Shabbat Shuva

Shabbat Shuva, the Shabbat which falls between Rosh Hashana and Yom Kippur, is an important and powerful Shabbat. During this span of ten days (from the beginning of Rosh Hashana until the end of Yom Kippur), the Gates of Repentance are open for the Jewish people. It is a time of deep personal reflection, teshuva (literally "returning"), and hopefully inspiration to improve oneself for the coming year.

At shul on this Shabbat, Rabbis often give a special Shabbat Shuva drasha - a meaningful speech of how to maintain focus - and they often input their own take on the teshuva process or some other aspect of this auspicious time.

Since Yoni and I have been traveling a lot already during training, we really had to stay at home for this Shabbat. We had nice quiet meals to maintain our focus, and did a lot of great learning. On our afternoon walk, I asked Yoni to give me a Shabbat Shuva drasha, since I couldn't go to shul to hear a Rabbi's.

Well, let me tell you - after the first two minutes of trying to get out of it, saying he didn't prepare anything, Yoni gave one of the best ones I've ever heard and it led to a really good conversation.

I'll try to convey it here, but my words will not do justice to the eloquence with which he spoke -

During this time of repentance, what are we actually asking from G-d? We ask to be forgiven for our sins. We did wrong, we admit that we are humans who make mistakes, and we want G-d to see the good we've done and allow that to outweigh the bad in His judgment. In other words, we ask G-d to judge us favorably. It's taught that G-d judges us how we judge others. If we are people who judge others favorably, and see only the good in them, then when G-d looks at us, he will see the good.

So that's the intro, and the context in which to view our judgment of others.

This concept applies on a daily basis, on multiple levels. It encompasses everything from instantaneous judgment of people you've never met to deep-seeded judgment of those close to you.

One unfortunately common example of judgment occurs within the Jewish people, with regard to each other's connection with G-d, and expression thereof.

Judaism is not a religion which looks down upon people of other religions for not doing things in a "Jewish way." One of the main facets of Jewish belief is that the Jews are a People chosen to live life in a certain way, and those who are not Jewish can be perfectly decent and wonderful human beings by living a moral, non-Jewish lifestyle.

Internally, however, Jews often judge their fellow's observance of the religion. Now to speak inter-denominationally would open a whole can of worms beyond simple judgment. To stay true to where our conversation led today, I am going to stick with the judgment within the "Orthodox" community. I use this term loosely, to define the span of Jews who keep the Laws of Shabbat.

This truth probably does not need much explanation. Anyone reading this who considers themself part of that group, has probably at one point or another found yourself judging another as either, "not observant enough," or "crazy ultra-religious." And if you're in the small minority of those that refrain from this judgment - first of all, kol ha k'vod - I'm sure you have observed it from others or at least felt the sentiments.

Who are we to judge a fellow Jew? Psychologically, I understand the human's need to judge others. Through demeaning another's decisions, one attains validation for his/her own choices in life. If an individual can look at others who express their Jewish observance in a different manner and explain why it's not as good as what they do, then they feel satisfaction in knowing that they're doing what is best.

This principle, however, goes against what the Torah teaches us about how to view others. First of all, we're never supposed to think we're exactly where we're supposed to be. We wouldn't have a need to continue living on this earth if we had attained true character and moral perfection.
And why are we living in a world with other people instead of in a bubble of isolation? To learn something from each and every person. We don't learn by looking at someone and saying they're worse than us for one reason or another. We learn by looking at each individual and searching for a positive quality of theirs which we could use to improve ourselves. Yes, you may dress differently than another, or prioritize Halacha (Jewish Law) in a different manner, but what good comes from dwelling on those differences? Why not look at the individual for the best qualities of their character and, if you must judge, judge them as a person based on this positive evaluation.

After all, isn't that what we're asking G-d to do for us? How can we expect Him to look at the best in us unless that's how we see others?

We wish everyone a Gmar chatima tova - may you have a year of Blessing and Good Health!


