Blog/December 2007/Dec 21st
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December 21st (See this week's devar torah)
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Hi again!
The Aarons are making progress towards becoming true settlers; hopefully we will sign a purchase contract this coming week for the house we mentioned earlier. For anyone who is considering moving here, now is the time to buy - prices are only going up, especially in the Jerusalem corridor.
Work is going great so far. I've been put in charge of a project which involves lots of contact with customers - I don't know if that is the best job for me to be doing, but my employer seems to think I'll do ok. Esther is still doing her doula course, and trying to educate her client. Her ulpan is in danger of closing, because of budgetary problems. That would be a real shame, since she is learning a lot of good stuff there.
Sarah did amazingly well on a "lashon" (Hebrew language/grammar) test, scoring an 85. Considering the instruction is completely in Hebrew, I think that's impressive after only four months "on the ground". Both Sarah and Daniela had birthdays this week, and since they coincided with the week of the Fast of the 10th of Tevet, they both went to Yad Vashem with their classes.
We went to a "parent/teacher" night at Sarah's school this week. It was mostly what we expected, except for the mathematics teacher. She told us Sarah was a bright girl, well behaved, "but she doesn't speak up, and sometimes I think she's daydreaming". When we explained to her that Sarah's command of Hebrew is still weak because she only came here four months ago, the teacher said, "I didn't know she was a new immigrant! In that case, she's doing superbly!". I found it a bit disturbing that the school hadn't told this teacher (who is a long-term substitute) that Sarah is an immigrant - the curriculum is different, and the approach is also different.
Esther's father took a walking tour of the Jerusalem Old-City walls, and at the end of it was in the Arab quarter. He didn't seem to be phased by that, and went in the shops and "hung out" there a while. I guess we hadn't mentioned to him that would be a bad idea. In any case, he emerged unscathed, B"H.
I mentioned the Tenth of Tevet earlier; it happens to have been on a weekday. It was very nice to attend synagogue at work, and see people from the surrounding buildings come as well - the synagogue was overflowing into the hallways. Though the other buildings also have synagogues, they don't have a Torah scroll.
It seems that many in our gov't just don't "get it". Public Security Minister Avi Dichter had to have a press conference on Shabbat, to represent Israel. Now, I know he is not a religious man - but perhaps he might pause to think one second, and realize that he represents not only the secularists, but also the religious. And that Israel is presumably a Jewish state, and it's in pretty bad taste to transgress Shabbat in order to brag about how "our hands and our power" defend us.
The funniest thing I heard this week was that Egyptians are learning Hebrew from the famous Israeli comedy troupe HaGashash HaHiver . Maybe they'll lighten up a bit after they laugh? Could be, could be ...
Shabbat shalom!
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