I want to be in a place where they paint their roofs and doors and graves the blue of sky. Though it may be to confuse the evil eye, it helps me feel at one with the stars in the heavens above. There is such effortless beauty to be found in that expanse. If my soul is like fire, if I thrive near the palace of sacrifice, then maybe my spirit is like wind, for I need it to breathe, to live. Without wind, there is no fire. To return to such a place brings me back to the beginning, back ...
Israel
An Erev Shabbat Story
It’s Erev Shabbat, and I’ve just said goodbye to my husband who left for work, leaving me to watch the Dawn as I drink my tonic of coffee. Soon I’ll be going to the DMV for some much needed name changing...stuff, cleaning our home, get my hands covered in dough kneading challah, cooking dinner, preparing myself — all in anticipation of greeting the Sabbath. Except now as I sit in the stillness, I need to find silence. I need to quiet my soul. It is the month of Elul, a time of ...
The Wedding Planning Roller Coaster
It's been 6 weeks since I became engaged. There are 9 weeks and two days until I get married, and what a journey it has thus been. What began as a bit of bumpy, albeit sometimes scary, ride has turned into the most stunning, breathtaking, miraculous quest I've ever endeavored. When we became engaged on Labour Day weekend, I knew we only had 3-4 weeks until the High Holy Days, which would halt most, if not all, wedding planning. It should because our focus should be on Hashem during ...
One Day
Right now, I should be preparing for Shabbat or Yom Kippur, finalising the service outlines; not that it changes much, if at all, year to year. Technically, I should be working on this info-graphic or running reports for work. Instead, I'm sitting here at work trying not to burst into tears because of the recent news regarding these two poor Jewish boys who were bullied at school for their Jewishness and the man on the subway in NYC. Seeing such blatant hate is disturbing and ...
A Jerusalem Vignette
We had just finished saying our goodbyes to my visiting aunts. I sauntered out of the hotel, and as I exited, watched a couple emptying out of their vehicle. The man's back faced me as he assisted his, I assumed, wife from the back seat, and upon his silver hair sat an obvious black kippah. Observing more closely, I saw they were dressed in their Shabbas clothes -- he in a suit of black with a white shirt and black tie; she in an elegant, floral pencil skirt with a long-sleeved blouse and ...
