WARNING! There is a little bit of swearing in the video, if this will offend you do not watch it.

This is one of the most disturbing videos I’ve ever seen. It is of the London riots. Watch how the police can’t do anything; they must back up and take the blows. I try and keep my blog apolitical but I wanted to share this because it is a big problem we have in our world. Right here right now.

If this is what’s capable of happening in London, which is a relatively peaceful first world place, imagine how crazy things can get in other places. It can happen anywhere.

When the police are afraid of thugs, we’ve got problems. When the police can’t protect us who will?

We try and be too good. We don’t want to hurt anyone or offend anyone.

It says in Kohelet, “There is a time to love and a time to hate. A time for peace and a time for war.”

As important as it is to love, we must also hate when it is necessary. When good people stand back and watch evil, we’re in trouble.

Harvesting Vegetables in Virginia

Yesterday we picked vegetables: butternut squash, tomatoes, cucumbers, beans, and cantaloupe.

One of our friends in Richmond, Virginia has an area in the countryside where he grows vegetables.  ‘Farmer Ben,’ as I like to call him, and his wife Lisa grow far more than they could ever eat. During the spring, summer, and fall, they supply the surplus vegetables to people in the Jewish community. It is their form of charity.

“Why give money to charity for people to buy food,” says Farmer Ben, “When I can just give them food.”

There are some Jewish laws, halachot that pertain to farming that I’ll please G-d write about later in the week.

Getting used to squat toilets in Jordan helped make things easier for me when I got to India. It was a blessing in disguise: something we encounter all the time in life. If we have faith and trust in G-d, we'll be able to see how G-d is helping us and doing everything for our good... even if it might not seem like it at first glance.

There are so many times in travel that I am stuck in a situation and I just want to cry (and ok, I’ll admit it, sometimes I do).  I’m sitting there looking at this hole in the ground that calls itself a toilet and I want to cry.  I’m looking at this bucket of warm river water that is my “shower” and I want to cry. My luggage is lost, again. Why does G-d have to do these things to me?

Of course, there are much greater challenges we face in life; things like death and disease.  But the thing about travel is that inconveniences and annoyances like these are pretty much everyday occurrences.  You have to deal with so much on such a daily basis that something that might seem small in the grand scheme of things is, at that moment, quite huge.

The challenge is trying to see everything as divine providence.  Other nations have an angel watching over them, controlling their fate.  But not us Jews, oh no. We have G-d himself watching over us and we have no fate.  We alone have the power to create our own fate.  What G-d wants from us is to make the right choices and He gently pushes us in the right direction, lovingly, like a father of small children.  Unfortunately, most of the time we don’t see it.

In this week’s Torah portion, the Jews, who are now on the verge of entering the land of Israel, get some pretty strong reminders from Moses.  He reminds them of the sin of the spies.  He reminds them of the sin of the golden calf. He reminds them of how they wanted to return to Egypt.  In short, he keeps reminding them of the times when things got tough and instead of trusting G-d to do what’s best for them, the Jews started crying.

I think that’s what I do a lot – what everyone does a lot.  We cry over nothing.  G-d is giving us presents and we’re crying and pushing them away because the wrapping paper makes them look like garbage, when inside is really a very nice gem.  In travel, I find it especially difficult to remember this because so often my defenses are down: I’m tired, I’m hungry, I’m cold, I’m cranky, and my luggage is halfway around the world.  But that’s when it’s most important to remember that G-d is there, taking care of us.  I’m tired and cold… so my husband can give me a hug. I’m hungry… so I can eat some fruit and make a blessing on it.  My luggage is lost… so I can go to the store and buy new underwear and be reimbursed for it.  And that’s part of the crucial message Moses wants the Jews to remember, first and foremost, as they enter the land of Israel.  To look back on those times when they didn’t trust in G-d, and to remember them for the future so that next time they would remember G-d… and trust in Him, and have faith.

Shabbat shalom!

Bottled Water for sale in Japan from all over the world. I found it fascinating to see such a selection of water for sale in Japan.

People often ask me, “How do you keep kosher when traveling in so many different countries around the world?”

My general ability to eat is that, I maintain an 80% fresh fruit, vegetables, and nut diet. Eggs and rice make up the remaining 20%.  I can generally stick to this diet anywhere in the world and thus keep kosher by doing so.

