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Merrill Silver

By Merrill Silver

Community
My time traveling cookbook

I swirled the last dab of icing on my pumpkin cheesecake, replaced the knife with a pen and scribbled on the top right corner of the recipe: “post(?)-pandemic — first time friends in house.” Then I breathed a sigh of relief. My pandemic kitchen was officially closed. Annotating recipes is nothing new for me. Who…

By Merrill Silver Jun 11, 2021 | 3 min read
Community
After celebrating Purim as a pandemic descended, the holiday is forever changed

The Jewish holidays remind me of my old vinyl records: They have an A-side and a B-side. The origin of the holiday and the rituals for observing it, as I imagine it, are on the A-side. On the B-side is my personal relationship with the holiday. For example, the A-side of Sukkot is found in…

By Merrill Silver Feb 22, 2021 | 3 min read
Community
Behind the scenes of filming a socially distant Yom Kippur — in July

The High Holidays always arrive either early or late. Never once are they on time. But this year, when Yom Kippur arrived in mid-July, and Rosh Hashanah was on the 13th of the Hebrew month of Elul instead of the first of Tishrei, “early” took on a new meaning for me. Congregation Shomrei Emunah, my…

By Merrill Silver Sep 18, 2020 | 4 min read
Community
A new life and a virtual bris

In Genesis 17:12 God tells Abraham, “This is my covenant… And he that is eight days old shall be circumcised among you, every male throughout your generations…” Apparently God left out the part about pandemics. And that a mohel could provide a substitute mohel for the “virtual” brit milah — the bris — because one…

By Merrill Silver Apr 7, 2020 | 5 min read

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