One heck of a 48th wedding anniversary celebration

[Note: Apparently, the only way to format a simple post these days is to use HTML, which I don't know. Excuse me, Google, but I'm a blogger, not a coder. I've always tended toward long-format writing, which is why I'm here, not on Bluesky. But now, Google is making it impossible to publish any post that's more than one paragraph long, and I don't appreciate it.]

Update: Okay, I'm trying some basic HTML that I just picked up on an internet search: < and /p and > to make a paragraph, < and br and > to create a blank line between paragrahs. Skip the "and," of course.

I met my husband at the local dermatologist office, where they were following up on a growth that they'd carved off and sent for biopsy a couple of weeks ago, and we were supposed to go directly from there to our anniversary dinner. Not so fast. It turned out that the growth was a basal cell carcinoma--skin cancer. Should they remove it right away, or wait a week or two? I said, "Just get it over with," thereby giving new meaning to the saying, "Take it off, take it all off.) 🙂

Forty-five minutes, some local anesthesia, some surgical carving by the dermatologist, and some self-dissolving stitches and a surgical dressing later, we were finally off to a very fine dinner at ye friendly not-so-local glatt kosher Japanese restaurant to which our son had taken us for Mother's Day. A short stop afterward at the kosher bakery near the restaurant worked well for my husband, but the only gluten-free cookies they sell were not available due to the hot weather--all the chocolate in and on the cookies would have melted after five minutes out of the refrigerator case. Oh, well.

We hopped back on the subway and walked home from our station, stopping off to buy my first cherries of the year (my annual anniversary treat). We watched some dumb movie on the tv. Then our son informed us that it was time to turn on the news, and this was what we saw.

~Senator Alex Padilla was forcibly removed from Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem's press conference and hand-cuffed, but was later released.

~A judge handed control of the California National Guard back to the governor of California. [Update: Naturally, this ruling was appealed and has been stayed. A hearing is currently scheduled for Tuesday.]

~Israel attacked Iran.

We go out for an anniversary dinner, but first, my husband has a cancerous skin growth removed, and then, we find out that the news has gone nuts while we weren't looking.

It wasn't exactly the celebration that we would have wanted, but that's the way life is, these days.

Jews, "You do not debate whether it’s “really” hate when your people are being hunted"

[Copied from Facebook--apologies for the formatting, or the lack thereof.) I am Black. I am Jewish. I work in the field of hate crimes not only as a professional who responds to incidents, builds coalitions, and educates others but as someone who has lived their reality. I carry it in my skin. In my breath. In my children’s safety plans. I don’t need a white paper to define what I already feel in my blood and bones. I know what hate looks like. When Black people are murdered in Buffalo while grocery shopping, we do not sit in circles wondering whether we can really call it racism. We do not write op-eds asking for nuance. We do not entertain long think-pieces parsing whether it might have been just a tragedy or mental health-related. No. We say: this was a racist, anti-Black hate crime. Because it was. But as a Jew, I have learned that our community doesn’t always offer that same clarity or solidarity when the hate targets us. In D.C., two people employed by a Jewish organization, working for peace were executed outside a Jewish building. It is clear to me and to so many others: this was a hate crime. A Jew-hating hate crime. Call it what it is: antisemitism. Then on Sunday, as Jews around the world prepared to receive Torah once again on Shavuot, I began receiving messages from friends in Boulder Molotov cocktails were thrown at people standing in peaceful protest rallying for the return of hostages in Gaza. Every Sunday, in the rain, in the cold, in the fatigue of waiting, these people have shown up. Most of them are Jewish. They are showing up as Jews. Not to make a political statement. To bring our people home. To bring all hostages home. Some are not even Jewish. But their gathering is marked, labeled, targeted as a Jewish event. The attacker? He didn’t run. He didn’t try to escape. He told police he had been planning this for over a year. The only reason he used a Molotov cocktail instead of a gun? He couldn’t legally get one. But don’t miss this: he stayed. He told us why he did it. And still within our Jewish community I hear the same questions: Was it really antisemitism? Should we say that out loud? Will it alienate people? Is it too complicated? Let me be clear: it was antisemitism. Full stop. And now, here is my letter. Dear Jewish Community, I write this as one of you. I write this as someone who brings their whole self Black, Jewish, queer, mother, community protector to this moment. I am tired. Not because the work is hard (it is). But because some of the hardest parts aren’t out there. They are in here with us. I am tired of watching us question our right to name our own pain. I am tired of watching us defer, debate, dilute, or delay calling out antisemitism because we are afraid it will make us look too aligned with the “wrong people.” I am tired of watching us abandon the moral clarity we say we had during the civil rights movement clarity we claim as legacy, but fail to live. Because if we had learned anything from the Black community we so often say we stood beside, we would have learned this: you do not let others define your trauma, your liberation, or your language. You do not water down your truth just because it is inconvenient for others to swallow. You do not debate whether it’s “really” hate when your people are being hunted in synagogues, at schools, in kosher supermarkets, outside community centers, or at a park You do not wait for the perfect words that will make everyone else comfortable while your children are crying in fear. Let me say this plainly: when people target Jews for being Jewish, it is antisemitism. You do not need to know how they feel about Zionism. You do not need to ask what their politics were. You do not need to confirm their interfaith relationships. You need to listen to your gut, your history, your ancestors and name the thing that is happening to us. We say never again. But I fear some of us think that means never offending others in the process of protecting ourselves. To that, I say: we must love ourselves more than we fear backlash. So I ask you, my community: will you say it with me? This was antisemitism. And it is enough. Stop debating it. Start naming it. With love and with fire, Iola

