When it’s already been said better than you can possibly say it yourself, why reinvent the wheel?

At sunset tonight, wherever in the world you are, the Jewish New Year 5770 begins. I wish everyone a Happy, Healthy & Peaceful New Year.

From The Whitehouse Blog:

Warm Wishes for Rosh Hashanah

Posted by Danielle Borrin

Read translations of the President’s Remarks here. Languages include Arabic, French, Hebrew, Persian, Russian, Spanish, and Turkish.

At sundown this Friday night, the Jewish community here in the United States and all over the world will celebrate the start of the new year. Rosh Hashanah, literally “head of the year,” marks not only a time of prayer and self-reflection, but also a time of celebration, rejuvenation and hopefulness for the days and year to come.

For many, the sounds of the shofar serve as an emotional high point during the period leading up to and during the High Holy Days. The sounds emanating from the ram’s horn awaken our spirits and compel the listener to repentance and to action. In the first Presidential video message for the High Holy Days, President Obama describes how:

“[T]his sacred time provides not just an opportunity for individual renewal and reconciliation, but for families, communities and even nations to heal old divisions, seek new understandings, and come together to build a better world for our children and grandchildren.

“At the dawn of this New Year, let us rededicate ourselves to that work. Let us reject the impulse to harden ourselves to others’ suffering, and instead make a habit of empathy – of recognizing ourselves in each other and extending our compassion to those in need.

“Let us resist prejudice, intolerance, and indifference in whatever forms they may take — let us stand up strongly to the scourge of anti-Semitism, which is still prevalent in far too many corners of our world.

“Let us work to extend the rights and freedoms so many of us enjoy to all the world’s citizens – to speak and worship freely; to live free from violence and oppression; to make of our lives what we will.”

As the new year begins, let each of us respond to the call of those who are important to us, of our children, our communities, our nation, our conscience. From the White House, we hope everyone has a happy, healthy, peaceful and sweet New Year.

Me, again: From our house to yours -

Shana Tova u’Mitukah שנה טובה ומתוק

I’m blogging about Politics, Religion, and Abortion today. If the topics make you queasy, come back tomorrow. Maybe I’ll have another recipe.

I have no patience for extremists of any stripe. Period. If you can only see the world in terms of black and white, “right” and “wrong”, you have no place in my personal universe. Please don’t cry.

The cold-blooded murder of Dr. George Tiller in church last Sunday in Kansas, at the hands of a so-called “Christian“, pushed me over the edge. Dr. Tiller, in case you hadn’t heard, was one of like 3 doctors in the country who would perform late-term (last trimester) abortions. I have no children and I’ve never had an abortion, so why should I care? Because I’m a woman. Because I’m an American.

Because abortion is legal in this country and unless you’re a pregnant woman, it’s none of anyone’s business. Any woman who sought Dr. Tiller’s help was already in desperate straits, and should not have been subjected to the terrorist methods of abortion opponents. You have no right to interfere in private medical decisions between a woman and her doctor. You have no right to terrorize medical people in the performance of their obligations to their patients. You don’t know the inner turmoil of a woman in that position. You don’t know her mind, or her medical condition. And by God, you have no right to kill a man because you don’t like his profession and call it “God’s Will”.

The hypocrisy in this is a stench not to be tolerated. I’ve said it before, and I’ll say it again. If men got pregnant and had to carry children in their bodies for 9 months, this wouldn’t be an issue. Religions run by men have never been friends to women. Women are either subjugated and treated like chattel, or raised on pedestals so high the air is too thin to breathe. In either case, women are considered incapable of making their own decisions.

It is historical fact that the Christian New Testament was assembled by the pagan Emperor Constantine in 325 CE and the “Council of Nicea” in an effort to keep the burgeoning faithful from killing each other over conflicting dogma and destabilizing the empire. Many texts and “gospels” written by other apostles and leaders of different sects were tossed out and destroyed as “divisive”. This was when the concepts of Jesus as “God” and Mary as “Virgin Mother of God” were canonized. By a bunch of guys sitting around a table, half of whom didn’t believe it themselves. You base your faith and “moral authority” on this.

