This year’s season of Difficult People is ending on Tuesday just in time for us all to reflect on our garbage person ways Pre-Yom Kippur. To quote Billy’s character, “we did the wrong thing and we still got nothing!”

Dear Billy Eichner and Julie Klausner,

Thank you for letting it be okay to be a dirt person. I constantly struggle to stay away from my garbage person impulses, but Difficult People really leans into the dirt person lifestyle. It is a celebration of all of the worst traits a person can have.    

I would like you both to know that I am not planning to become an all out horrible monster, but just a person who occasionally thinks about herself before others. I really view what your characters do on the show as a form of self-care, because let’s be honest— they only really do care about themselves. It’s cathartic to watch you guys do the things I only dream of doing.

I appreciate your characters’ infusion of Judaism in their everyday activities. It’s not like we often see them doing Jewish rituals or celebrating holidays (though there are occasional examples— shout out to this season’s plot line where Billy’s Orthodox sister became convinced she had a Golem). Still, in the proud history of TV, their background, and sense of humor, infuses every part of their hilarious existence.

I also appreciate Jews mocking other Jews— it just feels right (you know you do it). You crafted characters whose Judaism is expressed through their love of pop culture, for example. Your characters watch The Real Housewives with the same fervor some people bring to Shabbat. They may not live Jewish lives in a traditional religious sense, but they still live Jewishly.  The way they perform a Jewish life may feel wrong to some because it isn’t this idealized version of what we “should” be, but that makes it feel all the more real.

As the Day of Atonement nears, I think of when Billy tells his frum brother on Yom Kippur: “Here’s the thing. You know what the holiest day of the year for me is? The Golden Globes.” His niece exclaims in response: “That’s the most Jewish thing I have ever heard.”

As we move into Rosh Hashanah this evening we are told to be self-reflective and contrite. Difficult People has helped me do both. I am thinking more about how I interact with the world so that I can be less of a garbage person. In this reflection I am realizing all the ways I can be better in the New Year. I will apologize to those I have dirt-personed-to and hopefully be just a bit less like your characters in the horribleness in the New Year.

Difficult People asserts that we as Jewish people will always be the Other in society, and it’s better to just embrace rather than hiding from it. What I love about your show is that Julie and Billy are unapologetically themselves, dirt person ways and all.

Stay Jewish!

-Alex

Image via Hulu

The post On ‘Difficult People’ and Being a Dirt Person appeared first on Jewcy.

It is happening again. Rosh Hashanah, Yom Kippur, and the 10 days of Teshuva— repentance— are upon us once more. While many of us are taking stock of another year gone by, contemplating our acts and wondering how we can be better people in the year to come, I want to suggest something perhaps unexpected: Watch Twin Peaks. Every mystifying second of it.

25 years after its cancellation, Twin Peaks was resurrected this past summer for an 18 episode limited run. Appropriately named “The Return,” like most viewers I took the revival’s title to be nothing more than acute self awareness on the part of the writers. The show has returned! Yay! But, it quickly became clear that the title of the show was signaling more than just a celebration of its own resurrection. Twin Peaks: The Return is about the very nature of returning. How do we do it? What do we even do to return? With the High Holiday season in mind, it is easy to think that the show could have instead been titled Twin Peaks: Teshuva.

Twin Peaks addresses Teshuva from two distinct angles. The first is by telling the story of our hero Agent Dale Cooper returning from the Black Lodge (an extra-dimensional place of evil) to our plane of existence. As we watch Cooper readjust to the world, as Lynchian and weird as his circumstances are, it seems reminiscent difficulties each one of us have in returning to God, to our families, and to our friends after we have gone astray. When we see our gallant hero comically bumble through life under his new identity of Dougie Jones, we see just how easy it is to lose our way and forget that there was ever something noble we strove for. When we see the once commanding Agent Cooper being mindlessly pushed through life by his wife, his boss, and his coworkers, it should make us wonder if we are still the masters of our lives, or if life is dictating our paths for us. When Cooper wistfully reaches out for a police officer’s badge, a symbol of the life he once lived, it should make us calls out: “Wake up Cooper! Wake up! You’re so close.” I imagine that God often cries out for us to do the same.

