Passover Controversies

Posted on March 12, 2010 by pgold

After well over a year, I have decided to stop with the Beatle song titles for each of my blog posts. It was just kind of a joke for me to see if I could do it, and I think with over a year of posting, I can say that I succeeded! For the time being I am going to back to descriptive titles and if something comes to mind, I might come up with another theme.

It’s hard to believe but we are now just over two weeks away from Passover! Passover begins Monday night, March 29th. Last year I posted about our menus and some of what we are doing for the holiday. Much of what we are doing this year is similar, so you can click here some previous posts about Passover. Last year, Avi was not with us for Seder as he was in a psychiatric hospital. Thank God he is with us this year and has made so much progress from where he was last year!

March 30, 2009

April 7, 2009

March 31, 2008

Passover is very early in the secular calendar this year and it is too bad that we now change our clocks the second Sunday in March. Had we still been doing so on the first Sunday in April, the Seders would have been before we change the clocks and it would have been better with the start times for the Seders. Each Seder is supposed to start with candle lighting. On the first night this year, that would be at 7:03 pm. This of course means that we would not get to the meal until close to 8 pm, which is a bit late for the kids. The second night is even worse, when candle lighting has to be after the first day ended (about 42 minutes past sundown) which would be just after 8 pm (with the meal not coming until 9!). Our solution to this is that once everyone is seated we serve the first two courses of our meal (fish and soup). This allows people to have some food in them (but not Matza!) and pushes the start time of the actual Seder.

None of that is really controversial of course (I know a number of people who do that). Over the next few posts I want to write about some Passover practices that, while maybe not controversial, get a lot of discussion. Today, I want to talk about the granddaddy of all of these discussions, Kitniyot. Some of my friends know that I have done a lot of research on Kitniyot over the past few years, and I would like to share some of my thoughts here. First off we need to define the word. In Israel today, the word Kitniyot is used for legume. The problem with this definition in terms of Passover is that most of the list of items that Ashkenazi Jews refrain from eating on Passover (Jews of Sephardic descent do not have this custom) does not contain legumes. There are even legumes that are permissible for Passover. Alfalfa leaves, which can be used in salads, are permissible, and alfalfa IS a legume. So for Passover purposes, I need to find another definition. The word kitniyot comes from the root קטן which of course means small. Kitniyot are the small things that we don’t eat on Passover.

I could go into the Halakhic discussions here as to where this list comes from and who agrees with it and who does not. Rather than doing that, here is a link to an article that covers all of that in nice detail. I will say that there are many reasons that can be discovered as to why we do not eat Kitniyot on Passover. Often, when the Halakhic literature brings some many different reasons it is quite likely that no one really does know the reason why we do this. My biggest problem with Kitniyot is not the concept (although I would be happy to do away with the prohibition) but the fact that the list of items that are considered Kitniyot seems to grow year after year. One of the earliest modern examples is corn. Corn was unknown in the time of the sages. Korn is a Yiddish word for rye, and perhaps that is how it got mixed up? Wild rice is on the list, but it is neither wild nor rice (it is a grass) so why can’t we have wild rice pilaf? While Quinoa is allowed by some sources (and we do have Quinoa at our Seder) I have found that the OU suggest against eating Quinoa on Passover because there could be other grains that came in contact with the Quinoa!

Bottom line, of course is that I am not a Rabbi and I am not looking to make a Halakhic decision. We still refrain from eating Kitniyot in our house on Passover and probably will always do that. A friend has taken a novel approach. He went to the earliest list he could find and does not eat what is on that list. Anything that was called Kitniyot after that, he does eat in his house. I am waiting to hear back from him for that list, and as soon as I have it, I will edit the post and add the list. I think that sounds like a great compromise to this issue.

Enjoy!

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Being for the Benefit of Mr. Kite! (part 2)

Posted on March 1, 2010 by pgold

As promised here are photos of the kids in their Purim costumes.

Shayna, as always went as a princess. This year she chose Snow White.

Here is Avi as Darth Vador doing battle with Luke Skywalker (family friend who is also named Avi)

Noam was a bit more difficult, but I got this great candid shot of my little Harry Potter next to his friend Noah.

Now we can turn our full attention to that other “P” holiday!

Enjoy!

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While My Guitar Gently Weeps

Posted on February 25, 2010 by pgold

George Harrison would have been 67 years old today.

Here is this amazing song from the Concert for Bangladesh.

Enjoy!

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T7qpfGVUd8c]

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Being for the Benefit of Mr. Kite!

