Have you ever looked at a particular married couple and wondered how or why they ever got married? Being honest, sure you have. Sometimes you wonder about just the outward appearances--one partner so much more obviously "attractive" than the other. Sometimes you look at the personalities, seemingly total opposites of each other. Sometimes you look at the whole package and you just plain can't figure out how this particular match up ever got out of the starting gate, never mind actually getting married and staying happily married for some time.
And if you are being really honest, sometimes you have looked at your parents or grandparents or aunts and uncles and wondered the same thing. Who, back then, looked at these people and decided they were "perfect" for each other when all you can really see is how different they are one from the other? Yes, you will concede, the match up works, but how is this not just one great cosmic fluke? Were you to have two friends, male and female, who were duplicates of your parents, as you see them, you would never think of pairing them up. And that, ladies and gentlemen, is why God is m'zaveg zevugim.
Go ahead and fill out every shidduch questionnaire possible to be devised by the mind of a human being. Sit for hours, days, weeks, months and come up with just the perfect list of attributes that you feel will be necessary in your future spouse. Spend sufficient time in checking out the "facts" about someone to qualify for senior FBI agent status. Consult all the "experts" and then consult them again and yet again. And then finally walk out the door with this "perfect" match and watch the consternation grow as perfect doesn't turn out to be so perfect after all. And then back you go to your list of "must haves" and "absolutely may not haves" and start the process all over again.
When people ask me what my children are looking for in a shidduch I reply as follows: I'll let you know when I see them under the chupah. Until then it's all a blind guessing game. One young lady in the neighborhood was absolutely adamant about what she wanted in a husband and in a marriage. She refused to accept a date with anyone who did not fit exactly into the parameters she had established. And then she got stuck having to accept a date with someone who didn't fit those parameters, and she sure wasn't happy about having been pressured to accept the date. Three children later even she laughs about it. Someone else in the neighborhood was a bit miffed when he heard what type of person this young lady had chosen. He said, "If I would have known this was what she really wanted, I could have redt her this type of guy years ago." Well no, he couldn't have. It's not just being able to see the right zivug when he or she is standing in front of you; it's also about its being the right time for that shidduch to come to fruition.
So go ahead, do your hishtadlus as they say. But keep this in mind as you do so--"Mann tracht undt Gott lacht"--man tries and God laughs. Look at all those couples around you where the partners seem to be so different from each other in so many ways and learn something. The make or break in a marriage doesn't seem to be if the kipoh is the right color or material. It isn't about what yeshiva or seminary was attended. It's not whether the centimeters align right, horizontally or vertically. It isn't about an exact congruence of interests. It isn't about scintillating conversation of just the right type either. It just may be about opening your eyes truly wide and actually seeing the person in front of you, not the one you've fantasized about seeing. And it surely is about respect. You don't have to be the same as your significant other but you need to respect the person he or she is, and he or she needs to respect the person you are. If that respect is present a whole lot of other things don't have to be.
Monday, May 10, 2010
Friday, May 7, 2010
About those oil spray bottles
Lion and others have asked me about which bottle to buy to use for spraying oil. The ones I have don't have a brand name on them and were purchased at a local hardware store. I do know that Home Depot occasionally sells the bottles as well as the garden supply stores. The key is to get one that has a mist setting, not just a spray setting. The bottles run in price from $1.99 to about $6.
However, bottles made expressly for food oil purposes are sold online also. They are not quite as cheap as the plastic bottles but they are manufactured specifically for food oil so there is no problem with clogging of the nozzle. Those prices run from about $10 for the bottle up to the sky is the limit for the "fancy" designer-named bottles. For the $10 bottle please see http://www.amazon.com/s/?ie=UTF8&keywords=oil+sprayer&tag=googhydr-20&index=garden&hvadid=2883883881&ref=pd_sl_322cckshis_b
Before you dismiss the $10 price, keep this in mind. Those ready prepared spray oil cans sold in the supermarkets cost from $2.99 to $5.99 per 3-ounces of oil. At the lowest price that is $33 for a quart's worth of oil. Buy that $10 bottle from Amazon and buy a quart of oil for even $4 and you have already saved yourself $19. And the empty bottle that you buy is reusable. If you should use 3-4 quarts of oil a year? A savings of $57 to $76 a year. And let's not forget that using the sprayer allows you to use less oil in food preparation.
