Haveil Havalim 396

Election

I think it’s hard to start with any topic other than last week’s election.

Rivkah writing at Bat Aliyah tells us that it took only ten minutes to cast her ballot.

It’s not much time and it masks how difficult it was to decide. She rejoices in being able to vote but is still wondering if she did the right thing.

Hop over to The Real Streets of Jerusalem to see some great photos of Israel on election day. Also, some searching questions about how easy it is for some Israeli citizens to cast their ballots:

For a personal reflection on new Knesset member Shuli Mualem Rafaeli (Bayit Yehudi) don’t miss Sussmans b’Aretz.

Weather

The damage from Jerusalem’s winter snow storm is getting cleaned up. I took advantage of the activity to create a short photo gallery. What’s best is the surprising reaction when I said just one Hebrew word.

The Real Streets of Jerusalem was out with her camera to capture a spring-like day in the middle of winter.

Food

It turns out that it’s not so hard to make great bageles. Marina Shemesh shares her grandmother’s recipe and (most important) tells us the tip that makes them so yummy.

Rivkah at Bat Aliyah shares her experience of searching for spinach in all the wrong places, failing to communicate, but still staying upbeat.

Making a major life change is never easy. Holyland Vegan has just started the journey the standard American diet to a plant-strong lifestyle. She explains why it turns out Shevat was the perfect month to start.

Wedding

Ruti Eastman didn’t manage to post to her blog this past week. I suppose the marriage of son David to Tova had something to do with that. Mazel tov Ruti and Avi!

Romi Sussman writes about a special moment at the chuppah that I’m sure most of us who were there missed. I confess to having totally missed it myself.

However, I did get to be a part of the sheva berachot. Here’s one of the stories that I shared with the new couple.

Money

This is my first time to host Haveil Havalim on Thinking Torah. I thrilled to be able to do this.

The thing is, I hadn’t heard about HH until I saw it mentioned on Naomi Elbinger’s blog a few months ago.

I wanted to include her latest post here, sort of as a way of saying “Thank You” to her. But her topic, web development nightmares, didn’t seem to fit.

What’s Jewish about that?

But then I realized, it’s about saving money and avoiding pain. That’s actually very Jewish.

Game

Important Update:

Do you like the word search puzzle? Let me know in the comments.

Founded by Soccer Dad, Haveil Havalim is a carnival of Jewish blogs — a weekly collection of Jewish & Israeli blog highlights, tidbits and points of interest collected from blogs all around the world. It’s hosted by different bloggers each week, jointly coordinated through our Facebook Group, and headed up by Jack. The term ‘Haveil Havalim,’ which means “Vanity of Vanities,” is from Kohelet, (Ecclesiastes) which was written by King Solomon. King Solomon built the Holy Temple in Jerusalem and later on got all bogged down in materialism and other ‘excesses’ and realized that it was nothing but ‘hevel,’ or in English,‘vanity.’