Ethical Jewish Food Movement

Just so happens, that I got a call the other day from a lovely Denver Post reporter about the Jewish ethical food movement. She was looking for a statement from the JCC about why this is important to add to her piece about Rabbi Soloway and his work in Boulder. We talked for... maybe 30-40 minutes. :) We talked about how the ancient Jews agricultural laws guide us today. How we know now that letting land rest between planting helps the output and Judaism guides us in these things. We spoke about how impossible it is to get out of season produce in Israel and you really understand how food grows when and how it matches up to our calendar. Apples are harvested at Rosh Hashanah. Olives are picked and pressed and the oil is ready at Chanukah time. We spoke about how deeply Judaism and food and agriculture are linked. 10DAVIS-articleLargeAnd we talked about how my husband and I grew our own horseradish this year for the first time to have a piece of our garden on the Seder table. That's the part she mentions here, in her article. P.S. Here is our NYTimes article where she found out about how we got engaged. :) I believe that Judaism is about mindfulness and that extends to our food. When we say brachot over our food before we eat it, it bring a mindfulness about what we are going to ingest. When we seek out Kosher food, it brings a mindfulness to our lives that we can't bypass. We can't 'shovel' food in our mouths. We have to think about what and when we eat. And now, Dan and I have added an aspect. When we grow the food we eat, we add a mindfulness to the whole process. Your tomatoes aren't in season yet. Please G-d, we can't have a hail storm today! Everything was nearly ready! So I am thankful that she gave me an opportunity to speak about a topic I am passionate about. Get ready for many more garden posts this summer. Cruciferous vegetables are in the ground along with beets, carrots, radishes, peas, beans, turnips, and rutabegas. Maybe if it stops snowing the rest of our seedlings will hit the dirt soon. We are wishing everyone a Chag Pesach Sameach, Happy Passover. If you are looking for a last minute dessert for your seder, check our Kosher food blog, Kosher, She Eats for my Great-Grandmother's (Nanny) Passover Sponge Cake Recipe.

A culinary decision

Our wedding is in 18 days. 18 DAYS I SAY! I can't believe how soon that is.We have planned our wedding relatively fast. One of my brother's best friends from elementary school used to work for the Knot.com... when I told her we were getting married in 5 1/2 months she was shocked and then proceeded to tell me that the average engagement these days is one year. ONE YEAR! Oy! Anyway, we held our invitations back until we made final decisions on our meal at the wedding. We wanted to give more detailed choices and I am glad I listened to Dan's urging to wait. We ended up going a different route completely than I had anticipated. That being said...Drum roll please...Cow and FishWe are having a dairy wedding. While I am sure some of you totally understand that sentence, I am sure many of you don't. Let  me explain.Dan and I keep kosher. We don't mix milk and meat, we don't eat shellfish, we don't eat pork... anymore. We had our last traif hurrah and now none of that is on the menu. Honestly, we pretty much kept kosher the whole time we knew each other other deciding to start our lives together and build a Jewish home together, we decided there was no wiggle room. We would have a last day for traif and that was it. Anywho, we had to make a decision for our wedding. We could have a fully kosher meal, with kosher protein. That means the cake would have NO dairy in it (aka fake icing and no butter). Everything we serve would either be meat based or have no dairy in it. This would double the price for our catering, we would have had to cut back our guest list even further and to add "insult" to "injury" we could not serve the delicious wine and booze we want to. It would have to be kosher wine and only liquor that is kosher as well (no sherry casks for the scotch). There would be someone on site monitoring everything and it seemed rather... limiting.After much discussion, we chose to go the path of a dairy meal. Yes our guests would have to forgo the traditional steak or chicken but we could offer them a much more exciting meal with more food and more options. We could also then have a delicious dairy cake with buttercream frosting and the most delicious wine and booze we could buy. This also enables our kosher keeping guests to have the fish or pasta option OR if that doesn't work for them (because there is no kosher supervision) we will order a special glatt kosher meal for them from the kosher deli.Additionally, it allowed us to give  further options to our guests. Instead of a meat and a vegetarian dish, we offered a lovely fish dish and two pastas! If I may say so myself, all of the food is amazing.The fact of the matter is this, we are so excited to celebrate with our family and friends and we wanted to provide the nicest meal we could. In this case, that meant offering fish and dairy in abundance. I know it is different than usual, but we hope that our friends are coming to celebrate with us... not just to eat the food.

