Honor & a New Year

 

I discovered Jew Wishes about a month ago. Lorri blogs about Jewish books, films, the Holocaust and other Jewish topics. She often adds beautiful photos to illustrate her posts.

If you want to know more about a book, check her blog first, there is a high possibility she will have read and reviewed it.

 

This morning she awarded me the “I love your blog award” in a very kind manner.

To follow the rules, I am now expected to nominate 7 blogs and give them the award.

Because of the pre-holiday rush and since most of the blogs I read daily have been awarded recently, I will take time to think about this before I do my part.

Meanwhile I wanted to wish all my readers, as well as the people they love and are important to them, a year of goodness, happiness and peace.

Today’s Flowers are Red

The storm that destroyed the bigger dahlias two weeks ago left the smaller ones intact. Here is a selection of the red ones.

Join in the beauty of Today’s Flowers by clicking here.

Fasting

 

As the Yom Kippur fast is only about a fortnight away, here are a few guidelines for a sensible (if not easy) fast.

If you have never fasted before and have decided to take the big jump and join in the Yom Kippur fast, don’t just count on your good will and determination; they help, but aren’t everything. That’s why reading some advice about fasting is never a wate of time.

– A few days before the fast, cut down or cut out foods and drink with high caffeine. If not, you might end up suffering from withdrawal from these products on the fast day. Withdrawal symptoms often mean headaches and headaches may result in nauseas. This is very unpleasant so try not to forget this piece of advice. I even found that drinking a cup of coffee in a few hours before the fast helped. it didn’t prevent me from sleeping that night but I had no headache.
– Starting with breakfast, and even days before, don’t forget to drink a lot of water.
– The biggest problem with fasting is dehydration. Serve melon, grapes, and other foods with high water content before the fast.
– Make sure your pre-Yom Kippur meal is packed with carbo-hydrates and proteins to help you through the fast. On the contrary avoid food with high sugar content.

You may also find Shira Isenberg’s fasting advice on the Jewish Action website useful and informative.

In August, Batya also wrote about fasting. Although she had written this post following Tisha B’Av, her advice is still relevant. I particularly like her conclusion.

The synagogue featured at the top of this post is the Great Synagogue in Dohány Street, Budapest, also known as Dohány Street Synagogue. It is the largest synagogue in Europe.