Difference between revisions of "Blog/May 2008/May 2nd"

Latest revision as of 13:53, 9 May 2008

May 2nd (See this week's devar torah)
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Hi again!

It's been a wild and wooly week! First, the seventh of Pesach was on shabbat.. so as soon as shabbat was over, we started putting our Pesach dishes and supplies away in boxes. Since we have more Pesach supplies than year-long ones, that took a while. Then, since we are moving out (God willing!) soon, the landlords have the place advertised for rent... and we've had a pretty constant stream of prospective renters coming by. More on that later.

Tuesday my Mom and Daniela arrived; Mom for her first time ever outside the US, and Daniela coming to finish off her year at Lindenbaum. They had a good flight, and even though it's a very long flight, my Mom looked fresh and in very good shape. However, they each had a cart full of luggage and bags, and I told them my car's an Israeli car -- not an American one. But we were able to get all their stuff inside, and we all got back to our place without problems.

Mom had the idea that Israel is all sand and desert - so she was surprised on the drive from the airport to Jerusalem by how much green there is. In fact, there is no desert between the airport and Jerusalem - it's all either farmland, small towns or forest. Even in our town, the desert is not apparent until you look eastward toward the Jordan valley, where the sere earth looks back at you with dangerous promise.

So far, she has been slow to get used to the Israeli way of doing things. For some reason, she thinks Israelis are rude and can't drive. She's right about the first, but I beg to differ with the second - they are just very impatient drivers.

This Friday we took a small trip to the Dead Sea, to show Mom some actual desert. She seemed more fascinated by all the camels and bedouin settlements than by the sea. But the scenery is starkly beautiful, and the weather was pleasant for such a trip.

You probably have heard all about the worldwide rice shortage. It's affecting the price of rice here in Israel and around the globe. But what I really wish we had, was a Rice shortage. We could do with a lot less Rice and her fellows. The idea that the young Fakestinians are "losing hope" and therefore they are "militants" and weakening the moderates, is one of the more ludicrous tenets of America's ludicrous Middle East "policy". At least she's not as bad as Jimmy "Never saw a Jew I liked" Carter, may God take his soul quickly, amen!

Speaking of the taking of souls, my laptop died suddenly this week. It shut it off one night, and the next day it turned-on to the dreaded sound of diagnostic beeps. Today I'm taking it to someone who can fix it, perhaps; hopefully I'll have good news about it next week.

And next week is Israel's 60th Independence Day celebration. During which our spunky mayor, Benny Kasriel, will hold a protest on one of the new (approved? not approved? who knows??) neighborhoods of Maaleh Adummim. I like this guy, he's one of the few politicians I know who actually seems to care about his constituents.

In odd news from the Holy Land, a group of Rabbis have called for a boycott of this year's International Bible Quiz. The issue is that this particular quiz is only for Jews, and one of the finalists is a so-called "Messianic" Jew. On the one hand, all traditional Jews are "messianic", in that we pray for the revelation of our anointed king (the meaning of "messiah", or mashiaH in Hebrew) three times a day. But "Messianic" Jews are not Jews (at least, not in terms of their beliefs -- some of them are in fact Jews by birth). They are Christians, part of a movement founded and funded by a Southern Baptist organization. Their only purpose is to convert Jews to Christianity. Sadly, they are making inroads among the ignorant. The truly sad thing is that it is already illegal in Israel for Christians to proselytize Jews, but somehow these drek-essers managed to gain a different status for themselves.

Shabbat shalom!