What to Do When ICE Confronts You

I apologize for the formatting--I don't know what Google has done to Blogger.com, but it's impossible to copy and paste from Facebook or anywhere else.[New paragraph ¶ ]When the ICEman Cometh – What to Do When ICE Confronts You[New paragraph ¶ ] by We the People Defend[New paragraph ¶ ] Whether you are a natural-born U.S. citizen, a naturalized U.S. citizen, a green card holder, or some other status, it’s important to be prepared in case you are challenged, detained, or even taken into custody, by ICE, CBP, or some other law enforcement agency. (ICE stands for Immigration and Customs Enforcement, CBP stands for Customs and Border Protection.)[New paragraph ¶ ] At the end of this page is a downloadable and printable card to carry on your phone and in your wallet.[Sorry, can't copy.][New paragraph ¶ ] Being Prepared Before Anything Happens [New paragraph ¶ ] First, always carry a form of official identification on you which demonstrates your right to be in the United States. If your license or government identification card is one of the Real ID ones, great! If not, also carry a copy of the first page of your passport or a copy of your birth certificate, so long as your place of birth is the United States. Make sure they are copies, and that the originals are stored somewhere safe. (If you were born outside the United States do not carry paperwork that shows your place of birth.) [New paragraph ¶ ] Also be sure that your mobile phone and other mobile devices require a pin or password to unlock them. ICE, CBP, and other law enforcement agents cannot order you to unlock your phone without a warrant. [New paragraph ¶ ] Turn on the ‘share my location’ option on your phone and share it with a trusted partner or family member. This way if you suddenly go silent they will be able to determine your last location. In fact, even if you are taken into custody and the agents take your phone, because they will be unable to unlock it (if they don’t have a warrant), your phone may give a clue as to where you have been taken. [New paragraph ¶ ][ ¶ ] [ ¶ ] Next if you are a natural born U.S. citizen [New paragraph ¶ ][ ¶ ] [ ¶ ] If you are a natural born U.S. citizen your Real ID, or other ID plus something demonstrating that you were born in the United States should be sufficient. Remember to carry a copy, not the original, of your birth certificate or identification page of your passport. If you were NOT born in the United States [New paragraph ¶ ][ ¶ ] [ ¶ ] If you were not born in the United States, regardless of what your status is otherwise, the first thing we recommend is to create a relationship with a local immigration attorney if you don’t already have one! If you had one at one time, don’t rely on that; contact them now and make sure that they are still practicing, and that they remember you, and would be available to you in the event that ICE hassles you or worse. Here are two resources to find an immigration attorney in your area: [New paragraph ¶ ][ ¶ ] [ ¶ ] National Immigration Project attorney search [New paragraph ¶ ][ ¶ ] [ ¶ ] The American Immigration Lawyers Association attorney search [New paragraph ¶ ][ ¶ ] [ ¶ ] Carry your attorney’s phone number with you at all times, but also do your best to memorize your attorney’s phone number, in case you find yourself in a situation where you have to call your attorney from a detention center phone, not your own mobile phone. [New paragraph ¶ ] Carry your proof of status (green card, lawful resident, asylum status, refugee status, TPS, valid visa, asylum application, proof of immigration court case or immigration appeal) with you at all times! [New paragraph ¶ ][ ¶ ] [ ¶ ] If You are Confronted by ICE or Other Agency [New paragraph ¶ ][ ¶ ] [ ¶ ] First, remain calm, and polite. This is not the time to get belligerent, to shout about your rights, or to fight.[ ¶ ] [ ¶ ] Ask whether they are with Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), or Customs and Border Protection (CBP), or a police agency. ICE and CBP agents are not the police, even if they identify themselves as “police”, which is why it’s important to ask them.[ ¶ ] [ ¶ ] After politely answering their questions, and showing your proof of citizenship or other status, ask them “Am I free to leave?” They will either say “yes”, in which case leave, or they will say “no”.[ ¶ ] [ ¶ ] If they say that you are not free to leave, politely ask them why. At that point, tell them that you need to call your attorney. Do NOT answer any questions from that point forward. If they ask you questions, politely and quietly tell them “I am invoking my right to remain silent.” No matter how many times they ask you something, respond only with “I am invoking my right to remain silent, and I want to call my attorney.” If they ask you to unlock your phone tell them that that your attorney has advised you to only do so with a warrant, and ask them if they have a warrant. If they say yes, ask them to let you read it (not just to ‘see’ it, but to be able to read it, so they can’t just flash some piece of paper in front of you and claim that it is a warrant).[ ¶ ] [ ¶ ] Call your attorney at your earliest opportunity. In the unlikely situation that they allow you to make that call on the spot, from your mobile phone, try to do so with your back to them and immediately lock your phone again, so that they can’t use your making the call as an opportunity to access what is on your phone. Remember, always be polite. It may gall you to do so, but it’s in your own best interest.[ ¶ ] [ ¶ ] P.S. Please join us at We the People Defend dot org; we're empowering citizen warriors to help defend and take back our democracy without ever having to leave your house, using the internet and our telephones!

Call it what it is--genocide by non-military means

My congressperson, Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, has stated that the current reconcilation bill, if passed, will not only force millions of people off of Medicaid--it will also prohibit them from applying for coverage by the Affordable Care Act ("Obamacare"). Apparently, people who are poor (and especially those with pre-existing conditions) and are on Medicaid because they can't afford any other insurance (and/or aren't eligible for any other insurance) are just going to be left to die so that rich people can get more tax breaks. 😡 In addition, people who are poor are going to be deprived of food assistance--Congress is trying to cut down on SNAP (Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program) and WIC (Women, Infants, and Children) benefits. The Trump regime and the Republican Party are trying to do to the poor of the United States exactly what they did to the poor of Africa by terminating the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) --kill them by taking away their health care and food. You don't need bombs, weapons, or concentration camps to commit genocide against the poor. I've already written to my senators, and hope you will also do so. This is not the time for "thoughts and prayers"--this is the time to "get in good trouble," to quote the late Representative John Lewis. I hope I'll see many folks from the New York City metropolitan area at the June 14th NO KINGS protest at Bryant Park.

My blog, my rules--I'm laying down the law

I've now been blogging here for over 20 years, so maybe I haven't mentioned this lately and it's time that I did--I pride myself on running a civil blog, and insist that all comments be written in respectful language. If you wish to disagree with anything I've posted, feel free to say so in the comments section--I believe in freedom of speech. That said, I won't tolerate being insulted on my own blog, not will I allow any commenter to insult another commenter on my blog. There's no reason to be disagreeable just because you disagree. Note that I went back to my Saturday, April 26, 2025 post, "They're using our own money to rob us," deleted the offending comment, and reposted an edited version that omits the insulting language while retaining the substance of the comment. You're forewarned: If you wish to comment on my blog, derech aretz, comment courtesy, isn't just nice, it's a requirement.

