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COMPILED BY 'ELIZABETH. APPLE
JTA/WORLD ZIONIST NEWS PHOTO
Sitting Pretty
E
veryone knows that
Friday night dinner is the best part of the
week. Finally you can relax, enjoy a delicious
Shabbat dinner, and
spend time with your parents
and siblings and friends.
Most family members al-
ways sit in the same place for
dinner, but that doesn't mean
you can't make the table look
even nicer with this project.
It's also a terrific way to make
guests feel comfortable.
You can use either pre-
made place cards, available
at local party and craft stores,
or create your own
from thick, white
paper. The fun part
comes with the dec-
orating. On holidays,
you can design theme
place cards: a flag on
the Friday before July 4, a tiny mask for
Purim, a candle on Chanukah. For other
occasions, you can use stickers or dried flow-
ers, ribbons or your own drawings.
Submitted by Claudia Mandelbaum of
Overland Park, Kan.
Parsha Project
And Places
Tidbits from
Jewish history.
he bore a gentle name, but that didn't stop her
from becoming one of Israel's top weapons in the
fight against terrorism.
"Bambi" made her debut on March 10, 1986,
the first Israeli-made robot capable of neutralizing bombs.
The robot, which could climb stairs and featured an au-
tomatic rifle that could detonate explosive devices, had
two cameras for eyes and a closed-circuit television on its
forehead.
S
T
he coming week's Torah por-
tion, Deuteronomy 32:1-52, is
Haazinu.
With the exception of two
paragraphs at the end, the entire
parsha is made up of the song of
Moshe: "Listen (haazinu), heaven,
and I will speak. Earth, hear the
words of my mouth." In the sefer
Torah, this song is written in double
columns; in many chumashim
(bibles) it is printed in the same way.
In the song, or poem, Moshe re-
bukes the Jewish people for their
lack of faith and trust in God. Moshe
foretells the exile of the Jews to come
centuries later and the ensuing re-
demption of Israel. In his song,
Moshe refers to the Jews by the po-
etic term, Yeshurun, a word that has
since been widely used.
God commands Moshe to ascend
Mount Nebo and view the Promised
How Does Your Garden Grow?
E
ven though winter is on its way, you can bring a little spring into your
home by starting a garden of plants mentioned in the Bible (many flow-
ers, herbs and vegetables will flourish in potting soil indoors if they are
given proper attention). Or, if you prefer, you can start planning for the
future by selecting what you will plant in your outdoor garden come spring.
Some of the plants cited in the Bible and
Mishnah are: almond, apple, arti-
choke, barley, cabbage, caper, car-
Do you have an idea
away, carob, celery, chick peas,
or photo that would he
cucumber, cumin, daffodil,
good for The Jewish News Fun
dill, fennel, garlic, ginger,
for the Family section?
iris, lavender, leek, lentil,
Please send to
lettuce, lily, marjoram,
mulberry, mushroom,
Elizabeth Applebaum,
mustard, narcissus, olive,
Family Fun, elo The Jewish News,
onion, orange, orchid,
27676 Franklin Rd.,
peach, pear, pepper, pine,
Southfield, MI 48034.
pistachio, pomegranate,
radish, raspberry, rice,
Photos lx•come the
property Of The 4eicish News
rose, sesame, thyme, turnip
and cannot he returned.
and watermelon.
(For a compete listing. see
the Encyclovedia Judnia2 article
on plants.)
Land. Moshe learns he will soon die
on the mountain.
For the project: According to Ha-
lachah, we should maintain the
customs and traditions of our an-
cestors (minhag avoteinu
b'yadeinu.) Verse 32:7 oflictazinu
states, "Remember days long gone
by. Ponder the years of each gen-
eration. Ask your father and let
him tell you, and your grandfather,
who will explain it."
Ask your grandparents, or other
older members of your extended
family, to tell you the traditions of
your family, specifically how they
celebrated Shabbat and each of the
holidays. Write this information
down and keep the record in a safe
place, and incorporate your ances-
tral traditions in your own obser-
vances of Jewish holy days and
festivals.
We Are
Family
Do you remember the time
Uncle Joe caught a gefilte fish
that weighed 300 pounds? Or
how about when Aunt Sophie
baked a challah and her little
sister found a $1,000 bill inside?
Family stories are one of the
nicest things around, but who
will remember them 50 years
from now?
One way to save them for pos-
terity is by making them into a
book.
"All the kids I knew called
their grandmothers Granny or
Nanna, but I called mine Bub-
ba. Somehow it always sounded
so much more loving to me.
"I would climb onto her knees,
press my head into her bosom
and breathe in the faint aroma
of lemon. Bubba always kept an
esrog in her clothes closet and
replaced it with a new one after
every Succoth. Then, I'd ask her
to tell me a Bubba Meisa. I knew
by heart what to expect. First, a
little cuddle and a kiss on the
forehead. Then she would begin,
`Once there was a big cat who
caught a little mouse.'
"I would quickly interrupt,
`No, not that one. Please Bubba,
tell me the true Bubba Meisa.'
"But you've heard it a dozen
times.'
`I know. I love it. Please, Bub-
ba, tell me the true Bubba
Meisa."'
.So begins the charming tale
of how one young woman met
her sweetheart and of the many
children and grandchildren that
followed. Elizabeth Shepherd
compiled the booklet, which fea-
tures illustrations by Basil King,
and reports, "We are having a
lot of Family Fun with it."
Submitted by Elizabeth Shep-
herd of West Bloomfield
CT)
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