Last week, a tall green plant that I wanted to cut down because I was sure it was a weed gave me a big surprise. My husband, who likes to plant seeds from the vegetables we eat, said, “Let it grow.” Now, I’m glad I did because hidden behind one of the leaves was a shiny green pepper. That plant just took time to bear fruit. There are all kinds of seeds that can bear fruit – like making calls in support of an important new bill before Congress.

Mushroom Barley Soup

This is a great starter for a Yom Tov night meal. I fondly remember having hot soup on a chilly night in the sukka. Made with all fresh ingredients and no soup mix. My secret to a creamy soup? It’s unsweetened soy milk. When serving with a fleishigs meal, check that the package is parve. I use the brand Nature’s Pantry. Make ahead and defrost when ready to use.

1 c. barley

1 package white button mushrooms or 8 large white mushrooms

1/4 c. white cooking wine

2 large yellow

My closest brush with British royalty was in the summer of 1976. My friend Chaya and I were counselors in a camp located in the Laurentian mountains. How excited we were to receive free tickets – compliments of her father’s congregant – to the Montreal Olympic Games (XXI Olympiad) held about an hour away! It was thrilling to look behind us and get a good glimpse of the British Royal family – the Queen, Prince Philip, Princes Charles, Andrew, and Edward, and Prince Anne’s husband, Mark Phillips – sitting close behind us in the bleachers. They were there to cheer on Princess Anne, a member of the British equestrian team, who rode her mother Queen Elizabeth’s horse, Goodwill.

by Chana Lebawitz

 Chava Masha crouched at the edge of the pool and danced her fingers in the water. Star swam to her, nuzzling her outstretched hand. She tapped his back, and he dived down into the deep blue. He leaped into the air and landed belly-down with a splash. She tossed him a handful of fish. She stretched as he ate his reward. She slapped his back again, and he was off, his graceful body skimming the surface until he was 10 feet below it.

There was something so satisfying about the blue, blue water and the larger-than-life animals. She got down on the water bed, half submerged in water, and Star leaped up beside her. She threw him another handful of fish, then stood to dry off.

“Where’s my wife?”

“Can you help me paint my house?”

“I’m going to get arrested now.”

Here I am, at Shira Talent Camp, where such strange expressions float through the halls. The girls are flying high – on adrenaline, excitement, and nerves. What is this wondrous place?

STC is a middle-school performing arts camp, where close to 60 girls come together to put on a high-school level, professional performance. Girls as young as 10 memorize lines and have choir and dance solos, where each shines in front of her family, friends, and community.

“Al tashlicheinu l’ais ziknah – Do not cast us aside in our old age” (Selichos). Our Baltimore community is blessed with a number of assisted living as well as nursing home facilities to service the needs of our local elderly and infirm. In addition to attending to their medical requisites, these facilities also engage their residents in a myriad of activities to address spiritual and creative needs. Among these pursuits are the weekend recitations of Kiddush and Havdalah. Since 2007, a group of volunteers have, on a rotational basis, fulfilled these sacred functions at Aventura at the Park (formerly Weinberg Park).  Founded by Rabbi Alexander Seinfeld of Jewish Spiritual Literacy, the program is formally called Love Your Neighbor and boasts a volunteer staff of 9 participants, including yours truly.

 When my oldest aunt got engaged, I was over-the-moon excited – not just because I felt like I had a hand in it, having found out she was engaged exactly an hour after I had been fervently davening for her on a family trip to the Kosel, but because my Aunt Shira is simply the best aunt in the entire universe. She’s the kind of aunt who actually stops everything to babysit if my parents are in a bind and cleans the house while they’re away. She cooks up a storm for Yom Tov so none of her married siblings with kids have to work too hard. Her gooey delicious challah, delivered fresh every Friday from her oven, is the highlight of our week. She’s always been like this, Shira Leah. She is easy to please, the give-the-coat-off-her-back-for-someone-in-need kinda gal. Which is why, as the years went by and Shira remained single, we simply could not understand it. All her friends kept getting married, but Shira Leah seemed to be the only one still babysitting her nieces and nephews instead of driving her own kids’ carpools.

Congratulations! You have a child going to school for the first time! What a milestone! Welcome to the exciting world of preschool, where your child will, be”H, continue on his path of growing and learning in his new “home away from home.”

For some children (and parents), this is very thrilling. I overheard a little girl ask her mother in almost every aisle of Seven Mile Market, “Right, Mommy, I’m going to Bais Yaakov? Right, Mommy, that’s what they do? Right, Mommy, I’m going to need snacks?” etc., etc. It was precious (at least for me) to hear her enthusiasm. And that’s what we want to keep in mind and hold onto – that enthusiasm.

School is the place we go to learn, and students about to begin the new school year will soon be faced with the difficult task of learning – that is, trying to incorporate new information and concepts into their brains (their protests notwithstanding). In doing so, they will be engaging in both surface and deep learning.

People often ask me how I get ideas for my articles in the Where What When. One of the ways is from the books that are left on my porch to be donated to the Jewish Used Books Collection. A perk of this collection is that I get to peek at the books before others buy them. Recently, a book landed on my porch that aroused my interest.

It is called Frum Speak: The First Dictionary of Yeshivish by Chaim M. Weiser (1995). The book is a dictionary of words that are commonly used by many frum English speakers, although they are not part of the English language. Most of us recognize these words but would probably have trouble defining them. And, interestingly, the words can have different meanings depending on the context of the conversation, and they can be complimentary or derogatory depending on the speaker’s intention. Here are some words and their meanings from the book: