LABA On my grandma’s shoulds and my wants by Sarah Seltzer Share In my grandmother’s last few years, as she grew frail and spent more time sitting on her four-poster bed with the New York Times scattered across the quilt, we fed her ice cream. We would take a spoon and soften some Haagen Daaz vanilla. We’d
A new recipe inspired by Ruth by Erin Patinkin Share Ruby Namdar, one of our LABA teachers, asked me to respond to Chapter 2 of the Book of Ruth with something edible. “Maybe you could make up a recipe for a barley bread. You know, something easy.” Easy. Right. Barley plays a central role in
A commentary on the Book of Ruth by Ruby Namdar Wheat awaiting harvest Share 6 And she went down unto the threshing-floor, and did according to all that her mother-in-law bade her. 7 And when Boaz had eaten and drunk, and his heart was merry, he went to lie down at the end of
On the Power of Fasting by Basmat Hazan Arnoff Fasting is one of those rare intimate experiences that the whole community takes on together. In Jewish tradition there are three major types of fasts. One, and the most important, is to raise one’s spiritual level. This is thought
On Dylan’s Angelinas and Isaiah’s Fast by Stephen Hazan Arnoff There are two Angelinas in Bob Dylan’s musical canon. Each offers an approach to human ambition and humility in the face of divinity, and each remains partly hidden in broad daylight for many years. The first figure is the namesake of “Farewell, Angelina.”
A contemporary fable by Sarah Seltzer Share Izzy had tried fasting, the Atkins diet, the Paleo diet, veganism, lacto-ovo vegetarianism, gluten-free living, the 5/2 diet, keeping Lent, Ramadan, Hallal and Kosher. But now she told us, with a twinkling tone in her voice, she had a new recipe for a total juice cleanse. Total.
A musical exploration of time slowing down By Amir Shpilman http://yourlisten.com/LABA/hedef When we fast we choose to deny our physical needs in order to focus on our spiritual ones. When we fast we crave oneness, oneness with ourselves and oneness with others. When we fast we hope that allowing ourselves to feel weaker will somehow
When I fast, I feel by Karen Hartman Share In my family, even the tiniest delay in eating was an excuse for bad behavior. Impatience, explosive temper, poor judgment, inability to concentrate, all could be chalked up to hunger. Even now, if my even-keeled young son gets whiny and ridiculous I will calculate his
On Dylan’s “John Wesley Harding” and Fortune’s Wheel Stephen Hazan Arnoff Share John Wesley Harding may have been Bob Dylan’s most highly anticipated album ever. Released in 1967 at the end of twenty months of public silence that included a motorcycle crash, it was also the most stylistically unexpected work of Dylan’s career. The album featured
Why do we waste our time with charity when we could be doing justice? by Sarah Seltzer Share During the bitter cold weeks that came in the wake of Hurricane Sandy, the stark income divide in New York City was held to the light of media scrutiny as it hadn’t been for years. Certainly, nature