A Shabbat Adventure (With a Skokie Aside)

This past Shabbat, Tuvia and I were in Chicago staying in Lincoln Park, just a short schlep south of my old shul. On Friday, after a lengthy (read: 4-mile nonstop) trek in Skokie* to search out Zelda's kosher sweets, Ken's (kosher) diner (which was closed) and as a result Breadsmith (a delicious kosher bakery), we headed back to our hotel to get cleaned up and head off to shul.

We arrived almost at the end of mincha, but in time for evening services. They were being held downstairs, and the place was packed and became more packed as the services went on. I saw plenty of familiar faces, as well as a lot of unfamiliar faces. The rabbi wasn't there (which bummed me out), but the usual crowd was enough to make me feel at home. We went into the evening not knowing where we'd eat Shabbos dinner, but hoping for the kindness of others to fall upon us. Luckily, the hostess with the mostest, Miriam (one-half of the outstanding musical duo Stereo Sinai) invited us over to dine. I'll admit I've always loathed tofu, outside of the tofu I've had in an old friend's vegan lasagna, but after our Shabbos dinner, I'm sold. It was a vegetarian feast paired with conversation running the gamut of conversion, observance, movies, and our great (and sometimes irrational) fears. The next day, thanks to exhaustion and a great deal of pain (I have the knees of an 80 year old, I can't lie), we slept in and enjoyed the Chocolate Chip Challah Muffins for lunch. Shabbat sort of came and went, quite quickly, but the experience over all was incredibly restful, and it was nice to be home back in a place that made me quite happy for a time.

* = As an aside, our time in Skokie was pretty interesting. The 4-mile trek was absolutely painstaking, as the weather was pretty darn warm, and my knees are in really, really horrible shape. The buses don't run in any convenient way near the locations where we were going, so we had to walk and walk and walk. It was a silent, grumpy trip that sort of ruined my day (sorry, Tuvia). We arrived at Ken's, only to find out it was closed, but I did find this HILARIOUS poster in the window that I can't help but share. We went next door to a Judaica shop where a nice frum guy attempted to help us figure out a place to eat and even offered us a ride if we'd wait around an hour till he closed up. Tuvia ended up buying me a nice pair of Jewish star earrings from the fellow, too, while I hit up Breadsmith for some challah and peanut butter (which is so rich I'll only be using it for COOKIES). After there we schlepped off to find Zelda's, a store I've purchased from frequently online but never in-person. It wasn't that impressive of a store, and I much prefer the mystique of the online business. We left there and walked -- MORE -- to a place described to us by one of Zelda's shop girls donning a cross (ironic, if you ask me) that led us a bit astray. Finally? We found a bus and headed back toward the city. My knees were never happier. And all the while, we never once got our kosher meal up in Skokie. What a bummer!

A Chicago-Inspired Tzedakah Goal!

Having just returned from a five-day trek to Chicago for a little vacation (I'm on Spring Break this week, huzzah!), I will be writing a few different installments about my trip -- some uber-Jewish, some not. Enjoy!

In an effort to increase the returns on karma, I have decided to give tzedakah every day. Yes, EVERY day. I've made plans to commandeer Tuvia's UJF tzedakah box (though I have yet to mention this to him) that his mother sent his way, since we have a nice, new Purim-inspired, Chabad-issued tzedakah box at Tuvia's place. The effort was sort of randomly begun while we visited Chicago after I found myself giving twice in a series of days to jewish causes.

On Friday, while at Breadsmith -- a delicious kosher bakery in Skokie and Lakeview that dishes out amazing challahs, and interesting jars of peanut butter (including a jar that was almost taken from us at security -- chocolate chip cookie dough peanut butter!) -- I was procuring two chocolate chip challah "muffins" while Tuvia spoke with a nice Jewish man in the next shopping center over about our options for a kosher lunch. I saw the run-o-the-mill tzedakah box on the counter and threw my change (about a dollar's worth) into the box. A few days later, on Sunday, while waiting to get brunch at my favorite "kosher style" diner in Chicago -- Eleven City Diner -- I saw another Jewishly oriented charity box on the counter, dug through my purse and pockets and threw some change in. It was then that I decided and made the vow to donate a little every day. So Monday, in an effort to continue the trend, I took our two seven-day passes -- both with three full days left on them -- and passed them on to complete strangers preparing to buy their OWN CTA bus/train cards at the airport.

Now, I'm not saying I'm going to give $20 every day, neither am I intending on only giving a dollar in change every day. The amounts will vary, and I will do my best to document them as such. I always end up with some change taking up space. My old method was to chuck it all into my personally painted piggy bank that I made years ago when in high school (or was it college?). Piggy banks scream "treyf," so I'm going to pack the little piggy away and replace it with the UJF tzedakah box until I manage to get a more fancy tzedakah box.

