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.

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.

Rebbetzin Rachel and her friend Lisa, who hosted us for Shabbos

We spent Shabbat in Richmond, Virginia. This was my second time there. My first time in Richmond was around a year ago for Shabbat Selichot, the Shabbat before Rosh Hashana. I led the service than and over this past Shabbat.

I feel the community is very warm and welcoming.  There seems to be a good mix of all types of Jews, from the ultra orthodox black hat wearers to some who come to Synagogue in a pair of shorts and sandals.

There is no Rabbi there now, though I hear that a new Rabbi is coming in the next few weeks.

Especially enjoyable was lunch at a friend’s home where most of the vegetables in the salads came from their garden. The difference in taste between home-grown organic to what is bought in the local supermarket is a world apart.

I spoke during Seudah Shlishi because it was sponsored in our honor by our host family. I spoke about the Jewish people traveling and how they moved and camped according to the direction that G-d showed them . I reflected this back to my travels: how I try and travel with G-d’s direction.

Bolivia children working in mines

This morning I was doing some research on some companies’ stock that deal in mining and I thought of my mining experience in Bolivia.

I did a tour of some mines in Bolivia, which I don’t recommend for the claustrophobic. My guide first took me to buy bottles of sugary juice and coca leaves to gift to the miners. It was not a touristy thing where one pays an entrance fee. These were real mines with real people working in them. It was dangerous.  Some of the areas we went through would not be safe enough by law to operate in any developed country, let alone take a tourist through.

The workers were friendly and appreciated the drinks and coca leaves. The coca leaves alleviate their pain and discomfort and the drinks quench their constant thirst. I met workers as young as 12 years old working in the mines.  “It is dangerous work,” they told me, “and all of us have friends who died.”

One of the highlights: My guide took me to a shop that sold everything a miner needs (including 98% proof alcohol, for consumption). I bought a stick of dynamite and fuse, for only $1.50. My guide showed me to an empty field where we lit the dynamite. Two minutes later there was a big ‘BOOM,’ a nice treat for the pyromaniac inside of me.

The working conditions are extremely unhealthy and hazardous. Having met the boys working in the mines of Bolivia and experienced crawling through passageways that can give in at any moment, I came to a deeper appreciation of how lucky we are for the life we live and how much more I should give thanks to G-d.

Parrots in Copan, Honduras

Friday night we ate by this guy who is an orthodox Jew who does stand-up comedy at a number of venues around Norfolk, Richmond, and Newport News, Virginia. The amazing thing is that he goes into the comedy clubs and does his shtick wearing a kippah and showing he is proud to be a Jew.

We had a fun time at the Shabbat table throwing jokes back and forth. And it inspired me to post a series of jokes I used in my last routine when singing and telling jokes for a group of seniors in Florida.

Shlomo is walking past a pet shop and sees a bright colorful parrot in the window. He gets an idea; “This would make the perfect pet for my mother because they’ll be able to talk to each other.”

He enters the shop and engages the parrot in a few languages to see if it’s a good fit for his mother.

“Parele Vou France?” He asks the bird.

“Oui Je Parle France,” replies the bird.

“Habla Español?”

“Sí, hablo.”

Shlomo thinks there is no chance this bird can speak Yiddish!

“Kenst Yiddish?” He asks.

And the parrot without missing a beat replies: “Mit Za a loinge noz bist mir nisht a yid!” (“With such a long nose am I not a Jew?”)

So he buys the bird and sends it to his mother. After a few days he calls her and asks “So Ma, how’s the bird I sent you?”

“Ahhhh the bird,” she says. “It vas delicious!”

So Shlomo buys his mother a second parrot and explains to her that she is not supposed to eat the bird. Well this new parrot has foul language (no pun intended) and is swearing all the time.

Mrs. Shwartz threatens the parrot, “If you keep saying zis not kosher langvetch I vill put you in ze freezer and in ze freezer it is very cold and you vont like it.”

The parrot keeps swearing and Mrs. Shwartz puts him in the freezer. The parrot begins to shriek all kinds of obscenities, and then soundly is silent. Mrs. Shwartz waits a few minutes after hearing not a sound from the parrot and opens the freezer to find the parrot sitting in a corner staring back at her.

And the parrot says, “What did the chicken do?”

Here is alink from a TED conference with a brilliant talking parrot.

If you had to use toilets like this one I had to use in India, you would think twice about talking on the phone in there! You'd probably want to get out as quickly as possible!

In the airport yesterday on my way flying to Virginia I went to the bathroom. Now going the bathroom is a normal event that we think very little of to begin with. We do it at least half a dozen times each day and it’s just a normal, usual thing to do.

But this time I had an awakening. Now, awakenings don’t come often when going to the bathroom so I thought I’d share it.

I was using the urinal, the guy on my right was talking on his phone, to my left the guy was texting, and further to his left another guy was talking on his phone. It struck me as very interesting. I was the only person going to the toilet and not texting or talking on a phone at the same time.

Even in the stalls behind me I could hear talking coming from a couple of them and I don’t think they were conversing one stall to the other. I’ll bet that in some of the stalls where there was no talking the individuals there were possibly texting.

In Judaism we have a special blessing that is said every time when we leave the bathroom.

“Barukh ata, Ado’nai, Elok’eynu melekh aolam, asher yatssar et haadam be khokhmah, ouvara vo nekavim nekavim, khaloulim khaloulim. Galouy veyadua’ lifnei khisse khevodekha, sheim issatem ekhad mehem, o im ipateakh ekhad mehem, ey efshar lehitkayem afilou sha’ah akhat. Barukh ata, Adon’ai, rofe khol-bassar oumafli la’assot. ”

Here is written the prayer in Hebrew with the full  translation.
http://www.torahzone.com/AsherYatzar.htm

This blessing acknowledges the wonders that G-d created in our abilities to maintain healthy bodily functions and says how we could not live for even one hour without the body running properly. For all this we are thankful. There are millions of people out there who do not have control over their bodily functions.

I find it sad that all these people are absentmindedly going to the bathroom while on their phones, not even aware that they’ve just gone! It takes what is truly a remarkable event which we give thanks to G-d over and makes it almost as if it did not happen.

Once while in the bathroom I joined in on someone’s conversation. I was in one stall and they were in the other talking to whoever it was on the other end of the phone. I made believe the person was talking to me. And this surely messed with his head. As he asked a question to the person on the phone I would answer. He finally got annoyed and told his friend he’d call him back later. He did not mention he was on the toilet though and that there was a guy in the other stall was mixing in on his conversation.

Besides being mindful when going to the toilet according to halacha and Jewish law, we are not supposed to talk while in the bathroom, which prevents me from joining in more conversations.

Thus perhaps we should not be talking on phones when on the toilet!