This will be short post, but I wanted to share a couple of things. I have been reading; I always am. However, I don't always have things I want to share. Sometimes the books end up being mediocre. There are other reasons, too, that I don't blog about everything that I read. With that said, I want you to know that I debated sharing this last book here, but it made me think: a lot and hard. So I decided to blog about it.
After reading Into Thin Air by Jon Krakauer earlier this month, I was kind of excited about survival stories. This book is about climbing Mount Everest in 1996. This was a particularly difficult season and several climbers lost their lives in the attempt to the top after a storm pinned them down unexpectedly. The book was written by a survivor of the ordeal and I was very intrigued by the story. I have never been able to appreciate the immensity of the mountain nor the danger associated with climbing it before reading this account. And, I am sure I still have no real idea of its majesty and power.
Several years ago I was introduced to the book Endurance: Shakleton's Incredible Voyage by Alfred Lansing. I would count that among my favorites. This true story of adventure and exploration outlines the amazing journey of Ernest Shackleton and his crew of men after they became stranded in Antarctica in 1914. They spent over a year getting back from the ice continent. The story is awe-inspiring and awesome.
I decided I wanted to try another book of this kind. So I read Alive by Piers Paul Read. This book is about a Uraguayan rugby team whose plan crashed in the Andes mountains on their way to a game in Chile. I have to completely admit to not knowing what the book entailed before I began it or I would not have read it. However, though I cannot recommend it to anyone without first warning you that it is very graphic, in the end I am glad that I read it. It is not for everyone. These boys were able to survive 10 weeks, a full 70 days, 11,000 feet altitude in the Argentinian Andes by eating their fellow passengers who had died in the plane crash. In the end, sixteen boys/men survived the ordeal and became national heroes. Two of them had to hike over a 13,500 foot high mountain to find civilization and to let the outside world know that they were alive. I am not going to comment on their decisions; I still don't know how I feel about it, but talk about food for thought! I have been discussing it with my daughter (23 years old) and husband for days. I won't share it with my younger family nor would I recommend sharing it with anybody younger than adult age. The material is definitely for a mature audience.
Tuesday, January 29, 2013
Friday, January 11, 2013
Sabbath Day
Keeping the Sabbath day holy is a commandment that I have struggled with for years. I don't really have a problem staying away from stores or working, but I don't feel that our family DOES Sabbath day things. We have tried a lot of ideas over the years, but the bottom line is, I am usually very glad when bedtime arrives because that means this long, boring, frequently contentious day is over!
One of my goals this year is to learn more about Jewish culture and tradition. I have wanted to do this for some time because the scriptures, written by Jewish authors, are replete with references to a lifestyle and custom that I know little about. I feel I would understand my own religion better if I understood theirs better. So, I decided to 'celebrate' Jewish holidays this year with my family. Not all of them; there are quite a few, but the main holidays. Toward that end, I got three books for teaching. They are each great and different enough that I am glad I have all three, though if I had to choose one I would purchase, "The Family Treasury of Jewish Holidays" by Malka Drucker.
This book is very reasonably priced and very inclusive. At 180 pages it is a great value. The next book is "Celebrate! Stories of the Jewish Holidays" by Gilda Berger. It is also very informational. And lastly, "Celebrate: A Book of Jewish Holidays" by Judish Gross is a children's picture book to explain each of the major holidays to children.
Now, to the Sabbath connection. The holidays we have chosen to celebrate are: Shabbat (creation of the world), Rosh Hashanah (Jewish new year, the binding of Isaac), Yom Kippur (Jonah and the great fish), Sukkot (the long journey), Hanukkah (miracle of lights), Purim (Queen Esther saves her people), Pesach (let my people go), and Shavuot (the gift of the Torah). As you can see, these are directly correlated to a scripture story. Shabbat means Sabbath in Hebrew; now you see where we are going. There is approximately one holiday to celebrate each month, give or take, in this list and the very first holiday is Shabbat.
I had never thought of the Sabbath as a holiday. But, the Jewish custom is a holiday that is celebrated weekly. We are starting first with understanding the whys and hows of this custom. (I want to make something very clear now. We will not be imitating the sacred rites or rituals of any religion. I would not want someone learning about my church and pretending to partake of the sacrament or hold a mock baptism or temple service. We will be learning about tradition and understanding the meaning behind the holidays. I also hope to serve some traditiional food and play Jewish games. We may discuss the rituals for understanding, but we will not mock.)
For each holiday, I have found a number of children's books to help us understand how the holiday is celebrated. Since we are planning to learn about Shabbat first, I am reading about this tradition this week. In preparation for that, I will read to my children "Bim and Bom: A Shabbat Tale" by Daniel J. Swartz, "The Shabbat Princess" by Amy Meltzer, and "Baxter, the Pig Who Wanted to be Kosher" by Laurel Snyder. But for myself, I bought and read "The Modern Jewish Mom's Guide to Shabbat" by Meredith L. Jacobs and that is the book that has brought me to my blog today.
