Blog/October 2008/Oct 31st

October 31st (See this week's devar torah)
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Hi again!

This week we got our hot water boiler fixed. For those of you just joining, a quick recap: Israeli homes almost universally have "solar heaters" on the roof, which produce piping-hot water nine months of the year. Then winter comes, and the sun just doesn't get the water hot enough (or at all, on cloudy days). So the solar heater has an electric element which heats water in case there's no sun. So we found out that our heater simply did not work any more (e.g. the water never got above barely lukewarm). Finally this week, we had a plumber come and replace the heating element. As you can see from the photo, the inside is filled with brown stuff - calcium and rust deposits, which prevent the element inside from actually heating the water.

We also shipped my mother-in-law back home (and she arrived safely, b"h). But it wasn't so easy... the airline had overbooked and told her she was "on standby". Then they sent us to the manager's desk so we could arrange her transport. I went to the manager and told her, "My mother-in-law has been here for over a month. I beg of you, please get her on a flight!". The manager started to laugh, and we did in fact get her on the original flight (but not until we stood in a different line for an hour). As it happens, the second leg (Madrid to Buenos Aires) was also overbooked, and the Spanish authorities brought in the police to take people off the plane!

Sarah says we are sending her off to "three horrendous days of continuous torture" (her words). Her school is going on its "yearly trip" to the south of Israel somewhere. She says none of her classmates want to go either, but the school insists they go now because later in the year the 12th grades will be going.

Some of you might wonder, "How can I make my own White Castle-style "sliders"? Well look no farther than the Big City Slider Station! We got one of these in the mail, courtesy of my mom. Somehow, someone decided to send Esther one of these -- to my mom's address. Being the kind person she is, my mom sent it on to us. We didn't even know what it was nor why we got it; but that's just par for the course in our lives.

It rained heavily this week, which is a good thing. The water level of the Sea of Galilee has gone up 2.5 cm in the past three days (each cm amounts to approximately 1.7 million cubic meters of water...). So b"h! our prayers for rain in the proper time seem to be getting answered. Let's pray for more rain so we get out of the drought.

In more Israeli news - since, sadly, Livni was unable to put together a coalition, we are going to national elections sometime in January or so! Thank God! Not to put too fine a point on it, but one might throw a dart at random on any street in the country, and come up with someone better suited to governing than the set of clowns currently in office. Maybe "clowns" is a bad term, since clowns are intended to provide humor and the actions of the clowns running the country now are anything but humorous.

As an example, the midnight forced expulsion of the Federman family reeks of the heavy-handed Big Brother mentality of the late, not lamented, Soviet Union. Not too surprising, but upsetting and sad.

But we are in Israel, the Holy Land! Just to prove it, here's the view of Mount Scopus as seen from our front yard. Here's where the Temple should be as seen from our house. And here, nebach, is the neighboring Arab village of Azariya (the nice houses in front are still Maaleh Adummim). That tower in the middle of the picture is one of the several mosques in Azariya which broadcast their messages of "peace" and "tolerance" five times daily. Sounds like a cat being electrocuted, actually. If I made that much noise five times a day, I'd be arrested. Funny, isn't it? Oh, and here are the roses climbing the front of our house.

Until next week,
Shabbat shalom!

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