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Musings on yom tov, cooking, and sleep
Sep. 26th, 2002 01:05 pmI'm one sleepy camper today. 'Why?' I hear you ask. Well, this weekend is the last of the sweep of Jewish holidays (yom tov in Hebrew), and my parents are coming to stay with ("stay by") us. The apartment's still a mess, but over the years my mother and I have come to the agreement that having cooked food is much more important than having an uncluttered living room, so the cooking comes first.
For those of you unfamiliar with the intricacies of Jewish law regarding the Sabbath and yom tov and cooking, a brief primer: on the Sabbath (hereinafter "shabbat", 'cause that's what my brain calls it), we don't do anything that falls into 39 categories of work, as interpreted by the rabbis through the generations. Part of this "no work" involves no cooking, which leads to us cooking on Friday (or Thursday, or Wednesday...you get the picture) for Friday night dinner and Saturday lunch. Through various means, we still are able to _heat_ precooked food (the invention of the timer and the electric hot plate made shabbat food that much easier for modern Orthodox Jews (not to be confused with Modern Orthodox Jews, a distinction I will be happy to explain to anyone but that is way too confusing to get into here).
On the yom tov, however, some of the laws of shabbat don't apply. The two big ones are that we're allowed to cook and to carry. So, in preparation for a typical yom tov, while I try to get the majority of my cooking done ahead of time, I'm not a crazed maniac about it.
This year, all the fall holidays fall on Saturday/Sunday (except for Yom Kippur, which fell on Monday). In my mind, this is simultaneously a good thing and a bad thing. It's a good thing because - for those of us who are living in the modern world and have full-time jobs - my vacation time doesn't have to be spent on days missed for the holidays, and I have a fighting chance of hitting deadlines in late September/early October. It's a bad thing because we lose Sunday as a day to get secular things accomplished (minor things like laundry, grocery shopping and the like).
It also means that the laws of shabbat, and not yom tov, apply on the first day of the holiday. Which translates to no cooking. Which, this week, translates to no sleep for Nomi on Wednesday night (and probably not tonight, either) as I try to balance working 7:30-5 and my responsibility to provide festive meals for the weekend. Our usual pattern is that MAB and I do the standard grocery shopping on Wednesday night, the kosher grocery shopping on Thursday night, and then I cook Thursday night and Friday afternoon after work. This week, the shopping was Tuesday and Wednesday, cooking Wednesday, Thursday and Friday afternoon, and then yom tov starts Friday night and goes through Sunday night (so, those of you with whom I have daily or more frequent e-mail contact, don't worry if you don't hear from me from Friday mid-day until Monday morning).
Which brings me full circle to me being a sleepy Nomi. Anyone who happens to take a nap this afternoon, if you could keep me in mind, I'd appreciate it. I have this theory that, just as one Jew who is obligated to perform a certain mitzvah can appoint another Jew who is equally obligated as their agent to perform the mitzvah for them (the Hebrew for this concept is that I ask someone to be motzei me in the mitzvah), I can ask others to be motzei me for napping
For those of you unfamiliar with the intricacies of Jewish law regarding the Sabbath and yom tov and cooking, a brief primer: on the Sabbath (hereinafter "shabbat", 'cause that's what my brain calls it), we don't do anything that falls into 39 categories of work, as interpreted by the rabbis through the generations. Part of this "no work" involves no cooking, which leads to us cooking on Friday (or Thursday, or Wednesday...you get the picture) for Friday night dinner and Saturday lunch. Through various means, we still are able to _heat_ precooked food (the invention of the timer and the electric hot plate made shabbat food that much easier for modern Orthodox Jews (not to be confused with Modern Orthodox Jews, a distinction I will be happy to explain to anyone but that is way too confusing to get into here).
On the yom tov, however, some of the laws of shabbat don't apply. The two big ones are that we're allowed to cook and to carry. So, in preparation for a typical yom tov, while I try to get the majority of my cooking done ahead of time, I'm not a crazed maniac about it.
This year, all the fall holidays fall on Saturday/Sunday (except for Yom Kippur, which fell on Monday). In my mind, this is simultaneously a good thing and a bad thing. It's a good thing because - for those of us who are living in the modern world and have full-time jobs - my vacation time doesn't have to be spent on days missed for the holidays, and I have a fighting chance of hitting deadlines in late September/early October. It's a bad thing because we lose Sunday as a day to get secular things accomplished (minor things like laundry, grocery shopping and the like).
It also means that the laws of shabbat, and not yom tov, apply on the first day of the holiday. Which translates to no cooking. Which, this week, translates to no sleep for Nomi on Wednesday night (and probably not tonight, either) as I try to balance working 7:30-5 and my responsibility to provide festive meals for the weekend. Our usual pattern is that MAB and I do the standard grocery shopping on Wednesday night, the kosher grocery shopping on Thursday night, and then I cook Thursday night and Friday afternoon after work. This week, the shopping was Tuesday and Wednesday, cooking Wednesday, Thursday and Friday afternoon, and then yom tov starts Friday night and goes through Sunday night (so, those of you with whom I have daily or more frequent e-mail contact, don't worry if you don't hear from me from Friday mid-day until Monday morning).
Which brings me full circle to me being a sleepy Nomi. Anyone who happens to take a nap this afternoon, if you could keep me in mind, I'd appreciate it. I have this theory that, just as one Jew who is obligated to perform a certain mitzvah can appoint another Jew who is equally obligated as their agent to perform the mitzvah for them (the Hebrew for this concept is that I ask someone to be motzei me in the mitzvah), I can ask others to be motzei me for napping
