Recent articles on Jewish Motorcycle groups

Here are two recent articles on Jewish motorcycle groups that were published.

The Washington Jewish Week writes about The Tribe MC (Washington DC metro area). Article here.

The Jewish Ledger writes about the Chai Riders MC (NY/NJ/CT). Article here.

I've noticed that a lot of times when I meet Jewish riders, they never knew that there were Jewish Motorcycle clubs (there are currently19 that I know of, in the US, Canada, Israel, and Australia. Some new ones are expected in Europe in the next few months!) Maybe instead of focusing on trying to get write ups in the Jewish media, clubs should start focusing on trying to get write ups in mainstream motorcycle media. As much as I hate to say it, they'll probably find more Jewish motorcyclists that way.

So why is it?

Why is it that during Shabbat and Yom Tovs, when I can't write anything down, that I get a bunch of great ideas for things to blog about? Seriously, I remember that during the Seder, I thought of something I wanted to write about. What it was is now a total blank. Same thing happened during the Shabbat Chol Hamoed. As my wife well knows, if I'm in the middle of saying something, or even thinking something, and I'm interrupted, the train of thought goes way out, and sometimes can never be found again. In fact, in American Sign Language, there is a great sign expression for this type of thing, called "Train-Gone-Sorry." Usually it is signed if you come in the middle or end of a conversation, and people aren't going to repeat the whole thing for you. But in my case it means the thought has left the station, no calling it back now.

It's so bad that if I'm in bed, or out somewhere, and think of something that I want to save, I usually pull out my trusty Treo 600 and shoot myself an e-mail. It reminds me of how one of my school teachers said that Socrates (I think??) thought that writing should be abolished, because it weakened people's memories.

Anyway, I hope I'll be able to remember the things I wanted to write about. If not, I'm sure some new inspirations will come.

Kosher 6 months and counting

My rabbi likes to say "Hashem talks to people, you just have to know how to listen."

I think now I know what he means. Sometimes there are too many "coincidences" for things in life to be so random. For example, in 2006 after reading a story in the OU weekly newsletter about how tzitzits saved a man after the Holocaust (which came from, and led to my daily reading of Treppenwitz) I decided to start wearing tzitzits myself. But to cement this even more, after I got some tzitzits and started wearing them, the very next Shabbos was Parchah Shlach, which contains Numbers 15:38-39

38: Speak to the children of Israel and you shall say to them that they shall make for themselves fringes on the corners of their garments, throughout their generations, and they shall affix a thread of sky blue [wool] on the fringe of each corner. 39: This shall be fringes for you, and when you see it, you will remember all the commandments of the Lord to perform them, and you shall not wander after your hearts and after your eyes after which you are going astray.

Yikes, talk about timing. This happened again several months later when I was deciding if it was time to go completely kosher (I was already kosher at home, but was still on the fence about being kosher outside the home). I had pretty much decided that I would go completely kosher. But driving by Chili's, I thought to myself "I'm really going to miss the fajitas." (ordered without cheese or sour cream, but still...) The next day I had a meeting that was near a kosher restaurant, so I decided to have dinner there. When I read the specials of the day, you could have knocked me over with a feather. The item at the very top of the menu board was Chicken Fajitas! Okay, message received loud and clear! I started keeping completely kosher a few weeks later at Rosh Hashanah. Checking my calendar, that was September 22nd. So today (secularly anyway) is my 6 month anniversary. And next week I have another anniversary coming up as well, but I'll write about that soon.

My wife asked me a few times if there are things that I missed from my days of not keeping kosher. I'll be honest. Yes, there are several food items that I do miss. But the longer that I've gone without them, the less of a hold, or desire they seem to have over me. I think the thing I miss the most though, is the ability to just run out and grab a meal anywhere. There are only a few kosher restaurants in my area, and they are all at least a half hour drive away (over the state line). Still, this has been better for my diet. Bringing in lunch from home daily has been much healthier than a burger and fries at McDs several times a week!

Hello World!

I don't know if that's the standard opening line for a Blog, but as a former computer programmer, that's the standard opening line for me.

Anyway, I'm still trying to get this whole blogging thing figured out (e.g. how to get it all set up the way I want), so please excuse any construction mess you may see.

So, who am I and why the long name?

The name is Jewish Deaf Motorcycling Dad (JDMDad for short). I tried to think of the things that make up who I am and what I am. A lot of people define themselves by their jobs, or specific field. "Hi, I'm Joe, and I'm a mechanic." That's nice, but WHO are you, really? So I tried to think of who I really am, what makes up my core elements, at least as of March 21th, 2007.

The answers, in no specific order (well, the order that sounded best when I verbalized the 4 terms):

Jewish: Born and raised Jewish. Now becoming more and more observant of my religion. I don't know if I'd label myself as "Orthodox" or Baal Teshuva yet, but I'm heading in that direction. Keeping kosher, observing Shabbos, etc.

Deaf: Well, there are varying degrees of deafness. With hearing aids on, I can actually hear pretty well. Not that I would ever pass for a hearing person. But it definitely has made its mark on me. Especially when my company (and work will NOT be a focus of this blog) has problems with scheduling an interpreter.

Motorcycling: After I graduated from college, I finally went out and
learned how to ride, then got myself a bike. (note the order!) I'm
very active (sometimes too active) in several motorcycle groups, including a Deaf motorcycle group, and a Jewish motorcycle group. At first I was going to use the term "Biker" but that has too many negative connotations. Plus you'd probably imagine someone in leather, riding a chopper, no helmet, etc. Definitely an incorrect image.

Dad: The biggest and best change of my life came when my first daughter poked her head out and said "WWWAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!" I now have two daughters, and now fully understand why you never get between a mama bear and her cubs.


Why a blog? I've been reading some other blogs, mostly Jewish related, and posting some comments. But I started to have a little bit of blog envy and wanted to give it a whirl myself.

Why an anonymous blog? Really, I'm more than willing to be open about who I am. But my wife is concerned about the crazies out there. So I agreed to try to do this anonymously. With two little girls, I understand her feelings on this, and since I don't want to endanger my kids or my marriage, this is it. Thus the kids will be getting alternate names for the blog (and my wife picked one for herself as well). I'm sure within a month I'll be totally confused and calling them by the wrong name to the dinner table, earning strange looks from the kids and my wife. I'm also pretty confident that if anyone who knows me in "real life" looks at this blog, they'll peg me in a minute. That's fine. Just don't pop out and give the info to everyone else, m'kay?

The names of my girls (in chronological order) start with a T, then an A. So after my second one was given her name, for a few days, I used to refer to them as "T & A." Then I thought about that hard for a minute, and no longer use that term.

My oldest daughter (Currently 3 something) is Tikvah.
My youngest (currently 2) is Ahava.
My lovely wife (age is irrelevant if I want to survive) is Laya.

And I'm your host, JDMDad, Jewish Deaf Motorcycling Dad.

The things that I have in mind to write (some have already been written, and are just floating around my computer with no place to go yet) cover my 4 identity points, some separately, and some in combination with others. And of course some things will just be totally off the top of my head. How often will I post? Will this be one of those many deserted blogs? I don't know. I'm figuring this out as I go along. (Literally! I have a copy of Brad Hill's "Blogging for Dummies" next to me, and several "Blogger.com" help pages open as I type this).