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 {{blog}}
-{{bheader|April 25th|Devar/5768/Shabat Pesach}}
+{{bheader|May 2nd|Devar/5768/Kedoshim}}
 Hi again!
-Last week was just crazy; I didn't have time to put together my blog, so you'll get a double dose this week!
+It's been a wild and wooly week!  First, the seventh of Pesach was on shabbat.. so as soon as shabbat was over, we started putting our Pesach dishes and supplies away in boxes.  Since we have more Pesach supplies than year-long ones, that took a while.  Then, since we are moving out (God willing!) soon, the landlords have the place advertised for rent... and we've had a pretty constant stream of prospective renters coming by. More on that later.
-You know (well, you do now) that preparing for {{wiki|Pesach}} is a lot of work.  Getting rid of ''chamets'', cleaning the house, getting the supplies needed for the holiday, preparing the meals, etc. etc...   Normally, Esther and I have specific tasks, and a sort of timeline we follow, to make sure everything is 100% ready.  This year, however, was different!  First, because I was working like a dog -- putting in very long days (22 hours, one day) to finish a project before the yom-tov.  So I was out of commission simply by not being available very much (and being comatose when I was available).  Then, Esther's doulee (that would be a {{wiki|doula}}'s client...) chose to give birth, so Esther was out of commission for a full day and more.   Fortunately, we had put in our orders for special food supplies beforehand; and only had to go pick up what we needed.  But we didn't have ''time'' to pick up what we needed!  Very stressful.  In the end, we were successful getting rid of all our chamets, and getting the food we needed, and cleaning the house -- and we were ''very'' happy to enter shabbat and yom-tov!
+Tuesday my Mom and Daniela arrived; Mom for her first time ever outside the US, and Daniela coming to finish off her year at Lindenbaum.  They had a good flight, and even though it's a very long flight, my Mom looked fresh and in very good shape.  However, they each had a cart full of luggage and bags, and I told them my car's an Israeli car -- not an American one.  But we were able to get all their stuff inside, and we all got back to our place without problems.
-Among other things, we went to the "alef" supermarket, which is an interesting experience.  The store is basically only frequented by religious people; and it is quite a bit cheaper than our local [[Maale Adummim]] supermarket.  In any case, as we were checking-out, the people in front of us had a huge bag of rice.  When I admired the bag, the man who was buying it said, "you can't buy this" (he assumed I don't eat rice on Pesach -- an unwise assumption).  So I told him, "don't judge me by the color of my skin", which elicited a chuckle from him.  I didn't bother explaining to him that the entire "ban" on {{wiki|kitniyot}} during Pesach is a minhag which I assiduously avoid.
+Mom had the idea that Israel is all sand and desert - so she was surprised on the drive from the airport to Jerusalem by how much green there is.  In fact, there is no desert between the airport and Jerusalem - it's all either farmland, small towns or forest.  Even in our town, the desert is not apparent until you look eastward toward the Jordan valley, where the sere earth looks back at you with dangerous promise.
-Of course, no Pesach would be complete without the {{wiki2|Matzo|Bread of Affliction}}.  For several years, I've been intent on getting "soft matsah" for the seder.  This year I finally did!  But it was quite disappointing.  For one thing, is was ''very'' chewy.  Flexible, yes.  Soft, no - not really.  For another, it was very bland.  Why don't the manufacturers add salt to the dough for matsah?  Also I bought a 2.5 kg box (a bit more than 5lbs) of machine matsah for the week; forgetting that there are only three of us, and that I don't like matsah anyway.  So, Mom: we have four boxes of machine matsah ready for you when you get here next week, B"H!
+So far, she has been slow to get used to the Israeli way of doing things.  For some reason, she thinks Israelis are rude and can't drive.  She's right about the first, but I beg to differ with the second - they are just very ''impatient'' drivers.
-At the seder itself (only one!  yeah, only one seder this year!!) we had one of our neighbors and friends -- they made aliyah on the same plane we did, and ended up living just down the street from us.  So that was pleasant and the food was excellent (as you knew it would be).
+This Friday we took a small trip to the {{wiki|Dead Sea}}, to show Mom some actual desert.  She seemed more fascinated by all the camels and {{wiki|bedouin}} settlements than by the sea.  But the scenery is starkly beautiful, and the weather was pleasant for such a trip.
-While trying to clean, I noticed the following oddity.  The toilet bowl cleaning liquid -- an Israeli brand -- has a notice in English on the bottle: "Usage instructions:  Please refer to the Hebrew instructions, and have them explained to you before you use this product". What {{wiki|chutspah}}!
+You probably have heard all about the [http://www.upi.com/NewsTrack/Top_News/2008/04/27/israeli_supermarkets_limit_rice_sales/6528/ worldwide rice shortage].  It's affecting the price of rice here in Israel and around the globe.  But what I really wish we had, was a [http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?cid=1208870526203&pagename=JPost%2FJPArticle%2FShowFull Rice shortage].  We could do with a lot less Rice and her fellows.  The idea that the young Fakestinians are "losing hope" and therefore they are "militants" and weakening [http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?cid=1208870524521&pagename=JPost%2FJPArticle%2FShowFull the moderates], is one of the more ludicrous tenets of America's ludicrous Middle East "policy".   At least she's not as bad as [http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/799476.html Jimmy "Never saw a Jew I liked" Carter], may God take his soul quickly, amen!