P.S. I made a bunch of round braided challot for the holidays:
















Here's one of the plain ones:



















And one with raisins - Mmmmmmmmmmmm :-D

Busy times :)

It's been a very long time since the last update - for that we apologize. It comes as no surprise, but things have been quite busy!

Last entry, Yoni was about to begin the academic portion (Phase I) of his pilot training. Thank G-d, he's been doing wonderfully and should begin Phase II with his dollar ride on Tuesday. What a way to start the new year after Yom Kippur, huh?

Phase II lasts about five months. During this time he will fly the T-6.





















Within a month of his dollar ride he should have his solo and then progress through different check points as he gains proficiency on the aircraft. While this is a bit down the road, at the conclusion of Phase II, he will "track select" to a different trainer which he will fly for the remainder of his year of training. The most likely options for track select are the T-1 (for heavies) and the T-38 (for fighters and bombers). We'll keep updating about his training and G-d willing within a month or so we'll have some fun solo pictures to post!

During his training over this past month, I've been keeping pretty busy as well! School's back in full swing, as I'm working toward six more credits for my Masters, and I've been working Mondays and Wednesdays in the afternoon/evening at Enid Learning Academy tutoring high school math.

In addition to this normal routine, we've had some variations every week or two. In the middle of August, Erica came to visit for a night along her drive from St. Louis back to Law School in Malibu. It was wonderful to see her for the first time since the wedding!

Then, in the end of August, Madi visited for a few days which was really fun! We saw some of the "sites of Enid" (the town square and Wal-Mart). We also took a day trip up to Caldwell, Kansas (only about an hour away) to 1) Let Madi cross Kansas off her "states I've never been to" list and 2) See some cool history about the Chisholm Trail and the land rush of Oklahoma.

About a week after that, I ventured to the East Coast for almost a week. I got into BWI on Thursday afternoon, before Labor Day weekend. I saw a few friends Thursday night, met up with Courtney for dinner, slept in Columbia, and saw just about everyone that I know in Pikesville throughout the day on Friday. While it was very difficult because Yoni couldn't come with me, it was wonderful to see everyone! I then stayed at Shuki and Cyrel's house for Shabbat, and my Mom came by Saturday morning to walk with me to the Chabad shul for my cousin Menachem's Bar Mitzvah. Most of the family was in town, so it was nice to see all of them as well! Menachem did a wonderful job as a Bar Mitzvah and spoke beautifully - what a good kid (or I guess I should say "man").

The following day, I caught an early flight to Albany, NY where my Dad picked me up at the airport to drive into Massachusetts for another cousin's wedding (a weekend full of simchas!)
Alyson and Phil had a gorgeous wedding outside in the amphitheater at the camp where they met each other. In addition to the enjoyment of seeing even more family, I was glad to attend simply for the beauty of the wedding itself and their wonderful relationship.

Here's a picture of me with the family before the wedding:
















The chuppah:

















My "money shot" as they ran back up the aisle as a married couple:

















The morning following the wedding, we joined the whole family for a brunch and then I headed back to Columbia, MD with my family. Tuesday morning I got my teeth cleaned (can't be in the town with the best dentist in the country and not get my teeth cleaned) and Michael took me to the airport to head back home to Yoni!

While this was a wonderful trip, I slept a different place every night for five nights and wore myself a little too thin. Needless to say, it took a few days to recover upon my return.

Then, lo and behold - Rosh Hashana was upon us! (How does time fly so quickly?)

Yoni was able to work really hard all week and do some things in advance to get released a bit early on Friday erev Rosh Hashana. This allowed us time to drive down to Dallas and spend the holiday with his family. Shuki, Cyrel, Sara Na'ava, and Gavi also came in town, so it was nice to see everybody.
Unfortunately, the weekend was not a typical Rosh Hashana in the community. Monday before Rosh Hashana, Cyrel's sister Shifra (who lives in Dallas - her husband is a kollel Rabbi), had a son. Thank G-d, the baby is doing very well. Shifra, however, contracted an infection and remains in critical condition at the hospital. The Doctors hope that with her age, and G-d's help, she should slowly be able to fight back and beat the infection in each organ. During these days with the Gates of Prayer wide open, we all prayed (and continue to pray) our hearts out that she should have a refuah shlema (complete health/recovery).