Of course, Agent Cooper isn’t the only one returning to Twin Peaks. We, the viewers, are as well. However, the world we encounter now is startlingly different from the one we were introduced to over two decades ago. The Twin Peaks we left was filled with captivating raw emotion and teeming with life. Whether it was the confused feelings of angst, lust, and romance of teenage youth, the goofy and quirky charm of the community’s many eccentric characters, or the nightmarish horrors bubbling beneath the surface of the innocent town, the original Twin Peaks always felt alive in a way that was both unsettlingly and accessibly real. The Twin Peaks we return to, though, is one that all too often feels sterile and cold. Sex is used to assert power or, for the banality of obtaining moments of selfish pleasure. Characters no longer stare out contemplatively into the moonlit forests; instead they gaze blankly at their computer screens. And it is silent. So silent. Gone are the lively jazz accompaniments or the rising musical refrains. The sound of Twin Peaks: The Return is mostly a barren stillness that leaves us constantly wondering where the warmth of this plane has gone.

It’s easy to reduce Twin Peaks to a cynical take on nostalgia. That we can’t ever return to the world that was, and oh— by the way, that world never existed in the first place. But like all good art it’s more nuanced and complicated than that. Just because we can’t return to that world, doesn’t mean that we can’t return to ourselves. We may lose our innocence, but that doesn’t mean we have to lose our goodness and be corrupted by the grayness of life’s journey.

This third season of Twin Peaks serves as an 18 hour meditation on the journey of return. It can be baffling and confusing, and truth be told the show often seems to have no internal logic or any semblance of a coherent plot line. But that’s OK. Too often we are looking for clues and signs in an attempt to figure out an order to the world. To treat the High Holiday season the same would be a tragedy. Teshuva should not be reduced to a transaction with God – that with enough prayer and good deeds God will tear up that bad decree and reward us with a good one in the year to come. If nothing else, Twin Peaks reminds us that at this time of year it is most important to give ourselves over to an emotional logic, to take the time to embrace the powerful symbols around us and submit to the feelings they evoke.  That’s how we return. As the Torah teaches, Teshuva is not hidden in the heavens or distantly across the sea. Rather, the power to return is found within each of us. It’s in crisp suits, cherry pie so good it’ll kill you, and a damn fine cup of coffee.

You may be far away.
So listen to the sounds.
You will find your way back.
To a place that is both.
Wonderful and Strange.

Shana Tova.

Photo via Showtime

The post ‘Twin Peaks’ and Teshuva appeared first on Jewcy.

Looking for a fun, easy Rosh Hashanah baking project for the little human(s) in your life? May I present the humble Australian party classic, the Honey Joy. It’s sort of a cross between a Cornflake cookie and a Rice Krispie treat, and it tastes just like it sounds: sweet and happy.

Honey Joys are de rigueur at Aussie birthday parties, and they’re super-easy to make. (In fact, it was the very first recipe I made on my own.) Kids aged 8 and up can wing it solo, but they might need a grown-up assist at the oven end of the business. Littler ones will love helping older siblings with the measuring and mixing. And everyone will schep nachas when these are served up at the Rosh Hashanah table or as a shul treat.

Let’s get this sugar high show on the road!

Ingredients:

4 cups cornflakes
1 tbsp honey
⅓ cup sugar (you can probably use a little less, adjust to taste)
3 oz. butter or margarine

Directions:

1. Pre-heat oven to 300 degrees. Line two cupcake trays with 24 cupcake liners. (Cookie trays are fine too.)

2. Melt butter, sugar, and honey together in saucepan until frothy. (Kids can do this in the microwave.)

3. Combine liquids with cornflakes in big bowl. Mix together with wooden spoon. Spoon the mixture into the cupcake cups.

4. Bake Honey Joys at 300 degrees for 10 minutes. Remove from oven. Optional: top with coconut flakes, sprinkles, decorative cake balls.

5. Let cool. Eat!

(Image: Clara Alim, via Flickr)

The post Honey Joys: Easy Rosh Hashanah Recipe for Kids appeared first on Jewcy.

Amid the hectic grocery shopping, chicken soup-making, cleaning, and general preparations, there is something intensely comforting about finally sitting down with family and friends at your impeccably set table on the eve of Rosh Hashanah and getting your fingers sticky with challah and apples dipped in honey.

Like many other Jewish holidays, Rosh Hashanah is filled with symbolic foods. To start the new year, the foods are meant to prompt us to reflect on the past year and to represent our aspirations for the year to come. In the Talmudic era, rabbis recommended people eat gourds, fenugreek, leeks, beet greens, and dates because the Hebrew words were phonetically similar to words related to good judgment and casting away sins and enemies. According to Gil Marks, different communities added their own traditions, which were often phonetic puns as well, such as carrots, whose Hebrew name, “gezer”, can also mean “to tear” and “decree,” signifying that any evil decree should be torn up. Additionally, carrots are sweet and look much like coins when sliced in rounds, a hopeful symbol for good fortunes in the coming year.

