Corona/COVID No One's Immune, Yep I Got It

Antigen test still positive
This was my failed attempt to 
"get out of jail early." It confirms 
that I'd been infected.

Yes, I did get Corona/COVID. 

Thank Gd, since I'm fully vaccinated to the maximum, it has been a relatively mild case. I've already graduated from quarantined to recovering, thank Gd.

I really am grateful that there are only two of us here in the house, and we have space, rooms, bathrooms etc. I can't imagine how those who live under crowded conditions manage to safely keep their distance.

I'm also grateful that the weather has been warm enough to comfortably keep windows open after an intense cold winter. My priority has been to keep my husband healthy. It has been strange staying masked at home, just the two of us.

Besides the awful fatigue and more congestion than I'm used to, I've had a pretty easy case. Fatigue is a problem, since even at my healthiest I don't manage to sleep enough.

I understand that I should be taking it easy for the next few weeks and not to push myself. At my age, that's a lesson for all the time. Recovery is always  harder the older you get.

Again, I thank Gd for my blessings, and this year, like the year my father passed away just a few days before Passover, I'll be doing minimum cleaning. I have to concentrate on the most important thing, the fridge/freezer. Stove top and counters need a cleaning and covering. I'm really glad that I chose the spare room as my first big project, so it was waiting for me when I realized that I was positive with Corona/COVID.

Stay healthy, and always look at the bright side.

Table for Two, Passover, 2020, Pesach 5780 מה נשתנה הלילה הזה?

?מה נשתנה הלילה הזה

Here are two views of our Passover Seder Table, which for the very first time in history was set and ready before I lit the holiday candles. I'm not sure exactly how many of the forty-nine, yes 49 s'darim we've had as a married couple we hosted. It's most probably just over half or two-thirds.



But one thing for sure; I never had the table fully set before lighting candles before. So we have no old photos of the table all set up.

In addition, from the time our daughters were old enough, they took charge of setting the table, so I probably haven't done it alone for well over forty years.

I had too many matzah covers to choose from. I gave my husband his traditional one, which had been given to us by my parents. And I used mine, which I had embroidered from a kit over forty years ago. Others we must have inherited from my parents' stock of Judaica.

On the table there are lots of memories plus the mosaic hotplate I made in our local senior citizen group. The Seder Plate and other hotplate were gifts from friends. The two-handled washing cup was from (one of) our children. I'm pretty sure that the glass wine goblets date back to a rather large seder we hosted in our small Jerusalem apartment over forty years ago.

Another first time in well over forty years, my husband did the entire seder on his own. All I contributed was the ?מה נשתנה הלילה הזה Mah nishtanah...? Why is this night...? aka the Four Questions. And of course I planned and cooked, while he followed his tradition of preparing the charoset (chopped apples and nuts) and chrain, horseradish paste.

Now I must prepare for Shabbat. No time to rest/goof off.

Shabbat Shalom and Chag Pesach Kasher V'Sameach

My Passover Kitchen! Sort Of

Even though we don't have a separate specially built and equipped "Passover Kitchen," mine is pretty close to that dream/ideal.

I am very happy with the new kitchen we did less than two years ago. I did most of the designing. Almost everything for Passover lives in it easy to access all year long. Anyone who has to kasher their kitchen annually knows what I mean. I still clean it of course, but only two closets get switched. And I have some pots in the laundry room, which is just across the hallway.

Here are some photos. Sorry, but I don't have time to chat.

Chag Pesach Sameach 

Baile Rochel Locked In? Nah! Can't Keep a Good Girl Down

Baile Rochel tell you how it really is:

Life in The Corona Lock-down

The other day I got an emergency call from my childhood playmate:

"Baile Rochel, the world is waiting for your words of wisdom."
"Nu, me?"

What wisdom?

I'm just a sloppy overweight middle-aged senior citizen who keeps getting chastised by my children for taking walks outside the house. I dress like a bandit with a mask and all. OK, I admit that the "mask" is just a folded shmatta, cut from a ripped flannel sheet. For goggles, I have my trusty multifocals.

When people ask why I still go outside I answer:

"Doctors orders!"

When corona virus, COVID-19, the plague, or whatever you want to call it, is no more than an awful memory, high blood pressure, diabetes, serious aches and pains, etc ad nauseum will still be live threats. In addition, I live in the "sticks," in a private home, so I don't need scuba gear in an elevator or public stairwell.

I rarely see anyone when outside, and if I do, I cross the street. And if that's not possible, proper corona manners demand that the younger wanderer must climb the nearest tree. A close call was averted when a clueless little kid started approaching encroaching on my personal space, about the distance/height of a star basketball player, so I growled. He got the hint and ran away.