Eat my dust. 🙂

I've been reading a bit about microplastics migrating from our kitchen tools into our food and messing up our health, so I made a few changes--I replaced our plastic spatula with a wooden one, bought some glass food-storage containers for moving hot food from the stove into the refrigerator, and replaced our heavily-scarred plastic cutting board with a wooden one. As luck would have it, the wooden cutting board is already showing knife marks, and will probably be well-scarred in short order. So now, instead of partaking of plastic particles, we'll be savoring our celery with sawdust. 🙂

They're using our own money to rob us

I was trying to be good during Pesach/Passover and not post anything political, but this is what I've been thinking for a couple of weeks or so--the federal government is using our own money to steal from us. *Our tax money* is paying the employees of the "Department of Government Efficiency" to fire so many people and take away so much funding that entire departments or agencies can barely function. *Our tax money* is paying Justice Department lawyers to represent the Trump administration when it defies the courts and violates the constitution. *Our tax money* is paying for airplanes to transport illegally-deported persons to a foreign prison being paid *by us* to house them. *Our tax money* is what supports the national park system that's going to be sold piece by piece to the highest bidder(s) to drill, mine, and log. *Our tax money* is being taken away from university researchers. I'm sure I missed a few things. I'm just too furious to think of all of them. 😡 The bottom line is that, as James Greenberg said (see below), the Trump administration is strip-mining the entire country--and they're using our own money to do that. 😡 I'm giving up trying to reformat: A new paragraph begins here. [ ¶ ] [ ¶ ] Copied from a Facebook post by James Greenberg (and his paragraphing doesn't work here, either--a new paragraph begins after every [ ¶ ] [ ¶ ]) : "They say Trump governs by chaos. That he acts impulsively, erratically, without a plan. But what if that is the plan? What if the chaos is the cover? What if the daily spectacle—the tariffs, the purges, the budget cuts, the Twitter feuds—isn’t just noise, but a smokescreen for something colder, more calculated? [ ¶ ] [ ¶ ] Because behind the outrage lies a pattern. Not of leadership, but of looting. [ ¶ ] [ ¶ ] When institutions are gutted, when rules are rewritten, when the lights go out in the agencies that protect the public—who steps in? Not the small farmer. Not the corner shop. Not the family clinging to a mortgage. It’s the well-connected, the well-capitalized, the politically protected. The ones who know how to turn wreckage into wealth. [ ¶ ] [ ¶ ] That’s the real game. And it’s happening in plain sight. [ ¶ ] [ ¶ ] Take tariffs. Pitched as a punch to China, they’ve hammered small manufacturers and family farms here at home—people who can’t absorb the costs or reroute their supply chains overnight. Many go under. And when they do? Hedge funds, multinationals, and campaign donors are waiting, checkbooks in hand. [ ¶ ] [ ¶ ] It’s not protectionism. It’s predation. [ ¶ ] [ ¶ ] And it doesn’t stop at trade. In his second term, Trump is gutting the civil service—replacing experienced professionals with loyalists. Not to drain the swamp, but to drain the brakes. Environmental protections? Scrapped. Watchdogs? Fired. Procurement rules? Bypassed. With no one left to say no, federal agencies become pipelines for favors, land grabs, and sweetheart deals. [ ¶ ] [ ¶ ] This isn’t deregulation. It’s a hostile takeover of the state itself. [ ¶ ] [ ¶ ] Housing follows the same script. With tenant protections stripped and public housing defunded, eviction becomes policy. Neighborhoods are emptied. Then come the “Opportunity Zones”—tax shelters wrapped in the language of renewal. The public loses homes. Developers get subsidies. [ ¶ ] [ ¶ ] And education? It’s being slowly bled out. Public schools are starved, then slandered, then sold off. Vouchers and charters vacuum up resources, while billionaires move in on school buildings, test contracts, and real estate. [ ¶ ] [ ¶ ] Even disaster has become a business model. [ ¶ ] [ ¶ ] COVID shuttered small businesses by the thousands. Many got nothing. But big tech, logistics giants, and private equity firms made a killing. Now Trump is back to the same script—slashing Medicaid, defunding science, gutting the safety net. Because every crisis is a chance to clear the field. And when the dust settles, only the powerful remain. [ ¶ ] [ ¶ ] We’ve seen this before. In Mexico, where public cooperatives were crushed by debt, then sold off to cronies. In Russia, where state assets became oligarch fortunes overnight. In New Orleans, where homes, schools, and lives were swept away—only to be rebuilt for someone else. [ ¶ ] [ ¶ ] Trump doesn’t need a governing vision. He just needs the wreckage. Because in the wreckage, rules disappear. Oversight vanishes. And billionaires buy what’s left. [ ¶ ] [ ¶ ] This isn’t governance. It’s liquidation. [ ¶ ] [ ¶ ] So don’t be fooled by the chaos. It’s not a distraction. It’s the business model. [ ¶ ] [ ¶ ] And if we don’t call it what it is—organized looting, sanctioned by the state—it won’t just continue. [ ¶ ] [ ¶ ] It will become the future. [ ¶ ] [ ¶ ] https://substack.com/@jamesbgreenberg

Vote in the US Election for the 39th World Zionist Congress

You have until May 4, 2025. So go here and vote!

Debbie Freedman's Miriam's Song & Not By Might (2001)

Eliana Light's Dayenu

Galeet Dardashti's Persian-style Dayenu

Moses Isn't in the Haggadah (video)

Sefirat HaOmer (video)

Moadim L'Simchah (1st of several Passover videos)

