No Halloween!

This is a very short post, more of an afterthought but the last post was so long (sorry!) that I didn't want to add to it.

My kids didn't even know that it's Halloween and when I mentioned it to Hodayah this morning she said, "So that's why they had all that Halloweeny stuff on Webkinz!"

No ghouls coming out of people's lawns or spiders or anything.  No focus on candy at the supermarket.  No conversations about trick or treating.  I love the absence of all of that.

Lest you feel sorry for the poor children here who are deprived of the opportunity to go their neighbors houses collecting candy, save your tears!  Over Sukkot, the kids here went "Mishnah hopping."  Our neighbors next door organized the families around here and divided up all of Mishnayot Sukkah and the kids went from house to house (boys shifts and girls shifts) and someone in each family who hosted taught the Mishnayot they were assigned and provided refreshments (generally candy) which the kids added to their bags before going to their next stop.  Kind of similar experience except that the focus is, at least structurally which I think counts for something, on the learning and not on the candy.

Catching up

Sorry -- I think it's been over two weeks since I last wrote.  Sukkot was great; we had my father and Judah's mom with us and wonderful meals in our Sukkah and the Gotliebs.  The first night we had really intense winds, like Hollywood spooky movie intense and some raindrops but we didn't have to go inside.  Our sukkah turned out amazing, thank you Judah, see pics below.  Our great view was not obscured by solid wooden boards and it did not even come close to blowing over.  In fact, a neighbor's schach blew partially off on that first windy night and they came to sleep first night and eat in our sukkah for first day lunch because we were invited out.

Shoshana in our newly assembled patio furniture in the freshly built sukkah.  If you look carefully, you can see the plexiglass panels against the fence.  

Panoramic view from the sukkah

Sunset off our porch.  

I do not miss three day Yom Tov at all.  It's really great having that middle day off!  On Friday, we met up with the Rozens, Fisher Cohens, Joseph Gershony and Sophia Gluck for a short hike to a cave with scores of bats (very cool) and then a natural rock slide which the kids thoroughly enjoyed.  As a matter of fact, Hodayah's class took a field trip back to the same place yesterday!  So she was an experienced hiker there :)

Shabbat was peaceful and then Sunday we headed to a National Park near the Old City where visitors can participate in sifting through the rubble that resulted from less-than-careful removal of material from an area on the Temple Mount.  My nephew found a coin from the Second Temple era!  Very exciting.  

Gefen looking at his coin with his dad.  Other noteworthy finds from this project are in the glass display case seen in the picture. 

Gefen with his coin!  They will take it to the lab and let him know what else they find out about it.  They wrote his name and phone number on the little envelope.  

Monday we went to Mechon Hamikdash where they are quietly and peacefully preparing the vessels for an eventual third Beit Hamikdash.  They have no political involvement and are very careful to stay outside that particular arena but the tour is very interesting.  Their plans for the Third Temple include heated floors (for the poor bare feet of the Kohanim!) and an underground parking facility!  The copper sink was much bigger than I expected and also is built to have heated water and a built in thermometer.  I will spare you all the details but it was really interesting to be in an environment where the Third Beit Hamikdash was seen as a question of when, not if, and there was so much hope and anticipation surrounding it.  (We also met up with Lisa there too who was in for a few days from Italy!)

After Yom tov it was good to get back the routine for a week, though because Tiferet's Bat Mitzvah was that weekend we weren't quite back to business as usual yet.  We did find her a dress, the Dvar Torah was finished, and the invitations were picked up and delivered by hand (certainly no time to mail them!). We hosted a small kiddush in Shimona and Erez's backyard for about ten families (trying not to create overwhelming experiences) and had my whole family here for Shabbos.  Eighteen people in my dining room which still has boxes piled everywhere!  

Sunday Tiferet stayed home from school to get ready and practice her speech and the neighbor across the street made her a really cool hair style (which she learned from watching YouTube videos :)  It was like a bun of braid and involved a special donut shaped foam contraption that lives inside the bun.  Very high level stuff.  

Bat Mitzvah was really great; I know it's obvious and I really do understand that it's not a coincidence, but it still felt really cool that I knew and liked everybody in the room!  Many friends from Oakland were there and a high school friend from Seattle who now lives in Beitar and a surprise visit from Yitz  which was a great moment (sorry, huge!).  I did end up hiring a DJ last minute which was absolutely the right decision because tracking the music and getting forty REALLY excited eleven and twelve year old girls dancing is decidedly not my strong suit.  Tiferet's classmates and friends from Bnei Akiva were amazingly lively and enthusiastic, they danced up a storm, wrote and performed a song for her, threw confetti on her, lifted her on a chair and sat quietly through all the speeches even though they were in English and I imagine most of them did not understand much.  Rabbi Rosenblatt flew in for the occasion and spoke beautifully and I felt that it was celebratory, respectable and not over the top.  