Posted on February 24, 2010 by pgold

I’ve been waiting for ages to use that song title in my blog! The title itself has nothing to do with my blog, but the song is about a circus, and Purim is like a circus of sorts. Purim begins this coming Saturday night at sundown. For those who are not fellow Red Sea Pedestrians, Purim celebrates a time when the Jewish in ancient Persia were about to be killed by an evil advisor to the King of Persia. The king’s newest wife, Esther (who happens to be a Jew) finds out and uses cunning wit and charm to help make sure that the Jews win the day. That is of course a VERY simplified version of the story of Esther which of course is found in the Biblical Book of Esther. I am not going to write the whole story of Purim. In this case the Wikipedia article is very good.

One of the traditions for Purim is the eating of Hamentaschen. A few years back I posted my recipe for Hamentaschen and I will do so again this year here. The word Hamentaschen is made up of two words, Hamen and taschen. Hamen of course refers to the character in the Book of Esther. Taschen means pocket in Yiddish but also can mean cookie in German. Most likely the term was originally mahn-taschen or poppy-pouches. One traditional filling is a poppy seed filling. In Hebrew the pastry is called אזני המן or Hamen’s ears, probably because children were told that they were Hamen’s ears. The pastry is traditionally shaped with three corners as tradition tells us that Hamen wore a three cornered hat.

On Purim children dress up in costume, similar to Halloween. Traditional costumes would be the characters from the Book of Esther, but today you’ll see all kinds. Avi is going as Darth Vador this year, Noam as Harry Potter and Shayna as Belle from Beauty and the Beast. On Sunday I will post photos of the kids in costume. Also traditional for Purim is the giving of gifts to friends. We are supposed to give food baskets with at least two different foods to at least two different people. This year our list is has about 25 people on it and we are putting in my Hamentaschen of course and these wonderful Oatmeal peanut butter squares. Hamentaschen recipe is below and later today I will try to add the oatmeal peanut butter squares.

A quick not about fillings, and then to the recipe. You can fill the Hamentaschen with almost anything, but be prepared for different results. My favorite filling is Solo brand pie filling. I don’t know why, but this brand seems to work better than any other out there, and better (in my opinion) than any preserves. They make the standard flavors of prune, poppy and apricot, but they also have strawberry, blueberry and raspberry and many others. You can also use any preserves (do NOT use jelly or jam as they will turn to liquid and run right out of the cookie). For chocolate I suggest using Nutella (which is a chocolate hazelnut mixture) or you can try the Israeli chocolate spread.

My Hamentaschen

½ C Margarine or Vegetable Shortening
1 C sugar
1 egg
1 ½ t baking powder
1 t pure vanilla extract
2 C flour

1. Cream the sugar and the shortening in a stand mixer with a paddle attachment until light and fluffy.
2. Add the egg, baking powder and vanilla one at a time and incorporate into the batter.
3. Add 1 cup of the flour and mix at a slow to medium speed until all of the flour has been incorporated. At this point you need to check the dough. Depending upon the humidity and type of shortening that you are using, you may not need much more flour. The dough should be light and a little big sticky. If you feel it is too wet, add more flour, ¼ cup at a time. I find that 1 ½ cups is usually fine.
4. Cover the bowl and let sit in the refrigerator for 30 to 60 minutes. This will allow the four to fully incorporate.
5. Separate some of the dough and roll out onto a floured board. Try to work with as little flour here as possible as you will scrape up scraps and put them back into the dough which will add more flour. Roll out to about 1/8″ to 1/4 ” thickness.
6. Use a glass or some other cutter that is about 3″ to 4″ in diameter. You can use bigger if you like, but I find this is just the best size. Cut out as many rounds as you can get from the rolled dough.
7. Pick up the scraps and add a bit more of the dough. Repeat this process of rolling out and cutting and adding more dough until you do not have enough to cut out anymore, or when the dough is too dry.
8. Put about ½ t of filling in the center of a round and pull up the edges to make a triangle shape. Pinch the corners together and place on a cookie sheet covered with parchment paper.
9. Bake in a 350° oven for about 10 – 15 minutes. Keep watch after 10 minutes. You want to take it out of the oven just as the cookie starts to turn brown. I prefer my hamentaschen to be very lightly browned. If you like it darker, keep it in a bit longer. Remove Hamentaschen to a rack to cool.

More later!

Enjoy!

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All Together Now

Posted on January 25, 2010 by pgold

It’s been quite some time since I posted on my blog. After posting every day in the month of November, I certainly needed the month of December off. January came around I have been busy, so posting was not foremost on my mind. Being that it has been so long, I have quite a lot that I can write about. I think I will split my thoughts into a few postings, with the things that are mostly on my mind first.

First off, Avi is doing very well lately. He is thriving at the Newmark School in Plainfield. It took some time for him to get used to the school and their methods, but he has really fallen into place there. He is making friends and even had one of his school friends over for a play date yesterday! His therapy is also moving along well and he is finally starting to show signs that the therapy may be working. We are hoping that 2010 will be a great year for Avi! Right now we are researching special needs day camps in the area (if anyone knows of one, please let me know).

The next thing on my mind, to the chagrin of many readers is that in exactly nine weeks from tonight we will be sitting down with our families for the first Passover Seder! It’s hard to imagine that it is so close but it is! Passover begins on the evening of March 29th. So this is fair warning for everyone to start planning! And if anyone is going to be in the central NJ area on the 29th and 30th and they need a place for seder, let me know! Either you will be at my table or at a friend’s.

I wanted to get this in the blog today because I am going to make a prediction, and I want it official! I predict that within one or two weeks at the outside, we will begin to see the Passover foods in the supermarkets. It is crazy I know, but we may just see Passover foods in the shelves in January this year! Yikes. As part of my preparations, I am getting back to my Passover Haggadah project. For those who are not aware, for the past 10 years or so, I have been writing my own Passover Haggadah commentary. I am almost finished, as I am up to the final section, Nirtza. I do not know what I am going to do with the finished product, but I have gotten some good reviews, so who knows? If anyone is interested in reading my manuscript, I would be forever grateful for comments and suggestions. Just let me know and I will send you a pdf copy.

Finally, if there ever was a time when one can say how proud they are to be Jewish, it was when the first fully active (and highest tech) field hospital in Haiti was set up by the Israelis. Israel has a long history of giving humanitarian aid in the wake of major disaster, and this is surely what is meant when our tradition tells us to be a light among the nations. In the United States, for the most part, Jews are accepted as total equals. In other parts of the world we are not, and it is things like this that go a long way to showing others what we are really about. The US has also set up a major hospital there as have other countries. But where are Israel’s detractors? The Arab world, which certainly has quite a bit of wealth, is nowhere to be seen in Haiti. Yay Israel! And Yay to being Jewish!

http://abcnews.go.com/video/playerIndex?id=9596876

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All Together Now

Posted on December 14, 2009 by pgold

It had to happen sometime. I finally got to play The Beatles Rock Band. We were at my brother’s for Hanukkah yesterday and the night before his kids got to open the box and set up the game. I played quite a bit and had a great time. For those not familiar with this game (or the few others like it) you have video game controllers in the shape of instruments. The game they bought came with a replica of Paul’s bass guitar and a set of drums. They had an older guitar from a different game and a microphone. Unlike some of the other games, one of the players will sing here and you have to stay in key and in time with the song. I found I did my best with the bass and with the singing. I could not at all get the hang of the drums.

The real genius of the game lies with the music. If you have four players, one will have the bass, one the guitar, one the drums and one singing. If the bass player is off from the music, you don’t hear that instrument until that player can get back in time with the song. It’s quite fun (and a bit hard at times). In order for this to happen, they not only had to digitally re-master the songs, they had to deconstruct them and put them back together.

For the early Beatles songs this was quite a challenge. All of the instruments were recorded on one track with the vocals on the other. They had to take the instrument track and filter out each instrument and then put them back together. For some of the earlier songs, it sounds ok, but for the later songs, when each instrument may have had its own track it sounds brilliant.

To enhance the experience, they created digital versions of the group from each era (early, middle and late) and placed them into different settings to fit the music. So for I Want To Hold Your Hand, they are singing on the Ed Sullivan show. For I am the Walrus, they are in a psychedelic paradise and so on. With a great sound system, you could buy these games just for the music because it sounds crystal clear, just like the re-masters themselves.

I highly recommend this game for those who have video game systems. Unfortunately, I don’t have one, so if anyone is looking to give one away or buy me a Hanukkah present, you know what to get!

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Got to Get You Into My Life

Posted on December 11, 2009 by pgold

Be warned, FIOS installation is a big deal. The Installer came at about 11:00 am and left at about 5:00 pm. Big job. In order to install FIOS, they have to cut the old copper wires that were coming to the house and bring new fiber cable. That in of itself probably took over an hour since there was only one person. At about 11:30 or so I tried calling home and I got the Verizon voice mail which was no longer set up with my outgoing message so I knew something was happening.

Here is what they did. First they install a new box on the outside of the house called an Optical Network Terminal. This then has three wires running into the house (for which they drilled holes). One is the phone wire which they hook up to whatever the old phone wire connected to (this means no extra phone wiring in the house needed). The second runs to a power connection as the ONT needs to be powered. The power connection also has a UPS (uninterruptable power supply or batter backup) connected to it. This is so that if the power were to go out, you would not loose phone. With the old copper wire phone system there was low voltage power running through the cable so the system powered itself. Now you need to plug in. The final cable is a coaxial cable which runs to a splitter which then goes to the new Verizon router. This is a wireless router similar to what the cable companies use. The other side of the splitter goes to the Verizon set top box, which in our case is also a DVR. The communication on this coax cable is two ways, so the set top box is also connected to the router. The wireless router also connects up our laptops to the internet with a whopping 25 Mbits of bandwidth (despite our only paying for 15, but hopefully Verizon is not reading this). There are also wired ports if we need.

All total the install process went smooth. The tech was nice and knew what he was doing and everything worked correctly when he was finished. Now we just need to explore the system. Hopefully in a week or so I will post a review. In the meantime, I have tried out the online portion of FIOS and I can log on to their website and basically be connected to my DVR. Not only can I set things to record (I could do that online with DirecTV as well) but I can now see what is set to record in one place, delete some of them if I need (since my kids love to press that record button) and even see what is on the DVR now (and delete them). I can even manage the parental controls from the internet site. I like the site so much that I would even consider using it to program the DVR rather than using the remote control in our family room!

Stay tuned then for a full review of Verizon FIOS.

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It Won’t Be Long

Posted on December 10, 2009 by pgold

FIOS is coming to town. I remember a few years ago when I first heard about this Verizon project. I said immediately that when they bring fiber to my house I will definitely climb on board. Last week we got an offer to switch to FIOS. I compared the costs with what we pay now, and sure enough we will save between $40 and $50 a month.

There has been a lot of talk on the internet about problems from FIOS, but it seems to be dying down. I have read a lot of great reviews over the past few days which has lead me to order the service. They are at my house now doing the installation. In this and perhaps one or two more posts I will talk about the experience and hopefully give a review of the service which may help others make decisions in the future.

I called Verizon on Monday to discuss the offer we got in the mail. The offer was for $89.99 per month on a one year contract. This would include Phone, Internet and Television (bundled with our existing cell service on the same bill). Sounds good so far. The woman on the phone told me that we would actually get $15 extra off per month because we were doing what they call the Quad Play (bundling everything on the same bill) and we will get a $150 per-paid Visa card, 3 months free home media DVR service ($19.99 per month after). The sales rep said she would call me back the next day so I could talk it over with Marsha.

Next morning, I get no call back. I was not yet ready to order anyway, as I had a few questions. I needed to know what the costs would be after the 1 year contract was up, will we get to keep our current email addresses (from Verizon DSL service) and how does this all work if we have a power failure. So I call back and get a different woman on the phone. She tells me that the first person got the costs a bit wrong. The regular cost for this is $99.99 but we will get $15 off per month for doing the Quad Play so that brings us down to $84.99. A little more than before, but still ok. The great thing is that this is a one year contract BUT a two year guarantee in pricing, so after the first year we will still get the same rate without being tied to the contract. If they come up with a better plan, we will be able to switch with no penalty. We still get the three months free on the DVR and the $150 Viso card, so all total a decent deal.

After deciding with Marsha that we will do this later that night, I went online to order there, and found that by placing the order online, I get an additional $5 off per month for 12 months! Not bad. So I order and I find that they can come on Thursday (today) to install! Very fast! I placed the order and then called them the next day to tell them that the 8am – 5 pm block of time is a problem because no one can be at our house between 8 and 11 most days. The person I spoke to called the installation department and they said that they will come at 11 and be able to start working on the outside of the house first, so that by the time Marsha gets home at noon we should be good to go.

I can only assume that they are working on it now. The installation process has them removing the copper cables to our house and running new fiber form the street to our house. When I called home a short while ago, I did not get our answering machine so I believe they are working. We did have Verizon answer call as well which is their voice mail. I had recorded an outgoing message there which was now gone, so I am not sure what is happening, but when it is all over later I am sure we will figure it all out.

So now I just wait. Tomorrow I will post on the rest of the install experience and what happens right after that.

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The End

Posted on November 30, 2009 by pgold

30 posts in 30 days is a lot harder than you think. Even with a good theme and great material it is tough to meet the deadlines and with the Sabbath observance, even harder.

But I made it!

