Image by StockSnap from Pixabay You have probably heard of a disease called cholera. It’s a water-borne bacterial infection, originating in India in the second decade of the 1800s, and it has caused seven pandemics so far, killing millions of people - especially in the first six pandemics, which occurred between 1816 and 1923. The … Continue reading Why Clean Air is Crucial
Bulletproof Coffee can be a lifesaver I started drinking Bulletproof coffee about 5 years ago, and it has changed my life. I was introduced to it by my holistic nutritionist, and it has been a major component in a regimen that helps keep my autoimmune digestive issues under control. The two major components of bulletproof … Continue reading Let’s Talk About Bulletproof Coffee!
Beginning lines of the Book of Lamentations Tomorrow we mark the 9th day of the Jewish month of Av (usually called Tish’a b’Av, the 9th of Av), a day set aside in Jewish tradition for grieving and lamentation. While it originally commemorated the destruction of both Temples in Jerusalem on this date (in 586 BCE … Continue reading Why We Need to Lament
Image credit: BimBam One of the best known prayers in the Jewish liturgy is the Mourner’s Kaddish. It’s a relatively short prayer, usually said only in a minyan of 10 Jewish adults, who hear the person chanting it and respond. We say it at funerals, in a shiva house, during the mourning period of 30 … Continue reading Why Do We Say the Mourner’s Kaddish?
This past Thursday was my father’s second yahrzeit, the anniversary of his passing, according to the Hebrew calendar. It is traditional to light a memorial candle that will burn for 24 hours, and to find a community with which to recite the Mourner’s Kaddish, a special prayer praising the Divine. I am privileged to have … Continue reading A Life Well Lived
Designed by Kwakwaka’wakw artist, Curtis Wilson This past Saturday was Canada Day. When we first moved here, in 1994, people were still arguing about the change from Dominion Day. When we became citizens in 2003, our citizenship judge, Art Miki, told us how his father had been discriminated against for being of Japanese origin, despite … Continue reading Standing on Guard For Thee
Image by PublicDomainPictures from Pixabay This week contains both Father’s Day and Juneteenth, which makes it a good time to ponder the whole concept of patriarchy, on the one hand, and chattel slavery, on the other. As a Jewish Canadian of Eastern European descent, I have no ancestral memory of slavery beyond Egypt; we have … Continue reading Can One Person Own Another?
Image by Alexa from Pixabay You’ve often heard me say that all humans are created in the Divine image. What does that mean? Does the Divine look like us, as a parent resembles their children? But we are also taught that we are not to make any kind of idol, or to worship anything that … Continue reading In the Image
Image by Carlos / Saigon - Vietnam from Pixabay I was chatting the other day with a friend at the gym, and she was telling me that she had her bone density measured. As someone who lifts weights two to three times a week, her bone density was very good for her age of 65. … Continue reading Dem Bones
Image by StockSnap from Pixabay This past weekend we celebrated the holiday of Shavu’ot, or Feast of Weeks - also known as Pentecost in the Christian tradition. It is always celebrated exactly 50 days after the first night of Passover - we count seven weeks, as ordained in the Torah, and then mark the 50th … Continue reading Do You Hear the Call?
