mom provided Aviva with her own kiddish cup to be used for years to come, and it meant the world to me that my grandfather was able to make it into town to perform the K’vater role by bringing Aviva into the room.

We recorded the program in video form (36 minutes long – Thanks Ernie for doing this!), and it’s up at http://averbuch.net/aviva-simchat-bat-video (along with the program – thanks Rabbi Rachel for putting this together and leading everything!). However, as it’s very personal and emotional, I am not posting it quite publically – it’s a password-protected page. Just shoot me or Joelle an email/facebook message/phonecall/etc (keeping in mind that we’re pretty busy taking care of Aviva, so responses might be slow) and we can get you the password if you’d like to view the video.

Dogs love the snow – so of course, they were out to play a lot. Videos were taken. (If you are in a RSS reader, you might need to visit the page to see these).

Today is actually my birthday, but we had to cancel my birthday party due to the  treacherous conditions; we didn’t want anybody to have to drive. Instead, my sister brought over a cake to the house, and we celebrated with me and the girls (Joelle, Elana, Little Hobey (to-be), Molly and Shay); I actually rather enjoyed it!

FInally, to cap a great weekend, Hannukah started tonight, so we took a walk over to Kavana’s Hannukah Party, which met just down the street.

(As do Joelle and I, of course – May 5769 bring everyone a healthy and sweet new year!)

I definitely need to get one of these: http://store.barackobama.com/product_p/bt21991.htm

• http://johnschochet.blogspot.com/2008/05/unkosher-behavior-by-rubashkin.html
• http://johnschochet.blogspot.com/2008/05/update-on-rubashkin.html

Thankfully, Trader Joe’s has flipped to Empire Kosher only, at least the one by me, which isn’t tied into this.

While we were in Israel recently, I spent about 100% of the time eating Kosher meat, as it is readily available there at restaurants, but not so much in Seattle. As I was discussing with my friend Carrie last night, “when you are in Israel, it’s all meat, all the time. Even got to have the Kosher Burger King!” (and yes, my Whopper Harif, i.e. Spicy Whopper, was fantastic!)

One of the few non-meat meals I had was a wonderful Iraqi Jewish sandwich called Sabich which is, apparently, quickly turning into a prime falafel alternative throughout the country. I had been doing some research into how to make it (as it is a bit too obscure for the Seattle dining scene). I had posted an article up on Chowhound asking for help, but hadn’t gotten around to making it, since I had run out of time before Passover.

At the same time, I had mentioned it to my friend Michael (same guy I had posted about when discussing Men’s Cooking and Syrian Jewish foods), and while he had never heard of it or tried it before, he agreed it sounded fantastic (especially as he is vegetarian). He took the opportunity on Saturday night to make some, and put together a fantastic write-up, including a great recipe (and I got a shout-out! Nice!)

As this is a fantastic dish, I am excited to follow his recipe and eat! I’ll let you know how it goes. For now, check out http://www.herbivoracious.com/2008/04/recipe-sabich-.html for more.

• Red Lentil Soup: http://www.herbivoracious.com/2008/04/recipe-syrian-y.html
• Labneh (Spiced Yogurt Cheese): http://www.herbivoracious.com/2008/04/recipe-syrian-s.html
• Ricotta Pancakes: http://www.herbivoracious.com/2008/04/recipe-atayef-.html

Thanks Michael… They were fantastic.

Since you were interested, (or at least I discussed with you) in the crazy food rules of the next week for me for Passover – it’s once a year, so I may have sent similar links last year.

(The holiday of Pesach, or Passover, celebrates God’s freeing the Jews from bondage in Egypt (through the leadership of Moses). A lot of this is around making sure we eat only Matzah, and not bread, as Matzoh is made with flour and water, prepared and baked very quickly so that it never has the chance to rise. Matzoh is identified on the one hand as the “bread of affliction” and “poor man’s bread,” being an extremely humble, plain sort of food that recalls the days of slavery; on the other hand, it also symbolizes freedom, as it was eaten by the Jews as they hurriedly left Egypt for good.)