Addendum to the Original Posting: In doing some checking on the commercial spray oils I found that soy lecithin is a standard ingredient. While there are some health claims made for the addition of the lecithin and a few references to the non-stick qualities of the lecithin, most cites referred to the fact that the lecithin is used to thin down the oil so that it will spray correctly. However, the spray oils available for Pesach DO NOT contain the soy lecithin for kashrut reasons, nor any substitutes for it, and they spray every bit as well as the non-Pesach products do.
However, bottles made expressly for food oil purposes are sold online also. They are not quite as cheap as the plastic bottles but they are manufactured specifically for food oil so there is no problem with clogging of the nozzle. Those prices run from about $10 for the bottle up to the sky is the limit for the "fancy" designer-named bottles. For the $10 bottle please see http://www.amazon.com/s/?ie=UTF8&keywords=oil+sprayer&tag=googhydr-20&index=garden&hvadid=2883883881&ref=pd_sl_322cckshis_b
Before you dismiss the $10 price, keep this in mind. Those ready prepared spray oil cans sold in the supermarkets cost from $2.99 to $5.99 per 3-ounces of oil. At the lowest price that is $33 for a quart's worth of oil. Buy that $10 bottle from Amazon and buy a quart of oil for even $4 and you have already saved yourself $19. And the empty bottle that you buy is reusable. If you should use 3-4 quarts of oil a year? A savings of $57 to $76 a year. And let's not forget that using the sprayer allows you to use less oil in food preparation.
Addendum to the Original Posting: In doing some checking on the commercial spray oils I found that soy lecithin is a standard ingredient. While there are some health claims made for the addition of the lecithin and a few references to the non-stick qualities of the lecithin, most cites referred to the fact that the lecithin is used to thin down the oil so that it will spray correctly. However, the spray oils available for Pesach DO NOT contain the soy lecithin for kashrut reasons, nor any substitutes for it, and they spray every bit as well as the non-Pesach products do.
Thursday, May 6, 2010
On Handling Food
Food handling procedures should be of concern year round, but with the weather finally warming up in NY and elsewhere these procedures rise in importance. Temperature is one of those key items in making sure that food stays fresh, edible and without bacteria that could be avoided. For many people food shopping is a round of heading from store to store, and purchases are left in the trunks of cars or in a wheeled shopping cart for hours.
I think it's time to familiarize ourselves with the best/proper ways of handling food and storing it. Sometimes those lapses in food handling may "only" result in an upset stomache of fairly short duration, and we don't assume, wrongly in many cases, that the way we shopped, prepared or held the food in our homes has anything to do with that tummy ache. And sometimes those lapses in handling can result in some truly serious illness.
As a start, you can head here http://www.fsis.usda.gov/factsheets/Basics_for_Handling_Food_Safely/index.asp for some tips we all should know. There are also links there to other articles that contain info we should know, such as At-Risk Populations, Meat Preparation, Poultry Preparation, Egg Products Preparation, Seasonal Food Safety, Appliances & Thermometers, Foodborne Illness & Disease,
Emergency Preparedness.
There's also some important information to know at http://www.foodsafety.gov/
I think it's time to familiarize ourselves with the best/proper ways of handling food and storing it. Sometimes those lapses in food handling may "only" result in an upset stomache of fairly short duration, and we don't assume, wrongly in many cases, that the way we shopped, prepared or held the food in our homes has anything to do with that tummy ache. And sometimes those lapses in handling can result in some truly serious illness.
As a start, you can head here http://www.fsis.usda.gov/factsheets/Basics_for_Handling_Food_Safely/index.asp for some tips we all should know. There are also links there to other articles that contain info we should know, such as At-Risk Populations, Meat Preparation, Poultry Preparation, Egg Products Preparation, Seasonal Food Safety, Appliances & Thermometers, Foodborne Illness & Disease,
Emergency Preparedness.
