LeiderLeider…

Really funny! Thank you!

From Creative Jewish Mom:

Always Perfect No-Egg Challah: basic white flour challah dough

Directions:

1. If you live in Israel, sift your flour to make sure it is bug free. You can always pre-sift the flour and store it in the freezer until you need it.

2. In a medium sized bowl, combine the yeast, a tablespoon or two of sugar and about half a cup of warm water (part of the total amount of water) mix, and set aside. This insures that the yeast is actually working and that it doesn’t come in contact with salt which can limit its ability.

3. I use a mixer which can handle 2 kilos of flour, so I add the liquids first and then the solids. If you’ll be mixing and kneading the dough by hand you add the liquids to the solids in a large bowl, and once you have something that looks like dough, you knead it on your clean counter top.

5. Once I have dough that is a nice consistency, neither too dry or too sticky, I take the whole amount and place it in a large garbage bag, usually the same one into which I’ve sifted my flour. Some people like to place a little oil on the outside of their ball of dough, but I don’t. I just seal the garbage bag tightly and place it in a warm place on my counter.

6. The dough will take at least an hour to rise, and very often you’ll find that the garbage bag blows up into a large balloon! If you don’t get a balloon just poke the bag to make sure that the dough is very soft.

7. Remove the dough from the bag, punch it down, and if you’d like to make the special blessing for baking challah, remove a large egg-sized portion and make the blessing. (You can find that info on google in many places.)

8. Using a rolling pin, roll the entire portion of dough out into a large pizza like shape, making sure to pop any bubbles you may see in the dough. Then depending on how you’ll form your loaves, and how many loaves or rolls you’ll be baking cut this pizza shape into strips.

9. Form the strips into balls, and leave on the counter to rest for about 10 minutes.

10. Roll those balls out into long snakes for braiding and braid. Most braided loaves look the nicest if you tuck the ends under. For the nicest braided loaves try to make snakes that are fatter in the middle. (tutorial for this in the future!)

11. Pre-heat your oven, in my case to 180C. Many people like to bake challahs on a higher temp. like say 200 C for ten minutes and then they turn the oven down for the remaining baking time.

12. Set loaves on your baking paper lined oven racks, or in loaf pans, and set aside until loaves have risen and look like the photo above. (Note, I am very fortunate to have a 90 cm oven, so I can bake all my challahs at one time on one rack.) This may take up to an hour or more, but you don’t want to leave them too long or your braids will break apart.

13. Just before placing in the oven brush on egg white (truthfully I use the whole egg, but most don’t.) and sprinkle on the topping of your choice, in our case poppy seeds.

14. Bake until nicely browned, and bottoms are hard. I use a convection setting on my oven and baking time is only about 30 minutes, but on a regular setting baking may take up to an hour for large loaves. Rolls of course take much less time, so be sure to watch them!

Strap around the Yud, causing a Shin, followed by another Shin, so you have six rounds around your upper arm. Then followed by six rounds around your arm, then diagonal across your hand, three rounds around your middle finger, then straight across your hand, so you have two Shins on your upper arm, and a shin on your finger.

Unless you live in Alaska, you probably have a Spinka shul within shouting distance (slight exaggeration). Stop in and ask the Rav/Rebbe. He will undoubtedly be glad to show you.

Popa, with your permission, if I can add to this thread another question that has been bothering me on this subject.

However, what’s bothering me is that as the Gemara concludes, the pool consisted of 3 amos of a square tub, followed by 2 amos of a round tub. If my calculations are correct, the ratio of height-to-width is larger in the case of a round tub than a square tub. So the premise Rashi sets forth on the height/width ratio, is this true for round tubs or for square tubs? And in this case we have a combination of the two.

Actually, Monsey area is good as well. Thanks.

Things are working out pretty well for awhile when one day Hymie, Morris’ old friend, finds Morris sleeping on a bench in the park.

“Or Hymie, what should I tell you, it’s a Leap Year this year”!

What’s the difference between a Shlemiel and a Shlimazel?

The Shlemiel spills his coffee on the Shlimazel’s lap…

Put on irritating music right out your window as soon as they come out to smoke, and shut it when they leave. Keep on doing this until they stop.

