What does Next Year in Jerusalem mean to you?

If you are not living in Israel, you need to move to Israel NOW!!
Look at all the things you are missing.

Pesach Shopping

You know exactly what you can buy in every Store. and in many store everything is without Kitniyot.

The White plastic film covering the shelves of Chametz is what our local store dose, but a lot of stores remove all Chametz completely weeks before Pesach.

All the Dairy is Kosher for Pesach at least a week before Pesach.

I personal like Rami Levi Mehadrin in Givat Shaul, Jerusalem. The products have no Kitniyot.

Sephardic Chief Rabbi Yosef “Today thank God most of the nation of Israel is here in the land of Israel.”

Be part of the Majority. Make Aliyah Today!

It’s time to come home! Nefesh B’Nefesh: Live the Dream 1-866-4-ALIYAH UK 0800 075 7200 Come home to the Land of Emuna

Click the Banner for www. nbn.org.il

Be sure to try out a Wonder Pot-סיר פלא. It is great when you do not have a Kosher for Pesach large oven. You can use it like an oven on the stovetop.

Wonder Pot (Hebrew: סיר פלא‎, seer peh-leh) is an Israeli invention for baking on top of a gas stove rather than in an oven. It consists of three parts: an aluminium pot shaped like a Bundt pan except smooth-sided rather than fluted, a hooded cover perforated with venting holes, and a thick, round, slightly domed metal disc with a center hole that is placed between the pot and the flame.A Wonder Pot can be used to bake cakes, casseroles, rice, potatoes, apples, and even meat and chicken.

Pesach Wonder Pot סיר פלא Recipe – Baked Potato סיר פלא-תפוחי אדמה

• Place 6 – 10 small or Medium Potatoes in the bottom of the Wonder Pot סיר פלא, they can even be standing up,
• Place lid on and Bake on Medium Heat
• Check the Potatoes
  Medium Potatoes – 1 hour: If they are soft and done. If not fully baked cook for another 30 minutes

You can also Cut up Potatoes, Yams, Sweet Potatoes, Carrots, Beets, or any vegetable into chunks or slices. Drizzle Olive Oil on top and Bake

Pesach Wonder Pot סיר פלא Recipe – Potato Knishes

Pesach Wonder Pot סיר פלא Recipe

Potato Knishes

5 Cups mashed potatoes

3 eggs

¾ Cup matzoh meal

salt and pepper to taste

chopped up fresh garlic optional

2 onions

olive oil to line pot

Brown onions and garlic (if using) in pan. Mix everything except matzoh meal and roll into big balls and roll in matzoh meal, place in wonder baker all around, and bake for ½ hour and check and then another ½ hour til cooked, check so it doesn’t burn. Use a medium flame. Absolutely delicious.

Carol Umbehocker’s Delicious Squash Kugel for Passover

Baked Squash Kugel for Passover

3 lb. (1.36 Kg) Yellow summer squash

½ Cup chopped onions

½ Cup Matzoh meal

2 eggs

1/2 Cup of vegetable oil or 1 stick margarine (Kitniyot) divided in half

1 teaspoon Salt or to taste

1 Tablespoon. sugar

½ teaspoon pepper to taste

Wash and cut up the squash. Boil until tender. Drain thoroughly, then mash. Add all ingredients to squash and ½ stick of melted margarine.

Melt remaining margarine. Pour mixture into baking dish then spread melted margarine over top and sprinkle with matzo meal.

Bake at 350 degrees F or 180 degrees C for 1 hour or until top is brown.
TOP

Try fresh steamed vegetables as a side dish

Pesach Wonder Baker Pot סיר פלא Recipe-Wonder Pot Classic Cake By: Yaara Holtzman

http://www.kan-naim.co.il/artical.asp?id=4462

“מתכוני פסח מיוחדים ל”סיר פלא

זוכרים את ’סיר-הפלא יש לו תחייה מחודשת מכינים בו עוגות, שאגב לא מביישות אף אופה מקצועית, על… הגאז!

מאת: יערה הולצמן

זוכרים את ’סיר-הפלא?’ כן, סיר המתכת העגול עם החור, שהסבתות שלנו, השתמשו בו בימי ה’צנע’? ובכן, יש לו תחייה מחודשת! היות ולהרבה משפחות אין תנור מיוחד לפסח ולא כולם נוהגים להכשיר את התנור הרגיל. לפיכך, מכינים עוגות, שאגב לא מביישות אף אופה מקצועית, על… הגאז!

