Vacation canceled, but good reason

Vacation canceled, but husband Itzhak is healing, and that's the important thing. 

He's home after 10 days in the hospital with a severe inflammation that caused his stomach and intestines to stop functioning.  I was so looking forward to holding our precious 6 month old baby granddaughters... but I had to be satisified with daily skype connections.   Itzhak is healing quite well at home, getting a lot of good care, has lost weight, and will continue to follow a well-defined nutrition program for diabetes.  I was able to lead the baby naming ceremony of our daughter Tali and son-in-law Craig’s twin baby girls Gabriella and Amalia by Skype.  Our son Amir also flew in for the family gathering.    

Gabriella and Amalia

Snapshot of Family gathering on Skype

Each day without fail I get an email from my mother Nika about her adventures… She adores spending 4 months at her cottage on Cape Cod in the village of Wellfleet.  Amazing how many people she meets - maybe walking around the marina, perhaps swimming at one of the ponds, sometimes at the Senior Center.  This week in mid-July my brother Will Fleissig, his wife Wendy and their daughters Ariel and Mia are staying nearby in Wellfleet. What joy for my mother to see them each day, hear their stories, watch the girls dance and sing, and just feel like close family.  It is hard for us all being so spread out from coast to coast.

  

I edit her blog entitled Life Begins at Ninety.  I gathered a few recent emails and photos and sent them out under the title "Each Day... Adventures!"

Here are a few excerpts from emails I received this past week alone! Pretty much unedited, so you get the flavor:

Subject: Fun Time

Hi   Such a nice  time -  being together  with 4 of  my Darlings-performing, singing  just having fun-  how long it does not matter.

Hope you had a good workout and please do something every day-  even  for 15 minutes.  

Much love  calusy  (kisses in Polish, pronounced tzawusi) Mamusia 

Nika at the Marina, Wellfleet, Massachusetts

 

Good morning  Monday July  20. Wellfleet Cape Cod

Tried  to swim together  with my children  but our timing was wrong.  So they went wave catching in the ocean  and I went to Great Pond all alone . 

I knew  someone will help me,  and so it happened I met a nice  lady who
recognized me  - She had read the book and listened to our talk.   She got me down to the lake safely.
              
In the water met Joan and Ed Weaving
Had a  beautiful swim and walk in the water to exercise  and then Ed offered to get me back to my car. 
I found our book-  dedicated it to Weavings and hope
they will visit me  soon in my studio.
Perfect morning  - Hope you are enjoying whatever you are doing  and we see each other later to “Show and tell”.
Bless you and thank you for making “life begins at 90” real fun. 

Smiling  Baci  Nika

   

--- 

Beautiful day.  just perfect-   Children catching waves   I went for my usual walk around the marina. Wearing cheerful pants I had bought with you in Oregon. A lady came to me and said “Hi Nika, my husband read your book,  is sitting in the car  (fell off the ladder has a broken hand and fingers) and told me to talk to you."

I remember falling off a ladder picking up a yellow shawl from the attic for a gallery opening many years ago. Fred was holding the ladder to help. Ended in the hospital with a broken wrist which was never properly put together  by a butcher-doctor.  We all do dumb things and have to pay for them dearly.

This lady  used to have a catering business in Connecticut and told me her daughter delivers a chocolate  bomb  desert to Wicked Oyster.  We should try it tonight.

I showed her Fredziu’s  plaque  and we  really  connected.

Now waiting for the children to see what the day will bring. 

Nika at marina, Wellfleet, next to plaque in memory of Alfred Fleissig

Plaque reads:

Alfred Fleissig 1906-1984

His love of Wellfleet and this harbor

has been passed down to the fourth generation.

Afternoon after 5:30  dinner  at Wicked Oyster--- elegant  gallery opening  across from Glenn….  then maybe  dancing at the pier if not too windy.  Wow-Love  Wellfleet!!!!!!!!  Calusy  Mamusia

--- 

I miss you -  talked about you at the opening of the new gallery  across from Glen.  Bettina and her husband.   They promised to visit me.   Saturday  new play opening.  Joanna will pick me up.  Life is interesting  if you do not close your doors!  Much love  M

Alicia adds:  Please reread that last sentence.  Worth embroidering or making into a banner! 

