Mazal tov: Bat mitzvah edition

Warning: The following post exceeds the recommended daily allowance for vain attempts at making up for one’s prolonged absence with an overwhelming amount of photos. Proceed at your own risk.

As some of you know, we recently celebrated a Shiputzim daughter’s bat mitzvah.

First, she had a small party in school with her friends, and then we had a separate party just for the immediate family.

Here are the threatened promised photos. (As always, feel free to click on the pictures for a better view.)

The bat mitzvah girl chose spring colors for the decorations:

Note the bat-mitzvah-themed confetti sprinkled in the middle of each table:

The rolls were made by one of the bat mitzvah girl’s grandmothers (aka “She Who Made the Incredible Bundle-of-Wheat Challah for Shavuot”):

As you can see by the screen in the above picture, the program included the requisite video presentation (i.e. a matzeget, for the Hebraically-oriented among you), expertly prepared by our favorite filmmaker.

The main course consisted of brisket, schnitzel, mushroom rice, carrot bread, and several salads: (Thank you to each of the salad makers!)

Dessert included a yummy assortment of homemade treats, such as trifle (made by the bat mitzvah girl’s other grandmother):

Chocolate cake (courtesy of guest blogger Malke) and French coffee cake (which is neither French nor made with coffee – discuss amongst yourselves - recipe to follow, b”n, in a future post):

Cookie “pizza” (credit: one of the bat mitzvah girl’s aunts):

Cinnamon swirl cookies and black and white cookies:

Chocolate chocolate chip bars and chocolate chip sticks:

”No-name” bars (with white glaze instead of colored sprinkles) and more black and white cookies:

Except where otherwise specified, all the desserts were made by the talented Shiputzim bakers (known here on the blog as the tza’ir bakers) – including the bat mitzvah girl herself.

Mazal tov to the beautiful bat mitzvah girl, who did an amazing job with her dvar Torah!

We love you!!!!

Freshly Baked Goods Friday: Meta Challah Edition

To continue the previous post’s sheaves of wheat theme, check out the incredible challah that one of our yom tov guests made for Shavuot:

In case you can’t tell - as always, click on the photos for a better view – it was supposed to look like a bundle of wheat.

Or, to put it in hashtag terms:

Wheat flour that was baked into a challah and then shaped into wheat stalks #HowMetaCanYouGet

Thank you, dear Yom Tov Guest! The challah tasted as good as it looked!

!שבת שלום ומבורך

Erev Shavuot 5773

Reason #5432 for making aliyah:
You know Shavuot – aka Chag HaKatzir - is coming, because you see wheat being harvested in fields along the side of the road.

"וַתִּדְבַּק בְּנַעֲרוֹת בֹּעַז לְלַקֵּט עַד כְּלוֹת קְצִיר הַשְּׂעֹרִים וּקְצִיר הַחִטִּים..."

“And she clung to Boaz's maidens to glean until the end of the barley harvest and the wheat harvest...”
(Megilat Ruth 2:23)

And on a related note, here’s Ofra Haza singing “Shibolet BaSadeh”:

The lyrics are available here, and an English translation is available here.

!חג שבועות שמח

Euphonic Friday: Mazal tov edition

As you may recall, a few months ago, the J-blogging world collided head-on with the real life world when I had the honor of making my very first shidduch.

Unfortunately, YZG and I were unable to attend the wedding in person. However, thanks to the miracle of Facebook photo sharing and also thanks to the thoughtful Our Shiputzim reader who sent us pictures in real time straight from the chupah, we were very much there in spirit.

Mazal tov to the chatan and kallah and also to their dear parents, grandparents, siblings, aunts, uncles, and cousins!!

יהי רצון שתזכו לבנות בית נאמן בישראל!

The beautiful wedding took place on Lag BaOmer, and what better way to celebrate than with a joyful song. (The video was shot in the area around the soon-to-be former bridge to nowhere.)

!שבת שלום ומבורך

Iyar Top Ten

The Our Shiputzim Editorial Board proudly presents:

The Top 10 Reasons That Iyar Rates As One of the Twelve Best Months to Be Living in Israel

10) The entire country is decorated in blue and white.

9) The IDF – which, as I’ve noted before, does its very best to ensure that religious soldiers’ needs are met – automatically grants shaving exemptions for the duration of Sefirah to any soldier who so requests.

8) The shaving exemption even applies to IDF soldiers appearing on national television during the Yom HaZikaron ceremony at the Kotel.

7) In any given year, at least one of your kids is chosen to play an active role in a Yom HaZikaron/Yom HaAtzma’ut ceremony – whether in gan, school, your community, or even the army.

6) Three years after I first shared my in-laws’ incredible pictures of the Kotel in the summer of 1967, that post continues to be extremely popular - especially in the weeks leading up to Yom Yerushalayim.

5) That satisfying feeling of accomplishment you get after successfully completing yet-another Iyar Challenge (i.e. supplying each of your kids with enough white shirts to make it through the first week of Iyar).

4) The amazing seasonal music. (See, for example, Udi Davidi’s beautiful Hitna'ari (including a translation).)

3) Four words: Yom HaAtzma’ut in Israel. There’s nothing like it!

2) The way the Pesach/Yom HaShoah/Yom HaZikaron/Yom HaAtzma’ut/Yom Yerushalayim/Shavuot continuum serves as a poignant reminder that the future of the Jewish People is here in Israel, where we’re B”H privileged to have front row seats on Jewish history.

