D-log Motto:  Okay, that’s enough for today.

Today: Monday, March 29, 2010
14 Nisan 5770
A clean shelf is all about making a fresh start.  A fresh start, teshuvah, is how we make amends for things we’ve done that have gone wrong.  Our tradition has four new years.  At Rosh Hashanah we dip apples in honey and chant Yehi Ratzon; we hope to increase our merits, and sweeten the judgement on all our actions of the past year.  At Passover we dip matzah in maror and charoset, and we sing bittersweet songs of slavery and freedom;  we hope to transform our world into a place of freedom for all people.
——

High Holidays: Yehi Ratzon – Ramon Tasat
A Rosh Hashanah prayer sung by Ramon Tasat, Hazzan of Shirat HaNefesh, an independent D.C. Area Jewish community.  For more info visit www.shirathanefesh.org
——
From “Trees and their New Year in Rabbinic Judaism,”
by Stephen Hazan Arnoff:
“The first of the month of Nisan is the new year for kings and festivals; the first of Elul is the new year for the tithing of animals; the first of Tishrei  (Rosh Hashanah) is the new year for calendar years, sabbatical years, jubilee years, planting, and vegetables; and the 15th of Shvat – (Tu Bishvat) is the new year for trees (Babylonian Talmud Rosh Hashanah 2b).
The primary role of a new year for agricultural items is determining what products are certified for tithing.  It thus essentially represents a tax on assets that is paid through sacrifices to God and direct offerings to priests and the poor.  In the aftermath of the destruction of the Second Temple, the system of four new years remains as a marker of the central role that Temple worship and tithing played in the relationship between the Jewish people and God.  Each new year marks a key component of this relationship.”
You can read Stephen Hazan Arnoff’s whole article at
My Jewish Learning

http://www.myjewishlearning.com/holidays/Jewish_Holidays/Tu_Bishvat/Ideas_and_Beliefs/Rabbinic.shtml

Stress Relief Tip:
Learning is very good medicine for stress.  So read this picture book with some children, and really listen to their questions.:
“Aunt Harriet’s Underground Railroad in the Sky,” c. 1992 by Faith Ringgold, Crown Publishers, Inc., New York.

http://www.faithringgold.com/ringgold/book02.htm

Spring Lookout News:
Every autumn my congregation holds High Holiday services that are free to the public.  In order to accommodate the overflow of people, who join us then for services between Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur, we rent the large sanctuary of the New York Avenue Presbyterian Church in Washington, DC.  We convert their sanctuary into a Jewish prayer space by draping quilts and wall hangings and other beautiful works of art.  This church houses a pew that was a prayer refuge for President Abraham Lincoln, just a short walk from the White House.  I imagine he found brief moments of solace there in spring, and throughout all the harsh seasons of the Civil War.   For information about Fabrangen services for High Holidays, Passover, Shabbat, and year round, please contact Clare Feinson, Coordinator:
Clare.Fabrangen@gmail.com

