My chug is bursting with flowers these days, just in time for Tu B’shvat. The top one is a circle which the creator stitched around and then pulled to make it puffy. You can sort of see where the thread is pulled. She used felt as the center of the flower and attached it to a headband. Apparently it was extremely popular amongst her classmates but not so much with a teacher who felt it would be more appropriate for Shabbat then in conjunction with the school uniform.
I’ve always loved the themes related to the Exodus, in particular the splitting of the sea. I have a few works related to that.
The first one is rather Moshe focused. Below are two more one is more people focused and the last one is Miriam and the women focused. Continue reading »
Here is a little project I did with my daughter. Its extremely easy and has all the right Tu B’shvat elements in terms of dried fruit, flowers or trees. Basically you take dried fruit (we used papaya), pretzels, and flower or circle shaped cookie cutters. Depicted are flowers but these are just as easy as trees.
Cut the dried fruit with the cookie cutters and use a pretzel to poke a hole in the bottom. If the pretzel breaks, eat it and use a different one. Use another piece of dried fruit as the ground. These work as either trees or flowers and seem to also work nicely as a candy replacement since they recall lollypops and those gummy candies. For a more tree-ish effect, raisins could be added as “fruit” or “flowers.”
And for anyone worried that we might be wasting food, not to worry, everything got eaten.
This weeks parsha is one of the places where the concept of sanctifying the first born comes up. Many years ago I was excited to have an opportunity to go to my first Pidyon Haben (although ironically I ended up being able to attend three over a period of about three months.) Because I was studying Jewish art, I knew that the platter the baby is placed on, was in the past decorated with the Zodiac and Akedat Yitzchak (sacrifice of Isaac.)
I decided to make a Zodiac pillow case, but with a little humour since it was intended for a family who liked (and still like) penguins. The text included is the first verse in this weeks parsha and some text from the Pidyon HaBen ceremony.
Pidyon Haben’s are not so common, I don’t remember any particular customs from the three that I attended. However, a recent Pidyon Haben in the family has revealed some Chasidish customs which include draping the baby in jewellery and serving garlic and sugar. Sugar apparently is a segula for something or other. I’m guessing that the drapping the baby in jewellery has something to do with the fact that in the past the jewellery drapped were actually amulets. Ashkenazi and Sephardi families did attach amulets to babies in the past and I would imagine this ceremony would be one where familes would want to avoid ayin hara (evil eye.) The garlic and sugar seems to be related to having lots of guests and wanting to have enough food for everyone who wanted to participate. You didn’t really have to worry about those two foods spoiling.
In addition to the bencher project, here is yet another way to help Bnei Akiva avoid financial ruin and support Bnei Akiva international programs (if you’ve missed my previous post on this subject and therefore the reference, see “Financial Ruin” and the Bnei Akiva Bencher project.) In honor of Bnei Akiva’s 80th anniversary, Bnei Akiva is partnering with Eddie’s travels for Pesach/Passover at Ramat Rachel in Jerusalem. It looks like lots of fun and exciting things are planned, and if you already were planning on going away with your family, here’s a great way to help Bnei Akiva at the same time.
Tu B’shvat is really about figuring out a date for terumot and maasrot-tithing (old fruits versus new fruits, which year they are from so the fruit could be given to the correct recipients.) In the Bnei Akiva bencher, we actually do include the blessing recited when taking terumot and maasrot, but I didn’t really want to do a post about that. Its not very crafty. I also wasn’t really interested in doing something about Tu B’shvat seders or dried fruit. Instead, I’m thinking about flowers. Before fruits become fruit they start as flowers, so there you go.
My daughter and I made pipe cleaner flowers with stockings as a very simple no sew project. We did some experimenting with coloring the stockings but mostly we used the stockings as-is.
In the chug we also seem to be focusing on flowers lately. Here is one flower barrette one of our participants made.
She chose to make this barrette after we looked at a bunch of different designs and styles online. I found a tutorial of how to make this one (and of course I’m having trouble finding it again to post a link to it now.) The idea behind this one is to make four flower shapes with six petals, fold them over and attach them in the middle. That provides the depth. This participant chose to use two colors for variety. Other floral barrettes that have been made recently include another flower made of felt, but using overlapping flowers of different sizes and a large fabric flower for a headband. I’ll post images of those soon.
Its quite unfathomable what people are going through in Haiti. More people are writing quite eloquently about what is going on there than I could. I just wanted to post some links to places that are helping. These are not the only places where one can donate, just a few suggestions. Feel free to add more in the comments section but readers please do your own due diligence regarding whether these are trusted charities.
Zaka Search and Rescue For those who don’t know about Zaka, its an organization founded as a result of terrorist attacks to ensure dignity and appropriate, quick burial of the dead. They work closely with the police in Israel and have provided their expertise during disasters throughout the world.The link is for American donations. For Israelis who want to donate:
Zaka-International
Bank of Jerusalem
Branch # 30
18 Keren Hayesod, Jerusalem, Israel
Account No: 300060134
Swift Code: JERSILIT
Google Crisis Relief Google has listed a variety of trusted charities for donations for the Haiti effort. In the past, during calamities, there have been people who took advantage and set up fake charities. So this list is useful.
Just to let you know- there was a little glitch in our email form that I only just discovered. If you have tried emailing us and we never responded, its not because we don’t like you but because we never received the email. If you want to be in touch you can try our form now or you can send an email to info at our site and we’ll be happy to answer any questions you have.
When we started the Bnei Akiva bencher project, we knew that it would be useful to Bnei Akiva as a fundraiser. Originally it was intended as a fundraiser for Bnei Akiva New York/New Jersey. For the second printing, we offered it to other regions as a fund raiser too. I think some members did not understand what to do with the project or how it would help.
However, in the last year or so, because of the economy, local Bnei Akiva regions are suffering due to cuts in funding. A recent article in Haaretz entitled “Zionist youth say they face financial ruin” points to the fact that the Jewish Agency has cut funding and therefore each of the 17 movements receive 80,000 NIS (about $21,000 as of posting) a year. This is for world-wide activities. Bnei Akiva has about 20 regions in North America which all require financing and need to do so locally.
What’s great about the bencher project is that it is an easy way for people to help their local regions without a direct donation. A bencher is something that people use anyway, so why shouldn’t Bnei Akiva be able to fund projects with it? It is also a project which doesn’t require alot of upfront work for local regions like bake sales, selling flowers or other items do. Its just a matter of letting people know that the project exists so that people who would be interested in using this bencher know that its available for use.
So spread the word! Let people know about the project! Ask us about the project and ask your local Bnei Akiva representatives too.
If you prefer to learn about it online please see:
My chug is bursting with flowers these days, just in time for Tu B’shvat. The top one is a circle which the creator stitched around and then pulled to make it puffy. You can sort of see where the thread is pulled. She used felt as the center of the flower and attached it to a headband. Apparently it was extremely popular amongst her classmates but not so much with a teacher who felt it would be more appropriate for Shabbat then in conjunction with the school uniform.
