Blog/July 2016/Jul 15th

July 15th (See this week's devar torah)

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A whirlwind-week, it was!

I started off the week with my mom’s 90th birthday celebration, arranged by my cousins. Family and friends came together, many of whom I haven’t seen for a long time. The company was congenial, and everyone had a good time — even Mom. Thank you, cousins!

The rest of the week was spent in various pursuits: small maintenance jobs for Mom (plumbing and computer repairs, mostly), trying to make some business arrangements, meeting up with friends, doing some shopping, and driving Miss Daisy. At first, Mom said I was a good driver; but she cruelly retracted her assessment later in the week. I was devastated.

Visiting the USA becomes more difficult for me the longer I’m an expat. Things seem more peculiar in the old country (and not solely because of the circus that their politics has become). I had forgotten just how obnoxious commercial television is; perhaps it has become worse, or perhaps my tolerance is simply much lower. Since we haven’t even had a television for many years, we just aren’t exposed to the non-stop barrage of advertising, for which I am most thankful.

Sarah also wrapped up her US trip this week, but she returned earlier in the week. Though she had a good trip, she was also glad to get back to “normality”, such as it is.

On the Seattle-Frankfurt leg of my return, there was an Egyptian woman ahead of me in line. I struck up a conversation with her, and we had a very friendly discussion. In the seat across the aisle from me was a Saudi (who was not friendly). Likewise, on the Frankfurt-Tel-Aviv leg I was seated next to an Israeli Arab who lives in Germany. Lots of Arabs on those flights, but no international incidents to speak of.

Once in Israel, I was expecting to stand in line for twenty minutes or so at the passport-control. As I went there, I was accosted by a uniformed person at a biometric-passport kiosk, who asked if I was Israeli. I asserted I was, and he waved me over to the kiosk — where he scanned my (non-biometric) passport and cleared me for passport-control in about 15 seconds. So I didn’t have to stand in line after all. This is apparently something new they’re doing at passport control. I then went to get my luggage; miraculously, my bag was right in front of me as I got to the carousel. I took it and went through Customs (without stopping). Total transit time: 2 minutes, a new record!

Once outside, I awaited the arrival of Esther (who was stuck in traffic), and my father-in-law (who was landing around the same time as I did, but did not have the advantage of an Israeli passport). We waited about half an hour, and then the three of us journeyed back to our home-base of Maale Adummim.

The new-found efficiency of the passport-control system was offset by the increasing inefficiency of the Israeli Postal Service. A package was sent from China to Israel, and arrived while I was in the Exile. It used to be that a paper notice was put in your postbox, informing you a package was delivered. But now that’s all gone, because they’re efficiently sending you an SMS instead of a paper notice. However, an SMS doesn’t help you when you are outside the country and using a different SIM in your phone! So I never got the notice which was (presumably) sent. Instead, I used the Postal Service’s web-site to track the package. It told me the package was at the “central Post office” in Maale Adummim.

So I went there. They told me that they were the “Postal Park” and not the “central Post office”, even though they were in prior years the only post office. Apparently the mini-market in our area is the “central Post office”. I did manage to get the package, but not without unnecessary aggravation.

Since I only just arrived back in The Land yesterday afternoon, I’m still very tired and jet-lagged. I’m really looking forward to a very quiet shabbat for recuperation and rejuvenation. And food. And wine…

This shabbat we are all home, and my father-in-law is joining in the fun. We’ll have:
baked chicken, homemade ḥalla, baked baby potatoes, schnitzel, stuffed zucchini, salatim, marble cake, fruit cobbler, and ḥalvah.

Until next time,
shabbat shalom!

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