Hard Core Treatments for Relief from Oppressive Cleaning Issues:
From p. 183-184, ” Harriet Tubman: The Road to Freedom,” c. 2004 by Catherine Clinton, Little, Brown and Company, New York, Boston.
“[Sojourner] Truth doubtless knew of [Harriet] Tubman’s work among the soldiers in the Carolinas, and her exploits before and during the war..  Equally, Tubman would have been curious about Truth, the compelling speaker whose lectures always opened with her singing spirituals.  The article on Tubman in “The Commonwealth” in July 1863 suggested that “her religious experiences are as startling as those of Sojourner Truth.” (39. “The Commonwealth,” Boston, July 10, 1863) Thus it was not uncommon for these two women to be linked in the public imagination.
Little is known about their first encounter, except that it allegedly took place in Boston,  At the time the women had conflicting views on Lincoln,  for whom Truth was stumping.  The topic of the president and his policy toward blacks surfaced during their discussions.  (“The Commonwealth,” Boston, July 10, 1863) Harriet had witnessed the second-class status of African American soldiers fighting in the Union army, and blamed the commander in chief for this failing.
When black men in blue were first recruited, they were offered a lower pay scale than white soldiers and asked to buy their own uniforms out of pocket, while white soldiers were given a clothing allowance on top of their higher wages.  This was an enormous sacrifice, especially for many of the soldier’s families, who needed money to survive once husbands and fathers left for the army.  When black soldiers protested by refusing to draw any pay, they continued to perform their military duties.  They demonstrated their loyalty but rejected discriminatory wages on principle, thereby humbling the U.S. Government into pay equity.  Tubman fumed that these brave soldiers had to fight the enemy on two fronts.
Tubman became embittered over the fact that white soldiers injured at Fort Wagner were sent to Hilton Head while black soldiers were transported to Beaufort.  The separate evacuation plans for handling the wounded, not to mention burying the dead in segregated graves, added insult to injury.  She could not reconcile these injustices.  She blamed Lincoln, even as Truth sang his praises.  Tubman told Truth that she had no interest in meeting Lincoln — something she came to regret in later years.  (40. One story mentions that Tubman visited Mrs. Lincoln, but there is no corroboration of this.)  Their disagreements may have prevented them from cementing a deeper bond with each other — as sisters committed to a common cause.”

Go and Study:
Clergy Beyond Borders
Conflict Resolution
Education and Training
Empowering Voices for Justice
“One Ark, One Humanity”

http://clergybeyondborders.org/

I thank Elaine Reuben and Josh Kornbluth; their work inspired me to write the Dayenu Log.  All the people mentioned in this log are my teachers; I’m grateful to them, and to all my teachers who haven’t been named here.  Please forgive the mistakes I’ve made while sharing these teachings.  All the material of other authors quoted and shared in the Dayenu Log is for educational purposes only; please be careful to respect the rights of all authors.

‘A new king arose over Egypt who did not know Joseph.
Vayakam melekh khadash al mitzrayim asher lo yada et Yoseyf:’
- Exodus 1.8
- Translation, JPS Hebrew-English Tanakh, c. 2000 by The Jewish Publication Society, Second Edition, Philadelphia 1999 – 5759

A sweet Pesach,
Amy Brookman
——

D-log Motto:  Okay, that’s enough for today.

Today: Sunday, March 28, 2010
13 Nisan 5770  Search for Chametz
I’m grateful for my husband’s delight in making pizza as I clean away the flour and yeast from the countertop and rolling-pin.

Stress Relief Tip:
The search for chametz is almost over.  Maybe you searched your house for ten carefully wrapped pieces of chametz with a candle or a flashlight, and then swept them up with a feather or a lulav from Sukkot.  Tomorrow you can burn them.  I have done all that other years, but not this time.  For now my focus is on the pieces inside me.  Some of them are as hard to pull out as a turnip growing in the ground.
From p. 101, “Sacred Therapy: Jewish Spiritual Teachings on Emotional Healing and Inner Wholeness,” c. 2003 by Estelle Frankel, Shambhala Publications, Boston & London 2005. -
“It was not enough to take the Jews out of Egypt.  It was necessary to take Egypt out of the Jews.
- Hasidic saying
The real exile of Israel in Egypt was that they learned to endure it.
- Rabbi Hanoch of Alexander “

Spring Lookout News:
At midday Carol Grosman and I caught up for a moment over tea.  Her storytelling and peace-building work inspire me continually.  Many of you will recognize the moving photographs of her collaborator Lloyd Wolf at the Jerusalem Stories Project site.:

http://www.jerusalemstories.org/

Later I walked to the coop to buy oranges, dates, raisins, and grape juice to make charoset.  A large broken branch hung by a splinter from a tree trunk, yet it was still blooming.  The mirrored mosaic mural on the Takoma Park Maryland Library danced with light reflections.

