(CW for food b/c alcohol and dinner mentions)
Yesterday, I went to a wedding and took Jamie along. Jamie didn't know anyone there but me, and I only knew three other people: the bride, the groom, and the rabbi. And, of course, those are the three people you don't really get to spend much time talking to at a wedding!

But it was an absolutely wonderful, fun, joyful experience. Watching the ceremony under the chuppah, looking at the ketubah, and just seeing how much the bride was smiling. Allison was SO happy. The love and affection were just contagious. It was beautiful.

We also got to meet a bunch of their friends from faraway lands, particularly Texas. A lot of them were college friends, and I ended up fielding quite a few questions about Judaism, which was interesting and fun.

I'd actually met some of them at synagogue the day before, which led to a particularly funny exchange.

The rabbi had called a bunch of people over for l'chaims, and this young woman named Judy, probably in her mid-20s, exclaimed, "Allison! I LOVE this synagogue!"

Naturally, a few minutes later I wandered over and asked, "So, I heard you say you love this synagogue. Is that because you haven't been to many synagogues before, or because this one is particularly different?"

She explained that she'd grown up Southern Baptist, and they would NEVER have had alcohol at something like that!

Anyway, everyone was having a wonderful time, and I think they really appreciated being able to ask questions about Judaism, explore things they were curious about, and show genuine interest without anyone trying to recruit them.

And I loved the dancing! Although, to be fair, my feet had been hurting since cocktail hour, so by the time dinner and dancing rolled around, they were already pretty sore. Apparently, standing around socializing is harder on my feet than I'd like to admit!

It was just a lovely weekend, full of joy, affection, curiosity, and people enjoying one another's company. And a very happy bride. I really can't overstate how wonderful it was to see her smiling so much.

One question that comes up for me is why Oscar is green while his cousin Moishe Oofnik is brown.

The answer appears to be that Oscar is actually orange, as he appeared in the first season of Sesame Street in 1970. Only in Season 2 and later did he appear green, as explained:

Within the narrative of the show, Oscar explained his color change by claiming he went on summer vacation to a damp swamp resort called Swamp Mushy Muddy, where he became completely covered in slime and mold.

I'm thinking about the next features for Rugela.

There are some ideas which I think are obvious: photo stories, for example, as well as avatars, and communities.

These are all coming in the next few months.

But I'm also wondering about more radical design changes or interactivity ideas. I have some pretty wild idea and I want your ideas too!

What are some of your wildest ideas of what this site could do as a forum?

I don't care how weird or out there your idea is! Name it!

Shabbat shalom, everyone.

It's our fourth Shabbat together! This is a weekly thread where we come together at the end of the week to share.

Let us know something about yourself. Say something that's alive in you, your thoughts, feelings, something on your mind.

Whatever this Shabbat looks like for you, you’re welcome at this table.

If you're intimidated, one sentence is plenty, or more if you feel like sharing. The thread will be here afterwards if you want to come back to it.

The legal process for getting this merger across the finish line is weighing on me.

It feels weird - even with some of my transition committee - to have to remind them that I actually have another job. I'm full-time employed outside of the synagogue, and I have two teenage sons (one of whom is significantly disabled), and synagogue work is on top of that.

So a lot of time this week's been spent with our M&A attorneys, talking about how we actually get this across the finish line in compliance with state law.

Another pair of synagogues in town merged about ten years ago, so we have their example to follow... but there, they didn't have much opposition - both synagogues were in a hint of crisis at the time, whereas ours is a little more one-sided. Their leadership, to be fair, hasn't been as responsive to our outreach for lessons-learned, and the movement's been honest that they don't know the idiosyncrasies of our state's laws.

Though hopefully today's phone call will at least finish hammering out the process for voting, and leave us clear to move towards that last legal obstacle.

The man is an old school master of French cuisine but I'm sorry.. saying you can use black beans, and peanut butter, and then adding hot sauce directly to the hummus... This man doesn't know how to make hummus.

I'm partway through Judaism as a Civilization and I've been thinking about the relationship between Kaplan's beliefs and the Reconstructionist movement.

I'm curious, of those folks who belong to a congregation that has a denomination- what does that denomination mean to you? Do you feel a greater connection to your synagogue or its movement?

It's nearly Shabbat and that means it's time for a Rugela bake. This is a big one folks!

