This past Sunday, we celebrated Rosh Chodesh Elul. For those of you who don’t know, this is the final month of the Jewish calendar, and Rosh Chodesh is our celebration of the beginning of a new month. Thus, when we reach the month of Elul, things get crazy. Basically, imagine that you started getting ready for New Year’s Day (the January one) on December 1 by celebrating its upcoming arrival with a huge party. Then throw in a bunch of religious observances through the rest of December ...
Rosh Hashanah
Etched in Gold
Seven weeks ago, I mailed my wedding ring back to Israel. After wearing it for roughly eighteen months, I had come to finally admit it was too tight. In fact, I had finally reached the point where it was too painful to wear. I learned after meeting with a local jeweler, whoever sized me before we even bought our wedding rings sized me improperly, and I needed one whole size larger! Saddened, I knew the only way I could continue to wear the band I had grown so attached to was to contact the ...
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 ...
Blog Hiatus
It's appalling how much time has passed since I last wrote... In my defence –– as I too often iterate at the beginning of these posts due to my guilt and the seeming accountability blogging creates –– it was the Jewish High Holy Days last month, so I was a tad bit busy. Tonight being the first free evening I had in too long, I felt the need, the longing, the itch to write. Something. Anything. Over the holidays, I tried my best to relax, breathe, have little to no commitments, and ...
Musings before the New Year
As I'm sitting here at home on this lovely rainy, September day, sick with who knows what, I'm grateful for this bit of quiet in my recently much noisy life, a life which keeps me from this, what I love most. It reminds me what this season is all about, of preparing one's soul for the coming New Year on Rosh Hashanah as we enter the courts of our King and ask Him to pardon us from all sins, iniquities, and unrighteousness from the past year. How? I have books to write reviews for, ...
