I have a few posts which I've been working on and have set on "timer" to use a culinary phrase . The good thing about blogger is that you can write posts and set them to be published for a specific time. Like a slow cooker. So watch out for some posts 'set' For the next couple of days.... including a post from my bro Sam- who may join our editorial team on "consomme matzo boeuf impérial ".
"On the first day you shall take the product of hadar trees, branches of palm trees, boughs of leafy trees, and willows of the brook" (Lev. 23:40)
"You shall live in booths seven days; all citizens in Israel shall live in booths, in order that future generations may know that I made the Israelite people live in booths when I brought them out of the land of Egypt" (Lev. 23:42–43)
Other references :
Deuteronomy 16:13
Ezra 3:4
Nehemiah 8:17-18
For Christians John 7 : 2-3
We hope everyone is enjoying Sukkot, in their Sukkah!
We are well and truly into the high holidays now and with another one in a couple of days, which is why we haven't been posting much for 2 months, in order to prepare and cram in all the work we would have done in September, a lot like how Christians do the same in December for Christmas and their New Year. It is also Shabbat starting tonight, so this is just a brief post before we all disappear again and don't worry 'normal' service will resume shortly.
Tonight marks the start of Rosh Hashanah - the Jewish New Year- and more widely the start of what we call the Yamim Noraim, High Holy Days.
It is universal in the Jewish world to dip Apple in honey for a sweet new year. In Sephardic tradition and some Ashkenazi orthodox mystical traditions , we have a Seder as well as a festive meal. The Seder is , I suppose, similar to Anglican liturgy i.e. a written down series of prayers and blessings, most popularly thought of as a Passover tradition. The difference is that we do so at home and via symbolic foods. he Rosh Hashanah seder the foods we eat also become vessels for meaning. Each food symbolizes a good wish for the coming year, and before each food is consumed there is a special blessing to recite, many of which result from puns on the food’s Hebrew or Aramaic name. With each blessing, the mundane aspect of food is garnished with a sense of holiness, poignancy, and even humour.
We begin the seder with a series of biblical verses invoking physical and spiritual blessings. They are repeated a prescribed number of times for mystical reasons.
The verses are followed by a piyyut, a religious poem, written by Abraham Hazzan Girondi in 13th-century Spain. Each verse of the poem has a chorus that declares, Tikhleh shanah ve-killeloteha! Let the year end with all its curses! The last line reflects a change in tone: Tahel shanah u-virkhoteha! Let the new year begin with all its blessings!
Then come the blessings ( I'm using the English translation here):
eating dates (tamar): May it be your will, God, that enmity will end. (Tamar resembles the word for end, yitamu.)
eating pomegranate: May we be as full of mitzvot as the pomegranate is full of seeds.
eating apple and honey: May it be Your will, God, to renew for us a good and sweet year.
string beans (rubia): May it be Your will, God, that our merits increase. (Rubia resembles the word for increase, yirbu.)
eating pumpkin or gourd (k’ra): May it be Your will, God, to tear away all evil decrees against us, as our merits are proclaimed before you. (K’ra resembles the words for “tear” and “proclaimed.”)
spinach or beet leaves (selek): May it be Your will, God, that all the enemies who might beat us will retreat, and we will beat a path to freedom (Selek resembles the word for retreat, yistalku).
leeks, chives, or scallions (karti): May it be Your will, God, that our enemies be cut off. (Karti resembles yikartu, the word for “cut off.”)
The most striking - from a western view point is a cooked sheep's head ( the brains are removed and eaten separately ) . This is is because of the blessing
'…And You shall remember for us the binding and the ram of our forefather Isaac, the son of our forefather Abraham, peace be onto them.'
The sheep’s head to symbolize our wish to be heads, not tails; leaders, not stragglers. The sheep’s head so serves as a reminder of the ram that saved Isaac’s life; we recite the story of the binding of Isaac on the second day of Rosh Hashanah. Us Iraqi Jews don't use a fish like other communities , because its Hebrew name, dag, sounds like the Hebrew word for worry, d’agah.
To end this post I pray she-yikaret me-aleinu kol ra ve-nitbarekh b’shalom — that all evil should be cut from us and we should be blessed with peace.
As Hannah is in a flap about Shabbat and the upcoming flood of Jewish festivals , I guess it is up to me to start a new thread. As it is a Friday it is an open thread. As a future notice as several readers have taken an interest in Jewish cuisine we and maybe Sam shall be posting our favourite recipes in some posts. An additional and entirely free bonus to our blog.
I guess people may think we were going to discuss the recent travails on Labour and its NEC elections. The thing is I have already said what I wanted to say (or rather rant) about in previous posts. There was also a report in the Jewish Chronicle that says a survey indicates about 2/5s of Jews would leave or consider leaving if Corbyn came to power. I don't know if I'd be one of them , although 2 out of my 6 siblings have already left for Israel, but that's the level that we've got to and it's a disgrace. It isn't *just * Corbyn, who is now a figurehead for a much wider and broader section within Labour - the hard or far left- that have successfully infiltrated Labour since his election win. The old social democratic, liberal tradition of the labour party being 'Methodists, rather than Marxists' has gone.
The real worry is not that Corbyn will win, but that whoever takes over is likely to be as or more extreme, not just on Israel, but matters closer to voters hearts, the bread and butter issues such as taxes, spending and the role and power of the state. Usually our British political culture shuns extremes and the centre of gravity is always centre to centre right (ALL Labour governments have only got into power when accepting a centre- right platform). However the politics of today is different and with Brexit (as former Governor Lord King noted) being cocked up by the Conservative Party, who knows what will happen when new elections are called. And we know the hard left is not this fluffy sentimental, hugging tree types, but vicious , ruthless and hardnosed about setting up their utopias and they don't care who they kill or murder in doing so. Look at very far left regime and you will see it.
Let's use current examples :
1. Venezuela
A country with one of the largest reserves of crude oil on the planet. It should be a fairly rich, middle income country. But what happened? Mad far leftists took charge and have screwed the country. Elections still take place, but they are nothing other than a sham, with political opponents arrested and beaten up. It has suffered from hyper -inflation , some 1,000,000% per year, so much so that they weigh notes, rather than count them in order to buy- if it is even possible - bread and coffee.
2. Cuba
A socialist paradise, but how many people try and flee it each year in order to get to Florida. Again a country which produces a luxury item- cigars - which could along with tourism provide the basis of a viable economy. Yet the country is set in a 1960s timewarp because they can't import modern cars or medicines. Enough said.
3. Zimbabwe
A country similar to Venezuela, in so much as it has a lot of natural resources and was at one time a massive agricultural producer. What happened? A leftist dictatorship took over and began in the name of this odious creed, adopting stated legislated racism and theft of property, in this case farm land (because the farmers were a minority of the population). The country went through a similar hyper inflation period to Venezuela, because what socialist ideologues don't understand is that you can't just thieve people's property and put anyone to work on the land , as modern farming requires skills and experience . We could add South Africa to this list as they are also pursuing property theft against their minority farmers in the name of justice and equality. They should and I bet of course they do know, what happened to their neighbours in Zimbabwe.
What was that famous quote from Einstein about repeating the same mistake twice? Well in the far left's case they've repeated it dozens and hundreds of times. But it still doesn't stop them. We should also mention the USSR, Cambodia, Eastern Europe (Romania for example where the socialist decided that the economy would boom if it forced people to have dozens of children or China wherein the state adopted the opposite policy) , other socialist African states, Peronism in Argentine. Everywhere the far left takes control it ends up increasing inequality, poverty, death, hunger and the decline of the general wellbeing. What does humanity fall for such a load of stupidity every time?!