Shana Tova u'Mitukah - A Happy and Sweet New Year

Shana tova to my readers! I have so many great blog posts waiting in the queue to finish and I promise I will but thank you for another amazing year with you, my loyal and kinda friends who continue to check this crazy blog!This time last year I was at Mayanot in Israel and exploring the holidays in Jerusalem. I remember the struggle I felt as I was trying to settle into life in Israel and celebrate the holidays away from my family. This year, life is totally different. Oh how I have grown and changed. Funny though... I am wearing the dress I bought one year ago to wear on Rosh Hashanah in Israel. A new girl in the old girl's dress.So Shana Tova u'Mitukah from me here is Denver with my family to you wherever you are and however you celebrate.If you want a throw back, check out these blogs: We Have To Walk Where? and Yom Kippur in Israel 

Purim Goodies

The other day I was cruising around the internet, reading some of my friend's blogs when I stumbled upon a post from my friend Hadassah about food. I like food. I like Kosher food. I especially like baked goods and since Purim is coming up, my mind has been on Hamentashen lately.For those of you who are staring at the computer screen with your head tilted to the side and feeling confused... Purim is a Jewish holiday that celebrates the story in the book of Esther. In short (without all the fun theological conversation), in Persia there was a king who married a Jewish girl named Esther. One of his top courtiers named Haman decided that he would kill all the Jews (they didn't know Esther was Jewish). He gets the king to agree until Esther screws up her courage and tells the king that she is Jewish and Haman is trying to kill her and her people. Then instead of the Jews being killed, Haman was killed for betraying the king. Look there is a lot more to the story than that and you can watch a cool video about it here - G-dCast or read about it here - basic story of Purim and complete story of Purim.Okay, now that we took care of that... on this holiday (that is my very favorite and that is in no small part due to the fact that I was born on the holiday) we eat special cookies shaped like Haman's hat, with three corners, called hamentashen. We even have a little song... "My hat it has three corners, three corners has my hat and if it hadn't three corners, it wouldn't be my hat." I have no idea why that relates to Purim but that is what I remember singing when I ate Hamentashen when I was a kid.So I love baking hamentashen. I got my recipe from the world's greatest hamentashen baker (my friend Dena's mom). They are amazingly delicious however, I was reading my friend Hadassah's blog (remember that is how all of this started) and she posted an interview with a very cool chick named Laura who runs a kosher bakery in Chicago called Libby and Laura. Hadassah works for Kosher.com and gets to check out the newest and coolest kosher products. She got a hold of Libby and Laura's Mandelbrot and gave it a stellar review so I just had to try some.I ordered some S'mores hamentashen and chocolate chip mandelbrot... OH MY HaShem! Those are some good baked goods! I received them promptly last night and dug in. The hamentashen were delicious! I am very impressed that she can ship such great baked goods and they stay so fresh. My only complaint is the hamentashen flavors are a bit wacky and I would like a greater variety (PB&J hamentashen? not my style... I would totally order a dozen if you had prune... yes I love prune hamentashen).So it is pretty close to Purim (Saturday night is the big night) but mandelbrot is totally a year round food. Check out Libby & Laura's for yummy kosher baked goods. And for the record... they don't taste kosher or like a 'typical' kosher baked good. This is a bakery that just happens to be Pas Yisroel.(P.S. I was not paid for this endorsement nor does Laura of Libby & Laura know that I was intending to write about my awesome hamentashen experience. Not that I am opposed to being paid for product reviews or to receive products to try... I'm just saying.)

And so begins the rest

And I mean that both in this is the "rest" of my blog and on Shabbis, we "rest." Before I get started, since I tend to explain why certain things are while in the context of the experience, I will indent these informative sections, to make it easier to read.

So we left off with the sirens going off and Shabbis starting. What is done, is done at that point and you can't start cooking anything or put on makeup or clean the house. A sense of calm falls over this small section of Brooklyn.

We went to shul at 770 Eastern Parkway... known as just 770. This was the Rebbe's home and shul. The weekend that I happened to be there was Chof Beis Shvat.

Chof Beis Shvat is the yartzeit of the Rebbe's wife - the Rebbetzin. On her yartzeit, all the rabbi's wives, the rebbetzins from around the world, come to Crown Heights for a convention. There are literally thousands of women in town for that weekend. It's called the Kinus for short. So when these women, who come from places like India, China, Russia, Key West, Alaska, etc, come to town, they all want to davven in the Rebbe's shul. The last time I was in CH for Chof Beis Shvat, I was literally jostled out the door of the women's section. I was still a "newbie" to the CH seen and wasn't so confident... and well... I grew up in a non-pushing house... so I let myself be jostled out the door.

This year was different.

I was staying with a (new but very dear) friend whom we shall call RL and her sister CB. We went to shul and we pushed our way right in. We smushed into the small women's area, above where the men were praying.

Why were the men and women separated, you ask? Well there are lots of laws and reasoning behind using a mechitza and many different ways they can look. Essentially, it is a separation of men and women but don't get the wrong idea, it isn't because there is a fault in the women. The fact is, women are not required to do any time-bound commandments. Why? Because they are the primary caretakers of the home and children. (Don't balk, you know it's true! Husband and wife both work, both come home tired, 9 times out of 10 who makes dinner and gives the kids a bath? It's in our nature, ladies! Embrace it!) So women shouldn't feel rushed or pushed to do the mitzvot or commandments that have a certain time frame. Now there is the issue with men being distracted. You know it's true. A pretty lady walks in, the men look up... well they HAVE TO do the time-bound mitzvot so we let them focus. Frankly, it's more a statement that men are easily distracted than that women are lesser. So mechitza's come in different fashions... pretty (and tall) flowers, a movable wall, etched glass, or the separate section completely. In 770, the main hall is where the men davven and there is a gallery upstairs where the women sit and there is a separate entrance. I borrowed this pic from crownheights.info - on the left side of the image, in the back where the Hebrew writing is one of the women's sections. There are windows down to the floor.

SO, we found a couple of seats, sorta, and a couple of siddurs, sorta, and began to davven. One thing I love about Chabad davvening is you can catch up if you need to and sorta go at your own pace. When we finished davvening, we chatted for a bit but we were getting pushed to and fro by people leaving and new people coming to get in their evening shabbis prayers. We fought our way out (it was like being a sardine!) and heading to our host for shabbis dinner. I didn't know the couple who we were eating by (yes, in CH you say "Who are you eating BY?" Who are you staying BY?" instead of with) but they were friends of my friends. One thing you will notice is that everyone is very friendly and welcoming. Their homes are very open to you. We arrived at S & T's home for shabbis dinner and began the climb. Just like you can't cook or clean on shabbis, you also can't use an elevator. So their apartment becomes a 6th floor walk-up on shabbis. 6 flights of stairs (with banisters with wet paint on them, thanks Super!) later, we walked in to a beautiful NYC apartment and wonderful hosts. We made the blessings over the wine, washing our hands, and the bread and then we dug in.

Now you should understand that there are courses here. First comes the fish and salads. Oh you could fill up on that alone! Gefilte fish, two kinds of salad, babganush, and challah. Then we move on to soup. Next, is the main course, usually meat and sides. And finally tea and desert.

It was such good company and delicious food. We chatted and ate until 1am! Some people falling asleep for a few minutes on the couch here and there. Finally, we went home and fell into bed. We work up on shabbis morning after letting ourselves sleep in a bit. We drank some tea (from water that was kept hot all night) and had breakfast. RL and I walked to another shul to find a woman she wanted to chat with. When the woman wasn't there, we stopped by another friend's house and chatted. It was all so easy going. No purse, no phone, nothin! Then we made our way to our shabbis lunch. The hosts were a very kind couple and their children. Their row house was incredibly beautiful (it's amazing what people do with little space and less yard in NYC!) and the meal was delicious. We had just an incredible chat with our host and hostess and then headed home for our shabbis shluff (Yiddish for nap).