-And speaking of ''chutspah'', our downstairs neighbors (of whom we have spoken in these pages with a mixture of loathing and abhorrence) refused to let prospective new tenants view their apartment (which is required by their rental contract), and further told the new people that "you don't want to have anything to do with these landlords".  I think they think stupidity is a virtue; if it were, they'd be well on the way to becoming ''tsaddikim''.
+Speaking of the taking of souls, my laptop died suddenly this week.  It shut it off one night, and the next day it turned-on to the dreaded sound of diagnostic beeps.  Today I'm taking it to someone who can fix it, perhaps; hopefully I'll have good news about it next week.
-In Israel, the ''chol-hamoed'', or intermediate days of the festivals (Pesach and Sukkot) are basically holidays for everyone.  Most businesses are either closed, or working on skeleton crews.  In my case, my boss called me the Friday before Pesach to wish me a happy Pesach, and to let me know I wouldn't have to come in on ''chol-hamoed''.  So in keeping with the Israeli tradition, we decided to try to do the two most popular Israeli holiday pastimes: (1) barbecue and (2) go on day-trips (called ''tiyulim'' in the local lingo).  The only complication is that we're also in the middle of a pretty significant heat wave (temperatures close to 40C (over 100F!)).  But we are tough now, we can handle a little heat...
+And next week is Israel's [http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?cid=1209626989909&pagename=JPost%2FJPArticle%2FShowFull 60th Independence Day celebration].  During which our spunky mayor, Benny Kasriel, will [http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?cid=1209626990513&pagename=JPost%2FJPArticle%2FShowFull hold a protest] on one of the new (approved? not approved? who knows??) neighborhoods of Maaleh Adummim.  I like this guy, he's one of the few politicians I know who actually seems to care about his constituents.
-We barbecued twice, so far; and the results were uniformly excellent.  The only problem, really, is that barbecuing is my job -- so I got all smoky and finger-lickin' good.  We had our friend Dov-Ber over for one BBQ, and got caught up on his news (he'll be back in the Seattle area end of June, so get ready...).  We ate out on our patio, which though I don't normally enjoy eating outdoors -- was a very pleasant thing to do.  The only thing missing was an ice-cold beer...
+In odd news from the Holy Land, a group of Rabbis have called for a boycott of this year's [http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?cid=1208870534886&pagename=JPost%2FJPArticle%2FShowFull International Bible Quiz].  The issue is that this particular quiz is only for Jews, and one of the finalists is a so-called "Messianic" Jew.  On the one hand, all traditional Jews are "messianic", in that we pray for the revelation of our anointed king (the meaning of "messiah", or ''mashiaH'' in Hebrew) three times a day.  But "Messianic" Jews are not Jews (at least, not in terms of their beliefs -- some of them are in fact Jews by birth).  They are Christians, part of a movement founded and funded by a Southern Baptist organization.  Their only purpose is to convert Jews to Christianity.  Sadly, they are making inroads among the ignorant.  The truly sad thing is that it is already illegal in Israel for Christians to proselytize Jews, but somehow these ''drek-essers'' managed to gain a different status for themselves.
-For ''tiyulim'', we made it to {{wiki|Herodion}}, which was very interesting to see.  It is basically a hilltop fortress, but it doesn't look so high from "down below".  Only after you climb up it, do you notice the spectacular and commanding view of the entire southern Jerusalem area it has.  From there, we went to the small yishuv of {{wiki2|Tekoa_%28village%29|Teqoa}}, where there is a small and new olive-pressing operation run only by Jews.  We purchased a bottle of their olive oil; we'll let you know, anon, how good it is.
-Another day, we figured we would take care of some governmental paperwork we needed to do, in the morning.  But guess what?  The government offices are closed for ''chol-hamoed'', so we were unable to do anything we needed done.  No problem, we decided to go that evening to see a special "multimedia extravaganza" being shown on the Jerusalem Old-City walls.  Yes, they were projecting stuff on the walls of the old-city.  So we decide to take the bus in to Jerusalem since the traffic during ''chol-hamoed'' is completely snarled.  The bus normally stops very close to where we needed to go; but this time, we got a driver who rerouted the bus through who-knows-where, and we ended up having to walk 20 minutes to get where we wanted.   Anyway, it was an amazing sight - Jews from every possible background, religious and not, young and old; packed into the impromptu amphitheater in front of {{wiki|Jaffa Gate}}.  There were probably ten-thousand Jews packed in there when we got there, standing-room only.  Then the show ended and peopled milled out; and we were able to improve our position slightly.  The show itself was not particularly interesting or well done, except for the fireworks at the end.  But it was really interesting to see all the people there.
-Yet another day, Sarah was going to see a friend of hers in Jerusalem, so Esther and I went on what sounded like a nice, refreshing tiyul: to see a series of springs next to Jerusalem.  Well, let me tell you this: only one of the springs had water in any quantity, and it was filled with screaming kids enjoying the brackish water.  Given that it was 37C and we had to walk two kilometers to get to the "pool", it was much less refreshing than we had hoped.  Nevertheless, it was a beautiful walk and enjoyable.  The scenery there was incredible.
-Until next week,
 Shabbat shalom!
-{{nav|Blog|Blog|Blog/April 2008/April 11th|Apr 11th||}}
+{{nav|Blog|Blog|Blog/April 2008/April 25th|Apr 25th|Blog/May 2008/May 9th|May 9th}}

Difference between revisions of "Blog/May 2008/May 2nd"

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Latest revision as of 13:53, 9 May 2008