Everything happens for a reason. A cultural commentary with a lotta rock-n-roll, semitism, and parenting. See our Etsy Shop! Buy HeadyBands, Hoodies and more at www.wholephamily.etsy.com
The humble little dreidel is so part of our experience with Chanukah, and yet does anyone know why it's called a dreidel?
Ester Shahaf design
It's a Yiddish word, no doubt.
To "dre" is to spin. A dreidel spins.
When you add on the "el" that gives it diminutive, cutesy-ness element.
So it's a little spinning top.
The Whole Phamily loves Yiddish - it's part of our Ashkenasic heritage. And dreidel is in Yiddish.
But we like to say sivivon also, which is the Hebrew word for dreidel.
This is no Dr. Dre, but here's a familiar tune, "Oh Hanukkah Oh Hanukkah" in Yiddish.
If the claims asserted by last week's New York Jewish Week article about the growing hummus market in the US materialize, our favorite chickpea dip-spread will soon be on the plates of Americans nation-wide.
It's a hummus revolution, and it's happening from sea to shining sea.
Whole families will buy it right alongside their butter and cream cheese. Put it in wraps. Bring it to school with baby carrots.
If it can be in supermarkets (Sabra is now America's #1 hummus) why not strip malls and food courts?
Enter Hummus Place in NYC. There is room for more hummus. The hummus revolution is brewing.
Here we are tonight at their St. Mark's Place location. They have 5 total. They want to franchise.
It's genius.
Middle Americans will soon be eating chummus from Mankato to Maui. But they'll also want to get it when they go out. What a nice healthy addition Hummus Place will be.
Tonight we tried Hummus Place's hummus fava: delicious. Topped with whole fava beans, Tahini, organic hard boiled egg, olive oil & spices. Delicious. Grilled eggplant with tehini: superb. Ambience wonderful, especially since we walked in 20 minutes before closing. We were celebrating a birthday, and just like that, a kadaif dessert was brought to the table. This delicious combination of shredded halva, ricotta cheese, and date honey was simply delectable.
We wish Hummus Place the greatest success possible.
Julie is bright (Penn and Harvard-educated). She's likely a very good writer. And, judging by their covers, her books look like the type we'd want to read.
We don't watch Oprah, but they look like they'd be Oprah books.
We're quite sure that with the Harvard and Penn connections we'd do well at the Jewish geography game. Thus the Whole Phamily gets stronger and smaller all at the same time.
Now if the Whole Phamily could only employ good writers...
There are variations: Buxbaum, Buckspan, Buchman, Buchweitz...we are only guessing that the meaning for "buch" is the word book. Perhaps families with this surname were involved with production or selling of books.
If this is the case, then Yitzhak Buxbaum's name is very fitting. He is a teller of sacred Jewish tales. A master storyteller or maggid, Reb Yitzhak is a unique soul and brings the stories from the alter heim (Eastern European towns where so many of us originate from) into the 21st century. His site is the Jewish Spirit Journal, a gateway to mysticism, spirituality and Kabbalah.
Maybe he can weave a story of the Whole Phamily and tell us exactly what we're doing here.
We have just come across the reggae artist Jah Levi. He is a spiritual healer. According to his bio, he is a spiritual leader in two churches: Essene and the Peruvian Soga del Alma. We're not sure what it means to be a card-carrying member of the Native American church, but he's got one. He is an herbalist and acupuncturist. His music is entrancing. We aren't too educated in reggae music, but Bob Marley's One Love sounds good to us.
And his father was folklorist Kenneth Goldstein (a historian on Adirondack music...full disclosure: the Whole Phamily has deep roots to the ADKs...yes, we are all connected).
So give it up, Mr. Levi...we believe that you're connected deep, deep, deep. We believe you have healing powers. We believe you create great music.
Not a smidge mention of the Jewish factor other than your father's last name.
Hmm....
Time to come on home!
Raz Hartman had a vision. You can visualize it, too. It starts with being in the Sinai desert, nothing at all on the horizon. Then you see one little speck. That speck turns out to be a person. But it's not just one person, it's 10 people. They get closer. Not 10 people, it's 100 people. As the mass gets closer, you realize it's not 100 but 1,000 people. No, it's not just 1,000, it's more like tens of thousands. Then you realize it's hundreds of thousands of people, all the Nation of Israel and they are all dancing and singing in the desert, walking closer toward you. And you realize that the music is coming from the center of this mass of people.