1) The newly-minted four-day Lag BaOmer weekend…

!שבת שלום ול”ג-ל”ד שמח

Hinei Rakevet…

In between partying at last night’s wonderful Yom HaAtzma’ut celebration, watching the Chidon HaTanach earlier today, and then enjoying a delicious BBQ (i.e. a mangal, for the Hebraically-oriented amongst you), the Shiputzim family managed to find time to revisit Israel's version of the bridge to nowhere.

As you may recall, the bridge was built for the high-speed train which will eventually run from Tel Aviv to Yerushalayim.

Since those pictures were taken, considerable progress has been made, and in honor of Yom HaAtzma’ut, Israel Railways offered free bus tours of the bridge and the tunnels behind it.

In addition, they had set up a festive fairground of sorts – complete with various attractions for the entire family.

As always, click on the pictures for a better view:

There were entertainers and patriotically-shaped balloons:

Other attractions included model trains, a picnic area, blue and white Lego, a movie, and inflatable rides for the kids:

Rounded concrete slabs which are used to line the tunnels and are installed robotically:

The erstwhile bridge-to-nowhere:

One of the tunnels:

The bridge leading into the tunnels:

Looking down at families on a Yom HaAtzma’ut hike in the valley below the bridge:

And finally, a video from inside the tunnel, which was bedecked with flashing lights in honor of Yom HaAtzma’ut. As you can hear, the bus driver played loud music, and if you watch carefully, you can catch a brief glimpse of the tour guide:

מועדים לשמחה

!לאלתר לגאולה שלמה

Happy Yom HaAtzma’ut to all!

Yom HaZikaron 5773

As we remember each of Israel’s 23,085 fallen soldiers, here is the Kel Malei prayer for Yom HaZikaron followed by an English translation*:

אֵ-ל מָלֵא רַחֲמִים שׁוֹכֵן בַּמְּרוֹמִים, הַמְצֵא מְנוּחָה נְכוֹנָה עַל כַּנְפֵי הַשְּׁכִינָה בַּמַּעֲלוֹת קְדוֹשִׁים, טְהוֹרִים וְגִבּוֹרִים, כְּזֹהַר הָרָקִיעַ מַזְהִירִים, לְנִשְׁמוֹת הַקְּדוֹשִׁים שֶׁנִּלְחֲמוּ בְּכָל מַעַרְכוֹת יִשְׂרָאֵל, בַּמַּחְתֶּרֶת וּבִצְבָא הַהֲגָנָה לְיִשְׂרָאֵל וְשֶׁנָּפְלוּ בְּמִלְחַמְתָּם וּמָסְרוּ נַפְשָׁם עַל קְדֻשַּׁת הַשֵּׁם, הָעָם וְהָאָרֶץ, בַּעֲבוּר שֶׁאָנוּ מִתְפַּלְּלִים לְעִלּוּי נִשְׁמוֹתֵיהֶם. לָכֵן בַּעַל הָרַחֲמִים יַסְתִּירֵם בְּסֵתֶר כְּנָפָיו לְעוֹלָמִים וְיִצְרֹר בִּצְרוֹר הַחַיִּים אֶת נִשְׁמוֹתֵיהֶם, ה' הוּא נַחֲלָתָם, בְּגַן עֵדֶן מְנוּחָתָם, וְיָנוּחוּ בְּשָׁלוֹם עַל מִשְׁכְּבוֹתָם וְתַעֲמֹד לְכָל יִשְׂרָאֵל זְכוּתָם וְיַעַמְדוּ לְגוֹרָלָם לְקֵץ הַיָּמִין, וְנֹאמַר אָמֵן.

“O God, full of mercy, Who dwells in the Heavens, deliver proper rest on the wings of the Divine Presence, in the ascents of the holy, the pure, and the courageous, who shine like the radiance of the firmament, to the holy souls who fought in all of Israel’s battles, in the Underground and in the Israel Defense Forces, and who fell in their wars and gave their lives to sanctify Hashem’s Name, the nation, and the Land, because we pray for their souls’ ascent.

“Therefore, may the Master of Mercy shelter them in the shelter of His wings for eternity, and may He bind their souls in the bonds of life. Hashem is their heritage; their rest is in the Garden of Eden. And may they rest in peace on their resting places, and may their merit stand for all of Israel, and may they stand for their fate at the end of days. And we shall say: Amen.”

.יהי זכרם ברוך

_________

*The above translation is courtesy of the official Our Shiputzim Hebrew-English translator. For more information, please contact me at OurShiputzim at gmail dot com, and I’ll gladly forward all serious inquiries to her.

Only in Israel: Restaurant edition

Last week, YZG and I found ourselves driving  to Tel Aviv.

After parking our car, we started walking toward our destination when we were stopped by the guard at the entrance to the parking lot.

He seemed to sense that we are from out of town (where town=Tel Aviv, not New York… :-)).

Was it the fact that we missed our exit driving into the city that gave us away?

Or was he simply being prophetic and accurately predicting that later that evening, we would – as we ALWAYS do at the end of every. single. visit to Tel Aviv - have trouble finding our way back onto the highway?

I don’t know.

But I do know that the friendly guard was clearly trying to be helpful when he asked us where we were going.

We told him that we were going to a certain restaurant, and the Russian-accented, bareheaded guard immediately replied, “Is that kosher?”

We thanked him for his concern and assured him that we had checked it out in advance and that the restaurant was indeed kosher l’mehadrin.

!מי כעמך ישראל
“Who is like Your nation Israel…”
(Divrei HaYamim I 17:21)

And on a related note, Latma has a new song for Yom HaAtzma’ut 5773: