The Kiddush Cup

25/12/2024

Dear friends
A holiday wish that I received from the Technical institute of Israel and I wish to share:
"A little bit of light drives out much darkness." - Rabbeinu Bahia , 12th century, Spain.
In science we believe in the infinite potential of a single spark to illuminate , transform and improve the world. May the lights of the Chanucka, the Christmas tree and all other sources, bring you inspiration and hope.
Happy Chanucka, Merry Christmas and happy holidays.

14/12/2024

We’re thrilled to introduce A World Within Reach—your go-to travel advisory for unforgettable, tailor-made journeys.

✨ What Makes Us Different?
Expert guidance from seasoned travelers who’ve explored 83 countries.
Seamless, personalized planning to fit your vision.
Exclusive perks, upgrades, and experiences through Virtuoso and SmartFlyer.

From solo adventures to family escapes and group celebrations, we handle every detail so you can enjoy every moment.

📩 Contact us today at [email protected] to start your journey.
📍 Website: www.aworldwithinreach.com (Sign up for our newsletter!)
📷 Instagram: www.instagram.com/aworldwithinreach
👍 Facebook: www.facebook.com/aworldwithinreach
💼 LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/company/aworldwithinreach/

For our friends and family - waived travel planning fees on all trips booked by June 1, 2025!

Follow us on all social outlets for travel inspiration and thank you for your support in sharing the wanderlust.

Warm regards,
Tamar & Barbara
Co-Founders, A World Within Reach

A World Within Reach | 12 followers on LinkedIn. Stories We Create, Connections We Make, Worlds We Discover. | A World Within Reach is a bespoke travel advisory founded by two seasoned globetrotters, dedicated to crafting meticulously tailored travel experiences. Drawing on decades of global explora...

30/11/2024

Washington Headquarters in Newburgh NY.
On Friday we visited the Washington Headquarters focus on the years around 1783.
It was an interesting and educational visit. Our tour guide shared with us details that we did not know. It was an interactive tour when he asked us to be part of it.
I learned that George Washington was aware of his role in establishing the future Nation of USA. He was a great leader. He was with the soldiers for 8 years. His wife came to him since he did not take vacations.
Since he could not complete his collage education he invited people who completed famous universities to dine with him. That the way he educated himself.
He fought for democracy when the rest of the world had monarchy.
He duplicated and kept all his notes and each not was circulated among the 13 colonies. He made sure to pose for pictures in the best outfit and stood up with a good posture. A picture stays forever, way after the person passes away.
One thing I did not like: about him was his way toward slavery. He treated them as slaves and kept them in that way. To my understanding if someone is fighting for freedom from England rolling - How not to understand that slaves are people with feeling and need like the rest of the people?
Go visit this place. It is an important part of the history of USA and the world.

03/10/2024

Rosh Hashanah is the beginning of new Jewish year. I like to hope for a better year next year. A little bit of peace ( a lot it is too much to ask) , a year that people will talk to each other and not kill each other.
I like to wish health and happiness to everyone.,

15/08/2024

A good story to watch about a boy who survived the camps and got to live in Israel. It is in Hebrew .

צבי גיל נולד בזדונסקה וולה שבפולין ב-1928. עם פרוץ המלחמה הועברה המשפחה לגטו בעיר עד לחיסולו של הגטו. צבי ואמו הועברו לגטו לודז' שם היה פעיל בתנועת הנוער הצי...

02/08/2024

This is a proud moment for our Jewish heritages. It is memorable that the organizer of the Olympics realized his dream and offered it to him.

Holocaust survivor Leon Lewkowicz carried the torch to the Vel d'Hiv Memorial Garden as part of the grand lead up to the opening ceremonies of the Paris Olympics.

Leon was born in Lodz Poland in 1930. When he was ten years old he was sent to the Warsaw ghetto and four years later, at the age of 14, he was deported to Auschwitz- Birkenau. Miraculously, he survived the camp and Death March. He arrived in France in June of 1945 at the age of 15 weighing only 72 lbs.

Leon was one of 426 children, (alongside Elie Wiesel and Meir Lau) who were brought into the Œuvre de secours aux enfants (OSE), a French Jewish children’s aid society. It was there that he met Maurice Brauch, an athletic coach who organized intramural competitions.

With great determination, Leon lifted weights consistently. At the age of 19, he became the strongest man in France and in 1955 he became the French weightlifting champion. He was unable to participate in the Olympic Games at that time because he was still not a French Citizen.

But Léon dreamed of carrying the Olympic torch.

At the age of 94, his dream became a reality and his life came full circle when he marched with the torch from the Bir-hakeim metro station to the Vel d’Hiv Memorial Garden in Paris.

Source: Aish.com

02/08/2024

Now Noa Tishbi has a new book. Worth reading it.

05/07/2024

With Polish Embassy in Tel Aviv – I just got recognized as one of their top fans! 🎉

05/07/2024

With Holocaust & Humanity Center – I just got recognized as one of their top fans! 🎉

05/07/2024

With Weinstein JCC – I just got recognized as one of their top fans! 🎉

05/07/2024

It was a forth of July celabration in Philadelphia. I watched it from a hospital window on the 14 th floor. I thanked God to be in this country who still maintains freedoms to all and the home of the braves.

11/06/2024

With Anne Frank House – I just got recognized as one of their top fans! 🎉

11/06/2024

Tribute to all the people:
In front of the Notre- Dome. It will reopen in December 2024. We were impressed to find on the black wall the pictures of all the people who made it happened: painters, architects, plumbers, electricians, scaffolders, carpenters and cleaners. First time we saw tribute to all. How respectful.
We need to learn and apply when applicable.

05/06/2024

A tree for a loved one in your garden.

I am sharing with you an idea to remember family member who passed away. A mother of an 11 years old died from a sudden heart attack. The husband and the father of the girl wanted to make it a little easier on the young girl. He planted a tree in the garden. They put candles by the tree to comemorate her

Everytime the member of the family go out from the house they see the tree and remember the mother. Now 12 years passed and the tree is tall and beautiful blooms once a year.

Another lady moved Calla Lilly from her mother’s garden, to her garden. She planted some in front of the house and some in the back. When ever she goes to the garden she sees the flower and smiles.

I think it is a great idea and I am going to ask my children to plant a tree after I die. ( I hope not soon)

You can use this idea for your loved one, if you wish.

25/05/2024

From the book “the Kidush Cup”. Can be pursued on Amazon’s:
Lodge Poland
This is the city where Rachel thought she would find her future. She tried to join a university and get a higher education, but she was not accepted to any institute. She tried to find a soul mate but was unsuccessful. The census in Poland in 1931 revealed that 83% of Jewish women in Poland between the ages twenty to twenty-four were not married while only 63% of the rest of the non-Jewish women in Poland at that age group were single. Rachel was nineteen years old, and it was hard for her to find a husband.

The Jewish economic status in Poland explained why women in that age group had difficulty getting married. The men aspired to have a respectable income prior to asking for a woman’s hand in marriage. Men wanted to have a skill that would enable them to provide for a family. However, Jews found it difficult to be accepted into universities or apprenticeships for non-Jews. Consequently, the boys could not obtain skills that enabled them to ask a woman to marry them. The other option for the men was to look for a woman with a “naidunia” (dowry), meaning a bride who came from a wealthy family that could help them start a business. Many women were not born into established families with a high income and they could not offer a dowry to the prospective husband (36).

From observing her surroundings and thinking about her future, Rachel understood what she had to do to fulfill her needs. She joined the HeChalutz branch in Lodz that had inspiring leaders who were excited to move to Israel. She developed good relationships with the branch members, men and women interested in immigrating to Israel. Her brother Joseph, who lived in Israel, continued to send her cards and letters begging her to join him in building the Jewish land. Over time, Rachel grew very fond of the idea of moving to Israel, and she made the final decision after she learned about the massacre on “Kristallnacht” (“Crystal Night”).

Figure 53: Hadas, Rachel’s granddaughter, stand by Ghetto Warsaw’s wall (2002

19/05/2024

From the book : The Kidush Cup”
Can be purchased on Amazon

Setting the Table for Friday Night Dinner

Esther prepared the table by covering it with an embroidered tablecloth. The cloth was cross stitched with purple flowers and green leaves. The family knew they had to eat and drink without spilling a drop on the tablecloth. Every spot, even if washed carefully, would stain, and the family could not afford two of them.

