Picture the scene: It is 6:00 p.m. You come into the kitchen after another exhausting day of being a devoted wife and mother. The sofa is calling your name and all you want to do is sit down and relax. And then comes the tantalizing question: What’s for dinner?

Have you found yourself in this situation recently? It stands to reason, especially with the coronavirus pandemic, when our kids are home and need to be taken care of, not to mention the regular housework and job requirements. The days go by quickly, and before we know it, it is time to decide what to make for dinner again. After a long and tiring day, the last thing any of us wants to do is to have to figure out what to cook, go to the store if needed, and prepare an entire meal for our family. How can we avoid this dilemma that creeps up on us day after day? Here enters meal planning.

There is a beautiful Yiddish tune entitled “Vee Nemt Mehn ah Bisseleh Mazel? (Where Can we Get a Morsel of Luck?)” Composed by Benzion Witler, a prolific writer of Yiddish melodies, the message of the song is always relevant because all human beings and other living things need mazel, right?

Here are a few maises (tales) regarding the importance of mazel.

If you took action on last month’s article, your newly-made garden bed is now prepared and waiting for you to plant something into that potent soil. What’s the first step? What should I plant and how should I plant it? Do I plant my seeds directly into the soil, or should I start them in small containers? If I already have small plants (grown by me or by someone else), how and when should I plant them into the garden bed?

These are all good questions, and the answers depend upon many factors, including what kind of seeds you have, what kind of plants you have, how much space you have, and what the weather is like!

Let’s begin by looking at how different seeds work and how to get them properly started.

Did you know that it is a faux pas to accept a gift when it is first offered, that you must wait until the giver offers it at least three times?

Did you know that if you finish all the food on your plate your host might be insulted as it is a sign that you did not get enough to eat?

Did you know that if your host serves you a full cup of tea instead of half a cup, it means he wants you to leave?

If you never heard of these rules of etiquette, you are not a discourteous boor. You simply do not live in China, Kazakhstan, or Korea, where these customs are understood and practiced. Every society has its own rules, and people who are brought up within it know them intuitively. An outsider is clueless and, although well-intentioned, will seem impolite.

If you would have heard me say, about a year ago, “Until 120,” you might not have known that it referred to something other than a wish for long life. That is because I was searching for my soul mate and getting rather weary. Most of my dates were coming from the two Israeli dating sites I had joined. Many evenings I would closet myself by the computer and tell my friends I was going “shopping,” that is, navigating the dating sites to see whom I could get a date with. The sites have more than 40,000 members, so choices were plentiful. The problem was that, although many guys I met really were suitable, I had also encountered a fair number of disappointing dates.

Remember what it feels like to be the 10^th man?

An importance that just seems so fine!

But what is the sense I’m expected to feel,

When I’m also number one through nine?

 I remember seeing all those ads as a child about how to look younger. “Who cares about that?” I thought. I want to be older. Who has time to put on make-up? And exercise? Oh, maybe one day down the road, and please pass me the doughnuts. When I turned 40, I begrudgingly started using lipstick because my lips had lost their color. When 50 rolled around, I sort of panicked. Young mothers started calling me “Mrs.” – and not because I was choshuv. I began to like it when people said to me, “Oh you look so young.”

My best friend and I are so grateful to Hashem that we still go out for Yizkor on Yom Kippur. We say, “kein ayin hora” when we talk about it, like two old ladies. As of late, we wonder how we’ll ever manage life without our dear parents.

A name came to me recently – I couldn’t tell you precisely why – a rather poetic name, as it happens. Chances are good you never heard of him. Earl Nightingale was one of the few survivors of the battleship Argonia, bombed during the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, December 7, 1941. Nightingale later became a nationally-renowned speaker and author. His stock-in-trade was relationships, that is, getting along better with others. One of his most widely-quoted bits of wisdom was “Getting along with other people remains the world’s most needed skill. With it, there is no limit to what a person can do. We need people, but above all we need the cooperation of others. There is little we can accomplish alone.” (Shades of Dale Carnegie and his making-friends-and-influencing-people mantra!)

It started with toilet paper. It spread to hand sanitizer, flour, yeast, and bottled water. The shelves were bare in the stores, and they were “out of stock” at Walmart and Amazon, too. The public’s shopping protocol and habits have changed as well since Shushan Purim, the last time I set foot in a supermarket, where, I hear, markings on the floor direct you where to stand and walk and shoppers scurry about in masked anonymity. Why does it feel like shopping for my Pesach items is ancient history?

Fear of the virus is bad enough. Now we read about dairies pouring thousands of gallons of milk down the drain, meat plants closing, and agricultural businesses throwing away huge quantities of food, and we are gripped by fear. Will there be a shortage of food? Lest a panic attack strike before you finish reading this article, let me declare the good news and the conclusion up front: We are not going to starve!

The surface of our lives is not as smooth as it used to be. Secluded in our homes, we look each day for new opportunities to connect with the outside world. Although the marvels of computers and cell phones succeed in making this connection possible, in our dependence on technology for work, entertainment, and children’s studies, it is possible that we have overlooked a source of solace and stimulation right outside our windows.

Nature has always had the power to fascinate and refresh. Fortunately, it is not necessary to travel to exotic locales, or even local parks, to enjoy it. Common backyard birds flitting among the trees and bushes are a world unto themselves, and both adults and children are captivated by observing them and learning about their lives.