Every country though offers something unique. In Honduras I was scuba diving off the island of Utila for a few weeks. I was able to buy lots of fresh fish straight from the fisherman. I also found giant bags of kosher corn chips.

In Guatemala I could find avocados and fresh corn tortillas everywhere. Avocados are kosher, and the tortillas are made from just corn flower and water, cooked on a special overturned hot plate.

In the north of Thailand I lived in Chiang Mai for a while. I ate fruit most of the day, lots of papaya and bananas. In the evening I got a kosher chicken meal at the Chabad house.

So there is always a way to keep kosher whether it be in Honduras, Guatemala, or Thailand.

I’ve also experimented with fruit fasting where I eat nothing but fresh fruit for two weeks. I will have a small piece of bread on Shabbat. Aside from the incredible health benefits from fruit fasting, I have also shown myself that I can survive on nothing but fruit for a couple of weeks.

This week I’ve been experimenting with a water fast. It’s something I’ve wanted to do for a long time now. A friend of mine did a ten day water fast. I’ve done some research about it and there seem to be loads of health benefits to fasting.

Today is day five of my water fast. I’ve had some juice made from fig syrup to help as a laxative and clean out the intestines. Also a bit of lemon squeezed into water. But mostly my calorie count has been less than 200 calories per day.  Had a lousy headache yesterday but feel fine today and have good energy. I can’t go for a run, but I went fig picking this morning and did some Tai Chi.

Maple syrup for sale in Japan. One can even do the lemonade diet in Japan!

This is showing me that I could easily go for a week on almost no food. I could always mix some honey in water anywhere in the world if I want some calories or perhaps lemon and maple syrup.  There is actually a diet called the ‘Lemonade diet,’ where people drink nothing but freshly squeezed lemons in water and mix in some maple syrup. I have one friend who does this every year for three weeks straight. He is very active and we even went on a 3 hour walk last week and he had perfect energy. He says he actually has more energy on the lemonade diet than when he eats normally.

I hope to try the lemonade diet sometime, but for the meantime I’m sticking to the water fast which I’ll keep please G-d until Shabbat.

I never knew music could be so controversial.

Sure, I know that some music can be pretty controversial – the language and content of some of what’s out there is truly revolting – but that all music could be controversial? What’s wrong with listening to a little Beethovan? Or what about listening to Avraham Fried? Surely these things couldn’t be bad?

Well, during the 9 days leading up to Tisha B’Av, the Jewish national day of mourning, and for some people during the three weeks leading up to it, we’re not supposed to listen to music. What constitutes “music” is a pretty hot debate, it seems. Some people don’t listen to any music, some will only listen to a capella, and some will listen to anything as long as it’s not live. Some avoid it for 3 weeks, some for 9 days, and some only from the Sunday before Tisha B’Av on. There are so many minhagim out there!

And apparently the mere thought that we shouldn’t listen to music is really offensive to some people. A basic search on Google reveals dozens of people ranting, complaining, or just plain kvetching about the restriction against listening to music. Most people seem to be searching for excuses and reasons why this minhag just shouldn’t apply to them. What is going on?

My take on it is that it’s not the listening to music itself that is inherently forbidden during this time, it is the attitude of mourning we’re trying to achieve. The 3 weeks, the 9 days, and Tisha B’Av are like a stepladder of mourning, ramping it up as we proceed through the days until we reach the ultimate mourning frame of mind. But it seems like many of us have a special craving for music that we can’t control (and for some people their appetite for meat during the 9 days is just as strong). The rabbis probably knew and understood this and that’s why they instituted these restrictions. They knew it would be difficult for us to get into a frame of mind of mourning the destruction of the Temple because we don’t even know what we’re missing. The best they could do would be to institute some restrictions on our pleasures (music, eating, bathing) so that we could start to get a bit uncomfortable. The truth is, we should be uncomfortable every moment of every day just because we (yes, even those of us living in the land of Israel) don’t have the Temple anymore.

So, like it or not, we should probably all try to give up music. Not necessarily because the rabbis say to do it, but even more because we don’t want to do it. Because if we get into the feeling of discomfort and mourning, maybe we will work harder to improve our relations with our fellow Jews and maybe, just maybe, we’ll merit to bring Moshiach.