Blog/October 2008/Oct 24th

October 24th (See this week's devar torah)
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Hi again!

The last of the major holidays concluded this past week, leaving us happy to have celebrated and also glad that we have a "rest" before the next major holiday (Passover, in the spring). The strengthening work we did last week to the sukkah worked splendidly; so we had no further problems with the roof blowing off. The only problem we had was a platter whose handle broke off as the salatim were being brought to the table -- scattering hummous and matbuHa and other assorted goodies all over the kitchen floor. As I told Esther, it must just be that God is reinforcing the lesson that the things of this world are transient...

The holiday "simchat torah" (a relatively recent custom) is celebrated here in Israel on the same day as "shemini atseret" (the Biblical holiday). Before we made aliyah (two holiday seasons ago, now!) we were used to the simchat torah celebrations involving astonishingly large quantities of alcoholic beverages. This year (at an Ashkenazic synagogue) and last year (at a Yemenite synagogue), we were introduced to the concept of an "alcohol free" simchat torah. And I for one find it much more pleasant, though I still can't handle large crowds without having breathing difficulty.

The son of one of Esther's friends (who learned to doula with her) got married this week, and his mother invited Esther (and I) to attend the wedding. They are Gerrer Hassidim, and the wedding was next to Bnei Brak -- two new things for both of us. It was more than a little weird to be in a hall full of Hassidim, none of whom I knew. But they were friendly enough and I learned some new things. However, I'll be happy to avoid weddings of people I don't know at all in the future.

Esther has been talking about rearranging our "salon" (living room) so we would have more room. She's been talking about it for a while. So today I got energized, and not only put away the sukkah in our storage area (while rearranging it and getting even more stuff inside it), but I rearranged the salon as well. And it does have more room now, and is even more practically arranged. So though I'm tired, dirty and sweaty, I've at least made my wife happy today.

Daughter update: Daniela spent sukkot with her friend at Brandeis University, and had a good time. Sarah spent sukkot with us, and had a time. My mother-in-law spent sukkot with us and I think she didn't mind it too much. So B"H, everyone had some sort of time...

Election update: as it turns out, I was not correct in my description of the two candidates for mayor of our fair town. Benny Kashriel (the current, 16-year veteran of the mayor's office) is indeed on the list. But his current vice-mayor, Boris, is running for a city-council chair - not for mayor. But as a councilman he might end up being vice-mayor again. The other person running against Benny is a Rafi Ben Hur (yes, like in the movie) whose main platform is that Benny has been in office long enough. There are a lot of political parties represented in the city-council race, and I don't know what to make of them. I'll try to give you more information next week (I know you don't really care, but isn't it just a little bit intriguing?)

Most of you are familiar with the Iranian rhetoric calling for the destruction of Israel. You have also probably heard of the various "spies for Israel" found by Iran over the years. But you almost certainly didn't know that Iran has found Zionist spy pigeons. Just when you thought you would never laugh again!

Not to be outdone by the Farsi-speaking and non-Arab Iranians, the Lebanese have opened up a new front in the war on illicit dips. Their pride is so dip, I mean deep! Wouldn't it be amazing if the rest of the middle eastern countries would utilize their brainpower for something other than really bad vaudeville?

In other bizarre news: we are hooked on the show "The Amazing Race". I know I shouldn't admit it, but we download and watch new episodes as they become available. Last week's involved a trip to Bolivia, and one of the activities was fighting with The Fighting Cholitas. This week we got a new "National Geographic" magazine, and behold! there was an article on the Fighting Cholitas of Bolivia! Even more odd: my mother-in-law was kidnapped by the Cholitas when she was a young girl (she was, obviously, recovered). We're still laughing about the Cholitas...

Until next week,
Shabbat shalom!

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