Here’s a good general overview of rules of food on Passover: http://www.infoplease.com/spot/kosher1.html

If you want a major detailed version, here’s the local Seattle (Orthodox, so more observant than I, but I follow most of these rules) guide: http://seattlevaad.org/uploads/passover_directory_5768-2008.pdf

non-pdf: http://seattlevaad.org/Passover_5768.html

Key words to understand that guide – let me know if you any other words you want translated:

• Ashkenazim/Ashkenazic – Jews from an Eastern Europe background (I am)
• Sephardim/Sephardic – Jews from a Spanish background (think Inquisition time period) – more liberal for the holiday rules
• Chametz – bread, or technically, anything made from one of 5 biblical grains other than matzah
• Kitniyot – legumes, corn, etc… okay for Sephardim to eat, but not Ashkenazim
• Matzah – think a cracker like substance. I brought some in last year for all. Likely will do again. Or you can just see me eating lunch starting Monday for the week…

And no, we are not changing the food we feed Molly, our dog, though technically, we are supposed to. That rule is stupid. She’s a dog, not a person.

All copyright the writers, as described within each haggadah. If you are the copyright owners of any of these, and want me to remove, please let me know.

Compared to Beth Shalom of Chicago’s that is (check out the video below – it is well worth watching all of it)… it’s amazing the differences between some of the excitement they get out compared to the average Conservative service (or Reform, or Orthodox), while still holding on nearly all of the traditions. It really shows the variance that groups can have in how to push forward the same basic practices and experiences – and still hold acceptance by mainstream Judaism (the Rabbi here is part of the Chicago Board of Rabbi’s)

(My brother is heading to Chicago this weekend and really wants to attend here – he’s utterly intrigued – as am I now, after seeing a few of the write-ups he’s sent me and watching this video)

(thanks to http://mazel123.blogspot.com/2007/09/video-of-chicagos-black-synagogue.html)

There are quite a few traditions around the holiday. The main one’s important to me are:

• Eating Hamantaschen (three-cornered cookies with a fruit filling in the middle)
• Hearing the Megillah (Book of Esther) being read from start to finish
• Drinking! (You are supposed to drink enough to not be able to tell the difference between the good guy, Mordecai, and the bad guy, Haman)
• Dressing up (think of it as the Jewish Halloween; costumes abound!)

In honor of the holiday, our local group (Kavana) had a Purim event this evening, filled with all of the above, for kids and adults alike. We both participated in the reading of the Megillah, so it was an even greater honor.

Joelle and I took the opportunity to dress up, and went with costumes that we had found while we were in Israel shopping. We were walking down Ben Yehuda Street (the main shopping street in downtown Jerusalem) and came upon a costume shop. Joelle found a Shtreimel black hat, as often worn by Ultra-Orthodox Jewish men, decorated with peyes (ritual very long sideburns/sidelocks – Orthodox men have them due to a prohibition against shaving). Taking a liking to this idea, Joelle decided to make a whole costume out of it, and correspondingly, I was forced into a women’s outfit (dressed as an Orthodox Jewish Grandmother – we found the wig at the same store, augmented by a Value Village run).

Even better, this fulfills a bet I made with a friend awhile ago; to dress in drag for a holiday (he meant Halloween, but close enough), as he tends to always do this in exchange for him shaving off his beard of many years. Can’t remember why I agreed to it; but it is now complete!

Pictures, of course – aren’t we sexy!

(Click on the pictures for the full versions)

This came up even more last night; over the past few months, I have been participating in Kavana Seattle’s Living Room Learning, a weekly Jewish Text study in the living room of community members (or more likely, our Rabbi, Rachel Nussbaum’s). I have not gone every week, but have been trying to go fairly regularly – it has been a great group of people analyzing the text, but none of which are true text scholars; so it is not scary like some other groups I have seen in the past. I really enjoy it.

A few months ago, the group decided to transition away from Torah study, and focus on Mishnah (Talmud) study, as it tends to have more practical impact on our daily lives, and it is an area of study most of us had never done. To start, we’ve focused on Mishnah Peach, one of the rabbinic texts (written in the 2nd century of the Common Era) focusing on Passover customs & observance, so right up my alley of interest.

Last night, we analyzed Chapter 10, which focuses on the actual rules and order of the Seder (the Passover Meal).

However, we soon realized that this year has some different rules, due to the fact that Passover starts on Saturday evening this year, and thus, runs in Shabbat (the Sabbath) starting right before it, which complicates things, especially regarding the prohibition against having or eating Chametz (leavened bread) during the holiday and also in the day before the holiday; which conflicts with the rules to eat 3 full meals on Shabbat itself. There’s also an issue of a Fast Day (no eating/drinking/etc… that first born sons are supposed to follow the day before the holiday as a memorial for the felled Egyptians who lost their first born sons as the last plague), which also conflicts with the Shabbat meal requirement.