Today, the most famous food tradition associated with Rosh Hashanah is the custom of eating apples dipped in honey. It has become so entrenched in the holiday ritual that a special blessing is recited over it before the holiday meal, asking God to “renew for us a good and sweet year.” Gil Marks’ research found the first explanation for the introduction of apples, in the 12th century, was the hope that the shiny fruit would bring a bright future for the Jewish community. Just as the carrot took on many meanings, eating apples and honey became a ritual with multiple implications. As indicated in the blessing, eating apples and honey represented hope for a sweet year. The roundness of the apple is also described as a reminder of the ongoing circle of life and in the ancient Near East, honey symbolized immortality.

In addition to starting the holiday with apples dipped in honey, many families have a tradition of dipping slices of round, raisin-filled challot into honey throughout the holiday season (from Rosh Hashannah through Sukkot). And, of course, apples and honey can figure prominently in the dessert department.

This chicken recipe takes the tradition of eating apples and honey one step farther by bringing the theme into the entree. Why confine them to appetizers and desserts? Cooking the chicken in apple cider and honey creates a subtle sweetness and ensures a moist, tender chicken. The earthiness of the dark meat combined with the onions, garlic, and thyme reign in the sweetness a bit. As a final touch, feel free to garnish with pomegranate seeds, which symbolize a desire to perform a multitude of mitzvot in the year to come. Feel free to sop up any leftover sauce with your challah.

Not Your Bubbe’s Rosh Hashanah Chicken

Ingredients:
4 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
4 chicken quarters
3 large yellow onions, sliced
1 head garlic, peeled whole cloves
3 tablespoons thyme leaves, stripped
½ tablespoon honey
1 cup apple cider or apple juice
1 cups chicken stock or water
Pomegranate seeds to garnish (optional)
Salt and pepper, to taste

Directions:
1. Heat a Dutch oven or saucier over medium heat. Season chicken with pepper. Add two tablespoons of olive oil to the pan and place chicken skin side down. Let the chicken brown on both sides (about 5 minutes each), then remove from pan and set aside.

2. Sautee onions, garlic, thyme, and honey, stirring regularly until onions have caramelized.

3. Add apple cider and stock. Let the liquids come to a simmer then add chicken back to pot. Continue cooking on medium for fifteen minutes until it is completely cooked.

4. Serve with sauce and onions poured over the chicken. Garnish with pomegranate seeds or thyme.

Also Try:

Not Your Bubbe’s Moussaka with Eggplant and Zucchini

Not Your Bubbe’s Peanut Butter Lag B’Omer S’mores

Not Your Bubbe’s Modern Gefilte Fish Fillet

The post Not Your Bubbe’s Rosh Hashanah Chicken appeared first on Jewcy.

This Sunday, Macklemore and Ryan Lewis are coming to Brooklyn’s Barclays Center to perform their hit “Same Love” and, likely, to win some Moonmen.

But first, in their new promotional video, the Seattle duo gets us excited for their concert with the Beastie Boys “No Sleep Till Brooklyn” and, obviously, some Shofar melodies. What the what? Why is Macklemore blowing the tribe’s ram horn into the clear blue sky as a ragtag team of hipsters follows him through a field? We really don’t know. But it’s kind of great, so we won’t ask too many questions.

Maybe if we’re nice he’ll play at our synagogue.

(San Francisco Foghorn/Wikimedia)

The post Macklemore Can Blow a Shofar Really Well appeared first on Jewcy.

After Yom Kippur ended this year, my family began to prepare for Sukkot. We took the sukkah out, set up the frame, and then carefully put on the top and covered it with leaves. We then hung up construction paper fruit and two bunches of plastic grapes. Between two of the poles, my mother tied a piece of string, and then, one by one, hung up Rosh Hashanah cards.

Together, we then set up the tables and chairs, placed a plant near a rear pole and a basket of apples near another. Finally, just before sukkot started, we set the table with a tray of black and white cookies, a plate of cupcakes, two bowls of fruit, and bottles of seltzer and wine. All of this was on the same table.

The sukkah we so meticulously set up and decorated is my grandmother’s tabletop sukkah, which my family curates each year. I say curate because it will always be my grandmother’s sukkah, and anything we place in it was not in the original design, but honors her artistic vision.

When my grandmother, an artist and rabbi’s wife, came up with the idea for the sukkah, she had a florist create the frame. The frame consists of four green wooden rods that serve as poles and a green wooden rectangle, which sits on top of the four poles. In the center of the rectangle is mesh wiring. The sukkah’s design reflects that of a traditional sukkah, only on a much smaller scale.

I never celebrated Sukkot with my grandmother so I never had the chance to see how she set up and decorated her sukkah. My Aunt tells me that it sat prominently on the table and that my grandmother adorned it with evergreens and hung miniature squash from the wire. Since my grandparents lived in an apartment in Chicago, it was this small sukkah that was the Cohen family sukkah.

A few years before she passed away, my grandmother gave us the sukkah. Sitting proudly on our dining room table, the Cohen sukkah was decorated to match our backyard sukkah. Construction paper apples, oranges, and bananas were hung with string from the wire, just as plastic fruit hung from the top of our sukkah. We turned to my dollhouse for a table that would mirror the patio table from our backyard, and then sat the family that lived in the dollhouse around the table.

This lasted for several years, until the dollhouse contents and residents were misplaced when my mother moved into an apartment in Manhattan. Last year, a sukkah remodeling was needed, and we took the task very seriously. My mom went to a dollhouse store and purchased the equivalent of a backyard bench and chairs, a small table with plates and cups, and a mini basket of apples. We still had the construction paper fruit, and bunches of plastic grapes that had once hung in our backyard sukkah.

But then last week, as we started setting up the tabletop sukkah, we realized that the new furniture was not enough. The structure felt incomplete. To make it into my grandmother’s sukkah again, we had to do more. More dollhouse items—a floor plant, a full table set, and food and beverages—made it feel warm, but we needed more of a sense of family tradition. We settled upon our longtime suburban ritual of hanging Rosh Hashanah cards from the top of our backyard sukkah.

My mom took a card we had recently received from a family friend, and from it made a dozen mini cards. Then, we made the first major change to the sukkah frame since it sat in my grandmother’s apartment in Chicago. We added cloth walls, a significant addition to the structure and a pretty emotional renovation.

All together the furniture, construction paper and plastic fruit, food, cards, and cloth walls make this year’s sukkah one that we would very much like to sit in, were it full size. More important, it’s a structure that honors my grandmother. How the sukkah is decorated may have changed, but its meaning remains the same—it’s the Cohen family sukkah, and we’re very proud of it.

The post Remembering My Grandmother Each Year on Sukkot appeared first on Jewcy.

This recipe comes to us thanks to Susan Kohen from Virginia, with a note that read: “I love apples and honey for Rosh Hashanah, but since we have so many apples this time of year, I try and get a little more creative while trying to stay healthy.”

Filling:
– However many apples you have in the fridge
– Sugar
– 1 Lemon
– Cinnamon, Nutmeg, etc.
– Vanilla extract
OPTIONAL: Any other fruit you might have can work too–raspberries, plums, peaches, etc.

Topping:
– Do you have Quaker Oats?  Not fancy oats.  Just regular Quaker Oats.
– Some sort of chopped nut
– Any bits of cereal that are left at the bottom of the bag that might be too small a portion for a full bowl of cereal
– Butter/Margarine
– Stevia packets
– Cinnamon/Nutmeg
– Salt

Step 1: Cut up all your apples into manageable slices and squeeze the lemon over them so they don’t turn brown.
Step 2: Add a healthy pour of sugar to the bowl of apples, then follow with generous shakes of cinnamon and nutmeg and a splash of vanilla.
Step 3: Mix it all together with your hands and let sit.
Step 4: Time to make your topping! In another bowl, combine big handfuls of oats, chopped nuts, and cereal.
Step 4: Add 2 packets Stevia, a dash of salt, and some healthy shakes of cinnamon and nutmeg.
Step 5: Add a hunk of butter (half or quarter of a stick at least) and squish everything together with your hands.
Step 6: Pre-heat oven to 350
Step 7: Pour apple filling into greased casserole dish or similar piece of oven-safe cookware.
Step 8: Crumble (cover) the apples with your topping until you can’t see most of the apples.  Try and apply evenly.

Bake until top is golden brown and the filling is bubbly, about 45 minutes.

Top with honey, vanilla ice cream/soy cream/lite cool whip & enjoy.

Related: Not Your Bubbe’s Rosh Hashanah Dessert: Salted-Caramel Apple Galette

(Image: Shutterstock)

The post Jewish Mothers Cooking: Healthy Rosh Hashanah Apple Cobbler appeared first on Jewcy.