You say that you’re protecting life. I’m sorry, that should be Life, with a capital L. Really? I have never met a “Right to Lifer” that wasn’t also in favor of the death penalty. So you take another life as retribution? That’s when you choose the Old Testament “eye for an eye” thing, right? I do not respect your position, and can not until you pick one. Either all Life is sacred, or it isn’t. Guess what? You don’t get to choose. We are a nation of laws. You don’t like the law? Protest. Not at women’s health centers, but at your legislators’ doors.

I’ll repeat myself yet again: If every single one of you who believes that you are saving children’s lives by this kind of emotional and physical violence commits to adopting each and every one of the babies you “save” – regardless of color, health issues, mental and physical deformities, and handicaps, I might change my mind. But you won’t.

You people are a dichotomy of hypocrisy: Government should stay out of our business, but legislate morality. Support our Troops, but bully mourners at their funerals declaring their deaths are punishment for U.S. tolerance of homosexuality. Get out of our lives, but monitor our bedrooms.

No one wants an abortion. It is a painful and intensely personal decision. But it’s not your decision to make. Once you threaten, harass, bomb and kill law-abiding fellow citizens – and encourage others to do so – you’ve lost the “moral high ground”. You are nothing more than religious terrorists, seeking to impose your beliefs and will on the rest of us. You are our very own Al Qaeda.

As you may or may not know, tomorrow night marks the beginning of the Jewish New Year, Rosh Hashana. It’s one of those two-day holidays out here, in the Diaspora (anywhere not Israel).

Rosh Hashana marks the beginning of ten days of repentance, giving to charity, and being all-around good people, and culminating in fasting and breast-beating on Yom Kippur (Day of Atonement), so the Almighty will write your name in his Book of Life for another year.

So, MJ and I will be spending the first evening at my Mom’s and Tuesday evening at my brother’s. Usually, we’re all together for the High Holidays, but this year, Mom’s got some sort of sciatica thing going on where she can’t sit for ten minutes at a time, so she prefers to stay home; and two of my brother’s girls – one in Birmingham AL and the other in Tallahassee, can’t make it in, and his in-laws’ kids are out of town at school, too. Everyone’s growing up. So it’ll be 3 at Mom’s and only 7 at my brother’s. I think it’ll be the first time ever without folding chairs. Weird.

It will also be the first time that I’ve baked challahs and honey cakes for both evenings. That’s us Jews, for ya. Feasting and fasting so you can feast some more. Got to love a religion that is so food-centric!

Every holiday has its traditional foods and Rosh Hashana is no different. Apples and honey. I don’t remember where the apple tradition started, but honey represents sweetness. And of course, Israel is the Land of Milk and Honey. In which case, shouldn’t we be eating dairy? But I digress. Everything on the table should have a touch of sweetness, symbolizing our fervent wish that the coming year is filled with sweetness in all aspects of our lives.

In that spirit, I offer you my favorite Honey Cake recipe. And if someone tells you, “I don’t like Honey Cake”, you tell them to try some of this:

RJ’s HONEY CAKE

INGREDIENTS

2 cups all purpose flour
1 1/2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
1 teaspoon ground ginger
1 teaspoon baking soda
3/4 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon ground cloves
2/3 cup honey
1/2 cup dark brown sugar
1/2 cup vegetable oil
2 large eggs
1/2 cup applesauce
1/2 cup hot strong coffee
handful of sliced almonds (optional)

PREPARATION

Preheat oven to 325 F.

Grease (spray Crisco) and flour a 9x5x3-inch metal loaf pan.

Whisk first 6 ingredients in medium bowl to blend.

Using electric mixer, beat applesauce, honey, sugar, oil and eggs in large bowl until blended, about 3 minutes.

Beat in dry ingredients in 2 additions. Beat in coffee.

Transfer batter to prepared pan. Sprinkle the top with the sliced almonds, if using. Bake until cake is brown and tester inserted into center comes out clean, about 1 hour (test with a wooden skewer).

Cool cake in pan 10 minutes. Turn out onto rack; cool completely.

Wrap cake in plastic wrap and store at room temperature.

Makes 8 servings.

Shana Tova! A Happy, Healthy, And Sweet New Year To You All!

So, if you’ve been following along, on Tuesday, I posted about some pro-Obama mass e-mails I had received from a friend. Those e-mails had been replied to by someone else on the mailing list, a woman who had obviously imbibed the Republican/fundamentalist/right-wing Kool Aid. Repeatedly. I then responded to her, in what I thought was a (mostly) civilized and rational manner, and sent my responses to the whole list, as she had.

