Snapshots for Sunday (and more)

An interesting entrance . . .

. . . with arches inside arches

Counting heads, literally

Every Shabbat (Sabbath) and Yom Tov (holiday), it's the same story--we rarely get a minyan in time for the Bar'chu (Call to Prayer), and must often skip the Chazarat haShaTz (repetition of the Amidah prayer by the Shaliach Tzibur/representative of the congregation/prayer leader) for the same reason.  It's just a matter of time before we don't get a minyan at all and must read the Torah reading from a printed Chumash rather than from a handwritten sefer Torah scroll.

And while we're on the subject of counting heads . . .

Some people are absolutely serious about refusing to bentsch (do Birkat HaMazon/Grace after Meals) :(

Start here.

"Why are you in such a rush?"  "Because we want to bentch while we still have a minyan."

In response, the questioner and one other person actually picked themselves up and left the shul building.

I was thoroughly offended.  

As I usually am by synagogue members who don't consider themselves responsible for supporting the proper functioning of their own synagogue.

Sigh.

More bad news re goodies

My husband goes into By the Way gluten-free dairy-free kosher bakery to check their ingredients list, and finds that all of their chocolate products contain soy.  No more chocolate-chip cookies for him, and no more chocolate-chip mini-cakes for me.  Phooey.  :(

And to top it off, I don't like the taste of the palm oil in Enjoy Life crunchy cookies.

Which leaves a grand total of three items as my preferred Shabbat and Yom Tov treats:

~ Enjoy Life snickerdoodle soft-baked cookies

~ By the Way biscotti

~ By the Way almond cookies

Less-frequent favorites:

~ Macaroons

~ Homemade baked goods, which I hesitate to make too often lest I eat too many!  :)