Rabbinic Comfort Food

Faina has been rediscovering the foods she enjoyed growing up. We just made a more authentic version of ленивые вареники (lenevie vareniki - lazy dumplings) with farmers cheese from the Russian store, had some caviar (unaccompanied by a shot of distilled beverage), and cooked up a fresh pot of chicken soup. In a similar vein, Faina brought up a spiritual reaching back to a more youthful time, proposing meeting with a rabbi. Dr. K has been suggesting we pursue this spiritual side of healing almost from our first meeting.

Growing up in the Soviet Union, Faina had no contact with rabbis. Her six years in Israel did nothing to convince her that she had any need to have one be a part of her life. If anything, rabbis in the holy land had the opposite effect. Of the five rabbis I have worked most closely with Bruce Kahn was the first. He officiated at our wedding and his wisdom has had the most lasting influence on us. We are getting together with him later this week.

We had a scheduled meeting with Dr. K on Monday. Faina had had a rough week last week. The chemo is usually awful the first seven or eight days and then things settle down. It was not the case this last cycle and she was not feeling at all ok until the weekend. Faina suggested that rather than resume the chemo on Tuesday that we postpone it a week. Dr. K was enthusiastic about her taking a week off, thought it was a good idea.

Feeling better in all senses, we took in a movie (No Strings Attached). The following day Faina felt ready to eat and Margo fried up an egg. Faina made it disappear. This usually leads to a sort of hibernation-discomfort-digestion period, but all went well and an exceptionally uneventful hour followed. Later, we took a walk at Lake Elkhorn, enjoying particularly the pleasant weather and the antics of a flock of geese. A little later in the day, emboldened by the earlier gustatory experience, Faina wanted a piece of cake. Give her credit for her sense of adventure, but this did not go down well and she spent the rest of the evening regretting her ingestational assertiveness. Tomorrow's another day.