Our house is very quiet this weekend. We were invited out for dinner, and we have no guests for lunch! Oh the travesty! We will just have to make do with our own company. Its clear and bright outside with highs in the mid eighties (around 30 for the metric crowd).
In the west (Cleveland to be exact), my brother's son is celebrating his bar-mitzvah this weekend. Great excitement, many guests and highs in the low 60's (low teens). Most of the US family will be there to cheer him on as he reads from the torah, gives a short speech and eats tons of good food. I'm sorry to miss it.
On the cooking front, I went out to see Julie and Julia with my wife and our friends this week. I really enjoyed the movie. Julia Child was a larger than life person and the movie captures that quality. The food scenes were great and I even learned something (mushrooms brown better when you don't crowd them).
So, this weekend, I only made one meal. Meatloaf for the wife, stuffed chicken breasts for me. The meatloaf contains nice browned onions and mushrooms (thanks julia), lots of parsley and a cup of red wine. It smells great.
The chicken breasts started life in my refrigerator as schnitzel, flattened breasts split in half. I (my son), pounded them thiner using a rubber mallet. Be careful not to pound too thin, as the meat just falls apart. Then I made a stuffing of sautéed mushrooms, browed onions (see a theme here?), rice and chives from our garden. I sautéed the rice with another cup of red wine until the wine was absorbed. The color and flavor were really nice. Put a couple of tablespoons of stuffing in each chicken breast and roll them up nicely. Brown and place in a covered over-proof dish with some chicken soup. Cook covered for 30-40 minutes. They look wonderful, the wine gives the stuffing some color and the browned chicken outside looks very nice.
Add some roasted fennel, sautéed cabbage, plain rice and an israeli salad and we have way too much food for just the 7 of us.
Oh well, we'll be thinking of my nephew and our family in the US of A.
Shabbat Parshat Vayeira
Lunch - 7
Meat loaf
Stuffed Chicken
Roasted Fennel
Sautéed Cabbage
Rice
Israeli Salad
Friday, November 6, 2009
Thursday, November 5, 2009
Organ Trafficking?
There is an interesting piece in the Jerusalem Post:
"Sammy Shem-Tov, 67, was arrested Sunday on suspicion of facilitating deals in which patients received organs donated by Israelis who agreed to sell them."
The article goes on to say that Sammy solicited organs for sick patients, taking hundreds of thousands of dollars per transplant. The claim is that only a fraction of the money went to the donors.
Having been through the legal process, I'm happy that he has been stopped. I don't personally think that paying for an organ donation is necessarily wrong. The big problem is that the financial incentives lead to donations from people who are not perfectly healthy (either physically or otherwise). Furthermore, this system does not provide ongoing support for the transplant donors.
The existing legal mechanism is slow and insufficient, but it does make sure that donors are at a very very minimal risk. It also provides for follow up medical support to the donors.
The root of the problem is that there are insufficient donors of any type. People like Sammy are trying to help, but they are playing God, taking organs from donors who may not be appropriate.
"Sammy Shem-Tov, 67, was arrested Sunday on suspicion of facilitating deals in which patients received organs donated by Israelis who agreed to sell them."
The article goes on to say that Sammy solicited organs for sick patients, taking hundreds of thousands of dollars per transplant. The claim is that only a fraction of the money went to the donors.
Having been through the legal process, I'm happy that he has been stopped. I don't personally think that paying for an organ donation is necessarily wrong. The big problem is that the financial incentives lead to donations from people who are not perfectly healthy (either physically or otherwise). Furthermore, this system does not provide ongoing support for the transplant donors.
The existing legal mechanism is slow and insufficient, but it does make sure that donors are at a very very minimal risk. It also provides for follow up medical support to the donors.
The root of the problem is that there are insufficient donors of any type. People like Sammy are trying to help, but they are playing God, taking organs from donors who may not be appropriate.
Friday, October 30, 2009
Rain!
Its raining in Israel!!! We are experiencing our first good rain storm of the year. Yesterday, I was sitting outside the bank (underneath an overhang) with my father in law. We were watching the rain and the people. Everyone had a smile on their face. I recall in the US that rain was something that interfered with your plans. Here, its something we need desperately. When it arrives, my children go out and play in the rain. One of my children spent the morning walking around the house saying "Its raining outside!", over and over again.
Rain is wonderful and we do need it. Try living in a desert country for a while. You get a very different appreciation for sun and rain.
