Gut Shabbes

I bet you will all be pleased to know that I haven't gone anywhere, suffice to say that I was busy with my university exams and now they are all done , I can focus..   on this blog.

If Hannah's looking to do some Torah study notes (we'll do the whole Torah after  Rosh Hashanah ) and science fiction "stuff" , I'm not entirely sure where this will leave I . 

In many Jewish blogs, women talk about cooking and maybe have a moan about the excessive creep of modesty strictures.  But cooking blogs been done so many times and I  have no real problem with modesty , except to say the fundamentalist attitude toward defining it.

Note to readers , I use fundamentalist  in this post NOT in a pejorative sense . My parents are fundamentalist Jews. They aren't bad people , they aren't violent. They simply follow and study the Torah to the letter and the more stricter the better. They believe this gives maximum glory to God.  Torah was handed down from heaven to Moses and the Jewish nation at Sinai which binds every Jew in a covenant until the end of time (which incidentally all Ashkenazi Orthodox accept as do Sephardim). I say this as one who was told to leave the house as a teenager for coming out as gay. Incidentally after years of reflection , I don't blame my parents for that  as rightly or wrongly they were sticking to their beliefs. I guess I do too, it's a Charedi  thing. You're in the camp. You're outside the camp. No middle ground, it's black and white , right and wrong.

Hannah's sister in law (the French Israeli) is from a Chasidic & religious Zionist, Ashkenazi - Sephardi background. The combination of the fiery passionate charismatic mystical approach to God,  the Jewish people, The Torah and life, the alternative to the Charedi legalism , with a belief in settling the historic land of Israel -is also a fundamentalist.   not in a pejorative way, but in the sense of doing the fundamentals of one's observance.

They're all true to themselves just as I am being true to myself.  Honesty and truth come  with a price. There was a time when I was somewhat ashamed of being Jewish, especially when anything happens in Israel and I stopped saying Psalms , reading Torah and observing  shabbos and ignored vile comments about Israel and Jews. 

 Today I'm not ashamed to be a Jew and I do defend Israel. I do enjoy studying Torah, keep kosher  and celebrate& observe Shabbos again. Although eating Sephardic and Mizarhi food, Mediterranean and spicy middle eastern food,  did take  some getting used to and I was mortified Hannah never served up the chicken soup. Jewish penicillin and key dish in any Shabbos meal. So  I remembered how to cook. There's nothing like a combo of Ashkenazi and Sephardic home cooked food.

As it is the eve  Shabbos or Shabbat , I would wish you all a Shabbat Shalom and a gut Shabbes.

And a song sent to us by Hannah's sister in law :