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{{bheader|October 10th|Devar/5769/Haazinu}}
  
  
 
Hi again!
 
Hi again!
  
Not a lot to report this week; the "High Holidays" started on Monday night, so the week pretty much revolved around preparations-for and execution-of Rosh Hashana.
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This week we had Yom Kippur, so between preparation for the day and the full-day in synagogue, and preparing the sukkah for next-week's festival of Sukkot, we don't have much "news" to tell.
  
The weather turned very pleasant -- we even got rain here in Maaleh Adummim over shabbat! -- and the holidays were spent in the usual manner.   
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Well, not exactly... On Sunday we took my mother-in-law to Jerusalem, and decided to eat out. Since we've had good food there before, we decided on the "Cafe Rimon" in the center of J"M.  It's a bit expensive, but we figured the view of all the people would be interesting.  Well: we had the ''worst'' service I have ever had.  I mean, it was slow.  Excruciatingly slow -- and the restaurant was not busy at all (the servers were 'hanging out' waiting for stuff to do).  There were four of us, but they brought one drink at a time, with a five-minute wait between them. Then they brought the entrees one at a time, same deal.  My water only showed up when I asked for it again.  Esther's "iced" drink had no iceThe food itself was good, but when we got the bill and it said "Service not included", we wanted to write underneath, "yes, we noticed".
  
Other than that, we took my mother-in-law on a short trip today to {{wiki|Masada}}, which she enjoyedThe view was really spectacular today, as the weather has blown away haze, and it was not too hot thereWhat was interesting to me was the tourists: there were tour groups in German, Spanish, French, English and Korean.
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But our Yom Kippur was excellent, thank you for asking.  People who might not go to synagogue all year, and who don't even know what the word ''halacha'' means, don't driveThere was not one car driving in Maale Adummim (well, not in the area we are in).  There was ''only'' one car driving on the J"M - Dead Sea highway, presumably an Arab, when we looked (it's usually full of cars)The kids all were out on their skates and bikes; and as we walked to synagogue we were asked several times by anxious kids, "when does the fast start?" -- because then the streets would be totally empty.  One thing, both Esther and I wanted to yell out, "that tune is wrong!" several times... it's amazing what imprinting will do.
  
In local news: there are elections here on Nov 11th, and there are three people running for mayor of Maaleh Adummim.  I actually have met one of them (the vice-mayor, Boris Grossman)The current mayor, Benny Kashriel (whom I almost met) is also running, as is someone whose name I don't know from the "[http://www.nrg.co.il/online/1/ART1/547/022.html Social Justice]" partyIt seems to me that Benny is doing a fine job; but I don't really know the "ins and outs" of M"A politicsSo today I started to poll people at random: the results for today, Benny 1, Boris 1, SJ 0I only asked two people, but hopefully I'll be able to give you an "election update" with more data points next week...
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More interesting to me is that ''everyone'' started working on their {{wiki|sukkah}} -- even people one might not think would care to make the effortPractically every house has a sukkah, and we don't even live in a particularly "religious" areaWe've got ours up as well, but we had to halve it since it was way too big for the areas we haveWe also had to trim trees so the sukkah is not shaded by themNow we'll see how well the sukkah withstands the mighty afternoon winds here, and we'll know if we have to make changes.
  
Now that the "shemitta year" is over, we want to get a real gardener to come and take care of our trees and prune them properly (and advise us how to best take care of them ourselves)But now that shemitta is over, we have to worry about ''terumoth and ma`aseroth'' (various tithes).
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Just when we thought only Israeli politics could get this dirty, up comes the Obama campaign and [http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?cid=1222017470356&pagename=JPost%2FJPArticle%2FShowFull lies about Israeli general's opinions].  More correctly, they misled the generals.  Good to know about a potential President of the United StatesOf course, US presidents lying to Israeli governments is nothing new - the Embassy of the US is ''still'' in Tel Aviv instead of Jerusalem, despite ''every'' president promising to move it to J"M since ... well, for a long time.
 
 
Sarah has a "shabbat-in-school" this week.  The girls stay at school, and have a communal shabbat there.  She's not ''really'' excited to go, but she'll probably have a good time despite her misgivings.  Hopefully the food won't be "icky" and she'll have good report to bring us tomorrow night.
 
  
  
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Shabbat shalom!
 
Shabbat shalom!
  
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Latest revision as of 16:04, 17 October 2008

October 10th (See this week's devar torah)
Send Ron feedback on this blog


Hi again!

This week we had Yom Kippur, so between preparation for the day and the full-day in synagogue, and preparing the sukkah for next-week's festival of Sukkot, we don't have much "news" to tell.

Well, not exactly... On Sunday we took my mother-in-law to Jerusalem, and decided to eat out. Since we've had good food there before, we decided on the "Cafe Rimon" in the center of J"M. It's a bit expensive, but we figured the view of all the people would be interesting. Well: we had the worst service I have ever had. I mean, it was slow. Excruciatingly slow -- and the restaurant was not busy at all (the servers were 'hanging out' waiting for stuff to do). There were four of us, but they brought one drink at a time, with a five-minute wait between them. Then they brought the entrees one at a time, same deal. My water only showed up when I asked for it again. Esther's "iced" drink had no ice. The food itself was good, but when we got the bill and it said "Service not included", we wanted to write underneath, "yes, we noticed".

But our Yom Kippur was excellent, thank you for asking. People who might not go to synagogue all year, and who don't even know what the word halacha means, don't drive. There was not one car driving in Maale Adummim (well, not in the area we are in). There was only one car driving on the J"M - Dead Sea highway, presumably an Arab, when we looked (it's usually full of cars). The kids all were out on their skates and bikes; and as we walked to synagogue we were asked several times by anxious kids, "when does the fast start?" -- because then the streets would be totally empty. One thing, both Esther and I wanted to yell out, "that tune is wrong!" several times... it's amazing what imprinting will do.

More interesting to me is that everyone started working on their sukkah -- even people one might not think would care to make the effort. Practically every house has a sukkah, and we don't even live in a particularly "religious" area. We've got ours up as well, but we had to halve it since it was way too big for the areas we have. We also had to trim trees so the sukkah is not shaded by them. Now we'll see how well the sukkah withstands the mighty afternoon winds here, and we'll know if we have to make changes.

Just when we thought only Israeli politics could get this dirty, up comes the Obama campaign and lies about Israeli general's opinions. More correctly, they misled the generals. Good to know about a potential President of the United States. Of course, US presidents lying to Israeli governments is nothing new - the Embassy of the US is still in Tel Aviv instead of Jerusalem, despite every president promising to move it to J"M since ... well, for a long time.


Until next week,
Shabbat shalom!



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