עוגת ’סיר פלא’ קלאסית

החומרים:

• 6 ביצים מופרדות
• 1 כוס סוכר
• ¾ כוס קמח תפוחי אדמה
• ¾ כוס שמן
• 1 כוס אגוזים קצוצים
• 1 כפית קינמון
• 1 תפוח עץ או גזר
• 1 אבקת אפיה

אופן ההכנה:

מערבבים את החלמונים עם ¾ כוס סוכר ומוסיפים את קמח תפוחי האדמה, האגוזים, אבקת האפייה, השמן והקינמון. מגררים תפוח עץ או גזר ומוסיפים לתערובת.

בנפרד, מקציפים את החלבונים עם ¼ כוס סוכר. מוסיפים לתערובת בתנועות קיפול.

משמנים את ’סיר הפלא’ ושופכים פנימה את התערובת. סוגרים את הסיר. מחממים את טבעת המתכת המיוחדת שרוכשים עם סיר ’ואופים’ ע”ג אש בינונית – נמוכה, למשך ¾ שעה.

עוגת שלוש שכבות

החומרים:

• 6 ביצים מופרדות
• 2 כפות קקאו
• 2 כפות קמח תפוחי אדמה
• 1 חבילה קוקוס
• 3 כפות שמן
• 2 כפות יין
• 1 אבקת אפייה

אופן ההכנה:

להקציף חלבונים עם 1 כוס סוכר. בנפרד להקציף חלמונים עם ½ כוס סוכר. להוסיף לתערובת החלמונים שמן, קקאו, קמח תפוחי אדמה ויין.

מחצית מקערת החלבונים המוקצפים להכניס לקערת החלמונים בתנועות עטיפה. לקצף החלבונים הנותר להוסיף את הקוקוס.

לשמן את ’סיר הפלא’ ולשפוך את מחצית מתערובת החלמונים לסיר.

להוסיף את קצף החלבונים והקוקוס ולשטח על גבי השכבה השנייה בעזרת כף.

לשפוך את יתרת תערובת החלמונים מלמעלה. לסגור את הסיר. לחמם את טבעת המתכת המיוחדת שרוכשים עם הסיר ו’לאפות’ ע”ג אש בינונית – נמוכה, למשך ¾ שעה.

* הכותבת יערה הולצמן, למדה עיצוב, ועבדה בתור ארט-דירקטורית וקופירייטרית במשרדי פרסום שונים. כיום היא עסוקה בעיקר בגידול ילדים, בישול וספונג’ה, ובין לבין היא גם “חוטאת” בכתיבה.

* מובא באדיבות אתר aish של “אש התורה” שהיא רשת בינלאומית וא-פוליטית של מרכזים לחינוך יהודי.

Special Passover Wonder Pot recipes

{This is a traslation into English via Google}
Remember the wonder pot has a reassertion prepare cakes, which by the way is not put to shame even a professional baker, the … gas!
By: Yaara Holtzman

Remember the ‘wonder pot?’ The metal pot with a round hole, our grandmothers, used during H’tzna? Well, it has a revival! Since many families have no special oven for Passover and not all of them tend to use the regular oven. Therefore, make cakes, which by the way is not put to shame even a professional baker, the … gas!

Wonder Pot Classic Cake

Ingredients:

6 eggs, separated
1 cup sugar
¾ cup potato flour
¾ cup oil
1 cup chopped nuts
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1 apple or carrot
1 baking powder

Preparation:

Mix the egg yolks with ¾ cup sugar and add the flour, potatoes, nuts, baking powder, and cinnamon oil. Grate an apple or carrot and add to the mixture.

Separately, beat the egg yolks with ¼ cup sugar. Fold add to the mix.

Grease the ‘Wonder pot and pour in the mixture. Close the pot. Place the metal ring on the Burner Flang facing up, put the Wonder pot on the ring and bake ‘with on medium heat – Low, for ¾ hour.

Three-layer cake

Ingredients:

1 ½ cup sugar
6 eggs, separated
2 tablespoons cocoa
2 tablespoons potato flour
1 package coconut
3 tablespoons oil
2 tablespoons wine
Baking powder 1

Preparation:

Whisk egg whites with 1 cup of sugar. Separately whisk egg yolks with ½ cup sugar. Add the egg yolk mixture of oil, cocoa, flour, potatoes and wine.

