Blog/August 2008/Aug 8th

August 8th (See this week's devar torah)
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כִּי-רָצוּ עֲבָדֶיךָ, אֶת-אֲבָנֶיהָ; וְאֶת-עֲפָרָהּ, יְחֹנֵנוּ -- For Thy servants take pleasure in her stones, and love her dust  (Ps 102:15)

At the fishmonger this morning, buying fish for shabbat, there was a guy in front of me buying a lot of fish. I asked him if he was throwing a party, to which he replied "it's shabbat! what's shabbat without fish?". I should point out, there was nothing about the guy to indicate he was concerned about shabbat. Anyway, we started talking about this and that, and he mentioned he had been overseas recently, and was glad to be back. In his words, "there's no place like our Land!". He's right. For all the complaining you've read here in these pages, he's right. About the fish, too. Only here in Israel can you learn Torah while buying fish!

I generally don't like shopping, but this week I got to do my share of it. Earlier in the week we went to buy a dining-room table. Until now, we've been eating off of a Costco folding plastic table. It just ain't right to eat shabbat meals off such a cheap table. But it works, and we couldn't find anything we liked. About two months ago, we had gone to this one furniture place and almost liked the furniture there. After looking around at other places, we decided we liked this place's stuff the best. So we go back there, and -- once again, a salesman who to all external appearances was not religious -- started talking about how he liked a particular table because it extends out a long way, and on shabbat and chagim you can get your family around it! When we told him we were sitting on folding-metal chairs, he grimaced and said "that's not very good for shabbat". He's right. Then when we told him we were eating off a folding plastic table, he said "well, I guess the chairs go with the table". He's right about that, too... Anyway, B"H we should have a real table and chair set by Rosh Hashanah.

Those of you who have been waiting to purchase a kilt, but were holding back because of shaatnez or because you couldn't find a clan MacCohen, can now purchase the "Official Jewish Tartan"! . Truth is stranger than Fiction!

Biblical revisionists are going to have a hard time with the latest archaeological find in Jerusalem. The combination of this find with a previous one, essentially corroborates the historicity of the book of Jeremiah. True, this is centuries after King David -- but it's pretty exciting when science confirms Tanach.

Electrifying! We got our first electric bill since we moved. There's an air-conditioner in almost every room, and the girls have them on more often than not. Nevertheless, our bill was half what is has been in the past. That's right, half. I think we were getting really ripped-off at the rental, I surely do...

Odd, but true: For many months, on Fridays we would hear some guy going around yelling, "avatiach!" (watermelon). We never were sure exactly what he was yelling. First, because he's an Arab and his accent was pretty thick. Second, because he was not carrying watermelons. We thought, maybe he was saying, "shatiach!" (carpet), and he's a carpet cleaner. It was a weekly puzzle, trying to figure out what the guy was saying. Only now, just a few minutes ago in fact, did we figure it out. He's yelling "alte zachen" (old stuff)! He's collecting cast-offs to resell or whatever. An Arab yelling out in Yiddish in a Hebrew-speaking neighborhood! Only in Israel...

Shabbat shalom!

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