Is green the theme of the shofar this Rosh Hashanah season? In a year of sustainability and carbon footprints, high gas and hybrids, the shofar is the simplest, most eco-friendly method of reaching the Jewish community with a vital message.

Gather your boughs from the brook, or even your backyard, and your hammers from Home Depot, and get ready for a DIY Sukkot this year.

DIY, as in do it yourself.

As sukkah-building begins, remember that for many Jewish households, long before DIY became a trend, building the sukkah was the original do-it-yourself project.

With just a little lumber or plastic pipe and a hammer and saw, we can create a new Jewish environment that reflects so much more than our engineering approach.

THE PRESIDENT: Thank you. Please be seated. Thank you very much. To Sara Bloomfield, for the wonderful introduction and the outstanding work she’s doing; to Fred Zeidman; Joel Geiderman; Mr. Wiesel — thank you for your wisdom and your witness; Speaker Nancy Pelosi; Senator Dick Durbin; members of Congress; our good friend the Ambassador of Israel; members of the United States Holocaust Memorial Council; and most importantly, the survivors and rescuers and their families who are here today. It is a great honor for me to be here, and I’m grateful that I have the opportunity to address you briefly.

We gather today to mourn the loss of so many lives, and celebrate those who saved them; honor those who survived, and contemplate the obligations of the living.

I start Passover food shopping by buying six dozen eggs, but it’s never enough. Inevitably I return to the store at least twice, buying two or three more cartons of eggs each time. Matzoh garners most of the attention in Passover fare because of the unleavened bread’s prominent role in the Exodus story. Eggs, however, are the unsung heroes, working behind the scenes, enhancing nearly every recipe consumed during the holiday’s eight days.

Without fanfare, eggs perform the binding and heavy lifting usually accomplished by flour, the silky powder ground from cereal grains that are forbidden during Passover. With great prowess, eggs hold together the ingredients that go into Passover kugels, matzoh brie, and matzoh farfel casseroles. When egg whites are whipped to a frenzy with electric beaters, they increase in volume six to eight times, lending structure and leavening to many baked goods.

Eating adventurously may be considered a virtue for 51 weeks of the year, but when it comes to Passover cooking, tradition rules with a matzah ball-shaped fist.

Unfortunately, the canon of Passover-friendly comfort foods is filled with unhealthy fats, sugar, sodium, and cholesterol. And after a week of indulging on salty brisket and egg-laden cakes, seder goers often feel less than liberated.

With all respect to tradition, Bonnie Giller’s book, “Passover the Healthy Way” (self-published at AuthorHouse), posits that there’s a better way to enjoy the holiday.

As a registered dietician and certified nutritionist, Giller has spent the past 20 years helping clients meet their nutrition goals. And each year as Passover approached, she noticed the same concerns and struggles coming to the fore.

Itzik Barak, the executive chef at the 5-star luxury Inbal Hotel of Jerusalem, sent this exclusive recipe for a lamb dish for Passover. During the Pesach holiday, chef Barak and his staff craft close to 10,000 prepared meals. Barak, one of Israel’s leading culinary artists, has worked at some of the country’s elite hotels including Herod’s Palace in Eilat, Sheraton City Tower in Tel Aviv, and the former Sheraton Jerusalem Plaza.