There's also some important information to know at http://www.foodsafety.gov/
With summer soon to be here, try this site for some important information on barbecue safety http://www.fsis.usda.gov/Fact_Sheets/Barbecue_Food_Safety/index.asp
And you might want to apply some of what you read above to places where you purchase ready made food, such as take home food stores and restaurants. How are they storing and preparing the food you are going to be eating?
Better safe than sorry.
Wednesday, May 5, 2010
A Natural Time Out
Thank you nature for providing a distraction from all the other weighty matters this week. Our backyard menagerie is finally reaching completion: our blue jays are back. And they are truly in fine form. They showed up yesterday morning and it did not take 5 minutes and they were in a slanging match with an assortment of other birds taking refuge in the shade of a corner of the garden. No other word to describe the way they were going around the garden other than strutting. It's obvious that they believe that fine feathers make fine birds. So far they have not faced off with the cardinals already in residence. That should be a battle royal. Once again I can see that I'm going to be spending some time refereeing our feathered residents.
Adding to the fun and games is the fact that two pairs of blue jays showed up, although not at the same time (easy enough to tell because of the size and patterning of the feathers). So, are those two pairs going to join together to terrorize the rest of backyard residents or are they going to fight each other for supremacy?
Yes, when we move I'm definitely going to miss having a ringside seat for the goings on in my backyard.
Adding to the fun and games is the fact that two pairs of blue jays showed up, although not at the same time (easy enough to tell because of the size and patterning of the feathers). So, are those two pairs going to join together to terrorize the rest of backyard residents or are they going to fight each other for supremacy?
Yes, when we move I'm definitely going to miss having a ringside seat for the goings on in my backyard.
Tuesday, May 4, 2010
Savlanut--the Lack Thereof
Ever take a very little child on a very long trip to somewhere? Young kids have no real sense of time, so telling them "we'll be there in just three hours" has no effect. Every five seconds or so (or so it seems) they ask "Are we there yet?!" In addition to their lack of time-telling ability, they also lack savlanut--patience. If you've told them you are going somewhere they want to be there NOW, not later. Waiting to see the results of something is also foreign to them. I remember when we were young that my mom planted some vegetable seeds together with my brother and I. Every day, multiple times a day, my brother would go and uncover his seeds to see the vegetables that were supposed to be there NOW.
In many ways the adults of today have not changed from the children they were yesterday. They still lack patience to wait for anything. It is no longer just children whose time apparatus is not fully developed, whose ability to be patient has never grown and flowered. What we want we want NOW, not later. Stand on line and wait for a check out line to progress forward? All you hear are the complaints about how slow the line is moving. Tell someone they will need to spend 4-10 years studying in college/grad school in preparing for a career and their eyes roll back as they chant "No, no, no! TODAY!" I'm sure you can fill in with many more examples, hundreds of examples, thousands of examples.
But what, to me, is possibly one of the most egregious examples of this lack of savlanut? The shidduch scene today. This lack of patience is seen in every single aspect of shidduch making. "Someone" has decided that all people looking for shidduchim have a limited, very limited time frame in which to get married or they are out of the race. The concept of waiting, never mind waiting patiently, does not exist. And the side affects of this lack of patience are horrifying to see. We live in a time that a woman of 20 has already begun to worry that she will never get married. A girl of 21 becomes frenetic every time a shidduch is suggested because she knows she is on a very limited countdown clock and her clock has almost stopped ticking. A girl of 22 believes that she is in deep trouble and hysteria ensues. And our so not benign society refers to unmarried women of 22 or 23 as older singles, as if it's some kind of terminal medical condition. Pass 23 or 24 years of age and you know for sure that life has passed you by and marriage is such an out of sight possibility that the only way it's going to happen is if you close your eyes, point at just anyone and say "I'm desperate so someone get that one to propose and I'll accept, although I know that I'm just settling and this isn't what I really want deep in my heart."
