My Baby Bottle Menorah

Each year as Hanukah approaches, I’m reminded of what I consider to be one of my finest parenting moments—weaning my son off of his baby bottle by having him help me turn all of his bottles into a giant menorah. Max was closing in on his third birthday and while he had long since successfully switched over to sippy cups, he was still insisting on a bottle at night to help him go to sleep. Some of our friends were advocating the “cold turkey” method and others were recommending a more slow and steady process. I finally hit upon the strategy after an afternoon of helping my Rabbi begin his preparations for Hanukah.

At the time I was a member of a Chabad synagogue and the rabbi spent the two weeks leading up to Hanukkah driving around with a giant menorah on the roof of his car. Helping him secure the menorah, I thought, “Viola” in a moment of divine inspiration. I rushed home and told Max: “In the next two weeks we’re going to build a giant menorah for Hanukah.”

“How will we build a menorah?” he asked.

“Well,” I said, pondering his question, “we need to use wood to make the frame. And we need something else to make the candle holders.” We went to our garage where I had a work area and we began laying out some scraps of wood that I kept around for home repair projects. With me using a real hammer and Max using his plastic hammer, we quickly put together a frame.

“What color should our menorah be?” I asked.

“Gold.” Max announced. “My teacher said a menorah is gold.”

We went to Home Depot and purchased the gold paint. We laid out a tarp and painted our frame a magnificent gold.

Over the next few days we searched the house looking for the right thing to hold the candles. Like in the Goldilocks story, some things were too big and others were too small. Finally, with some subliminal suggestions, Max tried out one of his bottles.

“Why that’s perfect!” I exclaimed. “Let’s try using al of your bottles for candleholders.”

Lo and behold, we found that we had realized that hoarded 9 bottles in our house, the exact number we needed to complete our baby bottle menorah.

“It’s a miracle,” I exclaimed as Max placed all the bottles in a row. “It’s the second miracle of Hanukah.”

Before Max realized what was happening, we painted his bottles a bright gold color, and I then mounted them onto the Menorah frame.

When we stood it up, standing before was a magnificent 5 foot tall golden Menorah just in time for Hanukah.

Max never asked for his bottle again, and we used the Menorah for a few years as a display on our front lawn. Just one word to the wise—if you do this- DO NOT put real candles into your bottle menorah. Plastic painted gold is still plastic, and you can only count on so many miracles!

Is there a blessing for the first day of school?!?

I just finished Amy Bergman’s “Back to School and Shul” posting from her blog, and I wanted to offer a Jewish spin on making the first day of school extra special for you and your child. Thousands of years ago, Jewish sages realized that there are life-changing events in our lives that invite a moment of thanks. They used the examples of building a new house or seeing an old friend after a very long time. They developed a special blessing called the “Shehecheyanu” to celebrate these unique moments.

As parents, we are always seeking teachable moments. The first day of school is full of excitement and it is the perfect moment for teaching our children that Judaism understands that special moments should be recognized, acknowledged and savored.

A more elaborate explanation of the Shehecheyanu, including the actual blessing and an MP3 file on how to say the blessing is located at the following link: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shehecheyanu

Enjoy the first day of school!

Candles in the Wind—Celebrating Shabbat on the Beach

I have a tradition with my family that every 6-8 weeks we celebrate “Shabbat on the beach.” I find that it really allows us to connect with the essence of Shabbat- celebrating the wonder of creation. I have seen God’s shadow at the beach; He whispers to us in the crash of the waves and the rush of the wind and she paints a priceless masterpiece with each sunset. It doesn’t take much to do Shabbat on the beach. Just pack a picnic dinner, but remember to bring along the wine/ grape juice, challah and candles. I will share my tried and true secret for keeping those candles lit on the beach.
Dig a whole about 1 ½ to 2 feet down
Place tin foil in the hole, making a special indentation with your thumb at the bottom for your candles. Leave enough foil on the top to make a wind guard
Place your candles a the bottom of your hole
Light away
Make sure you bless your children (see my previous post)

Here’s a great link for more details on celebrating Shabbat

http://urj.org/shabbat/blessings/

Let me know if you have any other ideas for making Shabbat special in your lives.

The Blessing of our Children

I want to give you a gift that will last you for the rest and your life and beyond. I’m hoping you take it seriously because I believe it can change the way you and your children see the world. I want to give you the tools to bless your children every Friday night.

Loving your children makes them part of your family. Blessing your children makes them part of a people. For thousands of years, Jews have blessed their children at the start of Shabbat. It usually takes place after the candles have been lit and before the meal.

Both of my children have been born on a Friday and outside of the rarest of instances where they have been away at Jewish overnight camp, I have blessed them every week of their lives. I’d like to believe it is the best part of any inheritance I will eventually leave them; the knowledge that they are not only loved, but blessed.

The full blessings, including an audio link so you can hear the blessings are below and were taken from the website http://www.aish.com/shabbathowto/fridaynight/blessing_the_children.asp

Roar if you love being Jewish

My hope is writing is to share some interesting ideas for Jewish families to celebrate Jewish life with their children and grandchildren in the Greater Palm Beach community. Some recommendations will be about upcoming Jewish programs and others will be on putting a “Jewish spin” on family programs.

Here’s a suggestion about making a trip to the zoo a Jewish program for you and your children. The Palm Beach Zoo has only recently started exhibiting their newest addition—a baby jaguar named Maya. Judaism has a special blessing for the birth of our children and for special events —the Shehecheyanu blessing. This special blessing allows us to give our thanks for new and rare events in our lives. I’d recommend you go visit Maya and when you see her for the first time, take your children in your arms, and say:

English
Blessed are You, Lord our God, Ruler of the Universe,Who has kept us in life, sustained us,and brought us to this moment.

Hebrew
בָּרוּךְ אַתָה יְיָ אֶלוֹהֵינוּ מֶלֶךְ הַעוֹלָם שֵהֵחְיָנוּ וְקִיְימָנוּ וְהִגִעָנוּ לַזְמַן הַזֶה

Transliteration
Baruch atah Adonai Eloheinu Melech ha'o'lam sheh'heh'cheh'ya'nu veh'ki'yeh'ma'nu veh'he'g'a'nu laz'man ha'zeh.

You can hear the blessing being said by clicking here: MP3 file

For more information on Maya and the Palm Beach Zoo, click here:
www.palmbeachzoo.org

Let me know if you’ve made it to see Maya and feel free to share your ideas for Jewish family program and events in the community.