The next morning, I received an e-mail from several people who supported my remarks, and a couple from people who did not. Mostly, the “nots” requested that I not e-mail them with my views. A wholly irrational concept, if you think about it. After all, it was not my e-mails that originally began the exchange, and it is not my address list. I’m not psychic, people.

As it turns out, the original responder (“R”) is a sister of my friend who sent the original correspondence. And one of the people who requested that I not tax their brains with an opinion that runs counter to their deeply-held Rove-inspired fantasies or – God forbid! – actual facts, is another of her sisters (“A”). This last, privately sent e-mail, got under my skin for some reason. I guess, because of its sheer childishness. And because it’s a core sample of Uber-Conservative American thought. It’s classic avoidance behavior – I don’t like what you have to say, so shut up so I don’t have to hear it.

Again, I have reproduced her e-mail and my response. The names have been redacted to protect the guilty.

“Please do not copy me on your email replies. I do not know you and do not care about your political stance, stupid or otherwise. If you received a reply from me in regard to an email, it was an accident – I hit “reply all” when replying to my sister M. I am not interested in your views and would appreciate you not sending me anymore emails.

M – please talk to your angry democratic friends and tell them to stop emailing me.”

My response:

A -

I wasn’t going to reply, but you have succeeded in irritating me sufficiently that I can’t write my Project Runway recap until I did.

I’m sorry that you were upset by reading my responses to R’s e-mails. They were not directed to you. R chose to respond to M’s e-mails via the entire e-mail list. Hardly an accident, since she did it 3 times. I merely did the same thing she did, only I happen to have actual facts on my side. I did receive your reply. Despite what you say, yours was not directed to M, either. It was obviously intended to be seen by the group as well. What did you say? Wait a minute, let me dig it out of the trash…… Oh yeah, here it is:

“R – thanks for speaking up for all of us that know the REAL truth.” Whatever that is. Would you be at all interested in knowing that the New Testament bible that you cling to so fiercely, was assembled by a barbarian (non-believer) king? He picked and chose for inclusion only the parts he felt wouldn’t incite the newly-minted Christians to rebellion against him and his fellow monarchs. Left a lot of the good stuff out. Actual, historical, documented fact. No, I guess you wouldn’t be interested.

I’m not angry, A. No, I take that back. Yes I am. I’m angry because this country that we all love and call home, was founded by immigrants looking for religious freedom. They left their homes, countries, and everything they ever knew to come to a place where they could worship as they pleased, without fear. Our families immigrated to this country, because it is the best hope for freedom and prosperity in the world. That includes your family, too.

Yet, here we are, several hundred years later, and we’re back at the beginning, with one group of people who believe that their way is the only way, trying to impose their beliefs and their way of thinking on the rest of us. And when someone calls you on it, instead of having a reasonable conversation or civilized debate, the best you can do is stick your fingers in your ears like Peewee Herman – LALALALALALA! I can’t hear you! and tell me that my opinion is stupid and I should just go away and never darken your doorway again. Figuratively speaking, of course.

I can’t guarantee that you won’t get anymore e-mails from me, A. If M sends something out to the list and I feel like responding to that, or to someone else’s comments, by way of the mailing list – which is my prerogative, by the way, just like you and R – you just might get another e-mail from me. I’m not going to sit here and pick through all the names on the list simply to make someone whose name I’ll probably forget next week, more comfortable. As I see it, if you see my e-mail address in your mailbox, you have three choices: 1) You can read it and act like a grown-up; 2) You can tell M to remove you from her mailing list; or 3) click “Delete”.

And by the way, you do sort of know me. I am a friend of M’s for many years, and you and I met at your father’s funeral. I am still very sorry for your loss.

Best regards,

RJ

This will take some time, kittens, including the videos which you must watch for context. So get a cup of coffee (or tea, if you’re inclined that way), settle in and get comfy.

I received a string of e-mails from a friend of mine, today, urging me to vote for Barack Obama – as if I needed urging. A couple of them included videos and contained the usual plea to forward them to 10 of my friends.

One of the members of her e-mail list felt compelled to respond to each one in a manner I consider, well, textbook “Bush-y / Rove-y”. I knew what I was in for when, in the first of her responses, she referred to Fox “News” as “centrist media.” Hee hee hee hee! You can see why I couldn’t resist responding. Anyway, rather than bothering my friends (I only bothered her friends – hey, she started it!), I thought I would reproduce the exchange here. I swear that I didn’t edit her remarks in any way, except to break them up into more digestible portions to which I responded.