Figure 33: Havdalah set, kiddush wine cup, and silver Shabbat candles . Please see below

For Friday night, the best meat dishes were put out, and the glasses sparkled in the light. The two challahs were placed near the head of the table on a special plate used for Shabbat. They were covered with a beautiful, embroidered cloth. A cutting knife, a small plate of salt, the kiddush cup, and a bottle of wine were all located in the same place on the table.

When Esther heard voices coming from the street, she ran to her mother and said, "I can hear Joseph singing Lecha Dody Lickrat Kala (come my love, welcome the bride that it is the Shabbat)."

08/05/2024

From the book the Kidush cup: The Young “HeChalutz” - The Young Pioneer - Zionist Youth Movement in Zduńska Wola from 1932 to 1939

A few youth movements were in Zduńska Wola. Yosef, one of Rachel’s older brothers, and his girlfriend Pnina, joined the young HeChalutz because the movement’s philosophy suited them. Its mission was to prepare pioneers seeking immigration to Palestine. It was conducted in three stages: 1) Join the local branch. 2) Prepare for a life in Israel in a community like a Kibbutz in Poland. 3) Move to Israel and help establish a Jewish state.

The local branches marketed their philosophy to the youngsters and wanted as many individuals as possible on their side. They had enthusiastic leaders from Israel who stayed for three to four years; after which, the leaders were exchanged with new ones. The weekly meetings in the branches educated the participants about Israel, and guest speakers visited to describe the current situation in Israel and its relationship to other countries. They had fun together through activities, singing, dancing, and dreaming about the future of the country. The philosophy was social Zionism: equal rights while learning to share and live in a commune. There were no higher or lower classes among the people in the group, and everyone learned Hebrew so they could function well in the new state. The final goal was moving to Israel, and it was named “Aliyah” (ascending) (23).

“Aliyah” means ascent. It is the immigration of Jews from the diaspora to the Land of Israel. It is also defined as "the act of going up" (towards Jerusalem). "Making Aliyah" by moving to Israel is one of the most fundamental components of Zionism. Someone who "makes Aliyah" is called an “oleh” (masculine) or “olla” (feminine). Many religious Jews think of “Aliyah” as a return to the Promised Land and believe it fulfills God's biblical promise to the descendants of the Hebrew patriarchs: Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.

This passage in the Mishnah emphasizes the importance of living in Israel: "One should always live in the Land of Israel, even in a town most of whose inhabitants are idolaters, but let no one live outside the Land, even in a town most of whose inhabitants are Israelites; for whoever lives in the Land of Israel may be considered to have a God, but whoever lives outside the land may be regarded as one who has no God." (24)

Figure 39: Zev (standing fifth from the right on the top row), Rachel’s future husband, in the youth movement in Lithuania (1929).

05/05/2024

For the Kiddush Cup:

The “Lekach” - Pound Cake

The “lekach” was a challenge to prepare. The first step was dividing the egg yolk from the egg whites. The second step was the most difficult: beating the egg whites. It was a labor of love and duty.

Rachel sat on a low stool with the bowl in front of her. The secret was to steadily beat the eggs, adding small amounts of sugar at a time until it became a white, smooth, and stiff foam, so if she turned the bowl upside down, at the end, it would not fall out. In another bowl they mixed the rest of the ingredients.

Once ready, they slowly poured the foam into a bowl and folded it with big motions as to not deflate the foam. The mixture was poured into a round baking pan and was placed on the stove to be baked slowly.


Figure 25: Baking pan to put on a wick heating burner (Left). The opened baking pan (Middle). Sponge cake baked into the bunt pan and plated (right)

The children loved to peek through the little holes in the lid to see the cake rise. Mother used to stick a knife in the cake when she thought it was completely baked. It sat for twenty minutes and then was flipped onto a plate; a beautiful round-shaped cake appeared. It was a tasty addition to the afternoon tea that was served when the family woke up from their Shabbat afternoon nap.