While it is not easy to see anybody go through something like this, especially someone so close to those you love, one thing about this situation continued to speak to me over Rosh Hashana, and throughout the whole week. So many people go to shul on Rosh Hashana, then come home, eat a meal and take it easy. They may go for a little walk, relax with a book, etc. Well not this Rosh Hashana. During every free moment that we were not in shul or eating, people arranged groups to read Tehillim, learn Mishnah, etc. The number of people whose prayer was enhanced in her merit must be in the hundreds.

It's often difficult to see the Divine reasons behind difficult experiences. Bitachon (trust in G-d's ways) is easy when things are going well. It's much more difficult to have that kind of faith when people you love suffer. For whatever reason Hashem made Shifra sick, I see so clearly how many lives she's been able to touch in such a short time by inspiring heartfelt tefillot (prayers) and commitments to learning Torah. Now we continue to pray that the merit her neshama (Shifra Bracha bat Mindel Fraid) receives from the davening will allow her body to regain its strength and have a full recovery.



For Yom Kippur, we are going to Oklahoma City, and then we plan to spend Sukkot here at Vance AFB. Our sukkah is already nearly assembled! All that's left is the light, schach (roof) and decorations (my department)! I am very excited, as this is actually my first sukkah ever. Here are some cute pictures of Yoni in the process of assembly, and hopefully we'll take some nice ones throughout the holiday to share in a later entry. :)

Two weeks of family time and now the training begins!

Before Tisha b'Av, we headed down to Dallas to spend the long weekend with the Spigler family! These are Yoni's cousins from Israel who spent three weeks visiting Dallas. We had a wonderful time doing activities with them and spending some quality time together. We hadn't seen them in two years since Yoni and I were in Israel for the summer. The five children (Miriam - 10, Eliana - 8, Rachelli - 5, Ze'ev - 3, and Yehuda - 1) also had a great time with Libby. After the initial few hours of timidation, they warmed up quickly, and even became great playmates for her! They all learned how to make her sit and fetch, and during meal time they became her best friends as she sat by their side waiting for anything to drop.

That weekend, we left kind of early on Sunday, because we had to make it back home to prepare the house/kitchen for the rest of the week, and our next visitor! Early Monday morning, I left to pick my Mom up at the Wichita airport. She came with me to work that day, then we came home for dinner. On Tuesday, we spent the whole day getting things done around the house and running a few errands in town, then the three of us took the Turnpike into Tulsa to see Wicked. I saw it once with the girls in college when we did a road trip to New York, but my Mom and Yoni hadn't seen it, so we all had a great time - what a good show! It was also enjoyable to go into the city for the evening. We have yet to really venture to Tulsa, and it's really a nice city. Hopefully we'll get to make it there for a few more ocassions before our time in Oklahoma comes to a close.






















After the fun-filled week with Mommy visiting, we went back down to Dallas for the weekend! Now, in addition to the whole Spigler family, Shuki, Cyrel, Sara Na'ava and Gavi came in town as WELL as Mom and Dad. It was a fun-filled, quick weekend, but wonderful to be with so much family!

On Sunday, we went on a daytrip with everyone to the Fort Worth Stockyards.

















Neither Cyrel nor I had ever been there, and of course it was a first for all of the kids. We all hung out for a while as people took turns posing on the longhorn steer.

(Here's Sara Na'ava with her Savta - if you look closely, the steer was peeing while they sat there...)























All the Spigler kids!




