“LIFE IS INTERESTING IF YOU DO NOT CLOSE YOUR DOORS!!”

-         Nika Kohn Fleissig

- Nika Fleissig

Please Read My Blog Here:
http://www.lifebeginsat90.blogspot.com/

Order our book, From Miracle To Miracle: A Story of Survival (via PayPal):
http://www.FromMiracleToMiracle.com

Please view my art here:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/nikafleissig/

Rabbi Alicia Magal www.jcsvv.org

928 204-1286
blog: http://www.redrockrabbi.blogspot.com


"A Jewel of a Shul"

Mission Statement:
The Jewish Community of Sedona and the Verde Valley is a welcoming, egalitarian, inclusive congregation dedicated to building a link from the past to the future by providing religious, educational, social and cultural experiences. We choose to remain unaffiliated in order to respect and serve the rich diversity of our members and visitors. 

Baby naming of grandbabies - on skype; Itzhak in hospital

http://www.magisto.com/album/video/LyYsDFcDA0Qtfj8GDmEwCX16?l=vsm&o=i&c=e?utm_source=magisto&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=producer_shared_movie

See the above link (you may have to copy and paste it) for a short video made by our son Amir Magal of highlights of the baby naming of our grand daughters Gabriella and Amalia, born to daughter Tali Magal and son-in-law Craig Fleishman. 

Also celebration of my mother's 95th birthday (which was May 27th).  

Gabriella and Amalia all dressed up for the naming ceremony July 10, 2015

Tali and Craig introduce the babies to Long Pond in Wellfleet, MA

Gabriella meets great grandmother Nika on July 4, 2015

Nika meets Amalia, held by Tali, July 4, 2015

Skype computer screen - Alicia at bottom right, connected from Sedona
Family gathered in Wellfleet, Massachusetts on July 10, 2015:
from left - our son, Amir Magal, my brother, Will Fleissig,
Craig Fleishman holding Gabriella, Tali Magal holding Amalia,
Will and Wendy's daughter, Mia Kohn, Wendy Kohn, my mother Nika Fleissig, and Ariel Kohn

Sad that Itzhak got ill and we had to cancel our vacation to Cape Cod, but I was able to participate on Skype (see Skype screen shot above).

Itzhak was at the local hospital in Cottonwood, being treated for severe inflammation of the tissue surrounding the small intestine. He remained there from Friday, July 3 until Sunday afternoon, July 12.  I won't post photos of him all connected to tubes, but here he was on the ninth day, already able to walk around the hospital floor and the small courtyard.

Just as Itzhak was being discharged, Ed Bierman came to visit.
The walk was long, so friend Ann Crosman wheeled him to the room.
Itzhak and Ed got to wheel down the hall together.

Itzhak left a happy goodbye sign
by blowing up the rubber gloves

First visit to new baby granddaughters

Itzhak and I made plans to travel to Brooklyn from Sunday, January 25 - Wednesday, January 28 to meet our baby granddaughters Gabriella Roux and Amalia Belle, born on January 15. Who knew there would be warnings of a major snow storm in NY which shut down all traffic and businesses?! 
We were delighted to see how happy our daughter Tali and her husband Craig are despite the difficult, long labor Tali underwent to produce these two miraculous tiny beings!  They already exhibit marked differences in looks and personality.  Only ten days old and already striking individuals!

Amalia on the left; Gabriella on the right

Craig and Tali, delighted new parents

Saba Itzhak with Amalia

Savta Alicia bonding

View of the Brooklyn Bridge in snow storm
from the window of Tali and Craig's apartment--
magical in all weather!

When we returned to Sedona, Arizona, it was time to celebrate the Jewish holiday of Tu B'Shevat, the New Year of the Trees.  On Sunday, February 1, we held a Tu B'Shevat "Seder," featuring a variety of fruits and produce of Israel - olives, oranges, dates, pomegranates, etc., and sang traditional Israeli songs about almond trees, the very first to flower, each season. After the meal and songs, we went outside to plant two rose bushes in honor of the birth of Gabriella and Amalia.  The religious school children and synagogue members wrote blessings on paper leaves and tied them to the trellis supporting the bushes.  We look forward to their blooming, as we look forward to the blooming and flowering of our precious granddaughters! 