Hello, reality check time. We are told that Hashem is m'zaveg zevugim. What we are not told is when that zivug foretold for us is supposed to arrive at our doorsteps. And please forget that shemoneh esrim l'chupah nonesense for a moment. I'm sorry, but which of our avos and imahos got married at precisely 18 years of age? And then there was Yaakov avinu who put in 14 years of hard labor before he managed to marry both Rochel and Leah. Talk about having patience!
By today's unfortunate standards of telling time, I should never have gotten married, nor should a whole bunch of other people that I know. We were over that dreaded 21 mark and we should have buried our marital ambitions by that point and prepared ourselves for a life of spinsterdom. What utter and complete nonsense! Not once in all the time that I was dating and looking to see what God had prepared for me did anyone around me every suggest, in word or deed, that I was "over the hill" and headed for a life alone. What they all did counsel, however, was patience. I got married when I was 24 1/2 and just what is it that I am supposed to have missed by getting married at that "ancient" age? I missed nothing, absolutely nothing. And what I did get was the gift that God had prepared for me, at the time that He had prepared to give that gift to me.
We don't have that blasted shidduch crisis today--what we have is a crisis of faith. We have decided to over ride God's plans and institute our own instead. WE have decided that there is a time limit and only the "first horses out of the gate" are going to win the race. We have set ourselves up as the ones who know just how and when a shidduch is supposed to come about, and oh boy are we failing miserably in our attempts to over set God's timetable. We have decided, contravening God's intentions, that if you are over 22 you are going to be just "settling" for something, anything, instead of actually being paired up with your basherte shidduch. We are meddling in God's business, and the results aren't very gratifying. What unadulterated gaivoh on the part of mankind to think that plans hatched by humans, and not awfully well-made plans at that, can easily replace what God has in mind.
Our job is to have bitochon, and in that we are failing miserably because we have attached an illogical, artificial timetable to that bitochon. Our job is to have savlanut, and in that, too, we are failing miserably.
What set me off? A posting on Bad for Shidduchim floating the idea, perhaps tongue in cheek and perhaps not, that women in their early to mid twenties who are not yet married might want to consider joining together commune-style and at least have the joy of raising children with those other women. After all, they are over the hill and marriage is unlikely, even if you find someone that would just be settling instead of what you really want. My generation may be guilty of an awful lot but that is one thing you cannot lay at our feet. We understood patience far better than today's younger people do. And even if we sometimes wondered just what was taking so long for Prince or Princess Charming to show up, we didn't throw in the towel and say we were defeated. What we did do was trust that God knew what He was doing and that eventually we would reap the goodness of His decision.
In many ways the adults of today have not changed from the children they were yesterday. They still lack patience to wait for anything. It is no longer just children whose time apparatus is not fully developed, whose ability to be patient has never grown and flowered. What we want we want NOW, not later. Stand on line and wait for a check out line to progress forward? All you hear are the complaints about how slow the line is moving. Tell someone they will need to spend 4-10 years studying in college/grad school in preparing for a career and their eyes roll back as they chant "No, no, no! TODAY!" I'm sure you can fill in with many more examples, hundreds of examples, thousands of examples.
But what, to me, is possibly one of the most egregious examples of this lack of savlanut? The shidduch scene today. This lack of patience is seen in every single aspect of shidduch making. "Someone" has decided that all people looking for shidduchim have a limited, very limited time frame in which to get married or they are out of the race. The concept of waiting, never mind waiting patiently, does not exist. And the side affects of this lack of patience are horrifying to see. We live in a time that a woman of 20 has already begun to worry that she will never get married. A girl of 21 becomes frenetic every time a shidduch is suggested because she knows she is on a very limited countdown clock and her clock has almost stopped ticking. A girl of 22 believes that she is in deep trouble and hysteria ensues. And our so not benign society refers to unmarried women of 22 or 23 as older singles, as if it's some kind of terminal medical condition. Pass 23 or 24 years of age and you know for sure that life has passed you by and marriage is such an out of sight possibility that the only way it's going to happen is if you close your eyes, point at just anyone and say "I'm desperate so someone get that one to propose and I'll accept, although I know that I'm just settling and this isn't what I really want deep in my heart."