Hard Core Treatments for Relief from Oppressive Cleaning Issues:
From pp. 117-118, “Keeping Passover: Everything You Need to Know to Bring the Ancient Tradition to Life and to Create Your Own Passover Celebration,” c. 1995 by Ira Steingroot, HarperSanFrancisco, HarperCollins Publishers, New York, NY.  -
“Burn the chametz.  By nine or ten o’clock on the morning before the seder, erev Pesach (the day preceeding Passover), we should have eaten the last chametzdikhe food we had set aside.  After that, we burn all the chametz turned up in our search the night before and say the following…statement:
All leaven in my possession which I have seen or not seen, which I have removed or not removed, is hereby nullified and ownerless as the dust of the earth.
Martin Buber relates that when the Chasidic tzaddik Rabbi Baruch of Medzibezh burned his chametz, he spiritualized this Aramaic legal formula by explaining:
“All leaven in my possession” — all that seethes — “which I have seen or not seen” –even though I believe I have looked into myself thoroughly, I have probably not looked thoroughly at all — “which  I have removed or not removed” — the Evil Urge within me tries to convince me that I have removed everything, but not until now do I see that I have not removed it, and so I beg of You, God, “it is hereby nullified and ownerless as the dust of the earth.”

Go and Study:
Also quoted from Estelle Frankel’s book “Sacred Therapy,” copyright as referenced above, this excerpt is from p. 99-100 -
“Finding the right balance of self-empowerment and self-surrender can be quite challenging.  When we look to Jewish sources on the subject, there seems to be an imbalance.  While there are many teachings on humility and self-surrender in the mystical texts, there are very few teachings on self-assertion and self-empowerment.  This imbalance is most likely the result of the long history of oppression that Jews faced in exile, during which they rarely had control over their external circumstances.  By surrendering to God’s will, Jews obtained at least some measure of internal control.
This isn’t to say Hasidic masters never cautioned against excess humility.  For example, Rabbi Levi Yitzhak of Berditchev taught his disciples, “You must be humble in all your ways and in all your deeds.  You might therefore think that you must also be humble in serving God.  Heaven forbid that you say that.  You must say, “When I fulfill God’s commandments, my observance is very important to God.  He has great delight from my observance.’”
…As is often the case in Jewish spiritual healing, we are charged with the task of integrating seemingly contradictory qualities.  Humility is essential for spiritual development, but we must be able to hold on to its sacred counterpart as well, for with holy chutzpah our humility is fully potentiated, creating a powerful spiritual  synergy for divine service.”

B’shalom,
Amy Brookman
——

Today: Friday, March 26, 2010
11 Nisan 5770 Erev Shabbat Hagadol
Virginia Spatz and I cleared a shelf on the divider between her kitchen and entry way.  Then we learned about some history and songs of the Civil Rights Movement from her library.

From p. 501, “Walking with the Wind: A Memoir of the Movement,” c. 1998 by John Lewis with Michael D’Orso, Harcourt Brace, San Diego, New York, London.
“On the one hand prayer is to me is an attempt to communicate with a power, with a force, with a being much greater than I am.  On the other hand it is a period of simply having an executive session with yourself.  It’s a period of being alone, a period of meditation, a period of quiet and just being you.
It can happen in a public setting.  It can happen in a meeting.  It can happen while you’re flying in a plane or riding in a car or waiting too make a speech or at almost any time.”

Stress Relief Tip:
If you don’t have time for a nap, you might try a day-dream.  You’re lying on a kitchen shelf, dreaming there’s a ladder right there, and angels are going up and down on it, all the way to heaven, removing your chametz, and bringing matzah, and God is right there next to you!  And then you wake up suddenly and it’s almost Shabbat and your friend is coming for Shabbos dinner all the way from Jerusalem. And you realize this dream is worldwide, preparing for a day of peace to usher in an era of peace.  And God there the whole time, and you didn’t know it.

Spring Lookout News:
Get yourself a really big horseradish root, the ugliest one you can find, to represent the maror at your seder.  I learned that from Rachel Braun.

Hard Core Treatments for Relief from Oppressive Cleaning Issues:
We have the recipes, we have the seder, we have the story, and we can welcome each other to the table.

