Blog/November 2007/November 23rd

November 23rd (See this week's devar torah)
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Hello, again!

The rains started up this week in earnest - heavy rain, with hail in the north of the country and thunderstorms all around. This is a good thing; when you live in the Land of Israel you realize why our Sages established prayers for rain at certain points in the year. The rain in its proper time is a blessing - not only because people want a change in the weather, but because the crops need it. So we say prayers for rain, and give thanks when the rain appears.

As I was driving to work in the morning during the first rainy day, the most incredibly beautiful rainbow appeared. That's what you get for living in a sunny place! I noticed that I seemed to be the only driver who saw the rainbow - everyone else was too absorbed in listening to the news, or the iPod, or looking directly in front of him. I suppose there's a lesson in there somewhere...

The problem with the rain is that it seems to have shorted out some circuit in the house, so the power went out at 11pm. It appears the owners didn't use an actual electrician to add subpanels to the house - a short in any circuit causes the main power breaker to flip, plunging the entire house into darkness instead of just disconnecting the offending circuit. This is the second time I've seen this sort of thing in this place. <grrr>

Both my girls were sick this week with sore throats and "general malaise". So Sarah actually stayed home from school two days, and Daniela came home for a bit to get Mama's chicken soup and TLC. B"H, they're both fine now.

This last shabbat we attended the bar-mitsvah of the son of the very good friend we've mentioned in earlier letters. The one who's a friend of our friend Maria from Bellevue. It turns out Maria was also there, so we got to visit with her as well and catch up on 'local news'. The boy read the entire parasha (toldot) very well, as well as the haftarah... his voice was gone after that.

News flash: our solar-powered clothes-dryer doesn't work well when it's raining. Hard to believe, considering all the thermonuclear power involved, that some of it doesn't penetrate to our house - but true nonetheless. So we went to get an indoors drying rack; but the rains were so strong and the wind fierce enough that water came into the laundry room and wet the drying clothes, so they ended up even wetter than they came out of the washing machine.

This week was a pretty good one for me at work - I managed to accomplish several important goals, so I'm feeling a bit more relaxed, and my boss is happy (I think). Esther finished the childbirth portion of her doula class, but has some more things to do before she gets an official status of doula.

Sarah is starting to do much better in school. Partly because she's understanding more of what's being said, and partly because the catch-up lessons she's been taking are actually catching her up. It's very difficult to make the transition from an easy-going school where academic studies are not very serious, to a school where they expect measurable results on standardized tests. The Israeli educational system is quite different from the American, so adding that to the language barrier makes the difficulty impressive. I'm proud of Sarah for doing as well as she has done, and know she will be able to do even better.

We are starting to look in earnest for a place to move to - we've become fed-up with the situation (with the landlords, neighbors, the house itself, the neighborhood...). So we took a look Thursday night at a place, which was well-kept but a bit on the small side. The thing that was interesting about it was it had "potential". The agent kept telling us we had the "option" to "add a room here" or "add an attic-room", etc. I asked him if these "options" were included in the sales price, to which he simply smiled... I guess he thought I was joking. Anyway, the real-estate market here is boiling-hot, due mostly to the influx of American and French immigrants who don't want to spend Jerusalem prices but want to be close to Jerusalem.

Thursday was Thanksgiving (in the US, that is). I wasn't even aware that it was coming up until my daughters started to make a big deal about how T-day was coming and we weren't even going to have a festive meal like we used to. I tried explaining that it's not a holiday here at all. I tried explaining that I don't get off that day, so I can't cook like we had been used. I tried explaining that we hadn't seen whole turkey for sale here at all. None of it availed... so we ended up having a T-day meal anyway (and I have to say, it turned our very well). Daniela brought a friend from school, and we had a modest meal - including cranberry sauce which had (somehow) ended up in our shipment. But if it hadn't been for Esther fearlessly shlepping the 7+ kilo turkey back from the shuk (on the bus!), it wouldn't have been the real deal. Yes, we did find whole turkeys - apparently you can order whatever you like from the butcher, if you're willing to pay for it...

This shabbat we're invited to someone's house for lunch. We don't know the people, they're yet other friends of our friend Maria. I don't know how many of us will show up there, since my daughters don't seem to want to budge from the house on shabbat. We'll see...