Half a bowl of whites put in a bowl of egg yolks wrapping movements. Egg whites add the remaining coconut.

Lubricate the ‘Wonder pot and pour half of the egg yolk mixture into the pot.

Add the egg whites and coconut and flatten onto the second layer with a spoon.

Pour the remaining egg mixture on top. Close the pot. Place the metal ring on the Burner Flang facing up, put the Wonder pot on the ring and ‘bake’ with on medium heat – Low, for ¾ hour.

* The author Yaara Holtzman, studied design and worked as art director and copywriter in various advertising agencies. She is currently busy with raising children, cooking and mop up, and in between is also a “sinner” in writing.

Excerpted courtesy of a aish of “Aish HaTorah” which is an international network and a-political centers of Jewish Education.

Mock Chestnut Torte

Mock Chestnut Torte
Yield: Makes 14 to 18 servings

ingredients

Torte

• 1/2 cup (1 stick) unsalted Passover margarine
• 1/3 cup plus 2 tablespoons granulated sugar
• 6 large eggs, separated
• 1 1/2 cups cooked and mashed sweet potatoes, fresh or canned
• 1 teaspoon Passover rum extract (optional)
• 10 ounces good-quality semi-sweet chocolate, melted and cooled
• 1/4 teaspoon salt

Chocolate Ganache Glaze

• 1/2 cup water
• 6 ounces semi-sweet chocolate, coarsely chopped

Toppings

• (optional)
• Unsweetened cocoa powder, sifted
• Curls of semi-sweet chocolate
• Pureed strawberries or raspberries

preparation

Preheat the oven to 350°F. Line a 9-inch springform pan with baking parchment.
Torte:
In a mixing bowl, cream the unsalted margarine or butter with the 1/3 cup sugar. Blend in the egg yolks, then the mashed sweet potatoes, rum extract (if using), and cooled chocolate.

In another bowl, with clean beaters, whip the egg whites gently until they are a bit foamy. Then add in the salt and whip on a higher speed, slowly dusting in the two tablespoons of sugar to form stiff, glossy (but not dry) peaks. Fold one third of the egg whites into the sweet potato/chocolate mixture and work them in well to loosen the batter. Then, gently fold in the remaining egg whites, blending well but taking care not to deflate the mixture. Spoon the batter into the prepared pan and bake for about 40 minutes. The cake rises and looks dry, and slightly cracked on top when done. The middle should be soft but firm. Cool in the pan for 20 minutes, then remove to a wire rack. At this point, the cake can be frozen for up to a month. Even if serving it the same day, chill the cake for an hour or two before finishing it with the ganache glaze.
Chocolate Ganache Glaze:
In a double boiler, bring the water to a gentle boil and add the chopped chocolate all at once. Remove from the heat and stir briskly with a wire whisk until all the chocolate melts and you have a thick glaze or sauce-like topping. Refrigerate for an hour or so. (You can also make this ahead and refrigerate it for up to a week or two. Simply warm it to the right temperature for glazing the cake.)

Invert the cake onto a cardboard circle or cake board so that the smooth, flat bottom faces up. Do not be dismayed if this is not a high cake — it is a torte and is meant to be a little less than statuesque. Pour the glaze over the cake and, using a metal spatula, even out the glaze and spread it along the sides.

Instead of the glaze, you can also simply sift some cocoa over the top of the cake or decorate it with curls of chocolate (using a vegetable peeler and a warmish chocolate bar). The cake can also be offered with a pureed raspberry or strawberry sauce, garnished with chocolate shavings, or left as is, with a citrus leaf, a sweetheart rose, or several berries in the center.
Source Information
Reprinted with permission from A Treasury of Jewish Holiday Baking by Marcy Goldman. © 2009 Whitecap Books, Ltd.

Epicurious.com © Condé Nast Digital, Inc. All rights reserved.

Real Pesach in Jerusalem

The Passover Recipe That You DON’T Want to Miss!

Sephardic Chief Rabbi Yosef “Today thank God most of the nation of Israel is here in the land of Israel.”

Be part of the Majority. Make Aliyah Today!

It’s time to come home! Nefesh B’Nefesh: Live the Dream 1-866-4-ALIYAH UK 0800 075 7200 Come home to the Land of Emuna

Click the Banner for www. nbn.org.il

Now that the majority of Jews are in their homeland we can have Korban Pesach!

