May LA Moishe BLOG By: Lee Levin

MOISHE MOISHE read all about it EXTRA Copies of the News coming your way. Moishe LA has had fun this month> Lots of sun means lots of outdoor activities. I mean lots. Nothig with water yet but thats soon to change. For all of you who dont know look out for the article written about the moishe house in a jewish publication of which name i forget at the moment but im sure Levi could tell you. Summer time the hardest months to get large numbers to events due to the heat and vacation time. We plan to take this summer to a whole new level and create some never ending goodtime situation. Moishe house la is where this will take place so if you are curious call nate at 323 656 2470 he has full details.

Later dudes and dudetts.

Lee

Let Us Create a New Song for the Day of Shabbat

Last Friday night, as we sat together eating Shabbat dinner, Evan started singing a gospel song, My Grandmother's Hands. A few of us joined in, adding harmony and vocal rhythms, baselines and beatboxing. Then, in a turn nobody quite expected, the song somehow flowed seamlessly into No Diggity. Then Orin jumps in, layering the traditional Hebrew Shabbat song Dror Yikra, into No Diggity. Our singing continued to build, weaving and layering gospel, beatboxing, hip hop freestyling, and Hebrew and Aramaic odes. This is kind of song that our house community makes for Shabbat.

with love and thanks to the Moishe House Community for making these beautiful creative moments possible
~Ari, MHBoston~

Woops!! (and a challenge)

well, it seems I'm forgetful (I being David), and I sincerely, sincerely apologize for being late. My roommates think I overapologize and am oversincere, but with the Moishefamily, you can never be too sincere. Let's get an appreciation for being sincere, yeah?

I believe this picture is from Ein Gedi in Israel, and I wanted to put a plug in for my favorite device in my current blog posting - the fantastical funmachine known as the bicycle. Now that it's sunny out here in the middle states again, I have been rediscovering my love for bikes, and I did the 45 minute by bicycle commute to work the other day in celebration of the device.

Bikes are one of the most efficient machines for human transportation, with very little energy lost through friction, and they you from place to place without damage to the environment! I think use of bicycles instead of cars or even public transport is a great way to incorporate tikkun olam into our daily lives.

therefore, I challenge you out there in the Moishe community to make me put my money where my mouth is (or, rather, my feet where my mouth is. ouch) - email me at davidaweinberg@gmail.com, and if you start commuting to work by bike, I'll start doing it too! What better way to get more bang for your buck than making another person (that being me) be environment-friendly too!

I reserve the right to chicken out, but I probably won't. Also, I'd be happy to give pointers about how to make it a reality if you're not sure where to start.

Any takers?

appreciation time!

In light of the year (almost) behind us, I feel as if there is some appreciation due my roommate, Andrew, for his wonderful acts throughout the year to defuse tense situations. He had a fun time learning how to get out of them himself, and then applied that knowledge to be the riot police in our apartment. He always manages to avoid getting involved in arguments, and for that, I am jealous. His restraint is commendable. For issues such as putting more harif in the food, he allows no argument - simply spicing the foods to his own taste. Whenever he feels as if it is getting unpleasant in the apartment, he will take all of our worries with him for a cooling-off period on a whirlwind tour of Egypt, Ramallah, Turkey, or any assortment of other countries. He always manages to keep the rest of the apartment's tensions at bay with his exceptional sense of humor, and we thank him greatly for that. Although, sometimes I wish he would get mad, just so we could see what it would be like...

What happens to a dream deferred?

Does it dry up like a moishe in the sun?

I will also take up the appreciations. My first must go to Adam, who has rightfully recognized me as the best man. Adam, you are the best…well, second best.

Chris is the man who can do it all; From teaching Hebrew School, to taking classes in both Capoeira and Arabic, he pulls it off. But if we are talking about appreciations, I will once again second Mr. A.D, Cramer. David Weinberg is a man of many surprises. Not only does he receive the most amount of mail of anyone in the house, but he is constantly reinventing himself. As the tallest and most blogged about member of the house, he pulls things off that I would never believe: like leaving an amazing job for an even more amazing educational advancement, like breaking a self imposed 17-month abstention from the best thing in life—chocolate, like proposing and making happen a trip to the middle east—paid for by you and me. David continues to surprise me and the rest of the Moishe following. He is a good man to have around, and is the glue that holds us together. I hope he doesn’t melt in the hot, humid DC summer heat!

He Who Binds Us Together

Mr. David Weinberg. It is he, Mr. David Weinberg, who binds us together, and it is he who shall be the subject of this appreciation.

I appreciate you, David.

Moishe House DC, inspired by Sir Isaac Zones, has taken to granting public appreciations. This is how many appreciations have been publicly granted in the last day: 0. This is how many appreciations have been publicly granted in the last week: 3. Leo deserves a public appreciation here on this blog: You're the best, man. Chris deserves a public appreciation as well: Chris, you too are the best, but not quite as best as Leo; Leo remains the best.

David: Your calm and your candor help us all relieve steam when steam relief is necessary.

Leo: Don't leave us

Chris: You keep us on our toes.

Adam in DC

Sacramento starts strong

Elishama and Jen have turned their cozy Sacramento home into a Moishe House, and have already begun building community. During the month of April we put on a passover Seder that was phenominal. Two days prior to the seder we had about fifteen people who had responded to our e-vite, but by the day of, over thirty people had responded, and we knew that more were coming. We printed off just enough copies of our home-made Haggadah, prayed that we had enough table settings, and prepared for the very orderly feast. Just over 40 people showed up at our seder, some of whom had never before attended a seder meal. We explained the traditions with the help of a Children's book, and ate Matzo ball soup and gave out prizes for finding the Afikomen. Much of the conversation that took place around the Seder table was about physical and emotional freedom. We went around the tables and shared what we were thankful for, and it was such an incredible experience listening to people share about how happy they were to have come to the seder and how welcomed they felt in our community. Really it was amazing. We shared some very deep and meaningful moments over Jewish food and traditions and it really felt good to know that we had helped to creat that space.