This weekend, we have a few nice events. My father in law arrived a few weeks ago, and this will be his last weekend with us before he returns home. It has been very nice to visit and spend time with him. We visited the market in Machane Yehuda yesterday and got beautiful red tomatoes and fresh green beans. We will definitely be serving them tomorrow.
Our good friends are celebrating a bar-mitzva of their youngest child. We were invited out to eat dinner with them.
Finally, we have two young ladies staying with us. I'll have to let you know after shabbat where they are from, because with two and a half hours to go before shabbat, they have not yet arrived.
Given that its raining and cooler than usual, I'm making good winter food.
Shabbat Lech Lecha
Lunch - 10
Tomato Beef soup in a crock pot
Chicken Breast Jeera
Indian Rice
Roast Chicken with peppers and onions
Roast potatoes
Shaved Fennel Salad
Garlic Green Beans
Israeli Salad
Rain is wonderful and we do need it. Try living in a desert country for a while. You get a very different appreciation for sun and rain.
This weekend, we have a few nice events. My father in law arrived a few weeks ago, and this will be his last weekend with us before he returns home. It has been very nice to visit and spend time with him. We visited the market in Machane Yehuda yesterday and got beautiful red tomatoes and fresh green beans. We will definitely be serving them tomorrow.
Our good friends are celebrating a bar-mitzva of their youngest child. We were invited out to eat dinner with them.
Finally, we have two young ladies staying with us. I'll have to let you know after shabbat where they are from, because with two and a half hours to go before shabbat, they have not yet arrived.
Given that its raining and cooler than usual, I'm making good winter food.
Shabbat Lech Lecha
Lunch - 10
Tomato Beef soup in a crock pot
Chicken Breast Jeera
Indian Rice
Roast Chicken with peppers and onions
Roast potatoes
Shaved Fennel Salad
Garlic Green Beans
Israeli Salad
Bar Mitzva Speech - Hillel
Here is an excerpt of my speech at my son's bar mitzva last week. I've removed the fun parts and left the meat!
Arthur C. Clarke, a science fiction writer from the golden age of the 1950 and 60's formulated the following three laws:
1) When a distinguished but elderly scientist states that something is possible, he is almost certainly right. When he states that something is impossible, he is very probably wrong.
2) The only way of discovering the limits of the possible is to venture a little way past them into the impossible.
3) Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic.
Being a science fiction fan, that last one about technology and magic has followed me all through my life. The past few years have been full of magic. Can you imaging living at the time of Avraham. If you suffered from kidney disease, you would probably never know it, until one day, you fell ill and within a few days, died from blood poisoning. One thing about kidney disease is that it is degenerative. Past a certain point, kidneys do not heal. You don't get better.
Rav Elyashiv recently ruled that it is forbidden to pray for a deathly ill person to be healed. The problem is that are not supposed to pray for miracles. We can hope for miracles, but we have no right to beseach God to change the natural laws. We can pray that there is a mistaken diagnosis; that a cure will be found, or for the sick person to have a better quality of life. But, you cannot ask for a degenerative disease to suddenly go away.
How blessed are we to live in a time where doctors can identify kidney disease, and can retard the progress of the disease. This would have been magical only 100 years ago, not to mention how foreign the concept of a diagnosis would have been at the time of Noach or Avraham.
Can you imaging explaining to an Egyptian that this team of people all dressed up in masks and gloves were going to remove a piece of a living person (without killing them), and then they would put that piece into someone else; the end result being two healthy people. Is there anything more magical or mystical?
The fact that we understand something about medicine and science does not preclude God's existence. The Rambam might say that God has blessed our whole generation with knowledge that extends our lives and treats our illnesses. The timing is the miracle. It came at just the right time to save Asaf's life. It also came at just the right time to help Hillel with a small problem of A.D.D. Modern medication is miraculous. Like prayer, I don't need to know how it works, only that somehow, it does. Perhaps it is a placebo effect, perhaps is does something chemical, but whatever the scientific explanation, it looks like magic to me.
I want to thank God and the people in this room for all the miraculous events that have impacted us these past few years. In this room, we have social workers who can help alleviate pain and suffering; engineers, scientists, and educated professionals who know and understand things that would be clearly miraculous if you could take that knowledge back to the time of the bible. Being able to gather this knowledge, even for a family event would have taken months of travel and severe hardship during the time of the gemara.
To you, my friends and family, I say, Y'asher Koach. May you continue to be strong, to spread your knowledge and to use it for God's purposes.
To Hillel, I say, learn from these people. Knowledge is power to change the world for you and for others. Collect this knowledge. Never forget how lucky you are to live in times such as these. Don't waste that opportunity by treating it all like someone else’s magic.