Go and Study:
Rabbis for Human Rights — North America
Pesach 2010: Act Now to Combat Slavery

http://www.rhr-na.org/action-alert/pesach-2010-act-now-combat-slavery

Steven Gerber 03/26/10  Action Alert
K’vod Habriot, A Jewish Human Rights Network

Shabbat shalom,
Amy Brookman
——

D-log Motto:  Okay, that’s enough for today.

Today: Thursday, March 25, 2010
10 Nisan 5770
I give a going over to the drawer for knives and sharp utensils.   What if we laid out all our swords on a big world shelf and beat them into plowshares?

Stress Relief Tip:
From p. 777, Kol Haneshamah: Shabbat Vehagim, Third Edition, c. 1994, 1996, The Reconstructionist Press, Wyncote PA.

“An Appendix to the Vision of Peace / Tosefet Lahazon Hashalom
Don’t stop after beating the swords
into ploughshares, don’t stop! Go on beating
and make musical instruments out of them.
Whoever wants to make war again
will have to turn them into ploughshares first.”

- “Tosefet Lahazon Hashalom / An Appendix to the Vision of Peace,” by poet Yehuda Amichai, translated from the Hebrew by Glenda Abramson and Tudor Parfitt in “Great Tranquility: Questions and Answers.”

Spring Lookout News:
Warm wind lifted dust veils over a construction site, and tossed the heads of flowers.  Gardeners were glad rain found their new seed beds.

Hard Core Treatments for Relief from Oppressive Cleaning Issues:
Think of a fire drill: Where is your exit?  And where will everyone meet up once you all get out?  Passover is like a fire drill, because we still have oppressive situations in our world, and we all need to be ready for life saving actions.

Go and Study:
From p. 205,  “My Grandfather’s Blessings: Stories of Strength, Refuge, and Belonging,” c. 2000 by Rachel Naomi Remen, M.D., Riverhead Books, New York.

“Compassion begins with the acceptance of what is most human in ourselves, what is most capable of suffering.  In attending to our own capacity to suffer, we can uncover a simple and profound connection between our own vulnerability and the vulnerability in all others.  Experiencing this allows us to find an instinctive kindness toward life which is the foundation of all compassion and genuine service.
Ours is not a culture that respects the sick or the old of the vulnerable.  We strive for independence, competence, and mastery.  In embracing such frontier values we may become intolerant of human wholeness, contemptuous of anything in ourselves and in others that has needs or is capable of suffering.  The denial of a common vulnerability is the ultimate barrier to compassion.”

Share your gifts with others.  There is only one like you,
Amy Brookman
——

D-log Motto:  Okay, that’s enough for today.

Today: Wednesday, March 24, 2010
9 Nisan 5770
What is this sticky tape hanging down into the cooking utensils drawer? Then the manufacturer’s label under the stove top came all the way off.

Stress Relief Tip:
The sink is crumbling and the stove top also needs replacing.  Nevertheless, food is prepared here with love that spreads to every sinew.  Love is the essential ingredient and utensil and cooking method in the soul kitchen.

Spring Lookout News:
Seeing pink trees inspires nothing short of all out celebration. These are lavish, over-the-top creations.

Hard Core Treatments for Relief from Oppressive Cleaning Issues:
From pp. 165-167,  “Insecure at last: losing it in our security-obsessed world,” c. 2006 by Eve Ensler, Villard Books, New York.
“Each night that I stood onstage, I stood in the center of this storm.  I stood in the center of a country that had been sold a lie about security and had, since September 11, allowed our government to destroy our environment, our democracy, our education, our health care, our morality, our standing in the world, our freedom, and our idea of ourselves for this illusion.  I stood on a platform and felt how deeply distracted Americans were by their corporate-rigged self hatred, by their sense that they were not enough, that they did not know enough, that they had to surrender their will and imagination and instincts and morality to the rich and Ivy Leagued and powerful who convinced them through corporate takeover and fear and mind control that they need to consume product after product to make themselves thinner, prettier, lighter, tighter — that somehow this consumption would ultimately lead to their security.  I stood on the stage and I felt in my bones the loneliness and pointlessness of this pursuit.  I felt the isolation that this pursuit has engendered.  I felt the exploitation of the world’s peoples and resources through this ravenous pursuit.  I felt the unexpressed guilt in the people who knew they were being manipulated and still they could not stop consuming.  I felt the depth of insecurity it has created, and the sorrow…
…I wanted to throw myself on the stage as in a Greek drama and wail and wail and pull my hair and scream: This is not accidental what you feel. This is not personal.  There is a plan to make you feel ugly and powerless, insignificant and insecure.  There is a plan to make you feel like someone or something is coming to fix and rescue you.  Give up illusions of security!  There is no one coming to take death or aging or sickness away.  There is no solution.  There is no reason to fix it.  No one smarter or better or on top.  You are already enough.  Enough.  Each and every one of you.  Enough.  Enough.”