I'm blogging about this in the hopes that perhaps others will see how easy it is to give just a little bit every day. Whether it's $20, 50 cents, or something in between, every little bit can make every little bit of a difference. I'll be blogging EVERY DAY in order to log my efforts, hoping that maybe I can inspire a few other bloggers to do the same. If it becomes excessive? Well, I'll probably set something up and merely put a link to it on the side.

Until then ...

And Your People Shall be My People.

So it's late, but I wanted to do a quick spiel about my evening, on which I will (hopefully) elaborate tomorrow.

I trekked up to Skokie from Hyde Park (where I work), which took me more than 2.5 hours. I arrived just in time for the event, but without time for dinner. So my dinner actually consisted of a mini scone and two pieces of some type of pumpkin bread. Delish! I'd eat now, but, well, it wouldn't be right, and I'm exhausted. I got a chance to catch the rabbi before he went up to start the event, and he said to look for him after, which, unfortunately, didn't happen. The place was packed with Jews of all stripes and designs, and it was, in a word, glorious. (Note: Will write tomorrow about my attire, feeling about being there, etc.)

The event itself was quite surprising -- the crowd was incredibly conservative, to the right, that is. The two speakers debated a variety of issues, but it mostly focused on Israel and what is good for the Jews in election 2008. Of course, the best thing that was said was by the left figure, who told a quip about two men in a boat and how there was a hole in the boat, and quite frankly the one sitting on the side without the hole wouldn't laugh at the other guy and say "ha ha! you're going to get wet!" For the entire ship would sink, silly. In this respect we see that asking what is good for the Jews is good and well, but what is good for the whole is also important. Overall the debate didn't really turn me one way or another, and it seemed the crowd was leaning heavily toward McCain (war, blah blah). It was disheartening, to say the least, especially because the crowd wasn't of the particularly frum variety (from what I could tell, anyhow, but looks can be deceiving as we know).

After the event I found myself staring out the building's large glass windows at thunder and lightning, not to mention a complete barrage of rain. I didn't want to stand outside in the rain waiting for a bus, and then a train, and then a bus. I didn't want to call a cab, either. I was tired, and hadn't even planned on staying until the end, but there I was. So one rabbi talked to some people and found a girl in the crowd who also lived sort of near me (not really, she's over near the Western brown line, actually, but the thought!), and together we realized that neither of us had cars and we were imperiled. So we talked to another rabbi's wife and she talked to some people and they talked to some people and we got a ride to one place and then a ride home from the rabbi's wife.

THIS, folks, is why I love the Jewish community. We may only be 1.7 something percent of the population, but we care. We make it work. We take care of each other! So I have to thank the rebbitzin for her kindness. I also have to say that the other girl, whom I gave one of my fancy new business cards (sporting Chavi, at that) so she could get in touch with me about maybe going to the Modern Orthodox shul over near here. I feel okay that I didn't eat dinner and trekked from one end of the city to the other and will be a bear in the morning as such. Why? Well, because tonight was one of those nights where I feel like I'm home again.

Birthright and Graduate School Things and Stuff!

I'm going to the Great Debate up in Skokie tonight. The trek from Hyde Park to Skokie and then back home late this evening is going to be, well, less than fun. The mapping of public transit has been fun (not really) and I'm going largely because I need to meet a rabbi there face to face so he can okay that I'm a real, live Jew so that I can get the final confirmation on a Birthright trip. These are the hoops, and I'm jumping through them. The interesting thing is that even if I meet the rabbi, and even if he crosses the Ts and dots the Is, it doesn't guarantee me a spot. And that, well, that's frustrating. For those wondering, the event itself is basically a debate between a Republican and Democrat about who Jews should vote for. I figure if anything, it will definitely be interesting, and I feel for some reason that Hillary is going to come out on top (which, well, isn't who I'm voting for).

In other, perhaps more exciting, news, I sent in my acceptance to the University of Connecticut today. After visiting both campuses, I think my decision was made for me. I wrote up a letter to the University of Michigan explaining that them having no financial assistance completely deterred me from even considering them, which was unfortunate because that was the top cookie last year and when I initially applied this year. And Brandeis? Well, some things are better left just left alone. And that's okay. The sort of crappy thing now is that I have to start thinking about PhD programs, since, well, I'll have to apply for a PhD program in less than two years from now. Yikes. I suppose I should really hammer out what I want to study though. I cling to the Middle Ages, Rashi and his daughters and the legend of them therein. In fact, a friend recently e-mailed me about it and I was staunchly defending that the things surrounding Rashi's daughters is just that -- legend. The only widely known incidences of women openly donning tefillin from back in the day were King Saul's daughter Michal and a few other noble women.

Anyhow. The point is, I have a graduate school set up. Now I need to buy a T-shirt, get housing, get a meal plan so I can enjoy the feast of the Kosher dining facility, get hooked up with the Hillel, and, you know, other things along those routes.

I'm excited, I'm stoked, I'm ready.