Never before has the tradition of Sabbath been so well explained to me. The whys as well as the hows. Did you know that in scripture, the command to keep the Sabbath day holy is mentioned in Exodus and again in Deuteronomy. The first time, the Hebrew word zachor is used which means "remember" the Sabbath day. The second time the Hebrew word shamor is used which means "guard" the Sabbath day. Moses taught the people to remember and to guard the Sabbath day. This may mean that to remember the Sabbath, we participate in Sabbath day rituals and ordinances. We DO Sabbath day things. We guard the Sabbath day by not allowing non-Sabbath activities to invade our worship: shopping, working, etc. That helped me to put my day into two categories. Then for several chapters, she gives ideas for keeping Shabbat which I found very intriguing and thought-provoking. I am not Jewish, so everything in the book did not apply to me, but I could take her ideas and make them fit into my home very easily. I won't divulge all her insights here, but I was so inspired that I am seriously considering using her format as a spring board and including LDS tradition and experiences in my own life to make an LDS book about Sabbath. I think it is a market that might be in need.
Good luck in your own Sabbath worship! I hope you can find something inspirational here.
PS: I wanted to mention three books that include stories about numerous Jewish holidays that would be great diving-off places for a study of this subject. "The All-of-a-Kind Family" books by Sydney Taylor-excellent! "Penina Levine" books by Rebecca O'Connell, or "K'tonton" books by Sadie Rose Weilerstein.
One of my goals this year is to learn more about Jewish culture and tradition. I have wanted to do this for some time because the scriptures, written by Jewish authors, are replete with references to a lifestyle and custom that I know little about. I feel I would understand my own religion better if I understood theirs better. So, I decided to 'celebrate' Jewish holidays this year with my family. Not all of them; there are quite a few, but the main holidays. Toward that end, I got three books for teaching. They are each great and different enough that I am glad I have all three, though if I had to choose one I would purchase, "The Family Treasury of Jewish Holidays" by Malka Drucker.
This book is very reasonably priced and very inclusive. At 180 pages it is a great value. The next book is "Celebrate! Stories of the Jewish Holidays" by Gilda Berger. It is also very informational. And lastly, "Celebrate: A Book of Jewish Holidays" by Judish Gross is a children's picture book to explain each of the major holidays to children. Now, to the Sabbath connection. The holidays we have chosen to celebrate are: Shabbat (creation of the world), Rosh Hashanah (Jewish new year, the binding of Isaac), Yom Kippur (Jonah and the great fish), Sukkot (the long journey), Hanukkah (miracle of lights), Purim (Queen Esther saves her people), Pesach (let my people go), and Shavuot (the gift of the Torah). As you can see, these are directly correlated to a scripture story. Shabbat means Sabbath in Hebrew; now you see where we are going. There is approximately one holiday to celebrate each month, give or take, in this list and the very first holiday is Shabbat.
I had never thought of the Sabbath as a holiday. But, the Jewish custom is a holiday that is celebrated weekly. We are starting first with understanding the whys and hows of this custom. (I want to make something very clear now. We will not be imitating the sacred rites or rituals of any religion. I would not want someone learning about my church and pretending to partake of the sacrament or hold a mock baptism or temple service. We will be learning about tradition and understanding the meaning behind the holidays. I also hope to serve some traditiional food and play Jewish games. We may discuss the rituals for understanding, but we will not mock.)
For each holiday, I have found a number of children's books to help us understand how the holiday is celebrated. Since we are planning to learn about Shabbat first, I am reading about this tradition this week. In preparation for that, I will read to my children "Bim and Bom: A Shabbat Tale" by Daniel J. Swartz, "The Shabbat Princess" by Amy Meltzer, and "Baxter, the Pig Who Wanted to be Kosher" by Laurel Snyder. But for myself, I bought and read "The Modern Jewish Mom's Guide to Shabbat" by Meredith L. Jacobs and that is the book that has brought me to my blog today.
Never before has the tradition of Sabbath been so well explained to me. The whys as well as the hows. Did you know that in scripture, the command to keep the Sabbath day holy is mentioned in Exodus and again in Deuteronomy. The first time, the Hebrew word zachor is used which means "remember" the Sabbath day. The second time the Hebrew word shamor is used which means "guard" the Sabbath day. Moses taught the people to remember and to guard the Sabbath day. This may mean that to remember the Sabbath, we participate in Sabbath day rituals and ordinances. We DO Sabbath day things. We guard the Sabbath day by not allowing non-Sabbath activities to invade our worship: shopping, working, etc. That helped me to put my day into two categories. Then for several chapters, she gives ideas for keeping Shabbat which I found very intriguing and thought-provoking. I am not Jewish, so everything in the book did not apply to me, but I could take her ideas and make them fit into my home very easily. I won't divulge all her insights here, but I was so inspired that I am seriously considering using her format as a spring board and including LDS tradition and experiences in my own life to make an LDS book about Sabbath. I think it is a market that might be in need.
Good luck in your own Sabbath worship! I hope you can find something inspirational here.
PS: I wanted to mention three books that include stories about numerous Jewish holidays that would be great diving-off places for a study of this subject. "The All-of-a-Kind Family" books by Sydney Taylor-excellent! "Penina Levine" books by Rebecca O'Connell, or "K'tonton" books by Sadie Rose Weilerstein.
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