We we woke up, it was time for havdallah, which marks the end of the sabbath. We went to the girls' landlord's apartment to hear him do havdallah. Such a sweet, older couple. When it was finished we headed down to change and get ready for the evening events. You know how in the secular world we go out on Friday and Saturday nights? Well, Saturday night or motzi shabbis, is party time!

There were a million things going on in the neighborhood that night! Whispers of Moshe Hecht doing a concert somewhere nearby, someone saw Matisyahu and his wife going out to something else... such a buzz on the street where just minutes before, there was silence!

We ended up at a program that Nightlife was throwing. Nightlife is a great initiative in Crown Heights for single women. They host programs every week to get the women together and just have a place to hang out. That night Rebbetzin Nechama Eilfort was speaking. She and her husband are the leaders of the Chabad of La Costa California. She gave a great talk about going on Shlichus and how even the most unsuspecting woman could find her own way while giving back to other Jews. She was a great speaker. BUT now it was time for the whole reason I went to Crown Heights... My friend's l'chaim!

So let's explain the connection. I went to Bais Chana and met my dear friend E. I went to Bais Chana because a dear friend in Denver, DL, suggested it. Shortly after we got home, E got engaged to DL's brother! So fun when you know both sides involved! :) So I trek over to the l'chaim from Nightlife.

Technically, L'chaim means "to life" in Hebrew. Since there is a lot of celebrating and drinking of L'chaims at an engagement party, they have come to be called "a L'chaim."A L'chaim and a Vort are pretty much the same thing. A L'chaim tends to be more informal and a Vort, more formal but that word isn't used in all circles. (Vort means 'word' in Yiddish, referring to the words of Torah the groom shares.) At the formal engagement celebration, some communities have the groom sign a tenaim document which literally means conditions and is like his acceptance of his obligations to his future wife. Once the document is signed, the mothers of the bride and groom with smash a plate, reminding us that even in the happy times, we mourn the destruction of the Holy Temple in Jerusalem. Since the tenaim is a serious halachic document (Jewish law), some groups won't sign it until the wedding day to avoid having to break the agreement.

It is crazy and packed! E has tons of friends and for the first time, that I have witnessed, the women's side is bigger than the men's! :) We hug and laugh, dance and eat. We stayed until after 1am! It was such a joyous event!

One more note about Jewish engagements... well, especially in this Chassidic community. It is Chabad custom to NOT present the bride with a diamond engagement ring. I know this is very different than mainstream society. The reason is that a Jewish marriage can be established in a number of ways and presenting a ring of value to a women, in front of witnesses can constitute a marriage. To avoid concerns about when and if the marriage actually took place, the groom (in this community) will often present his kallah (bride) with a necklace or watch. There are also progressive gifts given. A bride might receive an engagement watch, then a necklace before the party, a plain gold band at the wedding and then earrings and a diamond ring to complete her jewelry set. Additionally, during the wedding, it is never (within the context of this group) a double ring ceremony. Not only do men not wear jewelry but there is a bigger concern here. The ring is a gift to the bride from the groom and the brides acceptance of the ring is an acceptance of the marriage proposal and terms in the Ketubah. If the rings are exchanged, the transaction is as if it did not occur or that the bride is returning the groom's gift.
In the marriage ceremony, they say "behold, you become holy unto me with this ring." The ring must be clear as to what it is... the diamond could be fake, the etching could have lessened the value and if that is the case, the marriage's legal status could be called into question. Better to not have a question. The groom must OWN the ring he gives his bride. Therefore, he has to finish paying on it or if it is an heirloom, it must be given as a gift to him to them pass on. Anyway, I know I have gone on a tangent here but I find these customs so facinating!

After a few short hours of sleep, I head to the airport on Sunday. My mom, a former New Yorker, called on mozti shabbis (after shabbis) to request that I bring her back some bialys. Turns out that NY Jewish tradition hadn't hit the Crown Heights neighborhood yet but I brought her a half dozen of the best NY bagels I could find.

Traveling to NY and Crown Heights is like stepping into another world. I enjoy myself every single time. This particular trip, I met so many wonderful people and made some great Jewish connections. I can't wait to go back for the wedding... which is March 7, by the way. Maybe you will get a blog (or 3) about the Chabad Jewish wedding! :)

Originally posted at Patheos.com - AshkanOrthoNewalForm-ish

Shabbis in Crown Heights

I attended a Chabad l'chaim a couple weekends ago in Crown Heights.

For those of you who don't know, Crown Heights is the World-Wide Headquarters of the Lubavitcher movement. It is as close as you will get to a shtetl in modern day America. With the main arteries of Kingston and Eastern Parkway, Judaism springs from either side. Most of the row houses shooting off these main roads are adorned with a mezuzah. If not, then they house neighbors who are generally of African-American or Afro-Caribbean decent. If you have never experienced a shabbat in Crown Heights, you must. I am serious. Email me at Patheos (tdavis at Patheos dot com) and I will help you find a place to stay. It is a must!

For those of you who have not or could not stay in CH, let me paint the scene of my weekend in Brooklyn.

Friday morning, 6am - my red-eye flight from Denver lands at JFK in NYC. I am with the mother and two sisters of the groom and a very awesome woman who is heading to CH to teach Chabad women how to fundraise. [Background - I am very close with the sister of the groom (the chasson) and the bride (the kallah). We spent a week studying in FL together.] After we gather our luggage, we go to catch a cab. It's about 6:30/6:45am at this point. We have to wait for a cab large enough to fit luggage + people. We make the squeeze and we are off. We tell our VERY Russian cab driver that we are going to Brooklyn but must detour to Queens first to go to The Ohel, which is at a cemetery. It is the grave-site of The Lubavitcher Rebbe and his father-in-law, The Previous Rebbe or Frediker Rebbe.  Within Chabad, anytime you are in NY, you must visit. Not because you are forced to but because it can be centering and uplifting and is an important thing to do.

We tell the guy that we are going to a cemetery in Queens and he pulls out a picture of The Rebbe and says, "For this guy?" Well we were shocked! He knew exactly where to go. Turns out, the guy is Jewish, brings people to the cemetery all the time but had never gone in. Well we get to The Ohel and the cab driver wants to leave us. I know in the movies it always looks like there is always a cab when you need one but that is SO not the case. We convinced him that he should wait 20 min and come in with us. SO meter still running, we go in and start the process.

We wash our hand in the ritual manner (netilat yadayim) then sit down to write a letter to the Rebbes. You put your Hebrew name, bat (daughter of) or bar (son of), then your mother's Hebrew name. Then you just write. You can ask for a better job, a husband or wife, health, anything you want or need or need guidance on. Once you have completed your letter, you slip off your shoes (if they have leather on them) and slip on the oh-so-convenient Crocs they have provided in every size and color imaginable. (P.S. I think Chosids are the biggest consumer of Crocs... not kidding.)

Once you have done all this you trek out into the cemetery and enter the stone building (no roof) where the two graves are. You light a candle, grab a prayer book and head in. There are separate doors for men and women but it gets cramped really fast. Once inside there are a handful of prayers and psalms to read but then you read your letter, quietly outloud to the Rebbes. Once you have competed that, you tear it to little bits (see the pic). As you leave, you must be careful not to turn your back on the Rebbes, just like the Torah, and so people will back out of the area. I like to take a minute to touch each gravestone and say S'hma with each Rebbe.


Once you have completed all this, you head back to the tent that is set up and wash your hands again and head out. We wrangled all 5 of us AND we picked up another woman heading to CH so our cab was VERY full.

We got to Eastern Parkway and Kingston and all went our separate ways. Now here comes Shabbis in Crown Heights. It's still early, not quite 9am yet. I put my bags down in my friend's tiny basement apartment and I start walking Kingston, marveling at the shops we don't have in Denver (but they don't have a Target... so it might be an even trade... :)).