Hello, reality check time. We are told that Hashem is m'zaveg zevugim. What we are not told is when that zivug foretold for us is supposed to arrive at our doorsteps. And please forget that shemoneh esrim l'chupah nonesense for a moment. I'm sorry, but which of our avos and imahos got married at precisely 18 years of age? And then there was Yaakov avinu who put in 14 years of hard labor before he managed to marry both Rochel and Leah. Talk about having patience!
By today's unfortunate standards of telling time, I should never have gotten married, nor should a whole bunch of other people that I know. We were over that dreaded 21 mark and we should have buried our marital ambitions by that point and prepared ourselves for a life of spinsterdom. What utter and complete nonsense! Not once in all the time that I was dating and looking to see what God had prepared for me did anyone around me every suggest, in word or deed, that I was "over the hill" and headed for a life alone. What they all did counsel, however, was patience. I got married when I was 24 1/2 and just what is it that I am supposed to have missed by getting married at that "ancient" age? I missed nothing, absolutely nothing. And what I did get was the gift that God had prepared for me, at the time that He had prepared to give that gift to me.
We don't have that blasted shidduch crisis today--what we have is a crisis of faith. We have decided to over ride God's plans and institute our own instead. WE have decided that there is a time limit and only the "first horses out of the gate" are going to win the race. We have set ourselves up as the ones who know just how and when a shidduch is supposed to come about, and oh boy are we failing miserably in our attempts to over set God's timetable. We have decided, contravening God's intentions, that if you are over 22 you are going to be just "settling" for something, anything, instead of actually being paired up with your basherte shidduch. We are meddling in God's business, and the results aren't very gratifying. What unadulterated gaivoh on the part of mankind to think that plans hatched by humans, and not awfully well-made plans at that, can easily replace what God has in mind.
Our job is to have bitochon, and in that we are failing miserably because we have attached an illogical, artificial timetable to that bitochon. Our job is to have savlanut, and in that, too, we are failing miserably.
What set me off? A posting on Bad for Shidduchim floating the idea, perhaps tongue in cheek and perhaps not, that women in their early to mid twenties who are not yet married might want to consider joining together commune-style and at least have the joy of raising children with those other women. After all, they are over the hill and marriage is unlikely, even if you find someone that would just be settling instead of what you really want. My generation may be guilty of an awful lot but that is one thing you cannot lay at our feet. We understood patience far better than today's younger people do. And even if we sometimes wondered just what was taking so long for Prince or Princess Charming to show up, we didn't throw in the towel and say we were defeated. What we did do was trust that God knew what He was doing and that eventually we would reap the goodness of His decision.
Monday, May 3, 2010
Recycling Computers for the Benefit of Klal
With all the talk about cutting costs for yeshiva education there have also been plenty of comments about "unnecessary elements" that should/could be cut from a school's curriculum. A number of people have commented that this demanding of "extras" is what drives costs up. Some place this demand firmly in the MO camp--MO parents are looking for a "Rolls Royce" education for their children.
So, are they? What is it that an education is supposed to give to students? First, let's keep in mind that what might once have been the answer to this question has evolved over the years. What is necessary for students to know today may not be what was necessary in the past.
We live in a highly technological age. Computers have become a key part of our lives, not peripheral to them. There is virtually no job today that does not in some way rely on computers. The way that our everyday lives are lived has changed because of computers: we talk to each other via computers, we get information via computers, we shop via computers, we pay bills via computers, our household and commercial machinery is run by computers etc.. Having computers available in our schools is not a matter of luxury, but of necessary exposure to ensure that our children will come out of school "fully" educated and capable of taking their place in the working world. Yes, every one of our yeshiva classrooms should contain at least one computer at a minimum. Yes, teachers should be updating and learning about how to utilize the classroom computer for the maximum benefit to the students in the class. Yes, two computers or three or more would be better, but one has to be there. And yes, computers cost money. But this is one area where yeshivas could be a lot better at if they thought creatively.