The girl who you don't recognize is a very lovely friend of Tiferet's who got a camera for her Bat Mitzvah a couple months ago and took pictures for us.  

The other big news of the week is that our bookcases arrived!  The carpenter built them for our space and we are very excited to be able to unpack our boxes (and boxes and boxes) of books and I am most of the way done.  I had meant to take before and after pictures but you will have to imagine the before and wait for the after because I am not quite done.  It's a big step towards feeling normal in our house after months of boxes just piled in an empty room.  I drove into Yerushalayim last night and gave Judah and two of his colleagues a ride home.  Then I was putting away books and noticed that one of my passengers was the author of one of the books.  Then I thought about it a bit more and resisted the temptation to start counting the number of books we have in our library whose authors are now our neighbors...  We have about 50 cardboard boxes in the front of the house (which Judah dragged to the covered part after it started raining last night).  I need to load them into the van and drive them up to the cardboard recycling bin (ah, curbside pickup...).

I am deliberately avoiding politics here but it was terribly sad for everyone and I was feeling very mindful of the 3 month old baby whose parents had waited for so long to have her and then the 22 year old.  Rabbi Glick is the brother of a neighbor here so I first got an email through our neighborhood listserv asking for prayers and then I saw the news.  There are no words.  Well, there are lots and I make speeches in my car when I am alone and feel probably the same as the rest of us do except that it's in front of me all the time.  

Anyway, wishing us all a Shabbat Shalom and a peaceful future.

Sukkot

If before YK everyone was feeling the intensity of growth and atonement, now everyone is focused on Sukkot.  Last night at about midnight, three bearded men with payos pulled up to our house to deliver schach mats as Judah directed them up the street on his cell phone and I stood outside waving.  They're in the Jewish holiday business.  Sukkot they sell schach, Chanukah they sell olive oil and wicks, Pesach they sell shmurah matzah, etc.  They carried the rolls (nicely packaged in their own bags with handles and stamped with the best kosher seals of approval) to our back porch where we are working on our sukkah.

Painting the fence proved much more difficult and time intensive than we had anticipated but, with the help of our neighbor's oldest son and his wife, it all got done.  It's quite pretty now, all white, and I am glad to know that the rusty spots have been sanded and painted well and that the spots that had deteriorated have been filled in and fixed.  Now that the fence is done, we have been able to start getting the Plexiglass panels up which involves drilling sixteen holes in each panel in specific places, then securing the to the fence with zipties.  Next step is to finish constructing the wood frame that will hold the succah mats.  Hopefully we will get it done before it's almost candle-lighting :)  The one panel we have up looks really nice!  It allows us to see the view from the porch which is really beautiful while still being protected from the wind.  Kudos to Judah for thinking of this plan and seeing it through, I was really not sure about the plan when we were buying big sheets of Plexiglass to put on our container!   It's dark now but I will take and post pictures tomorrow so you can see what I mean.

The supermarket was a madhouse yesterday and they were completely sold out of chicken.  I had meant to get back today and didn't so I hope they have something left tomorrow... I like our supermarket.  Aside from having a good selection of everything and the best prices around, it's a place where everyone who lives nearby comes and does their job or their shopping and is communicative and collaborative with each other.  Most of the workers and close to half the shoppers are Arab and they smile at Hillel and at me (cause he's so cute) and when he took off down the aisles yesterday, two hijabbed women cood over him and picked him up, asked me his name (didn't get "Hillel," got "Ballal..." okay).  I am really wanting to learn Arabic, at least enough to say that I wish I spoke more and that it bothers me that I can't communicate, because it really does.  And I hope that it comes through with the two meanings that I would intend.  The cheese counter man knows me and is always extra helpful and friendly and the cashiers and I wish each other a Chag Sameach (even though it's not their chag, but I will try and be mindful of theirs when they come around too).