Finally, I want to thank my wife Leiah for being our rock, our strength and focus throughout the good times and the harder times. Leiah is beginning a new educational path as a tour guide. I hope that the knowledge that she gains will help her to spread her love of Israel and of our land to all who will listen.
Thank you all for spending this weekend with us. We miss the people who could not be here. Some will be her for other events; others are lost to us, but not forgotten.
We look forward to spending quality time together with you. Don't forget that Thanksgiving is only five weeks away. This is a personal invitation to come and give thanks for what we have.
And last but not least, welcome to Avital, who God willing will marry Rafi on February 22nd. Avital, these people here will be part of your new, extended family. They are all special, and I can already tell that you will fit right in.
My friends and family, may we spend many happy times together enjoying the magical times that God has seen fit to give us.
Arthur C. Clarke, a science fiction writer from the golden age of the 1950 and 60's formulated the following three laws:
1) When a distinguished but elderly scientist states that something is possible, he is almost certainly right. When he states that something is impossible, he is very probably wrong.
2) The only way of discovering the limits of the possible is to venture a little way past them into the impossible.
3) Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic.
Being a science fiction fan, that last one about technology and magic has followed me all through my life. The past few years have been full of magic. Can you imaging living at the time of Avraham. If you suffered from kidney disease, you would probably never know it, until one day, you fell ill and within a few days, died from blood poisoning. One thing about kidney disease is that it is degenerative. Past a certain point, kidneys do not heal. You don't get better.
Rav Elyashiv recently ruled that it is forbidden to pray for a deathly ill person to be healed. The problem is that are not supposed to pray for miracles. We can hope for miracles, but we have no right to beseach God to change the natural laws. We can pray that there is a mistaken diagnosis; that a cure will be found, or for the sick person to have a better quality of life. But, you cannot ask for a degenerative disease to suddenly go away.
How blessed are we to live in a time where doctors can identify kidney disease, and can retard the progress of the disease. This would have been magical only 100 years ago, not to mention how foreign the concept of a diagnosis would have been at the time of Noach or Avraham.
Can you imaging explaining to an Egyptian that this team of people all dressed up in masks and gloves were going to remove a piece of a living person (without killing them), and then they would put that piece into someone else; the end result being two healthy people. Is there anything more magical or mystical?
The fact that we understand something about medicine and science does not preclude God's existence. The Rambam might say that God has blessed our whole generation with knowledge that extends our lives and treats our illnesses. The timing is the miracle. It came at just the right time to save Asaf's life. It also came at just the right time to help Hillel with a small problem of A.D.D. Modern medication is miraculous. Like prayer, I don't need to know how it works, only that somehow, it does. Perhaps it is a placebo effect, perhaps is does something chemical, but whatever the scientific explanation, it looks like magic to me.
I want to thank God and the people in this room for all the miraculous events that have impacted us these past few years. In this room, we have social workers who can help alleviate pain and suffering; engineers, scientists, and educated professionals who know and understand things that would be clearly miraculous if you could take that knowledge back to the time of the bible. Being able to gather this knowledge, even for a family event would have taken months of travel and severe hardship during the time of the gemara.
To you, my friends and family, I say, Y'asher Koach. May you continue to be strong, to spread your knowledge and to use it for God's purposes.
To Hillel, I say, learn from these people. Knowledge is power to change the world for you and for others. Collect this knowledge. Never forget how lucky you are to live in times such as these. Don't waste that opportunity by treating it all like someone else’s magic.
Finally, I want to thank my wife Leiah for being our rock, our strength and focus throughout the good times and the harder times. Leiah is beginning a new educational path as a tour guide. I hope that the knowledge that she gains will help her to spread her love of Israel and of our land to all who will listen.
Thank you all for spending this weekend with us. We miss the people who could not be here. Some will be her for other events; others are lost to us, but not forgotten.
We look forward to spending quality time together with you. Don't forget that Thanksgiving is only five weeks away. This is a personal invitation to come and give thanks for what we have.
And last but not least, welcome to Avital, who God willing will marry Rafi on February 22nd. Avital, these people here will be part of your new, extended family. They are all special, and I can already tell that you will fit right in.
My friends and family, may we spend many happy times together enjoying the magical times that God has seen fit to give us.
Monday, October 19, 2009
Noah and God
I can't help myself. One of my fondest memories from high school is listening to a comedy show saturday nights on public radio. The following skit was a highlight! It is also apropos with our bar-mitzva this weekend!
Enjoy,
Elliot
Enjoy,
Elliot
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