Blog/July 2009/Jul 3rd

July 3rd (See this week's devar torah)
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Hi again!

This week I took two days off from work. The first day we went on a trip up north to Zichron Ya'akov and the neighboring beach "Hof haBonim" (where we went on a two hour trek). The beach is a "nature reserve", which means it was not over-crowded (there were in fact very few people there); and it means they have hand-outs which one may use for a sort of "guided tour". So we guided ourselves around, and learned at least one interesting thing: almost all the sand on the beaches south of Haifa is actually from Egypt. Apparently, the Nile sheds a huge amount of silt -- and a substantial quantity of it ends up getting deposited on Israel's shores. North of Haifa, the sand is mostly from Israeli silt. So the southern beaches are mainly quartz sand, while the northern beaches are mostly limestone sand. Interesting, no?

The next day we stayed close to Jerusalem and went to Latrun, which was very interesting -- particularly since my basic-training had been in the Armored Corps, so I could actually explain things to my girls. After a couple hours there, we went to "the Gush" and ate at a very nice restaurant called Gavna. If you get to the Bat Ayin area, we can recommend it (though they like you to make reservations first).

Work was quite stressful this week, since I had to leave things on Sunday in such a state that people could carry on without me on Monday -- and that proved to be quite difficult. However, I did manage and only have one phone call from work on Monday, B"H! Then on my return, of course, there were a ton of things to do -- but they did get done, so all in all it was a good week.

My "diabetes workshop" this week focused on stress -- how it adversely affects blood-sugar levels, and how to try to reduce it. Sadly, a double-shot of single-malt was not on the list of approved stress-reduction methods. Instead, we learned about a cognitive psychological technique called "אמת" (emet, which means "truth" in Hebrew but in this case is just an acronym). "Aleph" -- "אירוע" ('iru`a, or "event") -- that's the event which is causing you stress. For example, "a person being really stupid". "Mem" -- "מחשבה" (maHshavah, or "thought") -- that's how you think about the event. For example, "I want to hit him in the head with a mallet". "Tav" -- "תגובה" (teguvah, or "reaction") -- that's how you react based on your thoughts. For example, "leaving the room to look for a mallet". By means of changing the "mem", or "thought" -- say, to "maybe he's off his medicine" -- one effects a change in the "tav", or "reaction" -- say, to "maybe I can poison him instead of hitting him with a mallet".

The teacher made us do a "guided imagination" exercise. She had us close our eyes, and imagine ourselves in the most peaceful place we could imagine. I thought of being in bed, which is generally a quite peaceful experience. She told us to visualize the surroundings, to imagine the sensations; and then she said we should hear the animal sounds. At that point I had to exert myself not to laugh out loud; I'm afraid I was a poor student of the technique...

Oh, and this week Sarah took the bagrut she was surprised by last week. After dreading it and resigning herself to failure, she actually came out with a 95 -- which we were all quite surprised (and happy) to hear. Now she's officially a "שמיניסתית" -- a 12th grader. Boy do I feel old.

And on that note, today is Esther and my 23rd anniversary, thank you very much for your kind words. No, really, you didn't have to. So in celebration, we're going to have a festive meal tonight, with wine and soup, and several courses. Uh... well, the meal's actually in honor of shabbat... we're not doing anything particular for our anniversary just yet -- but we'll think of something.

Dear friends and family in the former Land of the Free: now is the time to get out of there. Once the USA completes its metamorphosis into the People's Republic of Amerika -- and that day is not far off -- you will have a much harder time getting out of there. The president's anti-Semitic middle-east advisor, is helping to turn the USA into a vassal-state of the oil-sheiks. Even more than it already was. That doesn't bode well for Jewish life in America. Of course, neither does Saint Obama's curious preoccupation with punishing Israel. You Jews who voted for that man really got the wool pulled over your eyes. Now is the time to leave, before you get sheared!

Until next week,
Shabbat shalom!

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