Agadelkha אגדלך | Kedmah: The Rising Song Piyyut Project

A word about the current state of the United States

You may have noticed that I haven't been doing a lot of writing lately--I've been mostly sharing other people's posts and/or videos [on Facebook]. (Sorry I can't find the post about First Nations/Native Americans/Indigenous people being detained by ICE.) That's because there are quite a number of folks who are more articulate than I. But I did want to share a few thoughts, however poorly written. (Sorry about the formatting, which I can't seem to correct.) [ ¶ ] [ ¶ ] I can't help feeling that it’s the MAGAs against the rest of us. It has been politely pointed out by others more politically savvy than I that the Republican Party that we once knew and either loved or hated no longer exists—it has been coopted completely by the Make America Great Again cult of Donald Trump. Those of us who believe that the government is, or, at least (and at best) can be, the solution are pitted against those who believe that the government is the problem and are currently hard at work destroying it from within by firing tens of thousands of federal government employees without regard for expertise and/or the effect of mass firings on the economy. [ ¶ ] [ ¶ ] Social Security might as well be renamed Social *In*security—those of us currently receiving Social Sec. have no idea when, or whether, we’ll receive any further payments, and those who should be receiving Social Sec., either now or in the future, have a snowball’s chance in heck of actually getting it, since applying for Social Sec. is being made as difficult as possible. [ ¶ ] [ ¶ ] Tariffs, which are regressive taxes that affect those at lower income levels much worse than they affect the rich (since an annual increase of, say, $5,000 in expenses means little to someone with an income of five million dollars while being devastating to someone with an income of fifty thousand dollars) are now the law of the land. The wealthy are getting wealthier at the expense of the rest of us—Robin Hood is now robbing the poor to feed the rich. [ ¶ ] [ ¶ ] The war against “wokeness,” Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion, is, as a wiser person put it, an effort to resegregate the United States, disenfranchising everyone who isn’t a white, straight, male Christian, and, preferably, a native speaker of English. The MAGAs think blacks and people of color should know their place, gays should go back into the closet, First Nations/Indigenous/Native Americans should stay on the Rez, woman should stay home and make babies, people with disabilities and/or chronic illnesses (or acute illnesses, for that matter) should disappear, Americans should speak English exclusively, immigrants should go back where they came from, and we should all go to church, and they’re trying to rewrite the voting laws, marriage and divorce laws, pregnancy and birth laws, equal opportunity laws and other laws to make it so, up to and including trying to ensure that anyone who can’t afford health care doesn’t receive any. [ ¶ ] [ ¶ ] How long can this country sustain, or put up with, this un-American injustice?

A depressing political rerun

From a March 6, 2025 Newsweek article titled "Elon Musk Issues USPS Warning:"

"DOGE head Elon Musk, during a virtual appearance at the Morgan Stanley Technology, Media, and Telecom Conference: "I think logically we should privatize anything that can reasonably be privatized. I think we should privatize the Post Office and Amtrak, for example...We should privatize everything we possibly can."

I've been trying for days to figure out what and/or how to write about the current crisis in the US government. But I finally realized that I already wrote the post . . . on November 3, 2022.  Here's my Tuesday, November 03, 2020 post "This U.S. presidential election is a referendum on libertarianism."

Trump’s vendetta against the federal government: Why?

Here’s my two-part theory regarding why Trump hates the federal government and its employees.

Part one:  Money, obviously

Since it’s impossible to run the federal government and pay federal employees without taxes, cutting the size of the federal government and eliminating government employees by the thousands should result in  a lower tax rate.  What happens to the people who need the services that the federal government provides is of little concern to Trump.  His goal is to keep his money and that of his rich cronies in his and their own pockets. 

Of course Trump is choosing agency leaders who want to destroy, or at least partially disable, the agencies that they’re chosen to lead.  What a great way to save money.  😡

Part two:  Ego

Trump said it himself:  “Only I can fix it.”  I’m convinced that he has a god complex—I think he really believes he’s omniscient.  Consequently, he sees anyone who has more expertise and/or experience than he has as an insult and a personal threat, and will do whatever he can to get rid of and/or discredit them, no matter the consequence(s).  For example, he turned the wearing of face-masks during an air-borne pandemic into a loyalty test just to make himself look like a tough guy and score political points at the expense of the Centers for Disease Control.  Millions of people died of COVID-19 unnecessarily as a result. 

So of course Trump chose Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., a notorious opponent of vaccination, to head the Department of Health and Human Services.  Since Kennedy is completely ignorant regarding anything health-related, he’s the perfect choice for someone who prefers to be surrounded by ignorant people who make him look good by comparison.

Parashat Mishpatim and the mess in America

Parashat Mishpatim/Exodus chapter 21, verses 7-11 (copied from Sefaria):

"When a parent sells a daughter as a slave, she shall not go free as other slaves do.

אִם־רָעָ֞ה בְּעֵינֵ֧י אֲדֹנֶ֛יהָ אֲשֶׁר־[ל֥וֹ] (לא) יְעָדָ֖הּ וְהֶפְדָּ֑הּ לְעַ֥ם נׇכְרִ֛י לֹא־יִמְשֹׁ֥ל לְמׇכְרָ֖הּ בְּבִגְדוֹ־בָֽהּ׃

If she proves to be displeasing to her master, who designated her for himself, he must let her be redeemed; he shall not have the right to sell her to outsiders, since he broke faith with her.

וְאִם־לִבְנ֖וֹ יִֽיעָדֶ֑נָּה כְּמִשְׁפַּ֥ט הַבָּנ֖וֹת יַעֲשֶׂה־לָּֽהּ׃

And if the master designated her for a son, he shall deal with her as is the practice with free maidens.

אִם־אַחֶ֖רֶת יִֽקַּֽח־ל֑וֹ שְׁאֵרָ֛הּ כְּסוּתָ֥הּ וְעֹנָתָ֖הּ לֹ֥א יִגְרָֽע׃

If he takes another [into the household as his wife], he must not withhold from this one her food, her clothing, or her conjugal rights.

וְאִ֨ם־שְׁלׇשׁ־אֵ֔לֶּה לֹ֥א יַעֲשֶׂ֖ה לָ֑הּ וְיָצְאָ֥ה חִנָּ֖ם אֵ֥ין כָּֽסֶף׃ {ס}        

If he fails her in these three ways, she shall go free, without payment."

This is a big favor, that a female slave who's been betrayed by her master should be freed without having to buy her freedom?  And how, exactly, is this freed slave supposed to make a living?

Meanwhile, leaving Mishpatim and returning to the mess in America, federal employees are going to work in the morning and returning home unemployed the same day.  And how, exactly, are thousands of suddenly-unemployed people supposed to make a living?

The Bibas tragedy

From Friday's news:

From The Times of Israel: "BREAKING NEWS — IDF: Remains of Kfir and Ariel Bibas identified, but third body sent by Hamas is not their mother Shiri"

I would say that the cruelty is unbelievable, but it's not. I don't know who first posted this, but they're right--"Hamas's weapon is trauma."

 

Update:

Shiri Bibas has finally come home. May her memory be for a blessing.

Malpractice

Trump the Tyrant and Elon the Unelected are like a pair of totally-untrained surgeons trying to excise so-called corruption from the American federal government administrative body--instead of using scalpels to remove any possibly-harmful excess, they're amputating all of the limbs without even bothering to determine whether such a drastic measure is necessary.  😡

Railroad crossing safety: lifesaving information that I've never heard of before!