Go and Study:
“Exodus as Liberation,” by Norman Fischer, Originally published in Turning Wheel, journal of the Buddhist Peace Fellowship
The Awakened Heart Project for Contemplative Judaism

http://www.awakenedheartproject.org/articles/exodus-as-liberation

“…you shall be in constant ascent.” (Devarim 28.13)
B’shalom,
Amy Brookman
——

D-log Motto:  Okay, that’s enough for today.

Today: Tuesday, March 23, 2010
8 Nisan 5770
The silverware drawer shelves utensils, those little hands.  I think of the yad used to point out each word we read in the Torah scroll, and all the other tools that mediate between us and our work.

Stress Relief Tip:
Paying bills is less stressful if you also use that time to give some tzedakah.  Then you aren’t just scrabbling for your own needs.  You are no longer alone when you include the needs of others among your own concerns.  Even a small and private contribution is significant.

Spring Lookout News:
Spring cold feels different from winter chill.  A shiver in spring is like yawning in the sunrise after climbing a mountain trail in the dark.

Hard Core Treatments for Relief from Oppressive Cleaning Issues:
Stories of spinning straw into gold, finding a needle in a haystack, and separating out all leavened foods are like the implacable face of a sea before it splits.  Are they just stories, or are they training sessions in discovery?  Miracles are events that defy practical sense, yet they are born out of the most ordinary elements of life.  They wait in hard places like durable desert plants, until a cloudburst allows them to bloom.

Go and Study:
Show us favor, O LORD,
Show us favor!
We have had more than enough of contempt.
Psalms 123.3

From p. 153, “The Receiving; Reclaiming Jewish Women’s Wisdom,” c. 2003 by Rabbi Tirzah Firestone, Harper San Francisco.:
“Another category of personal “evil” is the ego’s drives for power and gratification.  The rabbis called those drives our “evil inclination,” that seed within us bent on feeding and pleasing itself to the exclusion of others and our Divine Source.  The grasping nature within us, when taken to the extreme, can lead to the destruction of self and others.  Nevertheless, the rabbis explained, without it there would not be enough passion, selfishness, or ambition in the world to make life move forward…
…Amazingly, Judaism tells us not to deny, suppress, or even transcend the force of darkness, but to work with it, know it, and harness it so that it can be turned toward serving that which is the highest in our lives.  A beautiful prayer said by traditional Jews at the beginning of each day asks God to help us take in hand our evil inclination so that it may be put into the service of that which is holy. [22]“
[footnote 22.] V’chof et yitzreynu l’hishta-abed lach.  Found in the prayer Gomel Chasidim Tovim, just after the morning blessings.  Authorized Daily Prayer Book (New York: Josseph Hertz Bloch, 1963), pp. 26-27.

English translation,  p. 30, from The Koren Siddur, c. 2006,2009 by Rabbi Jonathan Sacks, Koren Publishers Jerusalem.:
“…v’chof et yitzreynu l’hishta-abed lach.
…and bend our instincts to be subservient to You.”

B’shalom,
Amy Brookman
——

D-log Motto:  Okay, that’s enough for today.

Today: Monday, March 22, 2010
7 Nisan 5770
I cleaned the cavernous pantry shelf under the counter between the oven and the sink.  I made a good dinner and used up the lasagne noodles.

