Weekend Hospitality

Pesach is just around the corner and preparations are already underway.  Our current guest list includes 7 gentlemen from a post-high school yeshiva program and two young ladies.  Our total count stands at 17 for all five meals. My wife and family are already working on cleaning the house.    Some of the dry goods purchases have been completed, and now we are looking at the protein purchase (butchers bill) and the fresh produce.  To get the process started off on the right foot, we are making menus.  In the general way of things, I expect these menus to change over the next 10 days.  Yet, I want to keep them online and get your input.  Do you think they are too light, too heavy, or just plain not enough for our hungry guests?  Let us know! There are five major meals that we need to prepare. Friday Night Dinner Early Shabbat Lunch (which must be eaten before 9:30am and that needs to include bread) Shabbat Lunch (around 1:30pm, that cannot include bread or matzoh) Seder Dinner First Day ...

This is going to be an easy Shabbat. We have a full house because some of my cousins will be visiting, but they will be eating with other relatives here, so I don't have to feed them. Furthermore, we were invited out for lunch! So, I only have to make dinner. Its a bit challenging because one of our dinner guests does not accept the Heter Mechira (see previous post). Since on principal, I do not support any of the other options for Shmitta produce, we are left without the use of any fresh vegetables. We can still use frozen or canned vegetables since they were grown before the Shmitta year. One of our other guests has agreed to handle the side dishes if I can deal with the mains and the starches. I'll give it a try. Parshat Noach Dinner - 14 Soup Corned Beef Cola Chicken Roast Potatoes Vegetable sides (brought by guests)

This weekend is a bit unusual. One of our old college friends is visiting for Shabbat. He is not sleeping at our house, but he is eating dinner with us. Back in school (many years ago), I was one of the more religious amongst our friends, but as times change others have taken over that position. This has an impact particularly because this year is the 7th year of the shmitta cycle. The Torah specifies that every seventh year, the land of Israel should rest. The Jewish people should allow the land to lie fallow (uncultivated). The times of the Torah and Talmud, were based on local agriculture and animal husbandry. During this year, farmers were allowed to collect fruit that had grown on its own. They were also allowed to graze their flocks anywhere since all growth is explicitly ownerless during this seventh year. Given the relatively small populations and the fact that most people lived off the land anyway, the year presented a rest for farmers and a change of pace, but not ...