Copied from Facebook:

**PUBLIC SERVICE ANNOUNCEMENT**

IF your vehicle becomes disabled or stuck on a set of railroad tracks, OR you see someone else's vehicle disabled or stuck on a set of railroad tracks, THERE MAY ONLY BE SECONDS TO ACT!!!

IMMEDIATELY...go to the one of the crossing gates and look for the SMALL BLUE SIGN and call the phone number on that sign!

EVERY public roadway crossing in the United States has one of these signs and the phone number will ring directly to the train dispatcher who will ask you a couple questions INCLUDING asking for the Xing # which is the bottom row of the sign.

Once you have communicated this information to the train dispatcher, move yourself and anyone else away from the crossing to a safe area on the side of the roadway and wait for help to arrive. The dispatcher will then STOP all trains in that area until the roadway/crossing is cleared by either law enforcement and/or a railroad official.

Female Heart Attacks: Scary stuff that every person identified as female at birth should know about

An ER nurse says this is the best description of a woman having a heart attack that she has ever heard. Please read, pay attention, and SHARE..........

FEMALE HEART ATTACKS

I was aware that female heart attacks are different, but this is the best description I've ever read.

Women rarely have the same dramatic symptoms that men have ... you know, the sudden stabbing pain in the chest, the cold sweat, grabbing the chest & dropping to the floor that we see in movies. Here is the story of one woman's experience with a heart attack.

I had a heart attack at about 10:30 PM with NO prior exertion, NO prior emotional trauma that one would suspect might have brought it on. I was sitting all snugly & warm on a cold evening, with my purring cat in my lap, reading an interesting story my friend had sent me, and actually thinking, 'A-A-h, this is the life, all cozy and warm in my soft, cushy Lazy Boy with my feet propped up.

A moment later, I felt that awful sensation of indigestion, when you've been in a hurry and grabbed a bite of sandwich and washed it down with a dash of water, and that hurried bite seems to feel like you've swallowed a golf ball going down the esophagus in slow motion and it is most uncomfortable. You realize you shouldn't have gulped it down so fast and needed to chew it more thoroughly and this time drink a glass of water to hasten its progress down to the stomach. This was my initial sensation--the only trouble was that I hadn't taken a bite of anything since about 5:00 p.m.

After it seemed to subside, the next sensation was like little squeezing motions that seemed to be racing up my SPINE (hind-sight, it was probably my aorta spasms), gaining speed as they continued racing up and under my sternum (breast bone, where one presses rhythmically when administering CPR).

This fascinating process continued on into my throat and branched out into both jaws. 'AHA!! NOW I stopped puzzling about what was happening -- we all have read and/or heard about pain in the jaws being one of the signals of an MI happening, haven't we? I said aloud to myself and the cat, Dear God, I think I'm having a heart attack!

I lowered the foot rest dumping the cat from my lap, started to take a step and fell on the floor instead. I thought to myself, If this is a heart attack, I shouldn't be walking into the next room where the phone is or anywhere else... but, on the other hand, if I don't, nobody will know that I need help, and if I wait any longer I may not be able to get up in a moment.

I pulled myself up with the arms of the chair, walked slowly into the next room and dialed the Paramedics... I told her I thought I was having a heart attack due to the pressure building under the sternum and radiating into my jaws. I didn't feel hysterical or afraid, just stating the facts. She said she was sending the Paramedics over immediately, asked if the front door was near to me, and if so, to un-bolt the door and then lie down on the floor where they could see me when they came in.

I unlocked the door and then laid down on the floor as instructed and lost consciousness, as I don't remember the medics coming in, their examination, lifting me onto a gurney or getting me into their ambulance, or hearing the call they made to St. Jude ER on the way, but I did briefly awaken when we arrived and saw that the radiologist was already there in his surgical blues and cap, helping the medics pull my stretcher out of the ambulance. He was bending over me asking questions (probably something like 'Have you taken any medications?') but I couldn't make my mind interpret what he was saying, or form an answer, and nodded off again, not waking up until the Cardiologist and partner had already threaded the teeny angiogram balloon up my femoral artery into the aorta and into my heart where they installed 2 side by side stints to hold open my right coronary artery.

I know it sounds like all my thinking and actions at home must have taken at least 20-30 minutes before calling the paramedics, but actually it took perhaps 4-5 minutes before the call, and both the fire station and St Jude are only minutes away from my home, and my Cardiologist was already to go to the OR in his scrubs and get going on restarting my heart (which had stopped somewhere between my arrival and the procedure) and installing the stents.

Why have I written all of this to you with so much detail? Because I want all of you who are so important in my life to know what I learned first hand.

1. Be aware that something very different is happening in your body, not the usual men's symptoms but inexplicable things happening (until my sternum and jaws got into the act). It is said that many more women than men die of their first (and last) MI because they didn't know they were having one and commonly mistake it as indigestion, take some Maalox or other anti-heartburn preparation and go to bed, hoping they'll feel better in the morning when they wake up... which doesn't happen. My female friends, your symptoms might not be exactly like mine, so I advise you to call the Paramedics if ANYTHING is unpleasantly happening that you've not felt before. It is better to have a 'false alarm' visitation than to risk your life guessing what it might be!

2. Note that I said 'Call the Paramedics.' And if you can take an aspirin. Ladies, TIME IS OF THE ESSENCE!

Do NOT try to drive yourself to the ER - you are a hazard to others on the road.

Do NOT have your panicked husband who will be speeding and looking anxiously at what's happening with you instead of the road.

Do NOT call your doctor -- he doesn't know where you live and if it's at night you won't reach him anyway, and if it's daytime, his assistants (or answering service) will tell you to call the Paramedics. He doesn't carry the equipment in his car that you need to be saved! The Paramedics do, principally OXYGEN that you need ASAP. Your Dr. will be notified later.

3. Don't assume it couldn't be a heart attack because you have a normal cholesterol count. Research has discovered that a cholesterol elevated reading is rarely the cause of an MI (unless it's unbelievably high and/or accompanied by high blood pressure). MIs are usually caused by long-term stress and inflammation in the body, which dumps all sorts of deadly hormones into your system to sludge things up in there. Pain in the jaw can wake you from a sound sleep. Let's be careful and be aware. The more we know the better chance we could survive.

