kashered by being thoroughly cleaned, then set aside
for 24 hours and put in a pot (also kashered) of boil-
ing water.
"Ovens have to be burned. After a thorough clean-
up with cleanser, you put the oven on the highest de-
gree possible for one hour. Burners can be kashered
by turning them on for about 15-20 minutes on the
highest degree.
"This is just the general information. Anyone in-
terested in kashering his home should consult a rab-
bi."
— Rabbi Avraham Jacobovitz,
director of Machon L'Torah
What's the easiest way to
begin learning the
2
aleph-bet?
he easiest way is through song. "There's
tons of material available — what you use,
of course, depends on the age. Little kids
need a lot of hands-on training, like playing
with the letters, and music. There are some videos
out, too.
"For adults, the best thing to do is go to a class.
It's usually a lot harder to do it by yourself.
"Something we (at Shaarey Zedek) do is have the
children help teach their parents. They take the ma-
terial home and go over it with their parents."
— Michael Wolf,
director of education for
Congregation Shaarey Zedek
T
What's a
surefire recipe
for chicken
soup?.
(Made
Thursday night
for Shabbat
dinner)
I
call this, 'Chicken soup with
character.' You could call it,
`Two-step chicken soup with
garbage,' too. It feeds about
12-20.
"Start out with the 'garbage' —
the neck, the breast bones, the
wing tips, the giblets — from four
chickens. Add four nice-sized beef
neck bones, and it's great to use a
turkey carcass if you have it.
"Put all that in a 5-quart pot
and fill about three-quarters of the
way with water. Add 2 table-
spoons salt, 3 bay leaves, a couple
of healthy shakes of pepper and
10-12 cloves of garlic. Let it boil,
then leave to cook anywhere from
6-8 hours. This way, you get all
the goodness out of the bones.
Next, strain it through cheesecloth
and put it in the fridge overnight.
"In the morning, skim off all
that nasty fat from the top. Add 5
carrots cut in quarters, 4-5 stalks
of celery, 1-2 sweet potatoes cut in
chunks, a parsnip, about 4 onions
and more water as needed. Bring
this to a boil and let cook for an
hour. Dill is optional.
"It's unusual, but it's great. And
it has no fat whatsoever."
— Chaya Sora Silberberg
of West Bloomfield
4
Where's a good place to find
information about
volunteering in the
Jewish community?
ive us a call at 967-HELP (4347). -What we'll do
is ask callers where their interests lie, whether
they want to work with children, young adults
or adults.
'Where we place someone depends on the needs of an
agency and its requirements, along with the interest of the
caller.
"There are some hands-on positions, working with
clients at an agency, and opportunities for clerical or phone
work."
— Carol Kaczander,
director of the
Jewish Information Service
G
How can a rabbi come up
with a sermon that won't put
congregants to sleep?
A
story is told about the rabbi and the Israeli bus
driver who die on the same day and are about to
enter the heavenly gates. The bus driver is giv-
en immediate entry, and the rabbi is told that
he has to wait. The rabbi complained about the inequity of
it all, demanding to know why a person who had given his
whole life to doing mitzvot and teaching had been wait-list-
ed while someone who just drove a bus is honored.
" Rabbi,' the angel at the front desk intoned. 'Let's be
frank with each other. When you preached, your people
slept; when he drove, everyone prayed.'
"Just in case the story has any validity, I believe that for
the sake of my entire future, I have to make people rise
from my sermons inspired rather than wake up refreshed.
For this reason, I have Schwartz's Four Rules for keeping
people awake during a sermon:
"Rule #1: If you haven't struck oil in 20 minutes .. . stop
boring.
"Rule #2: KISS (Keep It Simple Stupid). If you can't ex-