No, the blog title is not a code. It;s just a reframe. I wrote the number 13 down in computer code (which is Base 2); and look- not a shiver runs up or down our spine. 1101. Or, what about when I used Base 5. That result was 24.
Continue reading 1101. 24. 13.
Merry Christmas. Yes, I know it’s the 23rd- but most companies consider today and Monday to be holidays, since Christmas lands on a Sunday.
Continue reading We celebrate Christmas Today
So, today is the first day (last night was the first night) of Chanuka. This holiday is also known as the Festival of Lights: many of us light multiple chanukiyas (Chanuka Menorahs), and some of us actually use oil and not candles for the illumination source.
Continue reading The Festival of Lights
This Sunday will be the first night of Chanuka. Its English calendar date is not fixed; Chanuka always falls on the 25th day of Kislev, which has a different English date every year. (This year, the first night is the 18th of December.)
Continue reading Chanuka is almost here
I don’t generally celebrate (American) Thanksgiving. My Thanksgiving is more in line of how and when the Pilgrims created the holiday. That was a version of Sukot, the harvest festival. More akin to Canadian Thanksgiving, which coincides with my holiday. (Think about it. What harvest would you reap in late November?)
Continue reading Gobble Gobble
It’s been three years.
My youngest got married to a wonderful gal. It signified that all of my children found wonderful partners with whom they could and do share their lives.
Continue reading No Leather here.
The decision had been negotiated and made. While the Treaty of Versailles was signed on June 28, 1919, the official end of the Great War, was celebrated on the 11th hour of the 11th month in 1918. It took longer to arrange the rules for peace. (Which actually turned out to be the rules to effect a Second World War!)
Continue reading Armistice Veterans Day (at least to Americans)
Tomorrow night begins the 7th day of Sukot- and it has a special name- Hoshana Raba. It’s kind of like a mini-Yom Kipur. During the morning services, we destroy the willow branches that are part of the Lulav and Etrog (see the picture below) we’ve employed during this seven day festival. We either do this because it was part of the rain-bringing rituals that existed centuries ago- or to remind us of repentance. (The origin of the practice is simply not clear to us today.) This day marks the period of atonement and introspection that we began some 50 days ago when the new moon (month) of Elul rolled around.
Continue reading Hoshana Raba. Shmini Atzeret. What’s that, you ask?
I’m sorry- there will be no post tomorrow (Monday) or Tuesday.
These are the first days of the holiday of Sukot, when work is not permitted.
Continue reading It’s the holiday of “booths”. AKA, Sukot!
In honor of the festival of Shmini Atzeret (and Simchat Tora), we are prohibited from working.