Power Up!

Power Up!

By Gila RossReligion & SpiritualityJudaism
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Power Up! episodes

  • Shabbat Treasures 23: Cooking
    Question 1) What are the concerns of driving on Shabbos?
    Question 2) What about pouring hot water from a kettle on a kiddush cup to melt away droplets of wax?
    Question 3) Any difference between cooking a liquid and a solid? Like drops of water vs piece of chicken.
    Question 4) What can be re warmed on shabbos?
    Cooking is the causing of a change in the properties of a food or substance by use of heat.
    This not only includes a raw food until it becomes edible, through cooking, baking, frying or roasting, but also in non foods too like heating wax until it melts or causing metal to become red hot.
    In terms of a car there are a number of reasons it's an issue:
    1) Melacha of "mavier" which we will do in a later session. Combustion is the issue here. Crazily this melacha occurs thousands of times per minute 🙈. Nothing else like this.
    2) This melacha of cooking, due to engine lubricants such as engine oil which are cooked halachically. Similarly the cooling system causes the engine coolant such as the anti freeze to become very hot.
    Liquids are more strict than solids in a regard. With solids it is considered cooked once there is a significant physical charge. 
    By liquids they don't need any significant change but rather it's the state of warmth itself which is the point at which cooking has taken place.
    There is a similarity between liquids and solids in that it's only an issue once a substantial degree of heat has effected the food, this is the point at which ones hand would draw back from touching something due to its heat.
    So, room temperature wouldn't make you accountable for this melacha, eg if ice cream melted (granted you would have another issue of creation).
    The temperature of the hand drawing back is somewhere between 40 and 71° celcius/ 104 and 160° degrees Fahrenheit.
    Another aspect of cooking liquids is accelerating the process. These methods include:
    1) Changing the position of the pot so it's closer to the fire.
    2) Reducing the volume of what's in the pot cooking, as that causes what's remaining to cook faster.
    3) Stiring the food in the pot on the fire.
     4) Covering a pot with a lid whilst it's on the flame.
    5) Closing an oven door if the food isn't completely cooked.
    Reheating foods:
    The only way to do this is with a 1)fully cooked dry food, 2) in an indirect way such as on a hot plate, and 3) in the same way it was cooked the first time!, eg if baked can only be re warmed dry if if cooked can only be re re warmed through liquid, like putting cold noodles into a bowl of hot chicken soup.
    23 min
  • Is it Worth Talking about It? Kedoshim
    Have you ever been bothered by something someone else has said and wondered whether it's worth having a discussion about it? An interesting insight into why it may be and how that conversation may go down. And also how we teach our kids to be powerful communicators.
    8 min
  • 2 Truths & a Lie: Parenting with Playfulness with Brooklynne Dukes
    As we get ready to spend more time together with our kids, let's talk about parenting with joy: Which one is the lie?
    It’s important for caretaking activities to be joyful
    Playfulness diffuses power struggles
    Rewards are a tool that adds joy to learning new skills
    Guess! Then listen to this insightful episode and see if you were right!
    26 min
  • Shabbos Treasures 22: Kneading
    Question 1) any issues making baby cereal on shabbos?
    Question 2) you forgot to make charoset on erev pesach, what to do?
    This melacha of kneading is the combining of small particles by means of a binding agent into a solid or even semi solid mass.
    Even adding or mixing liquid into a think sauce or batter is the melacha, such as mixing baby cereal with milk.
    To understand the kneading process there are 2 steps:
    1) liquid comes into contact with the flour.
    2) the 2 are mixed and blended with a kneading action.
    Both of these steps are forbidden.
    So it's forbidden to pour water into flour even without mixing and forbidden to mix water and flour even if it was already mixed.
    Examples would include:
    Mixing oil or mayonnaise into mashed avocado or juice into mashed bananas.
    However the melacha only applies to small bits which when combined will not be recognised individually but will be seen as 1 mass.
    Large chunks of food which remain clearly distinct are OK. Eg one can mix banana slices with sour cream or chunks of potatoes with mayonnaise to make potato salad as long as pieces are big enough to be clearly defined in the mixture.
    So, how to make your favourite egg mayonnaise on shabbos?!
    1) add a lot of mayonnaise in with the purpose of producing a thin mixture.
    2) reverse the order of adding the liquid, eg if usually add the egg first, now add egg first. (If no normal order add solids first.)
    3) stir the mixture in an unusual manner eg crisscross.
    This would also be the way to make charoset on Seder night if you forgot to make it before yom tov,  ie:
    1) reverse the order and add wine before the charoset 
    2) add a lot of wine to produce a thin charoset mixture 
    3) stir it slowly with either a finger or handle of a spoon.
    Other examples to look out for:
    1) Making think oatmeal cereal, pudding or instant potatoes as these combinations produce think sticky non pourable mixtures. Not ok.
    2) With baby cereal you can deal with this by preparing with a lot of liquid which will result in a batter type of mixture not a thick one. Then reverse the order of combining the ingredients and stir it in an unusual manner.
    12 min
  • W4W: Passover - What was the Rush?
    Wednesday wisdom looks at what the rush was at Passover time? Why did G-d have to take the Jews out in middle of the night? Couldn't G-d have given them a little extra time so they could have made their bread and left with ease? We discover why time was of essence and the secret to spirituality and success. To schedule a complimentary discovery call with Gila email [email protected] where you can discover how to incorporate these insights into your life.
    24 min
  • Shabbos Treasures 21 - Filtering & Sifting