Parable.

Yankle hurts Moshe – for no reason at all.

Moshe gets upset and says he’s not moichel Yankle.

Yankle says, oh but you really should be moichel me (even though I’m not even acknowledging that I did something wrong). You ask Hashem 3x day for Mechilla. Also, if you’re moichel me, Hashem will be lenient with you.

How heartwarming.

That sounds like a Yogi Berra quote. He was famous for his fractured improper quotes. You may enjoy the following quotes attributed to him:

A nickel ain’t worth a dime anymore.

Always go to other people’s funerals, otherwise they won’t come to yours.

Half the lies they tell about me aren’t true.

I never said most of the things I said.

If you come to a fork in the road, take it.

Nobody goes there anymore. It’s too crowded.

The future ain’t what it used to be.

We made too many wrong mistakes.

You better cut the pizza in four pieces because I’m not hungry enough to eat six.

Food for thought.

The grape juice bottles are not Toiveled. The manufacturer is not mechuyev to Toivel them because they are merely using them as a means of transporting the grape juice to its consumers, and as such, is not mechuyev Tevila. And for this reason we are not required to Toivel candy dishes and other glassware that we give as gifts to others (think Mishloach Manos).

It is a given that if you wish to reuse the grape juice bottle for other purposes, that you are now using it as an official Keili, and you are required to toivel it. However, as long as you keep on slowly emptying the original bottle, you are not required to Toivel it (otherwise we would be required to empty our grape juice bottles right away).

So, for those that pour Kiddush grape juice BACK into the bottle in order to have them for Havdalla, aren’t you in fact “re-using” the bottle to hold this grape juice until Motzei Shabbos?

Thoughts to keep in mind: A container that keeps food for storage is not required to be Toiveled, however, a container which is brought to the table does require to be Toiveled. (Think sugar dispenser, which needs to be Toiveled, vs. the large sugar container, from which you would pour into the dispenser, which does not require to be Toiveled).

So, let’s hear it, guys!

Certainly no knitting, sewing, laundry, etc.

This year I heard a chissush from a dayan, that perhaps cooking would also not be allowed. The premise is that the woman needs to do a “recognizable” abstention from work. So if a woman would generally putter around in the kitchen and cook, then she should refrain from doing so during this half-hour.

First time I heard this. Thought I would share…Would appreciate feedback if anyone has heard this concept before.

Was at a wedding last week of a very close relative and the music was intolerably high and I JUST WALKED OUT and went home! I spent a total of 5 minutes at the wedding. His loss…and I get to keep my hearing.

bein.

I’m sorry, were you speaking to us?

Thanks all

OK, thank you ICOT.

Denim. Aries is correct, and I concur with her approach, albeit in a more selfish manner. Basically, you should refuse to allow that person to live in your head! This person who has hurt you so much should have no right to wiggle herself into your brain and, in addition to hurting you to begin with; to continue on and on to hurt you non-stop! She ensconced herself inside your head driving you nuts, while she merrily goes about her way!

So, yes, there’s the element of forgiveness, and I can’t pasken on whether there are ethical, moral, or halacha requirements to forgive her, but prior to (or in conjunction with) forgiveness, you should selfishly refuse to let her continue to hurt you.

Hatzlacha!

Changing to a 30 year mortgage will slow down the payment of principal considerably, due to the amortization of the payments (i.e. for the first couple of years you will be paying primarily interest and relatively little principal). However, changing it from a 20 to a 10 or 15 year mortgage (with potentially the same monthly payments due to the lower rate) will cause you to pay off the principal much faster, thus allowing you to take out another mortgage or line of credit when you think you’ll need it down the road.

Don’t take this as advice. Just pushing in a thought there for you to think about…

A horn that is called “Keren” is actually Pasul for shofar. A cow’s horns, although it has the proper characteristics of a shofar, is Pasul to be used as a shofar because the Torah calls it a “Keren”.

Meseches Rosh Hashana Perek Gimmel Mishna Beis. Shitas Taana Kama.

Thanks yungerman. Is it possible to find out whom he used for the installation and whether he recommends them? I am also potentially interested in this.

on the ball: thank you! your example illustrates the inherent flaws in following such statistics.