Yoni felt quite in his element -


























Ze'ev also had a great time -



















Yehuda missed some of the fun, but he seemed quite content -

























After walking around for a bit and finishing our picnic, we took a nice long train ride past downtown and back again. Here's everyone waving to the train as it pulled into the station:






















Here's Yoni and me on the train:




















Cyrel watching Gavi's excitement as he acted out the whole train ride with "toot toots", the arm pumps, and all, as he stared out the window :




















It was very cute - Sara Na'ava almost fell asleep on Eliana's shoulder while they were gazing out the window on the ride back:





















Aww - cousins Yoni and Ze'ev:




















Sara Na'ava, Miriam, and Rachelli:





















Adorable picture of Rachelli with Ze'ev:



















All in all, it was wonderful seeing everyone and spending so much time together!

Now, back to life in Enid -
The week we returned from all of the family adventures, Yoni's academic phase of pilot training began! For six weeks he has normal length days of T-6 (the trainer he begins on) academics.
G-d willing, September 29th he'll hit the flight line and start the true intensity of pilot training. This will be quite a day - the day after Yom Kippur, my 23rd birthday, and Yoni hits the flight line!

It looks like we have a very busy, exciting few months ahead of us :)

Liberty Belle(y)'s Growing up!

Our little pup has been with us just over four months now. She's about 7 1/2 months old and has surpassed 50 pounds ... hard to believe from the 16 pounds she was when we first took her home.

She's grown out of her old sleeping position:
















I think that her legs have gotten too long for it to be comfy anymore...

But as she grows, she remains a scholar...



















More than her size, we've noticed the past few weeks that she's really maturing a lot from her little-puppy stage. Through these weeks, she has experienced a lot of milestones.
Last Tuesday was a humongous day for her!
We went on a family day trip to Oklahoma City. We first spent about two hours with the Goldman Family at their house. Libby was out back running and sunbathing most of the time, while Yoni made pizzas and we ate a nice lunch. Then, we let her in to play with the kids for a while. She was wonderful with the kids - pretty gentle and playful. The milestone came when one of the kids ran up the stairs, and Libby stood at the bottom in awe. I hadn't realized this, but she has never seen stairs before. We don't have any in our house, there are none in Dallas, and I guess it's something that you just don't think about from a puppy's point of view. Well, with a little bit of help, Libby cautiously traversed the steps both up and down for the first time. She couldn't do it gracefully quite yet, but it was really adorable.
Then, I went swimming with the Goldman girls all afternoon while Yoni took Libby to the Hefner Lake Dog Park (www.pawok.com). Unfortunately, we forgot the camera that day, but Libby swam for the first time!! There's a big lake there, and all it took was her seeing other dogs playing, then when Yoni threw the ball to the middle of the lake she ran in and splashed around to fetch it. She even swam a bit at places where she couldn't walk. We hope to take her back a few more times before the summer runs out. She really had a great time. Then to wrap up the day, we stopped by Wendy and Mike's house to say hi and Libby got to meet Carly (their dog) and have a little play date with her - just in case she wasn't tired enough already!!


One really positive outcome of that day is her increased cooperation in the bath. We gave her one today, and the combination of our increased puppy bathing skill, and her maturity, allowed for an easy, uneventful bath time. Here she is in the drying process:

















We also notice a lot of the poodle in her when it comes to some of her habits. Whether we're sitting there or not, her FAVORITE nap place is right under our little breakfast table. It's very sweet, when we do sit down, she uses our feet as her pillow. I think part of it is liking to feel close to us, but she also likes the shape of a shoe. She'll often go into our room, steal a shoe (usually Yoni's big ABU boots or Crocs), carry it to her nap place and use it as a pillow. Most puppies would steal a shoe to chew on, but not ours...she steals it to set up an ideal sleeping place.

