A friend shared her plans for a \u201cgreat\u201d day off. This included a deep dive into her refrigerator to clean things out. This household task is necessary. Food safety is important, but that doesn\u2019t make it fun. When the kitchen is completely clean and there\u2019s nothing growing where it shouldn\u2019t, it\u2019s a relief. I also feel much better after a big clean up, even when it\u2019s an effort.<\/p>\n
I\u2019m studying the Babylonian Talmud Tractate Zevachim, which is about how sacrifices must be done in the Temple, including what is prohibited. It\u2019s mostly an intellectual exercise. The rabbis discussing this all lived after the destruction of the Second Temple. They were ironing out the minutiae, even when the whole sacrifice infrastructure no longer existed. Some see this debate as a grand effort of the imagination. Others read it to witness ancient legal debate in action. Many ask what we draw from these rabbinic texts today.<\/p>\n
Since I\u2019m a mom with twin teenage boys who eat a lot, I think about it practically. The concept of piggul <\/i>pops up often. This is a disqualified offering, a sacrifice that cannot be accepted because the priest\u2019s plan is to eat the sacrifice after the correct time for doing so. In modern terms, imagine purchasing food for a family gathering with deep spiritual meaning, but intending to wait to cook and serve it after its \u201cbest before\u201d date. \u201cHere, beloved relatives, please have this expensive roast that I chose to spoil before cooking!\u201d It feels like a rabbinic prohibition that says: \u201cIt\u2019s disqualified and forbidden to make a holy sacrifice this way because it\u2019s wrong to give people food poisoning.\u201d It\u2019s bad housekeeping.<\/p>\n
This food poisoning reference is meant in jest! Yet, sometimes we forget to be grateful and celebrate the amazing foods and gatherings that our families and friends offer us. One of my teens is taking a food and nutrition elective at school. This wasn\u2019t a class he rushed to sign up for but he\u2019s learning a lot. When he missed classes due to a field trip, he cooked at home instead. This kid likes to be our salad chef, but now he\u2019s learning to make muffins, cakes and pancakes. He\u2019s suddenly aware of how much goes into making meals. He now feels bad when he sees that I\u2019ve produced (yet another) dinner without help, or when his dad stays up late frying eggs or making pancakes for breakfast the next morning. We don\u2019t want our kid to feel bad. It\u2019s both our duty and gift to our kids to feed them well, but I\u2019m thrilled that he\u2019s learning what goes into this labour so he can contribute, too.<\/p>\n
I\u2019m a \u201cmaker.\u201d I find meaning in making things by hand, whether it\u2019s sewing clothing, spinning yarn and knitting sweaters, or baking bread. The calm and focus I feel while making things is one of my life pleasures. Still, the drudgery of producing endless meals or sewing 10 pairs of pyjama pants for fast-growing twins can seem less pleasurable.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n Since I have high standards for how things are made, my household often claims it is hard to buy gifts for me \u2026 so they don\u2019t. (Note: I give them lists, I point out things I admire by other artisans and even voice when something is too expensive!) This past week, I gave myself a gift instead.<\/p>\n First, I came up with easy meals. I arranged grocery pick up so that the rest of the household could do it and then put the items away. Next, I lined up several necessary, but enjoyable, making activities that I wanted to do when I didn\u2019t have work deadlines. As the week unfurled, I spent hours at the sewing machine and hand-sewing. I knitted and read. I took long dog walks. I relished wearing new flannel PJs that I\u2019d just made myself and using new dishtowels I\u2019d sewn. I even sewed a new,\u00a0<\/span>natural-fibre oven mitt rather than shop for a subpar one.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n On Friday, I scheduled a walk by myself to two well-regarded artisan markets. I didn\u2019t buy much. I came home with a new pottery service piece (for family food production), an industrial sweater pin made by Cloverdale Forge, a blacksmith, and a lot of inspiration for future creativity.<\/p>\n My weekend was also a big present. Our incredible cantor, Leslie Emery, was formally installed at Congregation Shaarey Zedek, though she has worked in our community for many years. My children and I chanted Torah at her installation Shabbat service. We heard amazing music at a Saturday night concert. We celebrated our cantor as a community. It was full of love.<\/p>\n The congregational installation guest was Elana Arian, an accomplished Jewish composer, performer and educator. It turned out I knew who she was. When I attended and worked at what used to be called UAHC Kutz Camp \u2013 the international leadership summer camp for Reform Jewish teenagers in Warwick, NY \u2013 Elana was one of the children running around. Her parents, Rabbi Ramie and Merri Arian, often came to teach at Kutz Camp. It was a full-circle moment to hear this Jewish musical talent at my congregation. I remembered the joyful little kid she\u2019d been at summer camp, too.<\/p>\n Elana Arian taught us a song from her new album, If We Loved Like That<\/i>, which is based on the talmudic teaching to \u201clove your neighbour as yourself.\u201d First, Elana pointed out \u2013 we need to love ourselves. Sometimes, making time to do this great service, to love ourselves, feels like too much. It\u2019s too hard to offer ourselves a clean\u00a0<\/span>refrigerator or a staycation of rejuvenating creative work. It\u2019s too much work to learn to chant a new Torah reading. Fact: we often don\u2019t make time to go to bed early or sleep late, make and eat healthy food or take a long walk. Yet, these are the greatest gifts we can offer ourselves.<\/p>\n Don\u2019t do \u201cpiggul\u201d and eat spoiled meat. Carve out time, when you need it, to honour yourself and do things right. By extension, those chores for family, community and the world will feel easier. As one of Elana\u2019s famous songs goes, \u201cI have a voice. My voice is powerful. My voice can change the world \u2026\u201d \u2013 but to be the most powerful you? You need to fill your own cup up first.<\/p>\n Joanne Seiff <\/b>has written regularly for the <\/i>Winnipeg Free Press and various Jewish publications. She is the author of three books, including <\/i>From the Outside In: Jewish Post Columns 2015-2016, a collection of essays available for digital download or as a paperback from Amazon. Check her out on Instagram @yrnspinner<\/a> or at joanneseiff.blogspot.com<\/a>.<\/i><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" A friend shared her plans for a \u201cgreat\u201d day off. This included a deep dive into her refrigerator to clean things out. This household task is necessary. Food safety is important, but that doesn\u2019t make it fun. When the kitchen is completely clean and there\u2019s nothing growing where it shouldn\u2019t, it\u2019s a relief. I also […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[218,8302,24474,24475,2231],"class_list":["post-47977","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-op-ed","tag-judaism","tag-lifestyle","tag-piggul","tag-self-love","tag-talmud"],"blocksy_meta":{"styles_descriptor":{"styles":{"desktop":"","tablet":"","mobile":""},"google_fonts":[],"version":8}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/47977","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=47977"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/47977\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=47977"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=47977"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=47977"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}