A cardiologist says if everyone who sees this post would Share or re-post, you can be sure that we'll save at least one life.

*Please be a true friend and SHARE this article to all your friends, women & men too. Most men have female loved ones and could greatly benefit from know this information too! Credit goes to respective owner.

Snarky internet heckling (a quick resistance task)

Copied from Facebook:

This doesn't even require calling a person - just snarky internet heckling. Show g0o-gle that we're paying attention. Go the extra step and attach a snapshot of a real map (g0o-gle is making them harder to find in their searches), or use mine.

Mary Dukes

7h ·

A quick resistance task:

1. Google Gulf of Mexico.

2. “Gulf of America" will be at the head of Google’s answer.

3. Click on the three little dots to the right of “Gulf of America”.

4. Select "Send Feedback"

5. Click on "Gulf Of America" text.

6. Select "Inaccurate content".

7. Select "Incorrect" and type in whatever text you want such as "The correct name of this body of water is “Gulf of Mexico".

The more reports to Google the merrier….

Trump wants $500B in mineral rights to help Ukraine. Give it to him

EVERYTHING is a business transaction to the Orange Pharaoh. I recommend that you read this Daily Kos article to the end--I think you'll appreciate that last paragraph. 😀

Our new god-king 😡

I have been saying for years that Trump doesn’t want to be president, he wants to be king. But he also sees himself as someone like a god--as he's been saying since his first run for president, "Only I can fix it"--and we’ve seen god-kings before. I'm just going to say it--Donald J. Trump is the Pharaoh of the United States. 😡

My brother Steve remembers our brother Ed

Copied from Facebook (photos there, if you have access):

Ed Silberman 1953-2025

Ed and I shared a bedroom until I left for college. Our window looked over an alley into the large backyard of the house around the block. Perpendicular to the road that house was on was a road that ended there at a tee, so that headlights at night shown into our bedroom until cars turned left or right.

-

There was a big oak tree full of squirrels in that yard, right up against the alley. Ed and I used to watch the squirrels run around and up and down. When we were knee-high to a married grasshopper, those squirrels could keep us fascinated for hours.

The best was at night, when we were supposed to be asleep. Cars approaching on the perpendicular road cast shadows of the leaves on the wall of our room. We called them movies and watched them as long as we could stay awake.

-

If there’s a difference between me and my little brother, it’s that he kept for a lifetime the imagination and playfulness that went into pretending the moving shadows were a movie. Ed never grew out of it, and his life was the richer for it.

-

When I was big enough to play football and Ed couldn’t join, he’d make up his own version that he played by himself. Of course, he narrated his game out loud with great enthusiasm. He loved announcing that he had made a brilliant touchdown, by which he meant that he had fallen to the ground. It made perfect sense, I should think. He played his game right next to the “big” boys on the empty lot at the end of the street, just a few steps off to the side so we didn’t run him over. That was his entire career in sports. When he got big enough to have to follow rules and play like everyone else, he lost all interest.

-

That was the way he was about nearly everything. When he got his first harmonica, he just played around and occasionally got a combination of sounds he liked. Being the sensible big brother, I bought him a book on playing the harmonica with explanations of musical notation, exercises and simple songs. I don’t think he ever looked at it. It was all trial and error and another error and another. It was pretty painful to listen to, but eventually he was able to repeat the sounds he liked deliberately. More like music, less like chance. Eventually, it was almost all music and hardly any chance. Ed learned to play harmonica the Ed way.

-

When he was supposed to learn readn, writn and rithmatic he was absolutely hopeless, we thought. I think the truth is that he simply wasn’t interested in the school way and the school materials. We thought he was going to grow up nearly illiterate, but he eventually wrote plays, songs and stories. He could do it all, but using the Ed method, not the teachers’ method.

-

One thing it took me a long time to realize is how sweet he was. Taking his own path in everything didn’t get him an easy childhood, yet he was never bitter. On one visit to California, I asked him if he had forgiven dad for a particular incident when dad’s anger took him way overboard. I witnessed it and I can never forget it, but Ed did—he had no idea what I was talking about. Said straight out that he couldn’t remember it. I think that was his way most of the time—put unpleasantness aside and move on to the fun stuff.

-

I think that when I grow up, I want to be more like Ed.

Baruch Dayan Emet--my brother Ed is gone 😢

He died on the afternoon of Thursday, January 23, 2025. I couldn't even go to his funeral on Monday--I'm stuck at home with COVID.

What a character Ed was--if you have access to Facebook, you can hear here.

"Bad Jew" (spoken-word poem video)

Spoken-word artist Vanessa Hidary has a few words to say about being a proud Zionist. 

 

If you can't get the video to work, try clicking here.  Or paste this into your browser window/bar:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XLd41tGm9-Y

Yedid Nefesh י​ד​י​ד נ​פ​ש | Kedmah: The Rising Song Piyyut Project (video)

Wonderful singing and playing by Yahala Lachmish and the entire ensemble. Check out April Centrone's solo! Enjoy!

For the benefit of those of us who have little or no knowledge of Mizrachi music, here's an explanation of Nuba: Al-Istihlal.

It's as if Yom Kippur never ended :(

We're still singing the Unetanetokef prayer.  

"Who will live and who will die . . . who by fire, who by water, who by the sword . . . "

In Israel, folks are dying by the sword.

In the southeastern United States, people died (and many others are still suffering) due to hurricanes.

In California, people are dying (or losing their homes or businesses or houses of worship) due to wildfires.

How long?

I'm afraid of the big, bad wolf

[Written after havdalah.]

"I'll huff and I'll puff and I'll blow your house down," said the wolf in the old story.

Well, here's the thing:  

For openers, I'm about 10-15 pounds (about 4.5-6 kilos) lighter than I was about 10-15 years ago, not due to dieting or pharmaceutical assistance but due to digestive problems (IBS and SIBO--look them up).  And for closers, I'm also 4 inches (about 10.16 centimeters) shorter than I was on our wedding day over 47 years ago due to osteoporosis (thinning/brittle bones).  So whenever the wind speed gets up to or over about 30 miles (roughly 48.28 kilometers) per hour, you might as well tie a ribbon around my waist and sail me like a kite. 😀

In all seriousness, it's not as funny as it sounds--it's actually rather scary for an older person with both osteoporosis and poor balance to be blown around so hard that I have to struggle to keep myself from falling and breaking a wrist yet again.  Do me a favor and *don't* "fly me to the moon."