Like many, I'm hoping that I still have clothes that fit when this corona has crooned away. In a "normal year," I would have given fattening chametz, the food forbidden on Passover, away before the holiday begins. And in case you haven't been following the Jewish calendar, Passover's next week. Corona prevention regulations forbid giving away food, so my husband and I are enjoying suffering by eating pancakes-made in large family quantity and other forbidden for dieters foods. Yes, I'm finishing the beer, too. It's chametz!

I haven't seen my grandchildren in person since Purim. But now on the advice of one of my kids I am "living my old dream" to be an international "entertainer" by reading children's stories daily on facebook. Anyone can tune in, as long as you have a facebook account. Join to watch my daily shows.


One corona related regulation I'm following very strictly is staying away from the supermarket. My husband can't do his beloved shuq, open market, shopping either; it's in Jerusalem and shuttered. We must be saving a lot of money. Every few days I call the manager of the local grocer and order a few things. They arrive straight to our doorstep.

And I can't remember the last time I ate out with friends, another frugality of the corona lock-down. We now meet frequently on Zoom, Skype, Whatsapp, email and, of course, my blogs written under my other name. But:

 I WANT TO HOLD YOUR HAND!

Mrs. Sullivan's Dancing School, Bayside, NY, circa 1953

Matzah Breakfast on "Second Chance Passover," Pesach Sheni, פסח שני

For years I've been missing the boat, forgetting to celebrate "Second Chance Passover," Pesach Sheni, פסח שני.

Passover, Pesach is one of the holidays we are commanded to celebrate, as written in the Torah, Bible, the first five Books. These texts are thousands of years old, and we Jews still read and follow the Mitzvot/Commandments. When you think about it, it's quite amazing. For thousands of years we Jews have followed the calendar, the same holidays according to ancient texts.

When we were a small people all living in the Holy Land, making it to the Beit Hamikdash for holidays was doable. And since Passover was so important Gd gave us a second chance, because sometimes people found it impossible for very legitimate reasons.

The Torah mentions two official excuses for “missing” Pesach Rishon (on 14 Nissan) and being commanded to bring the KP on 14 Iyar – TAMEI, ritually defiled because of contact with a dead body or other source of TUM’A and DERECH R’CHOKA, “far” away from the Mikdash.

So today, even though I celebrated a large family seder with my family a month ago, I ate matzah. Did you?

Passover/Pesach 5779, 2019 Almost Over

This year's Passover is a day longer than usual for us here in Israel. That's because as it ends Shabbat begins. And we can't start putting away Passover dishes/pots etc on Shabbat, nor can we cook chametz.

So, this year, for all practical purposes, Passover is the same whether you're in Israel or outside of it. In Chutz La'Aretz, meaning out of the Holy Land, there's an extra day, just like they have a Second Seder and celebrate Simchat Torah a day after we do. A number of times in the past, we had visitors from abroad who needed to continue eating strictly Kosher for Passover for eight days, rather than our seven. Those years we couldn't switch everything immediately after the holiday was over for us. But in a year like this one, it's no problem at all. Everyone finishes with Passover the same time.

Now I have to finish off all of the cooking for the last two days of Passover eating.

Enjoy!

PS Please remember to get all of your candles ready before the chag begins and also a 48 hour one so you can light for Shabbat.
PPS Also remember to prepare and bless the Eruv Tavshilin, so you can prepare food for Shabbat on the chag.

Chag Kasher V'Sameach and Shabbat Shalom

Family Passover/Pesach Seder, 5779, 2019

Of course, being that we strictly follow Jewish Law, we have no pictures from our actual Passover/Pesach Seder. The memories will stay for generations, Gd willing.

My grandfather, who was otherwise a strictly shomer Shabbat, a Sabbath observer, apparently allowed my Uncle Donny to take the photo just below. I guess it was a combination of not fully comprehending the halachic aspects of photography and not being able to resist the cleverly worded requests of my Uncle Donny.

Shankman-Vishnevsky family Seder, Brooklyn, NY, most probably 5709, 1949

I'm not in this Seder picture, since if I've dated it correctly, it was just over a month before I was born. Yes, now you know how old I am.  I recognize everyone in the picture. Not only my maternal grandparents, but my parents, aunts, uncle and even two of my cousins here have already passed away. I'm pretty sure it's 1949, because Uncle Izzy is sitting there next to my grandfather holding Cousin Butchy. Passover 1948, just a couple of weeks before Israel's Declaration of Independence, he was most probably in the Holy Land, or staffing one of the boatloads of illegal immigrants as a high ranking volunteer in the Palyam.

