Skip to main content

We have ($24/lb) matzah – and עברית!

image

Maybe two months ago, I swiped this Hebrew keyboard layout from the Internet and pasted it into a word document. 

When I had to reinstall Windows to get the computer working (after it suddenly died, very nearly killing me as well), I took a minute to add Hebrew language capabilities PROPERLY; I guess I’d never done it right before.

Now we can switch from English to Hebrew typing with the click of a button – and often, the computer does it for us, triggered by some random keystroke into converting all our text.  Fun!

So I’ve used this Word document to type practice typing search strings and to refer to the keyboard layout when I get stuck looking for a particular letter.

But it seems that I am getting stuck less and less these days.  With a few exceptions, I am now reasonably confident about the locations of the major letters.  Some are easy – reish in the R spot; mem sofit looks like an O and the pay is in the P spot.  Others are totally counter-intuitive; mem is in the N place and for nun goes where B should be.

Slowly, slowly, it is coming.  This is a life skill, right?  In a world where 70% of olim arrive in Israel with no jobs (and often with lousy Hebrew), being able to touch-type and sing HaShafan HaKatan has got to mean something.

Okay, you caught me.  I hate HaShafan HaKatan, along with many other so-called children’s songs.  “La-la-la-hapchi” to you, too.  Rodents with potentially transmissible-to-human viruses simply do not amuse in the age of swine and bird flu – or monkey pox.

Also that Leytzan Katan Nechmad song.  Shudders my North American sensibilities to the bone, for some reason.

So we have matzah!  Shmurah matzah.  Seven pounds:  five white, two whole wheat for Ted.  When I am on top of things – which I was so NOT last year – I get it at the BAYT.  It’s baked in New York, with the baking personally supervised by Rabbi Taub. 

This year, they’re having two Sundays only when they’re selling it, at 9:00 a.m.  Luckily I checked during the week and found out.  There was a line-up when I got there at 8:55, but they had already started serving and the line went quickly enough.  And now it’s sitting out there in the car until I find a clean enough spot to put it inside the house.

I didn’t buy it last year, and I am happy that I did it again this year, even for $2-4 a pound more than regular hand shmurah ($20ish for regular; ours was $24 x 7 lbs - eek) (but it is exceptionally thin, crispy and delicious, if such a thing is possible).  I got a couple of pounds free the year I worked at the BAYT; that’s when I first got hooked.

I have tremendous respect for Rabbi Taub, going back not only to when I worked there but also to sitting in front of him on the Bais Din for Ted’s conversion (though it was actually around the same time; a couple of times during that year, I’d go out on lunch to meet Ted at bais din, only to bump into Rabbi Taub, who I’d just left behind at the office).

Toronto has a rotating bais din for conversions, with 3 members meeting candidates at any given time.  They all seem psychic, or at least very VERY insightful… but Rabbi Taub more so than some.  I missed having his matzah at our seder last year and for several reasons I felt it was important to reaffirm that (small, one-way) connection again this year.

I do realize that all hand shmurah matzah is supervised; I guess I like knowing a bit more about the character of the person who’s doing the supervising.

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

לימודי קודש/Limudei Kodesh Copywork & Activity Printables

Welcome to my Limudei Kodesh / Jewish Studies copywork and activity printables page.  As of June 2013, I am slowly but surely moving all my printables over to 4shared because Google Docs / Drive is just too flaky for me. What you’ll find here: Weekly Parsha Copywork More Parsha Activities More Chumash / Tanach Activities Yom Tov Copywork & Activities Tefillah Copywork Pirkei Avos / Pirkei Avot Jewish Preschool Resources Other printables! For General Studies printables and activities, including Hebrew-English science resources and more, click here . For Miscellaneous homeschool helps and printables, click here . If you use any of my worksheets, activities or printables, please leave a comment or email me at Jay3fer “at” gmail “dot” com, to link to your blog, to tell me what you’re doing with it, or just to say hi!  If you want to use them in a school, camp or co-op setting, please email me (remove the X’s) for rates. If you just want to say Thank You, here’s a

Hebrew/ עברית & English General Studies Printables

For Jewish Studies, including weekly parsha resources and copywork, click here . If you use any of my worksheets, activities or printables, please leave a comment or email me at Jay3fer “at” gmail “dot” com, to link to your blog, to tell me what you’re doing with it, or just to say hi!  If you want to use them in a school, camp or co-op setting, please email me (remove the X’s) for rates. If you enjoy these resources, please consider buying my weekly parsha book, The Family Torah :  the story of the Torah, written to be read aloud – or any of my other wonderful Jewish books for kids and families . English Worksheets & Printables: (For Hebrew, click here ) Science :  Plants, Animals, Human Body Math   Ambleside :  Composers, Artists History Geography Language & Literature     Science General Poems for Elemental Science .  Original Poems written by ME, because the ones that came with Elemental Science were so awful.  Three pages are included:  one page with two po

What do we tell our kids about Chabad and “Yechi”?

If I start by saying I really like Chabad, and adore the late Lubavitcher Rebbe, z"l, well... maybe you already know where I'm headed. Naomi Rivka has been asking lately what I think about Chabad.  She asks, in part, because she already knows how I feel.  She already knows I’m bothered, though to her, it’s mostly about “liking” and “not liking.”  I wish things were that simple. Our little neighbourhood in Israel has a significant Chabad presence, and Chabad conducts fairly significant outreach within the community.  Which sounds nice until you realize that this is a religious neighbourhood, closed on Shabbos, where some huge percentage of people are shomer mitzvos.  Sure, it’s mostly religious Zionist, and there are a range of observances, for sure, but we’re pretty much all religious here in some way or another. So at that point, this isn’t outreach but inreach .  Convincing people who are religious to be… what? A lot of Chabad’s efforts here are focused on kids, including a