How many of you have owned more than one computer? How about more than two? I'll venture a guess that you may have replaced a computer because there was a "faster" model out there, or a model with more bells and whistles. How about if you own a business? How often do you replace the computers? Now here's the key question: what do you do with the computers when you replace them with a different one? This is where schools could save money. If parents were to donate used but working computers to the schools, that would be computers that don't have to be purchased by the schools. If yeshivas would do the legwork and contact businesses and ask for donations of computers the businesses are replacing, that, too, would be computers the schools wouldn't have to pay for. And yes, businesses will do this. How about schools putting up notices in the stores where the frum community shops asking for computer equipment to be donated. Again, people will donate if they know that someplace can use their computers.
At the last electronic equipment junking day that the Sanitation Department held here on SI, they got an amazing 127 computers that were brought in. Assume that maybe 1/2 were not in working condition, even assume that 2/3 may not have been. That still would leave 42 computers being junked that could have been useful to a lot of places, schools included. When our shul needed another computer a while back we donated one that was no longer being used by us but that was still usable. Senior centers are always short on funds but could use the computer equipment. When my mom was in the rehab center last year I noticed that there were no computers for the use of the residents. Now granted, a lot of these residents are elderly and may not be particularly computer savvy. But there were plenty of residents who did know their way around a computer and didn't have laptops and so couldn't access their emails or do anything else that is computer dependent. When I happened to ask why there were no computers available the answer I got was basically "donate some computers to us and there will be computers." I mentioned this to my cousin when she came to see my mom and she mentioned it to her husband, whose firm is huge, computer dependent and always upgrading. The company said that at the next upgrade time three computers would go to the rehab facility. Yes, it's as simple as that--ask and you may get.
When the company my husband was working for at the time was replacing computers I was teaching in a yeshiva high school. I brokered the deal between the company and the school. The company donated 19 computers for a tax donation letter, and the school got 19 computers free of charge. You don't need a bells and whistles computer to teach basic keyboarding and basic computer functions or to access the Internet. The educational programs that NYSTL provides in NY will run just fine on an older computer.
There are so many places that would welcome a used but working computer--senior citizen programs, after school programs, school classrooms, day care centers, shuls, community centers etc. Instead of just junking that computer you no longer want, find it a home where it will be warmly and gladly adopted. Save the environment and do a mitzvah at the same time--what could be better?
So, are they? What is it that an education is supposed to give to students? First, let's keep in mind that what might once have been the answer to this question has evolved over the years. What is necessary for students to know today may not be what was necessary in the past.
We live in a highly technological age. Computers have become a key part of our lives, not peripheral to them. There is virtually no job today that does not in some way rely on computers. The way that our everyday lives are lived has changed because of computers: we talk to each other via computers, we get information via computers, we shop via computers, we pay bills via computers, our household and commercial machinery is run by computers etc.. Having computers available in our schools is not a matter of luxury, but of necessary exposure to ensure that our children will come out of school "fully" educated and capable of taking their place in the working world. Yes, every one of our yeshiva classrooms should contain at least one computer at a minimum. Yes, teachers should be updating and learning about how to utilize the classroom computer for the maximum benefit to the students in the class. Yes, two computers or three or more would be better, but one has to be there. And yes, computers cost money. But this is one area where yeshivas could be a lot better at if they thought creatively.
How many of you have owned more than one computer? How about more than two? I'll venture a guess that you may have replaced a computer because there was a "faster" model out there, or a model with more bells and whistles. How about if you own a business? How often do you replace the computers? Now here's the key question: what do you do with the computers when you replace them with a different one? This is where schools could save money. If parents were to donate used but working computers to the schools, that would be computers that don't have to be purchased by the schools. If yeshivas would do the legwork and contact businesses and ask for donations of computers the businesses are replacing, that, too, would be computers the schools wouldn't have to pay for. And yes, businesses will do this. How about schools putting up notices in the stores where the frum community shops asking for computer equipment to be donated. Again, people will donate if they know that someplace can use their computers.