The photo below was taken after Shabbat/first day Passover, when it's permitted to photograph. Outside of Israel where people celebrate two Passover Seders and have two days of "restrictions," instead of playing piano, they'd be doing Seder #2. One of my older granddaughters was practicing that complicated piano piece  and then was joined by a couple of younger ones. Let that group photo, which shows no faces or identifying features suffice as family Pesach photo.

Multi-hand piano "concert," Passover, 5779, 2019

This year our daughter hosted the Family Passover/Pesach Seder. All our descendants, except one, attended. It was a great thrill to see all of our grandchildren interacting, from the teens to the infants.

Food was  a combination of strictly Ashkenaz and Tunisian traditions. The customs and tunes were also a harmonized combination. Only the very last songs in the Haggadah were loudly sung by in very Ashkenaz tunes. Nobody else could outlast us.

We celebrated Passover and family togetherness. Just a month before the entire clan came to us in Shiloh for the Purim Seuda/Feast. Thank Gd we make efforts to get together whenever possible. I feel very blessed.

Chag Kasher VeSameach to All of You

Solving The "Puzzle," First Passover in New Kitchen

Without a doubt, I am extraordinary pleased with the relative ease I had switching my new kitchen into Passover mode, setting it up for Pesach. Even though I made no real/expense effort to plan/build cabinets special for Passover, there ended up being quite a bit of easy to reach/no need to switch cabinets. 

One of the reasons I didn't want to spend extra is because we're not getting any older--meaning that not only don't I host humongous s'darim anymore but even ad meah esrim-we don't have too many left. But that's also a reason to make the Passover switch easier. Yes, that doesn't make sense completely, but we managed to pull it off. And, no, I didn't hire a kitchen planner. Our son-in-law and I planned the kitchen, with one super brilliant tweak by the guy who was hired to be in charge of and do the shuiputz, renovation.

Our kitchen isn't all that big, but it's not small either. My priorities when planning were to have room for two standard Israeli ovens and two separate full-sized sinks. And I have them.

The dairy sink is an "island," and instead of an eating counter, there are closets underneath facing the dining room table. Those closets are full, actually were partially empty, of dairy and parve Passover dishes, pots, etc. They've been empty enough for me to have stored all sorts of Passover pantry items as we purchased them. That was convenient. 

We didn't need to to much switching. I had plenty of room in the big storage drawers to add my mugs and coffee paraphernalia. Then I cleaned and covered the shelves, filling them with Passover mugs, dairy dishes, etc. The only major cabinet switch was for the meat dishes. My husband was able to climb up for that after I emptied, cleaned and covered the shelves. 

My biggest challenge was covering the counters. I was overjoyed to discover that the "oil cloth" I had bought a couple of years ago was more than sufficient to cover all. Cutting to fit required a lot of brain power, engineering skills. I'm very proud that I pulled it off. Here are some photos.

Tonight is the Pesach/Passover Seder, Gd willing, and it is also Shabbat. Blessings and Joy to All.

Shabbat Shalom

Chag Kasher v'Sameach

May You have a Peaceful Shabbat and Joyful and Kosher Passover

Kitchen Post-Passover "Normal" and Maimuna Memories

We've always made a point of getting all of the Passover kitchenware stored away and the regular chametz things back on their shelves before hitting the sack after Pesach. And the switch to Passover is also done in one hysterical campaign. Even in the days when I made large s'darim (seders) I never  started cooking for them while there were still chametz dishes/pots out.

So, before we went to bed, we had finished switching back.

There were some great years, when the kids were around to help and big enough to really make life easy for us. Those same years, neighbors a few doors away did a nice Maimuna celebration. Going to it was like getting rewarded for all of our hard work. Of course our Moroccan neighbors had managed to put together a great party in much less time... 

Passover/Pesach Visit to Jerusalem

Yesterday we met with cousins in Jerusalem. The plan was to go to the new Plugat Hakotel Museum in the former Maon Betar, Old City Jerusalem, where we had lived for almost a year after making aliyah in 1970. But when we got there we discovered that too many other people had the same idea. It's a very small museum, and you have to reserve a specific time slot to see the exhibits and movie. Since we're all retirees, we decided to do it another time.

Instead we found a place for lunch and just walked around a bit. Jerusalem was full of visitors from near and far.  We made our way out of the Old City through Mamilla Mall and then to the lobby of the Jerusalem Waldorf Astoria, where we sat and chatted. After that we made our separate ways.