This music is coming from the tribe of Levi.
This vision inspired a song called Shuva which is for sale CD Baby. You can listen to just this one sample which is Track #7 (this one little track does not do justice). This is the star song of the CD and it is not available to listen fully online. The liner notes are important, as well.
Simply put: Shuva means return.
In the meantime, we have a hankering to get back to the woods. Frolicking around in Paul Smith's isn't too far away...
Michael Franti is not a Jew, but he is clearly a peace-lover and positive thinker. He is hopeful for the world. He is hopeful for world peace. We're not quite sure about his Israel politics, but we welcome him onto our humble blog here, and hope to serve as a reminder that we are all connected and all want the same good things for our families.
This week Jews all over the world start reading the Torah from its beginning. In Hebrew, it is called b'reishit. The common English translation for this is Genesis.
However you call it, the biblical creation story is recounted, complete with the world created in 6 days followed by the first man and the woman that was fashioned out of his rib. So the story goes. For any of you with a problem with that unbelievable-sounding story, just remember you gotta dig deeper. Not a single thing there is quite literal. But we ain't no rabbis or nothin'.
Getting back to Genesis, naturally we thought of one of our first concerts in the 80s to see Phil Collins' band (aptly named Genesis). Take a listen to their "Invisible Touch." Is it possible that Phil is belting out lyrics describing the biblical Eve? She tempted Adam, was mysterious, he fell for her, and they got kicked out of the Garden of Eden forever.
Sorry Chava (the Hebrew name for Eve), we think you weren't the best heroinne in Jewish history.
Collins is clearly not a Jewish name (wasn't that what Whole Phamily was originally about? Jewish family names?), but in a way yes you are part of the Whole Phamily too in that we think "Invisible Touch" could have something to do with the creation story, and that your band's name clearly comes from our tradition.
Finally, here is a shout out to our friend Noah who is moving on to new beginnings of his own.
It's not a bird and it's not a plane. It's the moon, and she's right up there waiting for you to notice her. Recently we met a very bright young 3rd year student at the Law School (as if there's only one) who was wrongfully convinced that the ecocult which he'd ultimately like to establish will be based around solar energy. "The sun's bright and full of energy," he extorted as we departed our conversation on the steps of a summer camp dining hall. Au contrare, my friend, how mistaken you are.
Lunar power is where it's at. And she's all woman. Any thinking woman will tell you that just as the moon waxes and wanes (gets bigger and smaller for the lunar-jargon challenged among us), so too do women have their highs and lows. Call it what you want: soul sistas, girl power, or women's intuition...it's all the same deal. The moon is cyclical. What goes around comes around. Isn't that what life is all about?
Some tunes to recall at this point include Sir Elton John's"Circle of Life." Even Disney is capable of words of wisdom.
We also recall Harry Chapin's "All my Life's a Circle."
Finally let us always remember Joni Mitchell's "Circle Game" which, it is claimed in this YouTube's comments section, was written with Neil Young. Don't doubt that one.
We have the moon to thank for those.
The moon may be smaller than the sun, but she's a lot smarter and got her head screwed on straight. She ain't the one in the news on a seemingly daily basis. With the current energy crisis, the words climate change, global warming and greenhouse gases are all connected to the sun and enough to drive any middle American batty. Just the other day, the White House said no thanks to solar panels. Uh oh, we're in big trouble.
If you are a girl or woman, stare at the moon for as long as you can every night. Once we locate the moon, that's when we usually say, "look, there she is!" For Jewish women, it is a way of participating in the celebration of Rosh Chodesh, the new month in the Jewish lunar-based calendar. At this moment, the moon is waxing gibbous, getting fuller and fuller to that point next week when she's a glorious full moon and Jews the world over will rejoice during the harvest festival of Sukkot (note to self: check out sukkah city), also known as the "time of our happiness" (remember our blog post referring to Joy at its end? Same deal).
If you want to get all astrological and womyn and some say wiccan about it, you can even check out We'Moon. How interesting that their publisher is called Mother Tongue Ink.
In Yiddish, mother tongue is rightfully referred to as mamaloshen. Now that's something to talk about.