At the last electronic equipment junking day that the Sanitation Department held here on SI, they got an amazing 127 computers that were brought in. Assume that maybe 1/2 were not in working condition, even assume that 2/3 may not have been. That still would leave 42 computers being junked that could have been useful to a lot of places, schools included. When our shul needed another computer a while back we donated one that was no longer being used by us but that was still usable. Senior centers are always short on funds but could use the computer equipment. When my mom was in the rehab center last year I noticed that there were no computers for the use of the residents. Now granted, a lot of these residents are elderly and may not be particularly computer savvy. But there were plenty of residents who did know their way around a computer and didn't have laptops and so couldn't access their emails or do anything else that is computer dependent. When I happened to ask why there were no computers available the answer I got was basically "donate some computers to us and there will be computers." I mentioned this to my cousin when she came to see my mom and she mentioned it to her husband, whose firm is huge, computer dependent and always upgrading. The company said that at the next upgrade time three computers would go to the rehab facility. Yes, it's as simple as that--ask and you may get.
When the company my husband was working for at the time was replacing computers I was teaching in a yeshiva high school. I brokered the deal between the company and the school. The company donated 19 computers for a tax donation letter, and the school got 19 computers free of charge. You don't need a bells and whistles computer to teach basic keyboarding and basic computer functions or to access the Internet. The educational programs that NYSTL provides in NY will run just fine on an older computer.
There are so many places that would welcome a used but working computer--senior citizen programs, after school programs, school classrooms, day care centers, shuls, community centers etc. Instead of just junking that computer you no longer want, find it a home where it will be warmly and gladly adopted. Save the environment and do a mitzvah at the same time--what could be better?
Sunday, May 2, 2010
A Further Word About Kugel
My Friday posting was about kugel and how to make it in a healthier way. I'd just like to add a couple of historical footnotes here to broaden our knowledge of what was cooked and when in "the old country."
There seems to be an assumption that kugel, potato kugel in particular, was a staple of Shabbos eating in der heim. Was it? Let me begin by asking how many of you who enjoy a piece of kugel on Shabbos would also enjoy it if it could only be served cold or room temperature? We, today, have available to us, to all of us, the means for keeping food hot on Shabbos. Our stoves can remain on over Shabbos, providing us with ovens/warming drawers. We have stove tops over which a blech can be put. We have a large variety of crock pot type of cookers that can be on over Shabbos. We take hot food on Shabbos for granted. This was not the case for large segments of the European frum population., certainly not all year round.
Stoves in pre-War Europe were coal fed or wood fed. The more time you spent in cooking, the more fuel you had to feed that stove. Those home stoves could not be fed fuel right before Shabbos and remain hot until after the mid-day meal on Shabbos. Some people, those with more money, would have special niches built into the side of the fireplaces they used for heating their rooms, niches that a pot could go into to stay warm. Those fireplaces were larger and before Shabbos wood could be added and the fire banked so that there would be warmth throughout the night and into the next day. That was during cold weather. When the weather turned warmer, such that the house was not being heated, there was no fireplace niche to keep food warm.
Some people would rely on a local bakery for warm food for Shabbos. The fireplaces in these bakeries were oversized, resulting in large baking slots above the fireplace. Many people would bring their pots of food to the bakery before Shabbos to be inserted in one of these slots to keep warm over night. There was a charge for this bakery use, and not everybody could afford it.
Kugels were not wrapped up in foil paper as many are today--ask your grandmother if she had foil paper at home in Europe. The kugels were placed into the cholent to keep warm, for those who had cholent. They were not the consistency of the kugels we see today.
And yes, another method of keeping things warm was to take a hot pot right before Shabbos started and wrap it up in a feather bed. Also not available to everyone, because a feather bed, certainly an extra feather bed, was a luxury.