Saying the quiet part out loud

Copied from Facebook:

"As of December 8th, pediatric cases of pertussis in Michigan 1,578
In 2023, there were 110.
Vax rates declined by 60%"

I'm just going to say this, despite how offensive it may be, because I think it needs to be said--parents who refuse to vaccinate their children because they're afraid that vaccines might cause autism are saying that they'd rather their child be dead than different.

Parashat Vayishlach, 5785/2024 edition: Dina was just collateral damage

[Written after havdalah.]

My husband says that a previous rabbi of ours thought that the real reason why the Torah recorded the rape of Dina was to justify the fact that the sons of Jacob/b'nei Yaakov did not intermarry with the people of Shechem.  In other words, that whole story was a polemic against assimilation and had absolutely nothing to do with Dina.

This indifference to the fate of women seems to be a frequent trend in the Tanach/Jewish Bible.  Sarah gets passed off as Avraham's sister twice, and Avraham gets rich as a result.  No one cares about Sarah's suffering.  Leah and Rachel spend years competing with each other to see who can make more babies, and Jacob/Yaakov benefits.  Tamar nearly gets burned alive by Judah/Yehudah for getting pregnant, and he benefits from the continuation of his family line.  Dinah gets raped (some say seduced), and her brothers benefit by taking the women and children of Shechem captive after killing all the men, with no concern for Dinah's future.  No one mentions that the female descendants of Jacob/Yaakov who were enslaved in Egypt were probably spared from being killed so that the Egyptian slaveholders could use them as sex slaves and breeding stock.  Miriam, traditionally considered to have saved the life of Moses/Moshe as a baby, stands up for her right to be recognized as a prophet by G-d, and G-d punishes her by striking her with leprosy, after which she disappears from the Torah until her death is mentioned.  King David's/David HaMelech's daughter Tamar gets raped by her half brother, and we have no idea happened to the rest of her life.  King David's/David HaMelech's servants bring a real, live female--Avishag--to the king to play the part of an electric blanket to the king in his old age, and we have no idea happened to the rest of her life, either.  The prophet Hoshea is disrespectful of his wife (and gives his children nasty names), and everyone still quotes him, with no comment about his behavior, when putting on tefillin.

It's hard for a feminist to take.  Are the sages of old/Chazal sufficiently distressed by any of these tales to have created midrashim of which I'm not aware?

See also my Thursday, November 29, 2012 post, Parshat Vayishlach, 5773/2012 thoughts.

Not hip-hop, just hop--I injured my foot *again*

I think I injured my foot just by standing for too long, which is the same way I injured the same foot two years ago almost to the day.  This is becoming a bad habit.  The good news is that the x-ray showed that my foot isn't broken.  (It wasn't broken the last time, either.)  The bad news is that I'm still hopping around the apartment on crutches, and my poor husband (bless him) is stuck doing *everything.*  But I should be fine in a week or two.  Physical therapy, here I come.

Note to self:  In the future, set a timer for 20 minutes every time you're washing dishes or doing other chores, and *sit down* for five minutes when it rings!

Welcome back to the good old days (😡)

Isn’t it great?  Now we can go back to wives obeying their husbands and making babies whether they want to or not, “coloreds” knowing their place, “homos” being neither seen nor heard, everyone saying Merry Christmas instead of Happy Holidays, no one daring to speak any language other than English in public, and an end to stupid curb cuts, sign language interpreters, and that special education nonsense.  Take off your white hood—there’s no need for it anymore.

😡

Yes, this is satire.  No, I am not amused.  I’m not looking forward to the next four years.  😢  

I'm sorry to say that I predicted this:  See my Thursday, May 16, 2019 post, Re abortion-rights abolition quest: Only "dominant-class" males have permanent rights :( :( :(.

See also my Tuesday, November 28, 2017 post, Discrimination is discrimination:

"It should not still be the case that anyone who's not a white Christian U.S.-born heterosexual male who speaks English as his first language is fair game for discrimination in the United States." 

Dizzy Dame gets creative 🙂

Only I can get vertigo just from tipping my head back to put eye-drops into my eyes.

Hot day in the Big Apple

Today's high temperature in New York City was 82 degrees Fahrenheit (27.7778 Celcius). I can't remember ever having experienced an 82-degree day in NYC on October 31. I honestly can't understand how anyone can doubt that global climate change is real.

What’s the Truth about… “Mar Cheshvan” ?

Since we made the blessing for the new month this morning, this question came up:

What’s the Truth about… “Mar Cheshvan” ?

 (To read the footnotes, see the original article:  https://jewishaction.com/religion/whats-truth-mar-cheshvan/

"By Rabbi Ari Z. Zivotofsky, Ph.D.

Misconception: The complete and correct name for the month following Tishrei is Cheshvan, and it is a quaint tradition to call it Mar Cheshvan because it is bitter (Hebrew: mar) due to its lack of holidays.

Fact: The correct name for this fall month is the one word Marcheshvan/M’rachsh’van1 (Aruch Hashulchan, Even Ha’ezer 126:17).

Background: The Bible usually refers to the months by their ordinal numbers, although occasional ancient Israelite names are also used.2 The currently used Jewish names for the months were imported from Bavel (Babylonia),3 and many of them appear in post-exilic books of the Bible.4 Some of these are derived from the names of ancient gods, such as Tammuz which is thought to come from the Assyrian Du-mu-zu, an Egyptian god, and is mentioned as the name of an idol in Ezekiel (8:14).5

Marcheshvan is probably derived from its location in the calendar. In Akkadian (Babylonian/Assyrian), “w” (vav) and “m” (mem) sounds can interchange. As a result, Marcheshvan which is from the two words “m’rach” and “shvan,” would have been “warh” and “shman,” in Akkadian, corresponding to the Hebrew “yerech shmini,” thus “eighth month.”6 In the Yemenite tradition, the name of the month is pronounced Marach-sha’wan, not Mar-cheshvan as in the Ashkenazic tradition, and this would seem to preserve a greater fidelity to the original.7

Older sources attest to the name as being the longer name Marcheshvan/M’rachshwan (as opposed to just Cheshvan). When the eighth month is mentioned in the Mishnah and Talmud, it is referred to as Marcheshvan. A few examples include: Taanit 1:3,4; Pesachim 94b; and Rosh Hashanah 7a; 11b. Throughout all of Rashi’s Biblical and Talmudic commentary, he also refers to the month as Marcheshvan. A few examples are: Rosh Hashanah 11b, s.v. v’azda l’tamahu; 16a s.v. D’miz’daran; Beitzah 40a, s.v. bir’vi’ah. The Rambam8 and Ibn Ezra (commentary to Leviticus 25:9) also use the complete name.