    1) Filtering tap water? 2) Straining foods with a sieve? 3) Sifting clumps from powdered baby cereal? 4) Using a salt shaker? 5) Filtering pressed fruit juice? The melacha is the separation and removal of unwanted matter from a mixture by sifting it through a sieve or similar device, eg using a sieve to remove solidified clumps of sugar in a packet of sugar. Note, nothing wrong with using a sieve to spread thin coating of sugar on a cake as nothing is being sifted. This melacha is the act of separating or isolating from a mixture, not merely scattering or sprinkling particles. Not only is sifting included, but so is straining and filtering. So, straining sediment from wine for example is a problem. It applies to non food items too. It's irrelevant whether what you desire or don't desire is removed, either way its a problem. It's only a problem when it "significantly improves". But let's say most people would not be bothered by what's there, you can't define this as a "significant improvement ". So let's look at impurities in water. If it's so bad people wouldn't drink it under almost any circumstances then filtering would be a "significant improvement ". Other examples would include: tea containing many tea leaves, old wine with heavy sediment, fresh juice with lots or pips and peal. But even a level lower than this whereby there is a noticeable amount of impurities that most people would only drink if filtered is also a problem. So this would mean you shouldn't filter tap water that's safe but cloudy enough that most would filter it, tea containing a small number of leaves. It's only liquids containing mixtures that are drinkable to most people that are OK to filter, eg our tap water, so you can filter it on shabbos. Please note if someone is finicky you couldn't filter for them on shabbos. Question 1) Tap water ok to be filtered if in place where most people would be able to drink it without filtering. Question 2) Straining foods with a sieve not ok. Question 3) Sifting clumps from powdered baby food not ok. Question 4) Using a salt shaker is ok as it's only an issue when removing undesired particles. Would be an issue if undesirable matter was being held back in the sieve like cap. Question 5) Filtering pressed fruit juice is ok as long as it would be drinkable to most people in its untrained state. If you personally are finicky you couldn't strain it. In any event this only applies to minor things in juice like pulp and seeds that would bother people.

    22 min

About Power Up!

From the publisher's feed

Gila Ross, author of Living Beautifully - How to bring meaning, joy and love into your life based on the timeless wisdom of Pirkei Avot shares real life insights based on Jewish wisdom that impact…

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