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The importance of community
I don’t think of myself as the most social of people. I have difficulty dealing with crowds of people I don’t know. I hate showing up at a party where I don’t know anyone, and trying to get into conversation with people. When I do end up at big crowded parties, I am most comfortable…
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Reunion weekend
I’ve just checked in at the courtyard of Ross Hall, at 23rd and Eye Streets in downtown Wash DC, where I showed up 24 years ago to start my medical career. I’m back for my 20th year reunion. Sadly, I had to work in the hospital up in Baltimore this morning, and one thing after…
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Do these look like keys?
I read this week about the tradition of Schissel Challah, a loaf baked in the shape of a key, or with an actual key baked into it, served on the first Shabbat after Passover. Here’s one link, with explanations. And here’s another link, with better explanations. I’m afraid my keys don’t look much like…
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Our Shabbat-free Shabbat (cont’d)
We took a farewell walk around Lake Berkley today. It was a stunningly beautiful day – sunny, with a light breeze. We got to the lake, and spied a quartet of ducks, who clearly expected that we might have some bread crumbs to give them. And, then we spotted a floating empty milk jug at…
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A shabbat-free shabbat
I noted on FaceBook today our dear friends who made every effort to get home from their Disney vacation in time for Shabbat. They, of course, planned ahead, and have everything ready to go (apparently), with some help from worthy accomplices. We are never so foresighted in our Shabbat planning. Not at home, and never…
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TGIF – Shabbat Shalom
Sunset viewed through a window in a stairwell in the hospital where I work. Shabbat shalom. (Explanations coming tomorrow)
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Wow! Quiet day…
The dear husband was up last night when S woke up with a fever of 102.7 F. Ibuprofen was administered, and S slept. We knew that we weren’t going to synagogue today as a family. This morning, the program at our synagogue/shul included “Boker Ohr” – Morning Light – a special, alternative service led by…
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Missing Shabbat
It’s Saturday, which means its Shabbat (the Hebrew word meaning “sabbath”), and I’m using a computer. My husband and I started becoming more “Shabbat observant” a few years ago. It had been a slow evolution from originally just lighting candles on Friday night, reciting “Baruch ata HaShem, Elokeinu melech haolam, borei p’ri hagafen” (Blessed are…