How Matzo is Made: A Look at Streit's on the Lower East Side | Potluck V...

    Since Pesach is on the way , I thought that I would post this. Enjoy.

A Fire Among Us

      There was a devastating fire in Brooklyn on Friday  night that left seven children from one family dead . Two other family members were severely injured. I do not think that I can add anything more that has not been already said. I do not know all of the details nor do I want to . When people get all of the the details they start making judgements and thats where all of the trouble  begins.
       Naturally, instead of dwelling on the details of this shattered family I will give my own thoughts.
       Lately I have noticed more sirens than usual in Midwood, especially on shabbos. Every time I hear sirens I hope that I do not know the victims. This shabbos was really no different. I heard a lot of sirens and hoped I would not get to hear why they went off. This time I heard the story behind some of the sirens. Very upsetting. Fortunately I did not find out until after Shabbos.
        When I turned on the radio (I know I'm old school) after shabbos I heard the story. They did not mention that they were frum, but I knew they were  since they mentioned 7 children. I think what hit me most was the fact that someone had 7 children and I have none . No, this is not a pity party. Let me explain. I always fear being old and childless. When something like this happens it put things in perspective. Just because someone has something does not mean someone will always have it. This goes both ways. Life can change in a moment. The same way one can seemingly have it all one moment and then in another moment lose it all, one can have nothing and it can change. I have a friend who had lots of kids, but she unfortunately passed on at a young age and will not see her children grow up. I have other friends who married divorced or widowed men, One person's tragedy ends up with a simcha for someone else.
        The other thing that I took notice of when I heard of this fire is the fact that this family had lived in Israel for many years yet this tragedy occurred in the United States.
         The scariest part of parents losing children is that parents can't always withstand the pain. It can cause divorce.
        One thing about life that one can count on is that it is always changing.Sometimes one can feel so paralysed from the sadness of life that you just don't feel like leaving the comfort of one's home. I guess  a tragedy like this can help the get up and go because tragedy can chas v'shalom occur anywhere so one may as well do whatever one needs to do in the home or outside of the home. Life is precious and its meant to be lived.
          That said, in memory of the seven children who lost their lives this shabbos, everyone needs to make sure their homes are fire proof and make sure they have working smoke alarms.

Goodnight iPad, Ann Droyd - 9780399158568

    This is really cute and really sad. Its not even relaxing to watch. I love technology, but there is something to be said about the good old days before there was so much of it. 

Expectations.

     We all have expectations of others even if we should not. Perhaps they are not really expectations but they are more like ideas of what we would like them to be like. Sometimes when people do not reach one's expectations its not really that they disappointing but  maybe they were never really capable of being whatever way one may want them to be. It can be hard to accept people for what they are capable of instead of what we would like them to be. I know this sounds like a cliche but it is so true.

Victoria Hanna- Aleph-bet (Hosha'ana)

     This is quite interesting. Victoria Hanna grew up religious to a Persian Jewish mother and an Egyptian Jewish father. She was a severe stutterer who was severely picked on . She is no longer observant but she writes songs. Sometimes the further you veer from something the more you end up going back to it. Or something like that. Her songs play with the use of Hebrew language and are tantalizing. This is a kol isha alert. 

Pet Peeves and Teaching

       Teaching is such a precious adventure. One can be a school teacher, or one can teach a specific skill to someone as a friend or a parent. One teaches others via employee training. Every time you teach you learn how to teach better. Those you teach help you become a better teacher because each person has a different way of absorbing the material and they teach you yet another way to impart the information. The trick is letting the give and take flow. Some people insist on being overbearing and do not let the student grasp the information in their own special way. Its such a crime when this happens. This can make the student resistant to the information because they are having the information forced upon them . 

You Can't Win

      Facebook can be good and bad. You have more access to more people than a dating website and yet someones profile can be just as off putting as a dating website profile. Someone that is a friend of a friend contacted me. He is definitely not for me religiously but that was not the disturbing part. He had photos of himself with women he had gone out with. Though he himself was OK looking the women he dated were twos on a scale of one to ten. I am embarrassed to say that it really bothered me that someone I do not even know who I am not interested in went out with some unattractive women and it made me even less interested in him. I guess its because if someone I did not know sees my picture and then is interested in me it means he thinks that I am attractive as my facebook profile is closed the only someone really sees is what I look like. He sends me a message saying he thinks I'm really pretty, but what does that mean? I see what he finds attractive and pretty to him means nice personality or smart. The crazy thing is this bit bothers me more than the fact that even if he usually dated better looking women he would not interest me. You can't win.