As none of us were quite sure how this all works in this scenario, and being curious, I just looked up a bunch of rules… I’m following up with my Rabbi to see how Conservative rules differ from the Orthodox ones, but here they are:

http://www.arzeidarom.org/hilchot.html has a bunch of good insight (Orthodox rules; not sure how it varies among other denominations), as does the Seattle Va’ad (http://www.seattlevaad.org/Motzaei_Shabbat.html, again Orthodox rules, not sure how it differs), but here are a few key notes I see…

Fast of the First Born (according to Congregation Arzei Darom):

“It is customary for the firstborn to fast Erev Pesach. However this year since Erev Pesach falls out on a Shabbat the fast for the firstborn takes place on Thursday April 17.”

Meals on Shabbat/Searching/Burning Chametz (according to Seattle Va’ad):

“Bedikat Chametz (Search for Chametz) takes place on Thursday night before Shabbat in the same manner as any other year and with the recitation of the bracha.  In order not to distinguish the burning of the chametz from any other year, it is destroyed on Friday morning.”

“Although the Shulchan Aruch states that we perform the procedure of Biur Chametz (Burning of Chametz) of Friday, nevertheless enough chametz food can be left over for the Shabbat meals on Friday night and Shabbat morning.

For Ashkenazim concerned with the problem of having chametz on Shabbat, after the procedure of Biur Chametz was completed, egg Matzah may be substituted for bread on Friday night and Shabbat morning (See Igros Moshe I, paragraph 155).  Although Ashkenazi Jews are prohibited from egg Matzah during Pesach, that does not include the morning of Erev Pesach.  The eating of egg Matzah according to HaRav Moshe Feinstein, OBM, should stop at the same time it is forbidden to eat chametz. “

After reading this, I plan on doing just this as my grogger… what a great idea.

For the full article, see http://blog.rabbijason.com/2008/03/new-purim-tradition.html 

"Rabbi Menachem Creditor has shared a new Purim tradition that he learned from his teacher Marcia Brooks. She encourages people to bring boxes of Kosher pasta to synagogue to use as graggers (noise makers); shaking them for noise and then donating them to a food pantry once the Megillah is completed. With this new tradition, one fulfills the custom of drowning out the name of "Haman" from the Megillah reading while also performing the mitzvah of matanot l’evyonim."

Food for thought… (pun intended!)

First, however, the full album is up at: http://picasaweb.google.com/joelle1117/IsraelAndParis2008

As a preview, here are a few of my favorite pics:

Jerusalem:

Paris:

As part of the class, we visited a local mosque last weekend with our instructor (a Master’s student in Islamic Studies at U-W, who also happens to be a Shiite Muslim and a US Marine). He was supposed to meet us at 7:30, but still wasn’t there at 7:50 or so.

At 7:53 he comes walking in, and apologizes, and tells the following story (paraphrased):

I’m so sorry! We drove to Kirkland, and were getting off 405, and all of a sudden I turned to my wife and realized: “We forgot the Jews!”

Which reminds me; I need to write up more about this class and visit later, but wanted to share that fun comment first…

“There are certain things you expect at weddings: white dresses, vows, rings, cake, dancing. But every now and then I’ll photograph a wedding that has something unexpected in it, and Joelle and Aaron’s wedding was one of them. It was a wonderful surprise from the bride for her groom.”- Eliza Truitt, 2007

Our wedding photographer often blogs about her past photo shoots, and she asked us earlier in the week if it was okay to write up our wedding. We of course agreed, and after getting online for the first time after taking a few days off-line in honor of Rosh Hashana, Joelle noticed that she had posted an article up over the holiday.

She primarily focused on Joelle’s major surprise to me – which, as Eliza stated, was wonderful – for most people we talk to, it was the primary memorable moment of the ceremony, and well deserving of that honor… but Eliza also covered many of the key moments and photos of our wedding – thanks for the great pictures and post, Eliza!

http://elizatruitt.wordpress.com/2007/09/12/wedding-joelle-aaron/

(by the way: Eliza was a fantastic wedding photographer, so if any of you are looking for one in the Seattle area, get in touch with her at http://www.elizatruitt.com – she gets our full recommendation).