The Raw and The Cooked

We bought a deli container of 500 lady bugs from our local garden store, and over the weekend, released them in our front yard. We decided front yard vs. backyard, because we didn’t want our chickens (‘the girls’) to feast on them. The rest of our week was filled with playgrounds, a trip to the botanic garden, and the nature playscape, three swimming lessons, a pediatrician appointment, the installation of our new cooktop, and piano lessons. The sabbath was a much needed and appreciated reprieve from the laundry, and the cooking, and the packing and unpacking of the minivan.

If you can believe it, this is our final week with the book of Numbers, or in Hebrew called Bemidbar, meaning “in the wilderness.” It was a wild journey, that’s for sure. Today is yet another double parsha, where we talk about vows and promises, laws concerning murder, women’s rights to inherit. It also goes through the narrative of all the stops the Israelites took from Egypt to the Promised Land.

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I hope everyone had a great Fourth of July! We didn’t do much, since it fell over Shabbos (and don’t forget the oppressive heatwave / and raging thunderstorms, to boot), though I really loved that the big 250 coincided with Shabbos, because it gave us time to reflect, pause, and express gratitude to Hashem for this glorious country, who has been so good to us. Think for just a moment about how good an American Jew has it, the opportunity, the freedom. I thought a lot about both my grandfathers upbringings; one born in Czechoslovakia, and the other a first generation American. How radically different their first 24 years of life were. Either way, they each raised their children here, on American soil, and after tons of hard-work, determination, perseverance, gratitude, and a bit of Hashems charm, they rest easy, knowing how much better they had it than their grandfathers. We are so lucky to be Americans, thank you Hashem, for this miracle of a country.

This weeks Parsha is Pinchas. Which doesn’t have a very clear arc, it seems to be a bit all over the place, but it does hold several interesting themes nonetheless. It opens with violence (which ends up being rewarded), a new census taken, leadership being appointed, land about to be divided, the festival calendar repeated, daughters asking for inheritance. Let’s dive in!

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We started last week off with a fantastic Fathers Day brunch at my in-laws. I brought homemade bagels (recipe here), we had the whole local St. Louis family, plus my husbands sister, visiting from NYC, and it set a really nice tone for the week. Relaxed, slow-paced, and easy. If I could draft up a perfect summer week, this past week would be it. We’re walking into our second (third?) heatwave of the summer this week, which…. isn’t fun. Especially for my chickens. They don’t particularly care for frozen watermelon rinds, but maybe they’ll get desperate enough this time.

Meanwhile. We open with another double parsha, which is kind of a shame, because each one, Chukat and Balak, are each profound in their own way, and I really wish I could dedicate one full post to each. Oh well. Chukat, because Israel is given a very interesting punishment, but also the cure, it deals with the death of Aaron and Miriam, and there’s a lot of unpack. And Balak. Well. That’s the story of the talking donkey, and again. Could be its own post. I’m going to do my very best this week. Especially since I’m writing this day of, with a baby on my hip.

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