Tray of fruits and products of Israel - dates, olives, oranges, pomegranates, etc.
plus a photo of the babies; frame decorated by Nancy Fleishman, the other new grandmother!



Tu B'Shevat Seder... New Year of the Trees
at the Jewish Community of Sedona and the Verde Valley

Religious School students wrote blessings for the trees, for the babies, and for the environment.
Joe Berger, standing in the back, planted the two rose bushes in honor of the birth of our granddaughters

two rose bushes in front of the synagogue

Plaque - "Planted in honor of the birth of
Gabriella Roux and Amalia Belle
with love from the
Magal, Fleissig, and Fleishman families"





Savta Rabbi Alicia and Saba Itzhak Magal
in front of the rose bushes with the blessings tied onto the trellis

Daughter Tali gave birth to twins!!

Our daughter Tali Magal delivered twin baby girls on Thursday morning January 15, 2015. Martin Luther King, Jr.'s birth date.  Auspicious!  I am so delighted, proud, happy, relieved.. many emotions all at once.  I got the news while I was at Ohalah, an annual conference for Renewal Rabbis, Cantors, and Chaplains who gather together in Boulder, Colorado to reconnect with colleagues and mentors, share innovative prayers, music, teachings, and refill spiritually!

       Tali Magal with Amalia Belle and Gabriella Roux Fleishman

I was walking up a hill with about 25 people for Minchah, afternoon prayers, on Tuesday afternoon, January 13, when I got a text from Tali that she was going into labor.  I began to weep, and as I turned off the phone and joined the circle, I heard each prayer in a new way, relevant to giving birth, feeling gratitude for life, being connected with the Creator and all the many generations since ancient times.  At the end of the brief service I called out to all those friends present, "My daughter is about to go into labor with twins!!"  and they closed the circle around me; offered blessings for the health and safety of mother and twin babies about to be born. There happened to be four or five doulas in the group (!) who offered me Jewish birthing and nursing prayers. Can you imagine that??!! The rest of the conference I kept running into people who told me they were a twin, and asserted what fun they had growing up.  After the conference, I stayed for Shabbat at the home of my close friend Eve Ilsen, whose husband, Reb Zalman Shachter-Shalomi, had passed away in July, and who had been a mentor for me and all the other Renewal clergy who gathered at the conference to tell stories about his influence on them.  Eve and I went to services at the local Conservative shul, and the Gabbai, volunteer helper to the rabbi who offers honors to members and guests participating in the service, approached me to ask me to take an honor during the Torah service.  Her name was one of the names considered by my daughter and her husband Craig for one of the twins: Gabriella!  I took that as a sign.  Everything was a sign about twins, birthing, and blessings for new mothers.  After the long labor, Tali and Craig now need some time to heal, bring the babies home, get into a routine with the help of a baby nurse, and then they'll be ready for visitors.  So my husband Itzhak and I are planning to go to New York City in a few days to visit in person and hold those little babies, and get to know them.

What will we be called?  Savta and Saba, Granmother and Grandfather in Hebrew!

  

You might want to view my mother Nika Fleissig's blog as well: 
http://www.lifebeginsat90.blogspot.com/

 

"Doing?"

For those of you who do not get our synagogue newsletter, here is my monthly column and blessing for January 2015:

“Doing?”

When our daughter Tali was just a little over a year old, she already talked and communicated with words.  If we were busy with something, she would run over and look up with a questioning expression on her face, and say, "Doing?" A whole sentence there... clearly meaning, "What are you doing?"

We have kept that expression all these years in our family and often ask each other, "Doing?"  meaning we are interested in everything that is going on in your life and want to hear news.

So, I thought of taking a moment to answer the question, "Doing?" regarding your rabbi's current activities and projects.

