From Wikipedia:
In Judaism, shiv’ah or shiva (Hebrew: שבעה ; “seven”) is the week-long period of grief and mourning for the seven first-degree relatives: father, mother, son, daughter, brother, sister, and spouse. (Grandparents and grandchildren are not included). As most regular activity is interrupted, the process of following the shiv’ah ritual is referred to as sitting [...]

I’m Jewish. Particularly Jewish. Jewish in many ways.
If you know my last name, you know that it’s unmistakeably Jewish. My Dad is from Brooklyn. My parents brought their two kids up in a very positive Jewish environment where we were active in our synagogue.  My brother and I attended a Jewish day school, Jewish summer [...]

“List on the 3s” is where I pick a date which happens to have a 3 in it and create a list of some sort. If you have any ideas for upcoming lists, please let me know. I’m really scraping the bottom of the barrel here…
This evening* was the end of the Jewish holiday of [...]

I went to a funeral today. It was for the mom of a co-worker and friend of mine.
She died on Wednesday after a long illness.  The funeral arrangements were announced verbally at work on Thursday, but that was my day off. An email announcement about the viewing and the funeral came out on Friday after [...]

I missed Yizkor today.
I linked to a more formal definition of Yizkor above, but I’ll also give you my own spin on it: four times a year (which coincide with the main pilgrimage holidays on the Jewish calendar) there is a special prayer service which is added into the regular liturgy for that day. Yizkor, [...]

I’m back! It was a very lovely weekend away from all things internet, although I missed it greatly. I had brought my laptop for a bit of offline reading (and some movie watching during downtime with a sleeping kid), and it was a weird feeling to have the Wi-Fi detect absolutely zero networks available. [...]

List on the 3s” is my semi-regular series for which I create and present a list of something whenever we hit a date on the calendar which includes a 3. My last one was on May 13. My next one will be on May 30. And then on May 31. And then June [...]

Av’s kindergarten orientation was Tuesday. This made us feel the following emotions (not necessarily in this order):
anxious, controlling, ecstatic, excited, happy, impatient, nervous, proud, sad, satisfied, serendipitous, surprised, unprepared, welcomed
I mean — this is our kid! This is a milestone for us! True, he’s been at a full-day program since several months after [...]

We’re drawing to the end of the Passover holiday which, according to many, ends this evening. (That in itself is a long story: the holiday is prescribed Biblically for seven days, and many traditional Jews not currently residing in Israel keep it for one extra day “just to be sure.” (That’s over-simplifying it, I know.) [...]

“What’s the deal with knishes?”
“Do your people really revere Barbra Streisand in a god-like fashion?”
“Can you get me a good deal on these shoes from your Uncle Murray in Teaneck who buys them wholesale?”
“What are matzah balls — and do you get them from self-abuse involving unleavened bread?”
All of these are questions you could ask [...]