City of Golda

Phyllis Cullen is a prolific quilter whose designs are influenced by her extensive travels as a volunteer medical doctor to developing countries.Her quilts are landscapes, people, architecture, animals, full of color, and transformed by her life at home. Thank you to Cathy Perlmutter, a quilter extraordinaire in her own right, for sharing this with me.

At work, you think of the children you've left at home. At home, you think of the work you've left unfinished. Such a struggle is unleashed within yourself, your heart is rent.

I can honestly say that I was never affected by the question of the success of an undertaking. If I felt it was the right thing to do, I was for it regardless of the possible outcome.

We have always said that in our war with the Arabs we had a secret weapon—no alternative. 1969

The Egyptians could run to Egypt, the Syrians into Syria. The only place we could run was into the sea, and before we did that we might as well fight. 1969

It’s no accident many accuse me of conducting public affairs with my heart instead of my head. Well, what if I do? … Those who don’t know how to weep with their whole heart don’t know how to laugh either. 1973

Let me tell you something that we Israelis have against Moses. He took us 40 years through the desert in order to bring us to the one spot in the Middle East that has no oil! 1973

To be or not to be is not a question of compromise. Either you be or you don't be. 1974

I never did anything alone. Whatever was accomplished in this country was accomplished collectively. 1977

Modeh Ani- Waking Moment

I offer thanks to You, O living and everlasting king, for having restored my soul within me; great is Your faithfulness

Our first conscious act of the day is to avow our indebtedness and gratitude to our Creator. As soon as we wake from sleep, before getting out of bed or even washing our hands,[1] we recite the above-quoted lines of the Modeh Ani prayer, acknowledging that it is He who grants us life and being every moment of our existence.

The ideas contained in the ostensibly simple lines of Modeh Ani fill many a profound chapter in the legal, philosophical and mystical works of Torah. They touch upon the omnipresence and all-pervasiveness of G-d; on the principle of “perpetual creation” (G-d’s constant infusion of vitality and existence into the world, without which it would revert to utter nothingness); on the laws governing the return of a pikadon (an object entrusted to one’s care) and on the Kabbalistic concept of Sefirat HaMalchut (the divine attribute of Sovereignty).[2] So why is the Modeh Ani said immediately upon waking, with a mind still groggy from sleep? Would it not have been more appropriate to precede it with a period of study and contemplation of these concepts?

Night and Day
The physiology of our bodies and the rhythm of the astral clocks partition our lives into conscious and supra-conscious domains. During our waking hours, our mind assumes control of our thoughts and actions, screening, filtering and interpreting the stimuli that flow to it, and issuing commands and instructions to the body. But at night, when we sleep, the “command-center” shifts to a deeper, darker place within our psyche—a place where fantasy supersedes logic, sense supplants thought, and awareness is replaced by a more elemental form of knowing. Hard facts become pliant, absurdities become tenable, in this nocturnal world.

There are certain truths, however, that are unaffected by these fluctuations of knowledge and awareness. Our faith in G-d, His centrality to our existence, the depth of our commitment to Him—we know these things utterly and absolutely, and we know them at all times and in all states of consciousness.[3]

Wakefulness and sleep affect only the external activity of the intellect; what we know with the very essence of our being, we know no less when plunged into the deepest recesses of slumber. On the contrary: when awake, we must wade through the presuppositions and polemics of an intellect shackled to the “realities” of the physical state in order to arrive at these truths; asleep, our mind loosened from its subjective moorings, we enjoy a closer and deeper (albeit less conscious) awareness of our innermost convictions.

The Modeh Ani prayer exploits a most unique moment of our day—the moment that lies at the threshold of wakefulness, the moment that straddles the conscious and supra-conscious domains of our day. There are other moments, other prayers, in the course of our day which take full advantage of our powers of intellect and reasoning—prayers that follow lengthy and profound meditations upon their content and significance. But each morning, as we move from the liberating hours of sleep to a day of conscious thought, a most unique opportunity presents itself: the opportunity to express to ourselves a truth that inhabits our deepest selves, to declare what we already know to the awaiting day.

Israeli company Eli7Creations presents beautiful tefillin and tallit bags such as these with their Jerusalem motif.

Challah for life

"From the first of your kneading bowl, you shall lift up a dough offering (challah) to G-d." (Numbers 15:20)
The mitzvah of "challah" is to separate a portion of dough each time we mix flour and water to make bread. In the time of the Temple, this dough would be given to one of the priests. Today, this small portion is burnt and may not be eaten by anyone. Although both men and women may perform the mitzvah of taking challah, women have traditionally been responsible for carrying out this mitzvah and it is considered one of their special mitzvot because they are so intuitively connected to its underlying message.
By "lifting up a dough offering to G-d" we direct our physical foods, needs and urges to a spiritual purpose. The very dough takes on a new "life"--one that becomes consecrated for holiness, directed and hallowed for a greater purpose.

We are thereby accomplishing a merger of the physical with the spiritual.The mitzvah of challah teaches that Judaism does not confine G-d to the realm of spirit. Mitzvot involving physical activities make G-dliness the focal point of our lives. Challah reminds us that even within the world of the material, even while kneading together the most basic bread of physical life, we must suffuse creation with its G-dly mission of making our physical world into G-d's divine home.
By separating the small piece of raw dough, we negate the basis of the spies' mistake and we are reminded of the message of Sarah's life, attesting that there is no corner of earth devoid of G-d's presence.

From Iris Quilts, these lovely challah covers for your Shabbat table. Good Shabbos to you and yours.