I had decided to make this last NaBloPoMo post be the greatest Beatles song of them all, but that is really an impossible task. First off, there is no consensus anywhere as to what the best Beatles song is, so this would have to be, (like most of this month) totally my opinion. Second, I had to decide what songs could be considered, and I decided to keep to the general official Beatles canon. That is usually accepted as all of the studio albums plus Past Masters/Mono Masters. So songs from Live at the BBC for example were out (they are mostly covers anyway). There were a bunch of songs on the three Anthology albums, but again, I choose to leave them out. Finally, I decided that it is unfair to choose one Beatles song, because all of the Fab Four wrote songs. So what I came up with was that I would choose one (or two) songs from each of them to make my favorite Beatles songs, plus one or two from their recorded covers.

Pinning down who wrote what is not always an easy task, but thanks to a lot of research out there and a great chart on wikipedia, today it is pretty easy. Most of the Beatles songs are credited to Lennon/McCartney. John and Paul made an agreement early on that all of the songs would be in both their names. Despite this, Many songs were written by just one of them, with some songs being true collaborations. There are also some songs that were written by John with some help from Paul or written by Paul with some help from John. In these cases generally one wrote the song and the other changed a lyric or melody, or most often, one wrote the verse and the other wrote the middle eight (bridge) section. There are also a few songs that they all are credited as authors and a few that are credited to Lennon/McCartney, but are John’s songs with some assist from Paul and Ringo or George and Ringo. Finally there are two songs not in any of the canon albums that I have included in the list, which are John’s songs with assist from all three of the others, and they are Free As a Bird and Real Love both created from John Lennon demos that the other three added to during the production of the Anthology albums and films.

In my list there are 211 Beatles songs, including covers or others work. Of these John has the most with 59 and Ringo the least with 2. Here is the full list of how many they each wrote:

John Lennon – 59
Paul McCartney – 56
George Harrison – 22
Ringo Starr – 2
Ascribed to all four – 2

Covers – 24

True Lennon/McCartney collaboration – 14
Paul McCartney with assist from John Lennon – 15
John Lennon with assist from Paul McCartney – 13
John Lennon with assist from George Harrison and Ringo Starr – 1
John Lennon with assist from Paul McCartney and Ringo Starr – 1
John Lennon with assist from Paul McCartney, George Harrison and Ringo Starr – 2

So without further ado, I am going to choose a few songs from each and then perhaps a few of the collaborations.

John Lennon
A Hard Day’s Night is often cited as the best Beatles song, and clearly one of the best Rock and Roll songs of all time.

Strawberry Fields Forever come from the psychedelic writings of John Lennon and sometimes I choose it as my favorite Beatles Song.

Across The Universe is often overlooked and I think a masterpiece of music and art.

Paul McCartney
Yesterday is the most covered song of all time. Its simplicity makes it a true masterpiece.

Eleanor Rigby is another that I often call my favorite. The use of the string quartet as the only instruments was genious.

The Long and Winding Road is a wonderful song from the end period of the Beatles.

George Harrison
While My Guitar Gently Weeps is perhaps his best song.

Something is the most covered of all of George’s songs.

Here Comes the Sun is another overlooked great song.

Ringo Starr
Ringo has only two songs, and I only really like one of them, Octopus’s Garden.

Probably the best true Lennon/McCartney collaboration is With a Little Help From My Friends. Of the songs written by Lennon with Paul’s Help, I think A Day In The Life is tops, and of the McCartney songs with John’s help clearly for me Penny Lane is the best.

Well, that brings me to the end of NaBloPoMo and my trip through the Beatles albums. I hope people enjoyed!

Posted in NaBloPoMo, The Beatles | Tagged , | 3 Comments

Past Masters/Mono Masters Part 4

Posted on November 29, 2009 by pgold

During the recording of Yellow Submarine, four songs had mono versions created as well as the stereo. One of them, Only a Northern Song, was only done in mono. The four together were intended for a mono EP to be released after the main album, but due to poor sales of Yellow Submarine, the project was scrapped. These four songs are included in Mono Masters to make up for the missing three songs that have no mono counterpart. I have compared the songs with the versions on Yellow Submarine.

Only A Northern Song is in Mono on both versions

All Together Now – Mono. The stereo version has the lead vocal out of the right only

Hey Bulldog –Tie. The music is much better on the stereo version but the vocals are only out of the right so it is a tie.

It’s All Too Much – Stereo. The feedback at the start works better in stereo, and the mix is wonderful all around.

Here are both versions of All Together Now. You Choose!

Enjoy!

Mono
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ulQVpvu6wsw]

Stereo (from Yellow Submarine)
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M28KHppdpqo]

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