July 4th Weekend

(This is Yoni typing now, by the way.) I need to give Michelle a huge thank you for the amazing birthday gift that she got for me this year. It's a custom guitar strap with my name on it and it has the Stars n' Stripes along with Stars of David along the tooled leather:












Yoni's parents came to visit us for the July 4th weekend, and we discovered that his parents had never spent Shabbat at our home before, though we have been married for over a year. Needless to say, it was a very special and joyous occasion. They rolled in at about 3:30 on Friday afternoon, so they had plenty of time to get ready before Shabbat, and they even tasted a few of the last-minute items we cooked, like fresh egg rolls and schnitzel fingers! Yoni bought a new grill in time for the 4th, a Mesquite grill/smoker combination that he says, "Grills meat with robust flavor to perfection!" Tasty, eh?

In preparation for a super-patriotic 4th weekend, Michelle and Yoni came up with a menu to delight the American taste-bud. Barbeque chicken (as pictured below) with homemade BBQ sauce (mmmmm molasses...), meatloaf, chicken pot pie, "American pie", pumpkin pie, etc... Michelle also made AMAZING pull-apart Challot for Shabbat:











We had a nice relaxing Shabbat followed by another special treat of a barbeque on Sunday!! Also, the weekend provided an interesting and amazing discovery. Michelle, Yoni, and Yoni's Pappy played catch in the backyard, while the grill warmed up, and we let Libby out to play with us. It's a great way to tire her out! She'd follow the ball and sometimes we'd let it go (by accident) so she could run after it, fetch, and drop it at our feet. She also looked adorable in her patriotic bandana Michelle made:










The barbeque included special Yoni-enhanced burgers (read: he marinates them in "Bone Suckin' Sauce") and hotdogs on the grill ... and what's a barbeque without pickles! (not on the grill...) We had a great time, especially because the weather cooperated. It didn't get above 85 that afternoon, so we ate outside and hung out there for a while until the flies invited their friends and the fly horde descended upon our happy little gathering and tried to claim our dinner for themselves. We summarily snubbed them by wolfing down the rest of the meat, potatoes, salad, and cantaloupe before those derned ol' flies could even get their mandibles on a burger bun!

Anyway, after our fun outdoor supper, Yoni's parents went back to the big city and we spent the afternoon lazily cleaning the house and napping. By napping, we really mean taking a two minute break from cleaning by sitting on the couch ... and waking up three hours later... All in all a great weekend!

The bugle call and the birdie

A little glance at our life on base:

THE BUGLE CALL:
Every weekday morning at 0700 we are greeted to the day by the bugle over loudspeaker playing Reveille. 1700 (5:00 PM) in the evening, Retreat and the Star-Spangled banner tell us the work day has come to an end and at 2100 (9:00 PM), Taps reminds us that it's time to be going to sleep.
At first, for a few months, I thought this was just a really nice way to give the day some rhythm. We would never sleep in too late, the Retreat in the evening reminded Yoni to daven Minchah, and I used Taps as an excuse to Yoni that we should get to bed ASAP (he likes staying up a bit later than me).
This past week, these daily occurences took on a new meaning for me.
Over Shabbat last week in Dallas, Pappy shared a very interesting D'var Torah. In the parashah, two consecutive pasukim discuss a bugle/trumpet call. One instance is when the Jewish people are at war. The other is at a joyful ocassion. How interesting to use the same means of communication and expression at such seemingly opposite events. What's the connection? What does the bugle call represent?
Well, commentary explains that the bugle serves as a reminder that it all comes from G-d. During war, it reminds us, "This too was sent by G-d for some reason." During a happy ocassion, when it's easy to get caught up in everything and be overcome with surface level joy, it reminds us, "Remember that G-d is to thank for all of these wonderful things."
So after hearing that D'var Torah over the weekend, I woke up to Reveille on Monday morning and at once my mind jumped to the meaning of the bugle in the parashah - a reminder that the good and the bad all come from G-d. How cool that three times every day we get our own personal bugle call - kind of convenient that the times coincide almost perfectly with Shacharit, Minchah, and Maariv...


THE BIRDIE:
The other day, on the way out the door to go to work, I saw a little creature struggling on the driveway. At first glance, I thought it was a bird that had gotten cut in half. I got a little grossed out and got in the car.
Yoni took me to work (he does that usually so he can use the car around Enid for a few hours). When he came to pick me up, he said that he went back home to check on the thing in the driveway and it turns out it was a baby bird who fell out of its nest and looked like it broke its wing. He called the housing office, who gave him the number for the Enid Wildlife Rescue. They told him to contact this older woman who lives downtown and nurses birds back to health.
He had to come get me before he could get the bird all boxed up in the car, so when I came home I helped him put it in a box and he took it to the "rehabilitation center." It turns out it was a little Starling, less than two weeks old. The lady said it will most probably live and be perfectly fine, but if Yoni hadn't called, it would have been dead by morning. Wow, what a mitzvah - I was proud!

Evidence that we're ready for a relaxing, quiet Shabbat at home...

For the first weekend in a month, we woke up on Friday morning with nowhere to go. We're staying home and having quiet, small meals. Yay! Now I know we've been getting pretty worn out and tired, but we always had a day here or there to recover a bit. Just now, as we were working together in the kitchen getting food prepared, I had a moment of, "Wow. This is why we need Shabbat."
All day I've been going back and forth from the computer room working on homework to the kitchen to check on food to the bedroom to change the sheets, etc. So anyone who knows me knows that my phone has already been misplaced a few times throughout the day. I wanted to make a call, so I asked Yoni if he has seen my phone. Of course he says, "I've seen it many times, but you've probably moved it a few times since then." So I proceeded to pick up the house phone and dial my number. After first dialing my old cell phone which has been out of service for six months, I dial the correct number, hear the ring, and start around the house in search of its location. Well, when I walked into the computer room it sounded like it was coming from the bedroom ... so then I walked into the bedroom and now it sounded like it was coming from the computer room. After walk and back half a dozen times, I fell on the floor cracking up. Yoni came to see what was so funny .... Well, lo and behold the phone was in the waist of my skirt the whole time...

That being said, we are quite excited for relaxing meals just the two of us, and a good calm day tomorrow of learning and rest.

Now an update on this last month that's kept us so busy...
(in a nutshell)
A wonderful Shavuot in Dallas, where Sandy and Libby are becoming fast friends:









Home for two days, then off to Baltimore/Columbia/DC/New York. We spent two days down in DC. I spent time with all of my friends from college. Yoni came for some of those dates, and spent some of the other DC time visiting the AFROTC detachment at University of Maryland and checking in with a lot of the music stores in the area which he used to frequent. We spent some good family time in Columbia, had a wonderful Shabbat in Pikesville, then drove up to NYC Sunday morning to get all settled into our Brooklyn hotel and go to AJ and Zoe's wedding. The wedding was beautiful. The venue, an old opera house, is exquisite!
Besides the wedding itself, I also had a good time staying in Boro Park. It's been a while since we ventured out there. It's quite the experience with lots of thought-provoking observations. Anyone who's never been to Boro Park, it is reminiscent of Meah Shearim in an American setting. Anyone who's never been to Meah Shearim ... picture New York streets packed wall to wall with lots of chareidi families. Even more than that, every single storefront is a Kosher restaurant or something having to do with Jewish life. Quite a contrast to Enid, Oklahoma.

We came home after a week, the following Wednesday. We had Thursday to reunite with Libby (who was being watched at home by the Wing Commander's high school-age children), unpack, repack, and then head off Friday morning down to Dallas. We spent a nice quiet Shabbat there, and then Sunday afternoon went to Shimon and Karen's wedding. Yoni's family has known Karen's family for a while in Dallas, and we also knew Shimon from Hopkins/Pickwick in Baltimore. Their wedding was the first that we've attended at Ohr Hatorah (the congregation in Dallas with a near brand-new building). Everything was gorgeous, and more importantly, they are a very cute couple and it was fun to watch the whole ocassion. On Friday, Yoni got recruited to accompany Chaim Lazarus in the singing under the chupah. They did a wonderful job: