2008 April | Peeling a Pomegranate

Archive for April, 2008

Thanks be to the Heart of the Forest

Published by Ketzirah Carly קצירה on April 28, 2008 in Spiritual Practices. 3 Comments

My husband entitled this photograph of me holding our bounty of wild harvested morel mushrooms, “Thanks be to the Heart of the Forest.” He couldn’t have chosen a better name. Each time I found and then cut one of these delicious little treasures, I said a blessing of thanks. Finding them is just magic. You can walk over one a dozen times and miss it, and then suddenly, “poof!”, there’s a mushroom.

The most amazing part of finding the morels, for the first time ever, was that a little toad pointed the way. We were actually hunting for ramps, Appalachian spring onions, and were in a patch when my husband noticed the tiniest of tiny toads.

After taking a few pictures of the toad he went to pose in the ramps for me. As he walked away the toad hung out for a couple of moments and then hopped off to my right — right past a morel mushroom. I would never have seen the first if it weren’t for my little froggy messenger.

נברך שכינה אלותינו רוח העולם שהחיתנו וקימתנו והיגעתנו לזמן הזה
Let us bless the Shekinah, Spirit of the World, who has granted us life, sustained us, and enabled us to reach this season.

For those wondering about the Kashrus of mushrooms, I actually looked this up a while back and found this great article. Apparently, they are considered doubly blessed because they substitute for many forbidden foods!

Technorati Tags: morels, seasons, locavore, sacred eating, sacred food, mushrooms

Now for a Trek in the Desert

Published by Ketzirah Carly קצירה on April 20, 2008 in Passover. 5 Comments

Sinai Desert by Argenberg on Flickr
Photo by Argenberg (c) Creative Commons Attribution

Hmm….after last night’s meal I could use a 49-day trek, or at least a good walk. Tonight many of us will embark on a second seder and, of course, the counting of the omer. The whole “omer” thing was a total mystery to me until about 2 years ago. Why on earth would we count sheaves of barley? I mean, I get it on a historical level and I understand that it’s to mark the time time between Passover and Shavout. I get the “wandering in the desert before arriving at Mt. Sinai, but what exactly am I supposed to get out of saying “today is Day 10.”

Then I discovered Rabbi Jill Hammer’s omer calendar of biblical women and I started to get it. I had seen the kabbalistic versions, but they really were too esoteric for me at the time. The biblical women calendar was more tangible and approachable. She still uses the kabbalistic approach of assigning a sephirot within a sephirot to each day — but she also assigns a bibilical woman who is representative and a teaching. Rabbi Jill also has a great counting of the omer in her Jewish Book of Days.

This year she has presented the Kohenot with the Netivot version. Along with the traditional daily sephirot within Sephirot, she has assigned a Netivah. I’m very much looking forward to exploring the Kohenet Netivot in this new and exciting way over the next 49 days. If you’d like to take this journey with me — just let me know (leave a comment). R’Jill has given me permission to share her Netivot Omer Calender. She’s also assigned both a female and male counterpart to the Netivah so it’s gender-balanced and this is the first time we’ve seen the masculine equivalents of the Netivot.

What do I have to offer you for the counting of the omer? Well, I’ve made this little calendar template so you can cross off the days. Each day has the assigned sephira within sephira. It starts at the top right and reads to the left (like Hebrew). I’ve been playing with fun things to do with this, like printing it on fabric and tying ribbons on each day, to make it reusable. Let me know if you come up with something creative, and I actually have several of the fabric printed version. If you would like one to experiment with — leave a comment or email me.

PeelaPom Omer Calendar Template (pdf)

I also have to share this link to the “Homer Calendar” created by the folks at JVibe.com. It’s a Simpsonized version of the omer calendar and it’s darn funny. It also provides a pretty decent explanation of the whole thing, just with an excellent sense of humor.

You can also keep track of what day it is with this handy-dandy widget from R’David at NeoHasid.org.

Technorati Tags: passover, pesach, omer, omer calendar

An Unlit Candle

Published by Ketzirah Carly קצירה on April 18, 2008 in Passover. 3 Comments

There will be one additional candle on my seder table this year. Thanks to the Velveteen Rabbi for bringing this to my attention. May you all have a blessed Shabbat and a wonderful, joyful Pesach that liberates you from whatever keeps in bondage.