Next Friday Esther's father arrives for a one-month visit. He hasn't been here for over twenty years, so he's in for a bit of a shock.

Until next week,
shabbat shalom! November 23rd (See this week's devar torah)
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It's a beautiful day in the neighborhood… won't you be my neighbor?. That's what Mr. Rogers sang every day with his calm, reassuring voice. Poor Mr. Rogers would have a fit if he had to deal with my neighbors! Last motsaei shabbat (Sat. night) we got a call from our landlords, saying they were in Jerusalem and would be coming over to meet us and the downstairs neighbors (hereafter: DN), "to clear up some things". Of course, we were not expecting them and had plans of our own, but they're the landlords and we do have problems which need to be addressed. So we waited and eventually they showed up. When we informed them we still had not received payment from the DN (amounting to about $250) for the various bills we paid, they were astonished. So they called them to come up and discuss the issue.

I don't want to be unkind, but our DN are dumber than stumps. That's unkind to the stumps, but it's true nonetheless. The main problem in their mind is that they are eligible for a discount on the property tax (arnona) bill, as are we. The problem is that the bill is sent out for the full amount, and they are unwilling to pay the full amount. So they think, somehow, that we should give them the discount (which is of course not in our hands to do), and they are only willing to pay us the discounted amount. Naturally, that causes a problem, since the bill is what it is and needs to be paid in full or the city will cut off the water supply to the house. The resolution the landlords came up with, was to write an official letter to the city, and have each of us go to city hall and request the arnona bill be split between us, so we would get a bill for our amount, and the DN would get a bill for their amount. This would at least keep us from having to be the DN's bank.

So this week, Esther went to the city officials and showed them the letter and tried to get them to split the bill; naturally, that wasn't something they were interested in doing since it complicates things for them. But more interesting is the fact that the DN went the day before. Now, we had been wondering all this time just how they could be eligible for a discount on the arnona bill - they're not immigrants, or recently out of the army or anything like that. It turns out, the woman is "divorced". Yes, the poor divorcee lives with her four kids... with her husband! Now, I've heard of amicable divorces before, but this is a bit extreme - especially since she was pregnant not long ago. You can do anything in Israel! B"H!!

After dealing with such people, it's good to keep in mind the little things that help make life here wonderful. Remember that you didn't come here because you love the government or because you really needed a lot of stress to help you through your mid-life crisis. You're here because there is no better place for a Jew to be. Despite the 'hiccups'.

This week we saw yet another ludicrous attempt at "peace", in Annapolis. As an extra bonus, our partners for peace declared they would blow up something. So security was on super-high alert in Jerusalem, to the extent that the main roads were completely shut down as police conducted car-by-car searches. It was most impressive; I hope we don't see many more of these dividends of peace...

Sarah found lice in her hair, which caused a great deal of turmoil and gnashing of teeth. Fortunately, lice are easy to get rid of. Fortunately, I say, because they are a recurring affliction amongst school-age kids. Why didn't Hashem leave the lice in Egypt, I wonder? At the very least, couldn't He just move them all to our partners for peace? They probably wouldn't notice them...

Daniela is spending this shabbat in the holy city of Tsefat, with her schoolmates. Apparently she'll get a taste of Breslov there. I just hope she doesn't come back with a Na-Nach kippa.

My father-in-law, Victor, is coming today to spend a month here in the Holy Land. There's quite a bit more for him to see and do here, as opposed to Bellevue where we used to live, so I hope he will have a more enjoyable visit than he is used to. In any case, we've got the space for him and we got his favorite foods to snack on. Sarah is making a 'welcome' sign for him so the taxi driver can find our house more easily.

This week we also took a look at another place for sale here, and we're going to take another look at it today. Given the uncertainty of the status of the Wild West Bank, I'm hesitant to invest too much, but we must get out of this house, and so we continue to look for something better. Update: we just made an offer, so in a bit we should hear back from the owners whether or not they are interested in our offer. The place has fruit trees and a nice, established garden; private entrance and a stunning view of Jerusalem. It also has large bedrooms (but a small dining room). However, it's a pretty old house so it needs to be "fixed up" a bit.

shabbat shalom!

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