Here are some photos:

Purple Chrain, Sing Along and Enjoy

This fantastic little clip/video/cartoon is actually from last year, but I don't remember seeing it then.  Enjoy and singalong...

Pre-Passover Custom

Eat a falafel.

Most years we eat falafel after doing  Bedikat Chametz, the religious ceremony during which the house is searched for any drop of the forbidden  chametz. And in order to find chametz, some bagged chametz is hidden in various corners.

This year I changed the custom, the schedule. Tonight is Bedikat Chametz.  Even though we're not making a Seder, and I don't have lots of cooking, we're turning the kitchen kosher for Passover early, this morning. And since my husband is retired, he won't be going to Jerusalem today. And since we've already started with Daylight Savings Time, it will be past my dinner time when we finally finish Bedikat Chametz.

So, I asked him to bring me a felafel yesterday. It tasted OK. I think that the last time I ate one was pre-Pesach last year.

Baking Matzah by Hand

Last night, OK with daylight savings time it was more like late afternoon, while taking a walk around the neighborhood, I noticed some activity going on. Apparently this van brought all the supplies and equipment needed to bake matzah.

So I got a bit closer and took a couple of pictures. Since matzah-baking is strictly timed,  I didn't want to disturb anyone. That's why I didn't get too close.

You can see that they brought gas canisters, an oven and everything else one would need to produce handmade matzah.

Just a few days ago, I had admitted to someone that I had never seen nor participated in matzah-baking.

Should I add matzah-baking to my "Bucket List?"

Passover Approaching, Freezer Empyting

Yes, I cleaned off the top shelf of the freezer already. And now that I see the picture, it's clear that I didn't put it back properly. And some of the food on the bottom shelf is actually chicken that is Kosher for Passover.

Considering that we have a week until Bedikat Chametz, bli eyin haraa, we're doing OK.

I'll be giving away and throwing out some food. Not the end of the world...

Post-Passover Laundry "Ditties"

Yesterday, I did a lot of laundry. Laundry is one of the things many people avoid doing during the Passover holiday, including the "intermediate" Chol Hamo'ed days, which are of holiday status and restrictions. By the time we put away all of our Passover kitchen gear Monday night and set the regular stuff back in their places, there was a ton of wash waiting to be done. So I set up the machine with a heavy, takes a couple of hours, wash on a timer to be ready first thing yesterday morning.

And after hanging the wash I photographed it and wrote a "little ditty" and posted it on facebook.  And then for some crazy reason, each time I finished a wash and hung it, I took a picture and wrote another crazy rhyme, #laundry. Here they are with some of the photos:
first laundry hung
enjoying the bright spring sun

Far from through
I've added laundry number two

Here's the third-
What! No clapping heard?

Here's number 4
and there's going to be more!

Just hung out wash number five
and feel very alive!

No tricks
This is wash six

Now that seven washes are hung
I can go out and have fun!

Why does This Passover Feel Different?

For some strange reason I just can't wait for this year's Passover to be over.

All other years I want it to go on. I look back at all the work, all the preparation and expenses and sort of mutter to myself, said with that Yiddish inflection so popular with Jewish comedians:

"All this for just a one week holiday?"

I probably should have gotten my act together and invited lots of people. Hosting generally puts me in a better mood. But my barely functioning kitchen makes cooking very difficult and time consuming. Things take ages to cook on the simple two-burner hotplate/stovetop I've been using since the gas stove smells. My after the school year is over plan is to design and order a new kitchen. No doubt it will take all summer from beginning to end, if not longer. I do have the basic design and just need a professional to work out the details, then hire workers and buy two full-size ovens and a nice new stove-top.

Baruch Hashem, Thank Gd, we did have a totally wonderful Passover Seder and first day Holiday at our daughter's with most of our kids and all the grandchildren, bli eyin haraa. It was a real treat to hear the two and a half year old ask the "four questions." And even the first grader read from the Haggadah.

One of the problems with this year's Passover, unlike the previous two, is that there were only two full days of chol hamoed, the "intermediate days" when you have a full day to travel, host etc. Of course, I can't really complain, since out of Israel, there was only one! At least I did manage to get out of the those on both the days. On the first day I went down to see what was doing in Shiloh Hakeduma, Tel Shiloh, and on the second day we went to Jerusalem and saw cousins.

It's hard to believe that in just over thirty-six 36 hours we'll be putting all the Passover stuff away and taking out the "regular kitchen."

Gd willing, next year will be much better! Enjoy and Chag Kasher v'Sameach!