I have begun an art project of mixed media collage, paint, and calligraphy, depicting letters of the Hebrew Alef-bet, with a brief explanation on the back of the small canvases about the letter's mystical energy and meaning. These “Alef-bet Collages” on canvas are available exclusively in our gift shop.

Letters Yud, Shin, Daled, part of the Alef-Bet Collage series by Rabbi Alicia Magal

In the Interfaith community, I have been participating since October, and will continue through February, in a bi-weekly Social Justice Public Policy Seminar for Faith Leaders.  I am the sole rabbi in our cohort this year.  This informative series is funded through the Monsignor Edward J. Ryle Fund, with the mission of “Working for justice, dignity, and the common good.”  The program presents faith leaders with information about communicating effectively on public policy issues, within the limits of functioning under a 501C3 status.  The series is designed to enable faith leaders to explore and understand Arizona’s social justice public policy issues and to demonstrate and communicate the importance of these issues to their congregations and communities. Some of the topics include Health and Human services, Education policy, the Environment, Justice System and Prisons, Immigration, the Arizona Legislature, Faith Communities and Public Policy, Money: How Government Gets It and Spends It, and Translating Knowledge into Action. 

I look forward to sharing some of these issues with you and hearing your response.  Our prophetic tradition demands that we raise our voices and take action for justice.

A personal area of development that I am pursuing is through the Mussar Institute, from January through this coming summer: an in-depth, spiritual immersion for Rabbis and Cantors. The 6-month online study program will culminate in a retreat at Brandeis-Bardin Institute campus in the Los Angeles area this summer. The goal is to nurture and develop personal, spiritual practice with the tools and traditional Jewish wisdom literature of Mussar. The Hebrew term Mussar (מוּסַר), is from the book of Proverbs 1:2 meaning righteous, moral conduct, instruction, and spiritual discipline.   

I will share insights from this study and practice in the coming months.

So, besides preparing weekly “journeys” we take together here at the JCSVV at Shabbat services and Torah study, offering prayers and visits to congregants who need blessings for healing, teaching classes, and performing life cycle ceremonies, I am fully occupied with continuing personal growth and learning which I bring to you, my beloved congregation and community. 

And… of course, Itzhak and I are personally awaiting the birth of grand-baby girl twins, hopefully sometime in late January.  Now you know a bit of what I’m “doing.”

-- 

Blessing for Tevet  (Dec. 23, 2014  - January 20, 2015)

May we show patience during the darkest, coldest time of year, and use the time to bring warmth and light to those around us.  May we offer gratitude as we turn the corner toward  longer days and more light.  May we each embody this time of turning by demonstrating an intention to grow, learn, and continue to gain insights, so that we improve our positive speech and action.   –Amen.

PS. If you want my review (negative!) about the new Exodus movie, check out my blog. http://www.redrockrabbi.blogspot.com

Exodus movie - YUCK

Just came home from the much awaited movie Exodus... I am so upset and disappointed.  The movie was not true to the Torah, the midrash, the archeological findings... and left out much of the scenes of awe and wonder.

So there might be conjecture as to whether Moses knew of his true ancestry before he was an adult... but turning this into a brother against brother was a stretch.  Where was the scene where he kills a taskmaster to save a Hebrew slave and then needs to flee?  I'll skip over the drawn out battle scenes at the beginning where he saves his "brother's" life... the future Pharaoh Rameses.  His Egyptian sword is practically elevated to a character in itself, but where is his staff?

Where is his being called from the burning bush? Rather he is buried in a rocky landslide during a rainstorm with only his face above ground, and suffering from a broken leg???  Huh?

And God is portrayed as a petulant boy who chides Moses rather then empowering him???!!!

Where is the humble, stuttering Moses who needs Aaron his true brother as spokesman? Nowhere.  Where is a "duel" using his staff turned to snake matched by the Pharaoh's wizards? Nowhere.  Rather there are scenes of Moses as guerilla army trainer preparing the Hebrew men for battle through archery lessons.  God as the little boy tells him he isn't getting anywhere that way (Hebrews are being hanged every day for not giving up Moses who is hidden in their midst at the home of Nun - papa of Joshua ben Nun who doesn't appear at all as protege for the future... ). So the plagues begin in a graphic, naturalistic style to force the Egyptian people to pressure their Pharaoh to give in to Moses' demand that the Hebrew slaves be set free.  There are no warnings or repeated requests by Moses to Pharaoh... Those ugly blistery, bloody, scary plagues just keep on coming.