Bring out the Mint jelly!

Is Korban Pesach Obligatory Today?

Kohanim are ready

These sheep are in Jerusalem outside our window

Arab Sheep grazing on Jewish Jerusalem land

OMER CHART 5777 Download 1225omer .pdf

Right Click to Download image. You can use it as Computer Wallpaper to remind you to count the Omer.

Rabbi Sacks http://www.ttidbits.com/1225/1225whole.pdf

Why Civilisations Die

In her recent “The Watchman’s Rattle”, subtitled ‘Thinking our way out of extinction’, Rebecca Costa delivers a fascinating account of how civilisations die. Their problems become too complex. Societies reach what she calls a cognitive threshold. They simply can’t chart a path from the present to the future.

The example she gives is the Mayans. For a period of three and a half thousand years, between 2600BCE and 900CE, they developed an extraordinary civilisation, spreading over what is today Mexico, Guatemala, Honduras, El Salvador and Belize with an estimated population of 15 million people.

Not only were they master potters, weavers, architects and farmers. They developed an intricate cylindrical calendar system, with celestial charts to track the movements of the stars and predict weather patterns. They had their own unique form of writing as well as an advanced mathematical system. Most impressively they developed a water-supply infrastructure involving a complex network of reservoirs, canals, dams and levees.

Then suddenly, for reasons we still don’t fully understand, the entire system collapsed. Sometime between the middle of the eighth and ninth century the majority of the Mayan people simply disappeared. There have been many theories as to why it happened. It may have been a prolonged drought, overpopulation, internecine wars, a devastating epidemic, food shortages, or a combination of these and other factors. One way or another, having survived for 35 centuries, Mayan civilisation failed and became extinct.

Rebecca Costa’s argument is that whatever the causes, the Mayan collapse, like the fall of the Roman Empire, and the Khmer Empire of thirteenth century Cambodia, occurred because problems became too many and complicated for the people of that time and place to solve. There was cognitive overload, and systems broke down.

It can happen to any civilisation. It may, she says, be happening to ours. The first sign of breakdown is gridlock. Instead of dealing with what everyone can see are major problems, people continue as usual and simply pass their problems on to the next generation. The second sign is a retreat into irrationality. Since people can no longer cope with the facts, they take refuge in religious consolations. The Mayans took to offering sacrifices.

Archeologists have uncovered gruesome evidence of human sacrifice on a vast scale. It seems that, unable to solve their problems rationally, the Mayans focused on placating the gods by manically making offerings to them. So apparently did the Khmer.

Which makes the case of Jews and Judaism fascinating. They faced two centuries of crisis under Roman rule between Pompey’s conquest in 63 BCE and the collapse of the Bar Kochba rebellion in 135 CE. They were hopelessly factionalised. Long before the Great Rebellion against Rome and the destruction of the Second Temple, Jews were expecting some major cataclysm.
What is remarkable is that they did not focus obsessively on sacrifices, like the Mayans and the Khmer. Instead they focused on finding substitutes for sacrifice. One was gemillat chassadim, acts of kindness. Rabban Yochanan ben Zakkai comforted Rabbi Yehoshua, who wondered how Israel would atone for its sins without sacrifices, with the words, “My son we have another atonement as effective as this: acts of kindness, as it is written (Hosea 6:6), ‘I desire kindness and not sacrifice'” (Avot d’Rabbi Natan 8).

Another was Torah study. The sages interpreted Malachi’s words (1:11), “In every place offerings are presented to My name”, to refer to scholars who study the laws of sacrifice. (Menachot 100a). “One who recites the order of sacrifices is as if he had brought them” (Taanit 27b).
Another was prayer. Hosea said, “Take words with you and return to the Lord … We will offer our lips as sacrifices of bulls” (Hosea 14:2-3), implying that words could take the place of sacrifice. “He who prays in the house of prayer is as if he brought a pure oblation” (Talmud Yerushalmi, B’rachot 5:1).

Yet another was T’shuva. The Psalm (51:19) says “the sacrifices of God are a contrite spirit.” From this the sages inferred that “if a person repents it is accounted to him as if he had gone up to Jerusalem and built the Temple and the altar and offered on it all the sacrifices ordained in the Torah” (Vayikra Rabba 7:2).
A fifth was fasting. Since going without food diminished a person’s fat and blood, it counted as a substitute for the fat and blood of a sacrifice (B’rachot 17a). A sixth was hospitality. “As long as the Temple stood, the altar atoned for Israel, but now a person’s table atones for him” (B’rachot 55a). And so on.