Kids are now off from school until the Sunday after Simchat Torah and I have been emailing Paperless Post invitations for Tiferet's Bat Mitzvah (even though we have print versions that should be ready Friday or Sunday) and getting a bit caught up with friends here I haven't been in touch with for a while.  My dad is here in Israel now and spending the night in Jerusalem, I will drive in tomorrow to pick him up.  The house is still pretty disorganized but we are making slow and halting progress.  I will not post pictures of the mess but when it's all set up and the walls are painted and the crown molding is up and the kitchen construction work is finished and the pictures are up, bookcases constructed and boxes unpacked and light fixtures installed, then I will take and post pictures :)

In other mundane but important news, we both passed our driver's tests this week so we are finally able to get our Israeli licenses.  Our teacher, Eyal, described the differences between driving here vs the US:  In Israel, unless it's posted that you can't do it, you can.  U-turn?  Sure.   Passing?  Use your best judgment.  There are three speed limits, 50, 80 and 100 kmh.  A few signs are different but it's largely the same, except that they make much more use of traffic circles here than traffic lights.  He joked that people say that if America is the Land of Unlimited Possiblity, Israel is the Land of Impossible Limits.

OK -- off to get kids to bed.  Chag Sameach!

Sunrise near the entrance to the Yishuv last week.  The rays of the sun were clearly visible about 120 degrees around the bottom.

One of two beds I put together last week and felt very accomplished.

Flurries

The energy of pre-Yom Kippur is almost palpable.  Hillel likes to climb on my mattress (mine is the last remaining bed that I have yet to assemble) and turn on my radio.  The host encourages people to call in and dedicate songs to friends to whom they may owe an apology -- Yom Kippur is almost here, it's the perfect time.  Don't let your ego get in the way, she says.   There are older Israeli songs, some classics from before my time and some that I remember from the 80s growing up here.  And then a set of pieces from the Rosh Hashana and Yom Kippur davening.  Shoshana was in when a Sephardic version of "Adon HaSelichot" came on and she started singing along because despite claiming that she doesn't learn anything in school, she had learned it in school.   When I called to schedule a driving lesson, the driving teacher said to call back after Rosh Hashana.  Kids are off from school every "Erev Chag" in addition to the chagim themselves, and all of Chol hamoed.  Everyone is planning family trips, advertising house swaps and getaways on the various listservs and inviting friends and family for the many meals.

The constant tension between the sublime and the mundane is highlighted by my daily efforts to unpack a few more boxes, assemble furniture and keep the kitchen clean while simultaneously contemplating my life choices and trying to engage in intense personal growth.  I know this is a chapter of life in which my attentions are largely needed outside of shul and I hope I am doing my best to take advantage of the season.

On the mundane front, I assembled two beds this week, one storage closet, unpacked several boxes worth of books and clothes and scheduled a follow up meeting with our contractor so we can maybe get the work started before I had hoped it would be finished... The yard will remain a big brown square until after next RH since we didn't have enough time to make decisions and plan what we wanted to do before RH came and Shmittah started.  Now we have plenty of time to think about it!  Tiferet has found an app that allows for designing spaces with furniture/ paint etc. and she says there's a landscape version so we'll play with that.

We are making progress on planning Tiferet's Bat Mitzvah which is a different sort of affair here since the shul experience is so different.  Shabbat davening is quicker, over by 10:30 and there's no drasha, the kiddush is in the very bright sun and is a smaller affair with Yerushalmi Kugel, cake and drinks.  (And pickles, of course).

We visited the print shop which is conveniently located in Neve Daniel, and Tiferet enjoyed picking out invitation designs and benchers.  I will scan and post when they come in.  I think we have found a caterer and we're using the local hall here on the Yishuv.

It's so beautiful and spacious here.  The beauty and the spaciousness both feel out of sync with the suffering and intensity of the political dimension.  If I ever get to write a paper on the topic it will be titled "The effect of cognitive dissonance on the shaping of political narrative."  I would be interested in learning more about that.

Anyway, here's to a peaceful and healthy year. Thinking of so many friends in CA and wish I could call you more often, or even send a direct email!  Wishing you well,

Naomi

Self Sufficiency

The level of excitement and joy I am deriving from having my own washing machine in my own laundry room is a little over the top and can only be justified by its symbolic significance as another step towards normal household management capabilities and a qualitative step towards self sufficiency.  I don't care that a normal cycle takes 2 1/2 hours because I don't have to sit there and watch it wash our clothes and I love that it has an A++ energy rating.  At this writing we do not yet own a dryer, so by hanging the wash I think I am boosting my karmic energy score even further.  
OK, I now have a dryer too!  It's beautiful. Since laundry is probably my favorite household chore, this is a little too much fun.