• The context bar!- On the home page on desktop, there's a sidebar to the right showing recent comments. That new bar is the Context Bar. We have lots of big plans for it. For now, it shows recent comments at a glance. On mobile, the context bar is available as a page in the hamburger menu.
• Formatting help- If you're writing a new post, the context bar shows up and shows you how to format posts. Yes, we support lots of Markdown here, and if you're unsure of how to use it, the context bar is there!
• Notifications show up automatically!- As you use the site, notifications show up automatically. No need to reload the page anymore! Notifications also change the title bar of your browser too, letting you see your notifications at a glance!
• Context Filter Switch- If you have context filters because you don't want to see violence, antisemitism, etc. you can now flip those off temporarily by going to your avatar menu and flipping the switch! Turning them off won't remove them from your settings, so you can turn them off temporarily and then put them back up when you want. This means you can have a sneak peak at the full stream without losing your normal filters.
• Refreshed look on stars and reply- We're trying a little cleaner look on the starring and reply interface. We think this looks a bit cleaner.
• Improved Search- Now when you search, your search results have highlighted results! That makes it easier to see why something matched
• Context bar on search- We even put the context bar on searches! On the search screen the context bar shows you how to use search more effectively.
• Sharing a Rugela link now gives you a page preview- If you post a link onto a chat site or another social media site, they can now get a page preview for the link!
• If you make a report, you can get a response- If you make a report over context, a moderator can now respond back to you about the outcome.
• If you are reported, you'll get a response- If someone reports content about you, you'll now get notified about the outcome.

What do you think?

What's your favorite new feature? Do you like the new look? Prefer the old look? What do you think of the context bar?

What's something you wish was a little different?

Reply below with your thoughts! Or as always, you can send your feedback to suggestions@rugela.com!

During the winter months I like shepherd's pie, and this seems like a very cute presentation method.

Sholem everybody !
I am a French teacher of history, geography, and political science; I’m delighted to be here to see this adventure begin. I sometimes use a translator to express myself, as English is not my native language—please bear with my "Franglish" :-) I also run and write for an educational account on the social network Mastodon— hcommons.social/@CultureContreAntisemitisme—which focuses on countering antisemitism. It is in French and, unfortunately, difficult to translate, as it relies on humor and wordplay (though it also contains a great deal of history). See you soon!

Sefaria has a new AI librarian tool to help readers sort through the countless books and material they have.

On the one hand, having a specifically trained AI assistant for Jewish texts seems like a boon.

On the other, there's a risk, especially in a Jewish context, of taking the richness of our history and flattening it through summarization that loses dissent, glossing over details, or not encouraging independent exploration.

What do you think?

One of the funny things about being a congregational president is that most of my congregants seem to feel like I actually live at the synagogue. (A close second are the ones who act like it's my day job. Hint - it's not my day job.)

I live in Baltimore, Maryland, and my youngest is a freshman at Baltimore Polytechnic Institute (known as 'Poly') locally.

Baltimore - for those who aren't local - has a system called 'city-wide school choice' for middle and high schools. Students can apply for any middle school or high school in the city, and Poly is one of the best public high schools in Maryland (and frankly in the country), with a concentration on STEM. My son is very interested in pursuing a career in the space, and his maternal grandfather's an alum, so he was very motivated to apply there.

Poly is also a participant in "The Game", an annual game against their rivals at Baltimore City College High School (also an extremely good, academically competitive public high school), which is one of the longest-running football rivalries in the US. And because we live in a mostly-Christian country... high school football is on Saturdays. My wife and I think it's important for him to experience high school fully, so we planned to go to the game as a family.

BUT, none of the staff at the synagogue who know how to run the AV systems were available this morning. So I ran out to synagogue - in my blue jeans and navy blue shirt - just to make sure the live stream and sound system were working, and planned to come straight back so I could take the kids to the game.

And everyone was like, "Why are you dressed like that?" "Aren't you staying for services?" "What do you mean you're not staying?"

My dudes. Yes, I come to services most Shabbatot. But I also have a life away from the synagogue.

Though, honestly, I could've stuck it out a bit more at synagogue, because surely prayers would've avoided the lopsided shutout loss that the Poly Engineers suffered today.

I've seen countless Zombie Simpsons essays. They usually focus on the poor writing, weak storylines and other obvious issues with the Simpsons starting around season 9. This video essay is different in that it focuses on the atmosphere around the Simpsons when it launched and how that influenced the Simpsons as a point of culture, and what happens when the parody outlives the original.