What is striking in hindsight is how, rather than clinging obsessively to the past, sages like Rabban Yochanan ben Zakkai thought forward to a worstcase-scenario future. The great question raised by Tzav, which is all about different kinds of sacrifice, is not “Why were sacrifices commanded in the first place?” but rather, given how central they were to the religious life of Israel in Temple times, how did Judaism survive without them?
The short answer is that overwhelmingly the prophets, the sages, and the Jewish thinkers of the Middle Ages realised that sacrifices were symbolic enactments of processes of mind, heart and deed that could be expressed in other ways as well. We can encounter the will of God by Torah study, engage in the service of God by prayer, make financial sacrifice by charity, create sacred fellowship by hospitality and so on.

Jews did not abandon the past. We still refer constantly to the sacrifices in our prayers. But they did not cling to the past. Nor did they take refuge in irrationality. They thought through the future and created institutions like the synagogue and house of study and school that could be built anywhere and sustain Jewish identity even in the most adverse conditions.

That is no small achievement. The world’s greatest civilisations have all, in time, become extinct while Judaism has always survived. In one sense that was surely Divine Providence. But in another it was the foresight of people like Rabban Yochanan ben Zakkai who resisted cognitive breakdown, created solutions today for the problems of tomorrow, who did not seek refuge in the irrational, and who quietly built the Jewish future.

Surely there is a lesson here for the Jewish people today: Plan generations ahead. Think at least 25 years into the future. Contemplate worst-case scenarios. Ask what we would do, if… What saved the Jewish people was their ability, despite their deep and abiding faith, never to let go of rational thought, and despite their loyalty to the past, to keep planning for the future.

This is a very short clip of a much longer video from the The Ruderman Family Foundation on facebook.

Israeli MP Amir Ohana, explains the israeli priority 

But God led the people about, by the way of the wilderness by the Red Sea; and the children of Israel went up (hamushim) armed out of the land of Egypt. (Ex. 13:18)

On the word hamushim, he offers an alternative translation to “armed.”

דבר אחר: חמושים אחד מחמשה יצאו, וארבעה חלקים מתו בשלשת ימי אפילה.

Another thing: one fifth of five [fifths] left, and four parts (fifths) died in the [plague of the] three days of darkness.

Several sources, such as the Kol HaTor, suggest parallels between our exodus from exile in Egypt and how we will complete our exodus from the current exile of Edom, including the possibility that only four fifths of us will make it out this time as well.

Who knows? There might even be three days of darkness. However, this time final time around, will these days of darkness necessarily be physical?

Instead, they could be spiritual, and unfortunately, the may have already begun for European [or American] Jewry.

May our recalling of the exodus from Egyptian exile this Pesach (Passover) inspire those Jews still entrenched in Europe, to complete their own Exodus.

JerusalemCats Comment: Something to think about: What percentage of Jews made it out of Spain in 1492. 10%? What percentage of Jews made it out of Europe in 1939 before the Holocaust. 10%?

From Holocaust Encyclopedia

The Jewish communities of eastern Europe were devastated. In 1933, Poland had the largest Jewish population in Europe, numbering over three million. By 1950, the Jewish population of Poland was reduced to about 45,000. The Soviet Union had the largest remaining Jewish population, with some two million Jews. Romania’s Jewish population was nearly 757,000 in 1930 and fell to approximately 280,000 (1950). Most of these demographic losses were due to the Holocaust, the rest to postwar emigration from Europe.

Before the Nazi takeover of power in 1933, Europe had a vibrant and mature Jewish culture. By 1945, most European Jews—two out of every three—had been killed. Most of the surviving remnant of European Jewry decided to leave Europe. Hundreds of thousands established new lives in Israel, the United States, Canada, Australia, Great Britain, South America, and South Africa.

“The object of war is not to die for your country but to make the other bastard die for his. “

Just look at all the attacks to the Jewish Community in the US!

Come home to Israel while you still can.

It’s time to come home! Nefesh B’Nefesh: Live the Dream 1-866-4-ALIYAH UK 0800 075 7200 Come home to the Land of Emuna

Click the Banner for www. nbn.org.il