The slaying of the first born is a touching scene that finally does break Pharaoh's resolve.

Moses wants to lead the Hebrews out by the route he had taken years before southward through the straits of Tiran to Midian where he had met Zippora, was accepted by her wise and kind father Jethro, and started a family.  Zippora seemed like the best cast character in the whole movie.

Moses decides instead to take a route eastward through the mountains, since the rocky terrain will make it very difficult for Pharaoh's chariots to follow.  When Moses leads the Hebrews down the cliff sides to the sea, it isn't marshy or easy to ford as he had expected from his previous crossing to Midian, but rather there are crashing waves and very deep ocean water.  Rather than confidently stretching forth his staff, he lies down on the beach after throwing his Egyptian sword, which he has kept all this time, into the water.  Alerted by cawing birds he later notices that his sword is sticking up out of the water, showing that the water had receded.  He seems bewildered, surprised... unsure of how to proceed. 

Where is Nachshon ben Amminadav to show his faith by jumping into the water which then recedes?  Where are the walls of water on each side?  Nowhere.  They Hebrews kind of slosh through muddy pools that look like the bay on Cape Cod at low tide.  Pharaoh and his remaining charioteers soon follow into the water.  The Hebrews scramble onto a rocky shore on the other side, and suddenly there is a mano-a-mano moment where both Moses and Pharaoh are alone facing each other, and both are thrust into the tsunami-like tidal wave that envelopes them, followed by a slo-mo montage of drowned and floating horses, pieces of chariot wheels, and dead soldiers.  Somehow the next scene features close ups of both Moses on one side of the sea which has returned to its lapping of the shore, and Pharaoh is standing on the other side, dazed, bruised, but whole.

Fast forward, not to a monumental Sinai ablaze with smoke and fire, from which the elders are warned not to approach, but rather to a unassuming rocky outcropping where Moses is busy chipping away with a hammer and chisel at stone tablets.  No booming dictation of the Commandments; nor even a holy silence filling the screen, but merely the God-boy figure warning Moses that if he doesn't have the faith to follow through he should put down his hammer.  Moses reflects for a second and keeps on chiseling.  That's it for the Giving of the Ten Utterances??!!

So skip over building the Mishkan - Tabernacle with the golden ark and its coverings.  None of that here. Jump to the very last scene years later as Moses, aged, with a flowing white beard,  rides in a covered wagon kind of cart with a plain wooden box, ostensibly containing the Tablets of the Law, placed unceremoniously and unadorned behind him. 

There are so many midrashim possible to mine for gems.... How did the writers and director come up with these scenes that extended the battles and reduced the awe-inspiring narratives?

The costumes, sets, music, and effects were so professionally crafted, why not the dialogue and character development?

I am mystified by this production, and saddened that this is what may stay in the minds of movie-goers, especially those who haven't studied the Torah and its commentaries.

You know what would have been great... if they included bits of midrash - children finding whatever they wanted in the walls of water... etc.

and... a kind of dream sequence when Moses leads the Children of Israel out... they start to sing Mi Chamocha… and it turns into Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. speaking to the blacks in America about their Exodus from slavery…. a contemporary seder with children singing "Let my people go" and strains of Hallel. "B'tzeit Israel.." When Israel went out of Egypt ... all kinds of Exodus reminders in our world today…..

Rabbi Magal - Philanthropist of the Year, Spirit of Sedona Award

Rabbi Alicia Magal 2014 Spirit of Sedona ... - YouTube

► 8:34► 8:34

www.youtube.com/watch?v=mp1I2NybJng

47 mins ago - Uploaded by Terrie Frankel

Rabbi Alicia Magal received the Spirit of Sedona, Philanthropist of the Year Award from the Sedona ...