We are the guardians of the fire.
We pass the flame to connect the sparks.
The sparks connect the web of life,

But sometimes we forget.
When we forget we create a hole.
We create dark where once there was light.

We are the guardians of the fire.
We pass the flame to change dark to light.

The light feeds all life,
But sometimes we forget.
When we forget someone is lost.
There is no beacon to guide them home.

We are the guardians of the fire.
We pass the flame to mark the way.
For those who walk with us, and those who may follow;
We leave this world brighter, with hope for tomorrow.

May we open our hearts to the Heart of the Universe, and feeling the light of the Divine within all, know that we are one.

from Peeling a Pomegranate Haggadah

Technorati Tags: freedom, liberation, passover, pesach, unlit candle, tibet

5768 Passover Menu

Published by Ketzirah Carly קצירה on April 14, 2008 in Holidays and Passover. 10 Comments

After more thought and menu planning, I’ve finally settled on a menu for Passover this year. While the idea I came upon during my last post on this subject was in my mind, I actually went in a slightly different direction when planning the final menu.

Below you’ll find my final menu with links to either the recipe, if I found it online, or the book it can be found in. I’ve opted once again for a vegetarian menu for Passover, but I think a lamb dish would go beautifully if someone really wanted to include a meat dish. The dishes I’ve made before are the Sephardic-style Charoset, Bitter Herb Salad, Tofu Marsala, and Tiramatzah.

And just for fun here’s my Passover adaptation of a MS Word menu card template (doc). Feel free to use it for your dinner.

5768 Passover Menu

~ Charoset Sampler ~
Date & Fig Sephardic-style
Apricot-Pistachio
Fig & Port Wine
Orange-Ginger

Matzah

———-

~ Bitter Herb Salad* ~
with lapsang souchong eggs and
oil & vinegar dressing

———-

~ Tofu Marsala ~

~ Cauliflower Leek Kugel ~
with Almond Crust

———-

~ Tiramatzah ~

~ Matzah Baklavah ~

———-

Coffee, Tea, Wines, Sparkling Water

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

I’m not great at the wine pairing thing, so if you have any suggestions — it would be much appreciated.

* There’s no recipe for the bitter herb salad, just a lovely salad made from bitter herbs.

Technorati Tags: passover menu, recipes, menu planning, sacred eating, pesach, vegetarian passover

The Prophets’ Cup

Published by Ketzirah Carly קצירה on April 10, 2008 in Holidays and Passover. 2 Comments

$The first ever Prophets\' Cup!$
Prophets Cup created by Agru Arts

One of the more unique elements of my haggadah is “The Prophets’ Cup.” When I was creating the haggadah, I knew that I didn’t just want to have an Elijah’s cup and I didn’t want to have two cups. I also didn’t want to slam the door in Elijah’s face in favor of Miriam or another prophetess. It also seemed like there might be a way to connect more with the idea of an offering or gift, which is what the cup is to Elijah.

I settled on the idea of having an empty cup which everyone can pour a blessing into; a libation, if you will. We start with Elijah out of respect for tradition, but then move to Miriam and Aharon and Moses — and then any prophet that speaks to people’s hearts. We’ve had blessings poured for everyone from Martin Luther King Jr. to Mahatma Ghandi and Rabbi Abraham Joshua Heschel.

The one problem I’ve always had was finding the right cup for this. I didn’t want to use an Elijah’s or Miriam’s cup and most have such narrow bowls that it was hard to pour into. My kiddush cup has the same narrow bowl, so it suffered from the same issue.

This year, thanks to Esty, I’ve been able to commission the first ever official Prophets’ Cup! EtsyChai member Agru Arts was kind enough to take on the task. I explained the whole idea to her and she sent me links to historial chalices that might work. One really got my attention, but it wasn’t quite right. It did get me interested in the “Bucchero” style, which lead me to another design.

After several discussions, we determined all the details and the price (quite reasonable, btw). Next thing I knew she was sending me pictures of my amazing Prophets’ Cup. If you are a fan of the Peeling a Pomegranate Haggadah, feel free to contact her and ask for your own Prophets’ Cup — or commission your own kiddush cup or Elijah/Miriam cup!

[update 4/11]
It came in the mail tonight. It’s perfect and wonderful. I’m very excited!

[/update]