8111 V 1111 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) • C7) CC uJ LU Cf) 27