Here’s the first video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IH0xzsogzAk

Now, here are her comments:

“Hahaha…Wow MSNBC? Liberal Media? New York times is a liberal newspaper. ABC and Lou Dobbs prefer Obama. There is no centerist media anymore. Fox is closest ive seen believe it or not. Watch centerist media. Because i am shocked to see how much people are sucked in by this liberal media storm. If there will be a fairness act for radio shows there should be one for the media too. Stop the liberal media shockwave. Watch fox. Thank you ”

…and my response:

You’re joking, right? FOX is centrist???

The same network who, just a few weeks ago referred to his WIFE as Obama’s “baby mama”??? For those uninitiated few of you, a “baby mama” is a street reference to the unmarried mother of a man’s children. Usually black. A “man” can have several “baby mamas”. It is not generally used as a compliment, and when used by white people, a racial slur.

Puhleeze! Fox “News” is known far and wide as the mouthpiece for Karl Rove, Dick Cheney and the Republican fear-mongers. Whenever the Republican Party and the right-wing religious fundies can’t debate an issue civilly – because they have no response – they deflect the country’s attention by fueling some irrational white fear, such as immigration. Fox can always be counted on to sound the charge. “Fair and Balanced” my left pinky toe.

Next video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K7acdvJegOY

Here’s her rebuttal:

“There is a lot of untruth in this, plus a complete lack of ALL the facts.
Lots of people would not agree with this. It’s a baby, not a ‘thing’.
There are better options.”

And my response:

First, you didn’t say anything to refute the “untruths”. So, what are ALL the facts, dear?

Second, I’m sure there are “[L]ots of people [who] would not agree with this.” More about that, later.

Third, I don’t recall anyone using the word “thing”, so for those on this mailing list who did not watch the video, you shouldn’t give the wrong impression. As for when a cluster of cells becomes a “baby”, well, I’m betting there are about as many opinions about that as there are people on this mailing list. Maybe more. I’m entitled to mine as much as you are entitled to yours. That’s what makes the world go ’round.

While I think I may have heard McCain say that he is for a woman’s right to choose (at least in cases of rape, incest, health of the mother, etc.), there is no doubt that Sarah Palin is vehemently against it. Even in cases of rape and incest. She believes that birth control, not just abortion, is murder. And if she wants to hold her family up as a reflection of what “average American parents” go through on a day-to-day basis, we can all see how well preaching abstinence-as-birth control worked for them. Now we have an old-fashioned shotgun wedding to look forward to – a child marrying a child. Is that one of your better options?

Considering McCain’s age, the phrase “heartbeat away from the Presidency” takes on a literal meaning. Do I want a woman to be President? Hell, yeah! Do I want this woman to be President? Hell, no!

So just what are your “better options”? Leaving young people ignorant about the ramifications, health and otherwise, of having sex? If Bristol Palin had had access to information about birth control and STD’s, would we be having this particular conversation right now? Bristol’s got a wealthy and politically powerful base to support her and her child. Therefore, we should force a young woman of possibly limited means to carry a child she doesn’t want and either give it up for adoption or raise it, supported by the taxpayers? Oh, wait! That’s right! You’re against “welfare”! That’s another e-mail. Don’t worry – I’ll get there.

Now, for the “[L]ots of people [who] would not agree with this.” You know what? I’ll vote against abortion and sex education, too. On one condition: Pass a law that you, and each and every man and woman who rallies, marches, sends e-mails, signs petitions, preaches and protests against a woman’s right to choose, against government and private insurers paying for contraception, and against a child’s right to know, is required to adopt and raise every single child – black, white, brown, green or purple, including those we euphemistically lump together as “special needs” – resulting from these bans. All of them. Feed them, clothe them, educate them. On your own nickel. No help from the government.

When you and everyone who voices your viewpoint makes that commitment, I’ll reconsider.

And finally, the last e-mail:

If You were The Boss… which team would you hire?

With America facing historic debt, multiple war fronts, stumbling health care, a weakened dollar, all-time high prison population, skyrocketing Federal spending, mortgage crises, bank foreclosures, etc. etc., this is an unusually critical election year.