Stress Relief Tip:
Whenever I volunteer to lead the preliminary morning prayer service I focus on the words of Nishmat so I can relax.:

“And were our mouths oceans of song, our tongues alive with exultation like the waters’ waves, our lips filled full of praises like the heaven’s dome, our eyes lit up like sun and moon, our hands spread out like eagle’s wings, our feet as light as those of the gazelle  — we would never have sufficient praise for you, Abundant One, our God, God of our ancestors, nor could we bless your name enough for even one small measure of the thousands upon thousands of the times of goodness, when you acted for our ancestors and us.”
[English translation, p.236 Kol Haneshamah, c. 1994 by The Reconstructionist Press, Wyncote, PA.]

These words from the Nishmat prayer remind me that it’s not about chanting perfectly; it’s about being an instrument for worship.  Cleaning for Passover can also be understood as a sacred act that can never be perfected; we can only move toward a sense of holiness beyond imagination.

I rejoiced when they said to me,
“We are going to the House of the LORD.”‘
- Psalms 122.1

Quote from Symbolism and Jewish Faith, pp. 82-3, Moral Grandeur and Spiritual Audacity: Essays Abraham Joshua Heschel, Edited by Susannah Heschel, c. 1996 by Sylvia Heschel, Farrar, Straus and Giroux, New York. -

“The fundamental insight that God is not and cannot be localized in a thing [9] was emphatically expressed at the very moment in which it could have been most easily forgotten, at the inauguration of the Temple in Jerusalem.  At that moment Solomon exclaims:
But will God in very truth dwell on earth?  Behold, heaven and the heaven of heavens cannot contain Thee; how much less this house that I have built!
- I Kings 8:27
God manifests Himself in events rather than in things, and these events can never be captured or localized in things.”

[footnote] [9] The Sabbath, Its Meaning to Modern Man (New York, 1951), pp. 4 ff.; “Space, Time, and Reality,” “Judaism,” I, 3, July 1952, pp. 268 ff.

Spring Lookout News:
Robins and a thunderstorm parted the grass.

Hard Core Treatments for Relief from Oppressive Cleaning Issues:
I heard a conversation on the radio today, and marveled at the similarities between Muslim and Jewish rituals for washing and preparing the dead for burial.  You can hear it at

http://www.npr.org

See under –
Religion
A Personal Look At A Muslim Funeral Ritual
Tell Me More
Mar 22, 2010
Reshma Memon Yaqub on the Islamic custom of washing the deceased before burial.
[It is a 07:25 minute audio clip from the radio program "Tell Me More" that was broadcast on NPR radio.]

Go and Study:
Here’s a Jewish perspective of the same duty; this is a very good account of doing the mitzvah of tahara for the first time. You can read it at the Velveteen Rabbi blog.:
“Facing Impermanence” by Rachel Barenblat

http://velveteenrabbi.blogs.com/blog/2005/04/facing_imperman.html

B’shalom,
Amy Brookman
——

D-log Motto:  Okay, that’s enough for today.

Today: Sunday, March 21, 2010
6 Nisan 5770
I pulled long pans, racks, and cutting boards out of the cabinet shelf under the oven.  To clean it I had to kneel on the floor and stretch an arm’s length through four vertical dividers.  This brought my face up to the door hinges, so I took off my glasses.  The Hebrew letters Beit, Resh, and Khaf form the same root for the words blessing (BRaKHa) and knee (BeReKH).  I wouldn’t say I felt a sense of awe while bending to the task, but it did focus my attention on the willingness to clear time and space in life for awe.

Stress Relief Tip:
What might happen if you asked someone you’ve meant to spend more time with to go outside with you for a while for some fresh air?  What if you didn’t spend that time worrying about cleaning up the space outside, or accomplishing anything in particular?  What if you just enjoyed the birds singing, and each other’s company?  This morning my husband and I tried it out.

Spring Lookout News:
Even the calendar says it’s spring now.  Big, velvety Carpenter Bees are back to drill perfectly round holes in the wood just below the roof.  Every spring they gather in a honeysuckle-covered fence behind the shed.  Although I don’t want them to damage the walls, their astonishing work and punctuality inspires admiration.