So, did our ancestors in Europe eat kugel every Shabbos, and we're just continuing their custom? Not likely. Some may have eaten it on Shabbos during cold weather, or maybe not. The "kugels" that ended up inside of a cholent pot for Shabbos did not resemble what we call kugel today, and many of those cholent kugels were not made with potatoes at all, but with flour. The wealthy or well to do had some options that whole swathes of the rest did not have. And in the hot weather months cold food on Shabbos was the rule and hot the rare exception.
Yes, kugel was made in that Europe of long ago, but it was not the "rule" to serve it on Shabbos and more people didn't have it than had it.
And speaking of cold food, let's keep in mind that they did not have today's modern refrigerators to keep food in. Those with money would have ice boxes--metal boxes into which slabs of ice were placed to keep food from spoiling until it could be eaten. And getting that ice cost money. Some, outside of the large cities, had underground storage cellars into which produce could be put. So even cold food on Shabbos might be a misnomer. A lot of what our ancestors ate was room temperature, and limited in scope.
Funny how in der heim so rarely resembles in fact the stories so many tell about it, people who were never there.
There seems to be an assumption that kugel, potato kugel in particular, was a staple of Shabbos eating in der heim. Was it? Let me begin by asking how many of you who enjoy a piece of kugel on Shabbos would also enjoy it if it could only be served cold or room temperature? We, today, have available to us, to all of us, the means for keeping food hot on Shabbos. Our stoves can remain on over Shabbos, providing us with ovens/warming drawers. We have stove tops over which a blech can be put. We have a large variety of crock pot type of cookers that can be on over Shabbos. We take hot food on Shabbos for granted. This was not the case for large segments of the European frum population., certainly not all year round.
Stoves in pre-War Europe were coal fed or wood fed. The more time you spent in cooking, the more fuel you had to feed that stove. Those home stoves could not be fed fuel right before Shabbos and remain hot until after the mid-day meal on Shabbos. Some people, those with more money, would have special niches built into the side of the fireplaces they used for heating their rooms, niches that a pot could go into to stay warm. Those fireplaces were larger and before Shabbos wood could be added and the fire banked so that there would be warmth throughout the night and into the next day. That was during cold weather. When the weather turned warmer, such that the house was not being heated, there was no fireplace niche to keep food warm.
Some people would rely on a local bakery for warm food for Shabbos. The fireplaces in these bakeries were oversized, resulting in large baking slots above the fireplace. Many people would bring their pots of food to the bakery before Shabbos to be inserted in one of these slots to keep warm over night. There was a charge for this bakery use, and not everybody could afford it.
Kugels were not wrapped up in foil paper as many are today--ask your grandmother if she had foil paper at home in Europe. The kugels were placed into the cholent to keep warm, for those who had cholent. They were not the consistency of the kugels we see today.
And yes, another method of keeping things warm was to take a hot pot right before Shabbos started and wrap it up in a feather bed. Also not available to everyone, because a feather bed, certainly an extra feather bed, was a luxury.
So, did our ancestors in Europe eat kugel every Shabbos, and we're just continuing their custom? Not likely. Some may have eaten it on Shabbos during cold weather, or maybe not. The "kugels" that ended up inside of a cholent pot for Shabbos did not resemble what we call kugel today, and many of those cholent kugels were not made with potatoes at all, but with flour. The wealthy or well to do had some options that whole swathes of the rest did not have. And in the hot weather months cold food on Shabbos was the rule and hot the rare exception.
Yes, kugel was made in that Europe of long ago, but it was not the "rule" to serve it on Shabbos and more people didn't have it than had it.
And speaking of cold food, let's keep in mind that they did not have today's modern refrigerators to keep food in. Those with money would have ice boxes--metal boxes into which slabs of ice were placed to keep food from spoiling until it could be eaten. And getting that ice cost money. Some, outside of the large cities, had underground storage cellars into which produce could be put. So even cold food on Shabbos might be a misnomer. A lot of what our ancestors ate was room temperature, and limited in scope.
Funny how in der heim so rarely resembles in fact the stories so many tell about it, people who were never there.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)