Let’s look at the educational background of the candidates and see what they bring to the job:

Obama:
Occidental College – Two years.
Columbia University – B.A. political science with a specialization in international relations.
Harvard – Juris Doctor (J.D.) Magna Cum Laude

& Biden:
University of Delaware – B.A. in history and B.A. in political science.
Syracuse University College of Law – Juris Doctor (J.D.)

vs.

McCain:
United States Naval Academy – Class rank 894 <out of 899 (meaning that, like George Bush, McCain was at the bottom of his class)

Palin:
Hawaii Pacific University – 1 semester
North Idaho College – 2 semesters – general study
University of Idaho – 2 semesters – journalism
Matanuska-Susitna College – 1 semester
University of Idaho – 3 semesters – B.A. in journalism

Now which team are you going to hire to lead the most influential nation in the world?

I broke this one up to address her “arguments” one by one. Hers are the statements in quotes:

“First of all, an academic education, with ‘head’ knowledge, does not make a person WISE. It mostly makes them arrogant.”

Really? You know, the idea in this country over the last, oh, eight years or so, that you have to relate to the President of the United States, that the President doesn’t have to be smart, that the President should be just like you and me, is bullshit. I want the man or woman with their finger on the button to be WAY smarter than me. I want my President to know “arrogant” things, like how to fix the economy that the last “President” flushed down the toilet. I don’t want a President who has to rely on shadowy influence peddlers to tell him/her what to think. I want an “arrogant” President, full of “head” knowledge – someone I can look up to and respect, not someone to drink a beer with. I’ve got friends for that.

“And HELLO, the democrats are the ones who constantly increase the federal spending for the federal programs, so we can support all the immigrants and people on welfare who don’t want to work or contribute.
And if those of us who work didn’t have to support the hospitalization & medical care of immigrants and those who don’t work, our medical bills & medical insurance wouldn’t be so high. Reality check, people.”

And HELLO, the Republicans are the ones who keep driving this country into recessions and depressions, taking perfectly robust economies and looting them with their tax loopholes and revisionist policies, making the rich, richer, and the middle class scrambling from paycheck to paycheck. It has ever been thus. After every disastrous modern-day Republican administration, this country had to be “rescued” by a Democrat. See Warren G. Harding, Calvin Coolidge, Herbert Hoover (now, there was a winner in the fiscal responsibility department!), followed by Franklin D. Roosevelt and Harry Truman. Richard Nixon and Gerald Ford, followed by Jimmy Carter. Ronald Reagan and George H.W. Bush followed by Bill Clinton.   Eisenhower might be an exception, but that may be either because a) no one actually remembers the Eisenhower administration, or B) it may be that he just didn’t screw up the post World War II economic boom that was already in place.  Otherwise, each and every Republican Presidency in the last 80 years ended in economic depression or recession. Each and every Democratic Presidency in that period resulted in economic growth and social progress.  Just how the Republican Party ever got the reputation for fiscal responsibility, I’ll never know.  It’s a historical paradox.

Medical bills and insurance are so high, not because of immigrants and social programs, but because of avarice. I’m sorry, is that word too arrogant? How about greed? Historically, Republican administrations have fostered cultures of greed and acquisitiveness. Remember the “Me Generation” of the 1980′s? Remember the movie quote “Greed is good”? Have you heard of the largest growth industries in this country today? They’re called Healthcare Fraud & Insurance Fraud. Dishonest individuals, doctors, lawyers, and yes, even insurance agents – all in various combinations, work together to scam insurance companies, looking for free money. Billing for tests never performed, fake accidents, drug companies charging ridiculous prices for medications, baseless lawsuits against doctors and hospitals, the list goes on and on. If the powerful lawyers’ lobbies in this country worked with, instead of against, lawmakers for meaningful tort reform, you’d see more reasonable healthcare costs. But if you’ve ever padded an insurance claim, you are also personally responsible for escalating costs. Reality check, yourself, girlfriend.

“And, in case you missed it, the Congress, who makes the majority of the decisions about spending and programs, is run by democrats, not Republicans.”

And in case you weren’t paying attention, the Democrats didn’t take control of Congress until the 2006 election, and weren’t installed until January 2007. Try again.

“And if we would execute more criminals, instead of spending millions of dollars trying to rehab them, with very little success, thanks to bleeding-heart liberals, our prisons wouldn’t be so full.”