Hard Core Treatments for Relief from Oppressive Cleaning Issues:
God gives a bee supernal skills, not only to survive, but to create sweetness. Surely I am able to find the tools and skills necessary, not only to make a living, but to savor life.

I turn my eyes to the mountains;
from where will my help come?
My help comes from the LORD,
maker of heaven and earth.
Psalms 121.1-2

Go and Study:
Salaam Shalom Educational Foundation
Teaching children in the Middle East the pathways to peace
Healing Children While Building Bridges
Trauma and the Physiology of a Healing Education
What Makes a Healthy Classroom?

http://www.sashedf.org/

Shavua tov, a good week,
Amy Brookman
——

D-log Motto:  Okay, that’s enough for today.

Today: Friday, March 19, 2010
4 Nisan 5770
I washed the shelf above the oven.

Stress Relief Tip:
Can you remember a crisis when someone treated you in a way that helped to lower stress for you and for them?  I’m sure it made a big difference to promote a clear state of mind, and the ability to collaborate on positive plans and productive actions.  Please share your stories about such incidents with others. “Troubles overcome are good to tell.”  – Yiddish proverb

Spring Lookout News:
A daffodil next to my front walk started to open this afternoon.

Hard Core Treatments for Relief from Oppressive Cleaning Issues:
Would it be enough…
…to share something at a seder from a haggadah that speaks to you?
…to set a time to study the haggadah with a partner?
…to decide what important thing you’d bring if you had to leave suddenly?
…to share your food with someone else in need?
…to express gratitude for what you have?
…to teach a child what freedom means?
…to ask a good question?
…to be willing to listen and speak respectfully with others?
…to help a stranger?
…to ask yourself questions from the haggadah?
…to stop accepting what is unacceptable?
…to remember not to oppress others?
…to humble yourself?
…to speak up for the rights of someone else?
…to stop complaining and just do something constructive?

Go and Study:
Too long have I dwelt with those who hate peace.
- Psalms 120.6

Shabbat shalom,
Amy Brookman
——

D-log Motto:  Okay, that’s enough for today.

Today: Thursday, March 18, 2010
3 Nisan 5770
I  cleaned the corner shelf and wondered about the origins of the food there.  So many places converged in one square foot: Italy, India, Israel, Texas, Illinois, Massachusetts, New Jersey, California, Washington.  Some of these named field sources, others were distribution points.  Cereal, rice, pasta, cous cous, Tetra Pak milk, and vitamins came from the hands of a lot of other people.

Stress Relief Tip:
Choir practice satisfied us with new music to learn, shared strawberries, and strengthening hugs.

Spring Lookout News:
On the way home tonight’s new moon increased to a sliver and the Big Dipper tilted toward north.

Hard Core Treatments for Relief from Oppressive Cleaning Issues:
I notice the weeds sprouting by the mailbox and think about last year’s garden.  Cleaning and weeding link us to the elements.  Meditative movement calms me, and people passing by want to say hello or stop to talk.  Last year I wrote down one of those encounters.  Now I find it and pull it out to read…
As I was weeding my garden last evening, my next door neighbor showed me how his strawberry plants have spread since last year, and now he’s planting some raspberries.  He has a little daughter, who said, “Hi there!” to me out their kitchen window over the berry patch.  I told him as a little girl I used to visit my grandmother in Utah during summer, and how amazed I was the first time she said, “Get up, we’re picking strawberries and raspberries from the garden to eat with our breakfast cereal!”  He smiled and told me his grandmother came from Hungary, and she made great strudel and bread.

Go and Study:
During my early interest in studying Judaism, I went over to Janice Steinschneider’s house for lunch, so she could teach me the Four Questions for the seder.  She welcomed a stranger.  For her seder she compiled her own hagaddah, and passed around envelopes so everyone could send donations to Mazon.
Mazon: A Jewish Response to Hunger
10495 Santa Monica Blvd., Ste. 100
Los Angeles, CA 90025
Phone 1-800-813-0557

http://mazon.org/

B’shalom,
Amy Brookman
——