This misconception has halachic implications. Since the mistaken practice of simply calling the month Cheshvan is so widespread, either Cheshvan or the two word Mar Cheshvan is now acceptable, post-facto, if erroneously used in a legal document such as a get (Aruch Hashulchan, Even Ha’ezer 127:17). The Ramah (Even Ha’ezer 127:7) lists only Marcheshvan as the month’s name and does not give the halachah if one wrote either just Cheshvan or the two word Mar Cheshvan. Others even accept post-facto the Biblical name of the month, “Bul,” if it was used in a document. The Aruch Hashulchan states that the halachah is the same for the imprecise “Menachem Av” (Even Ha’ezer 127:16).9

Surprisingly, there are even customs that developed around the error. The assumption is that it is called Mar Cheshvan (the bitter Cheshvan) either due to its lack of holidays or because it is when Sarah the Matriarch died.10 Because of those negative associations, there are those who refrain from getting married in Marcheshvan (Shut Lev Chaim 2:26). The Sdei Chemed (Ma’arechet Chason v’Kallah:23) claims that this was the minhag in Jerusalem. Shulchan Ha’ezer (4:5:8) writes that in his locale people are not concerned with this and get married in Cheshvan [sic!]11

The Pri Chadash (Even Ha’ezer 126:7) offers the only explanation that I have found for calling this month by the two-word name Mar Cheshvan. He suggests that the name Mar Cheshvan is based on the fact that it is the beginning of the rainy season. The Targum translated mar as tipah, a drop, in the verse “Hen goyim k’mar midli — Behold, the nations are as a drop of [water from] a bucket” (Isaiah 40:15). As such, the name means the “rainy Cheshvan,” and far from mar meaning bitter, it connotes a month of blessed rain.12

The Bnei Yissaschar (2:56-57) relates a beautiful midrash about the future of Marcheshvan indicating that the dedication of the Third Temple will occur in Marcheshvan, removing any doubt about it being a bitter month."

"Conservatives’ latest attack on mifepristone is a constitutional cover for eugenics"

Got this in my email--it's shocking, but not surprising.  Read it and weep (and/or freak out).

The "Penitential Psalm" (Psalm 27) really hit home for me this year

It starts, "For/By David (depending on your translation), HaShem ori v'yish'i, HaShem is my light and my salvation, whom shall I fear?"  But the third verse from the end says, "Do not abandon me to the will of my foes, for false witnesses have risen against me, breathing violence."  (This is Rabbi Jonathan Sacks' translation).  It seems to me as if everyone and their cousin is accusing Israel of genocide and hoping Israel will just lay down its arms and die.

The "Israeli cut-out": An exception that kills Israelis

Copied from Facebook:

Seth J. Frantzman

oonrpsStdeh0f20icu26761647g9tl1ac265g107160f8g28c9ct2hm1tc25  ·

I think it's worth thinking about something in relation to the international community's treatment of Israel. It's something that could be called the "Israeli cut-out" and it relates solely to Israel. What that means is that in all norms there is a cut-out that relates solely to Israel, an exception that is made for any group that attacks Israel.

Let's take a look.

On October 21 the IDF intercepted five UAVs over the Mediterranean. These could be considered a danger to air travel. But because the groups that launch them are against Israel, the international community has a cut-out. There is no investigation, no UN meeting, nothing.

Ships are attacked in the Red Sea. This would normally be a huge issue. Imagine commercial ships being blown up off the coast of South America by armed groups. However, because the Houthis say they are doing it against Israel, even though they target random ships and endanger the crews from all over the world, there is a cut-out and it's basically ignored. No international investigation. Nothing.

Hezbollah takes over Lebanon and stockpiles 150,000 rockets and fires thousands into Israel. However, because it is attacking Israel, it's considered completely normal. No other country is expected to live with a group like Hezbollah on its border where the terror group has more rockets than most countries. Only Israel, because of the cut-out. The cut-out even means UNIFIL is there and it does nothing to stop Hezbollah or even find even one rocket out of 150,000.

Hamas attacks Israel and kills 1,000 people and kidnaps 250. This is an unprecedented genocidal act. One of the worst single day massacres in the entirety of human history. Yet there is no real outcry, no real international condemnation. In fact many countries like Russia, China, Qatar, Turkey, Iran, South Africa, openly back Hamas. Two western allies host Hamas leaders. Again, the Israeli cut-out appears. No one would accept a similar terror attack anywhere else.

Iran attacks Israel with 180 ballistic missiles and Israel is told not to respond. 180 missiles. But there is the Israeli cut-out. No other country should be forced to have 180 missiles fall on them. Only Israel. Iran knows this and so it feels it can do this. Iran takes over half the Middle East and destroys countries while claiming to fight Israel, and because it is against Israel, the cut-out enables this. If it did this against other countries then it would be unacceptable.

From heaven to hell in less than 24 hours

We had a wonderful Rosh HaShanah and Shabbat at Adamah's Pearlstone Campus, with leaders and teachers from Hadar and its Jewish-music affiliate, the Rising Song Institute.  We prayed and sang our hearts out, and got well fed, too.  😀

And now, here we are, one day after leaving Pearlstone, commemorating the mass murders, rapes, and kidnappings of October 7, 2023.  😢

Honestly, I just don't understand it.  If the world considers bombings, which can kill civilians as well as militants, a war crime, and also considers assassinations that target terrorists specifically and minimize civilian casualties (as in the pager and walkie-talkie attacks against known Hezbollah members) a war crime, what do they mean when they say that Israel is allowed to defend itself?

A Mitzvah to Eat: for those who can't fast

Here are prayers (and, for those seeking a traditional perspective, halachic guidance) for those who can't fast.

 Prayers and Rituals for Those Who Need to Eat on Yom Kippur.

A bit of light amid the darkness of recent times (music video)