You know what really amazes me? I have never known or spoken with or gotten a chain e-mail from a Right-To-Lifer who wasn’t also in favor of the death penalty. Let me get this straight: Every cluster of DNA has a right to live until it does something “criminal”, then you should kill it. Hypocrite.

“So before you attempt to blame the Republicans for the messes you believe we’re in, get your facts straight. Better take a closer look back at American history.”

So before you attempt to blame the Democrats for messes we ARE in, Cupcake, you’d better get your own facts straight. My husband and I are students of American history, and you don’t have to go far to find the facts. Try taking off your Rove-colored glasses.

But I do want to thank you. I’ve been a little dry for blog material, lately, aside from Project Runway recaps, and I intend to reproduce these little chats we’ve been having. Don’t worry – I won’t use your name.

Sincerely,
RJ

Am I jealous? Well, if I’m going to be totally honest here – and where else would I be totally honest, if not here? I mean, that’s the whole point of my blogging (whether anyone reads it or not) – yeah, I guess I am. Jealous, that is (in case you lost the original thread of that sentence). Okay, I realize that it’s not the most attractive of the emotions.

My sister-in-law and her sister are going to be b’nai mitzvot (translation: having a joint bat mitzvah). I was half-heartedly quasi-invited to join them, since I never had one either, over a year ago. I said I’d think about it and they should let me know, but the subject never came up again until… I’m thinking here… mmmm… around… was it Passover? When it was a done-deal and they announced that it was going to happen on June 7th. I don’t know. I never really thought seriously about it.

My brother was bar mitzvahed when I was 7. It’s not that we were terribly religious, but we kept a kosher home, we (Big Bro and I) went to synagogue every Saturday morning and Sunday school until we were old enough to rebel and refuse. My parents sent me to a Jewish parochial school until the cost of sending my brother to college and the day school’s tuition became a prohibitive combination. Because of that background, when given the choice between having a Sweet Sixteen party or a Bat Mitzvah, I chose the Sweet Sixteen. After all, girls did not have bat mitzvahs. That was for boys.

But I wuz robbed. Cheated. My Sweet Sixteen was not the glamorous evening affair I thought I was going to have. Music and dancing and twinkle lights. It turned out to be a luncheon at a fish restaurant (have I ever told you that I hate fish?). All girls. Or should I say, mostly my mother’s poker-playing girlfriends and a few of my own friends. Except for my brother and his girlfriend (later wife). On a Sunday afternoon. Superbowl Sunday, as it turned out. Frankly, I was just as eager to get out of there as anyone else. (Point of reference: That was the infamous Heidi / Superbowl — if you’re a football fan of a certain age, I don’t need to explain) Anyway, this was not what I had in mind. My brother’s bar mitzvah had a sit-down luncheon after services and a big formal dinner party at night, with a band for the “adults”, and our favorite disc jockey from the local radio station rented to spin records all night for the “kids”. Hmmph. Okay, so I never got over it.

Even though they’re not planning an evening bash, when “the girls” announced their bat mitzvah, I was seized with jealousy. And an insane desire to – if not have my own (and it would be difficult to do so without looking like I was a copycat and trying to show them up) – well, show them up a bit – subtly. So, Miz Shoes, a fabric artist in her own right, is making me a fabulous tallis (prayer shawl) for the occasion. Do I need a tallis – really? Truth be told, No. That’s a guy thing, too. But, like bat mitzvahs, if girls are having them now, well girls have to have tallisim, too. I’ve gotten along quite well all these years without one, but now I want one. And it has to be cooler than hers. The prosaic one with matching yarmulke (come on!) from Israel that she picked up at the Judaica store. So mine has to be way cooler. Check this out:

This is the fabric and ribbon Miz Shoes chose for me. Isn’t it exquisite? I don’t know if you can see them, but there are elephants and giraffes, and all kinds of animals woven into that fabric. This is so me – don’t you think? Of course, she is the artist, and I bow to her oft-demonstrated senses of style and taste. If you require a one-of-a-kind, personally designed tallis for a bar/bat-mitzvah or other occasion, you should check out Miz Shoes and her Tante Leah Handmades. No, she didn’t pay me. In fact, I’m paying her. I just love her stuff. This will go beautifully with the Indian salwar kameez outfit I’m planning to wear. I’m so psyched.

And still a wee bit jealous.