I had priorities. There were things I can't get in Denver that I had to get before Shabbis shuts the stores down. I hit the Jewish Children's Museum because they were open before 9am. Got some books and a set of Aleph Bet cookie cutters (VERY excited) and then I headed to Khan's Kosher Market. There are a few markets on the street but I KNOW Khan's has my Kosher gummy bears. Seriously. I can't find them ANYWHERE (see my post here about that). And finally Judaica World opened. I spent forever in there, breathing in the books, looking for new titles, I got a cd, AND (I feel very triumphant about this) a pink, soft leather siddur with the Hebrew AND the English!!! :) Very exciting! (I will write more about that later.) Kingston was full of hustle and bustle. Women getting last minute supplies, car horns, construction, men running to study or get home. Just like you imagine NYC. I headed back to my friend's apartment and took a bit of a shluff (nap). We woke up in time to prepare her place for Shabbis. You have to decide what lights to leave on and what to leave off, prep water for tea if you want it in the next 26 hours, etc... otherwise that all will become Muktza. Once that is done and about 18 minutes before Shabbis comes in, you will hear a loud siren. This is to warn you that it is nearly time. Everyone keeps running and rushing and trying to finish until... BAM candles are lit and there is silence. Significantly less cars on the road, no radios, just quiet. And Shabbis has begun.

And since this post is getting lengthy, I will break it up. Tomorrow - the start of a beautiful 26 hours.

Originally posted at Patheos.com - AshkanOrthoNewalForm-ish

Kosher Candy

One of my biggest challenges as a person who keeps kosher is finding kosher candy. Seriously! It's not something you think about. I mean, what are the chances that your chocolate candy bar has bacon in it or cheese and turkey? Okay... I guess I can't really say that anymore because people are making bacon candy bars... (couldn't they have found a better picture of bacon? I mean that doesn't even look good!)

But back on track here... the reason we need to look for a hecksher on a candy bar is usually because of the gelatin. I had a reality check many years ago. It was horrible... People always ask me, "Have you EVER eaten something that isn't kosher?" And my answer is, I am sure I have inadvertently but I have been keeping kosher since I seven and strict since 17. My reality check was a mistake. I love gummy bears. I really, really, do... certain flavors mind you (why do they always put more of the crappy flavors in the bags?) but I just love them. They are my second favorite candy. Well, Haribo makes insanely good gummy bears. They are just soft enough and taste yummy. Not too big or too small. Just perfect. One day I was having a chat with a vegan friend who mentioned that I should check the gummy in the gummy bears... uh oh, I thought. I hadn't even considered the possibility. Well I mean who even uses pork gelatin these days... sure, no hecksher but...

AHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I went to their website and sure enough, in their FAQ's this is what it said -

       
  • What type of gelatin does Haribo use?
    Haribo products produced in Haribo's factory in Turkey are made with beef gelatin and are certified HALAL. All other items are made with pork gelatin.

    •    

  • Are Haribo products Kosher?
    Haribo products are not kosher.  There is however, a kosher line of Haribo sold exclusively through PASKESZ.

I nearly died... for several reasons.
#1. I LOVE these gummy bears!
#2. I had just bought a 5 POUND BAG! (remember... gummies are light... 5 pounds is a lot!)
#3. I had been eating them for about a year!
#4. I LOVE THESE GUMMY BEARS!
#5. ... the Paskesz version they mention, while just as good, cost about 300% more than regular. You can buy regular for $0.99 but the Kosher kind is usually just over $3

:( :( :( :(

So I vowed that day, never to eat candy without checking the hecksher again. No complacency. No more piggy gelatin. So I searched. You will be happy to hear, many of my favorite candies have a hecksher... including my #1 favorite, Good and Plenty. Yes. I love black licorice.

There is a great resource (though you have to be vigilant because these things can change at the drop of a hat) online. This company compiled the heckshers of all the candy they carry (which is most of it). Check it out here - Old Time Candy - Kosher

Use it wisely, friends!

(originally posted to my blog at Patheos)