18 hour vacation and Simchat Torah

So I bet you're all wondering how the vacation was to the beach.  I give it "Exceeds Expectations!" 

 

First of all, in his attempt to show how easy it could be, Ross indeed did most of the packing and unpacking.  And more importantly, the kids LOVED it.  Abaye was excited from the get go, so no surprises there.  Rivital and Shai complained that they hate the beach, but that turned out to be not entirely true.  We didn't start out until after a leisurely lunch with friends who were visiting, and after a 2 hour car ride, we got there at 4:00 PM.  We changed in our room, and then headed for the beach-- walking towards the ocean until we found it.  The kids were amazed by the big ocean waves, and they loved going out and jumping in them.  Shai actually said that he was wrong and ROss was right-- that he LOVED it!  It was a short swim, but that was totally perfect.  First of all, the beach was a little annoying because it was really rocky, so it hurt to get knocked over by a wave.  Second, short meant there was no time for anyone to complain they want to go home.  There were some complaints when it was time to go, but it was turning pitch black, so after we literally watched the sun set, they pretty much understood that was over.  and they were all excited for the dinner Ross had ordered us.  So we had just enough time to go back and shower, and get to dinner.  Dinner was very exciting-- big buffet with plenty of food the kids loved.  And we had the big enourmous sukkah all to ourselves.  All the other guests ate inside, even though it was absolutely beautiful outside.  After dinner we started a big Risk game, but we got tired and went to bed pretty early. 

 

The next morning we had to be out of our rooms by 10:00, and home in time to prepare for the holiday, but Ross remembered a much nicer beach than the one we were at (in fact, that was the reason he wanted to come-- big beautiful sandy beach).  At first we thought we'd go back to the beach after checking out of the room, but then I realized that we wouldn't have towels or showers and we would have to ride home wet and covered in sand and rocks and seashells and small eel (the kids swore they saw an electric eel!).  So I suggested that whoever wanted to go to the other beach should wake up at the crack of dawn and go at sunrise.  I'll admit I was not minding staying back with whoever didn't want to go.  Nut in fact, everyone chose to go!  We drove a few minutes down the road, and sure enough there was a resort oasis of a beach.  It was beautiful, and the sand was perfect, and we swam in the waves and Abaye collected seashells (which was his favorite part).  It was a little sad to have to go, but we were there about an hour, and everyone was excited to check out our free breakfast, so it wasn't too hard getting them away. 

 

Breakfast was fun, then we packed up and headed home.  18 hours start to finish (22 inlcluding travel time).  Not bad!  I don't know about relaxing, but I thought it was a great vacation.  Kudos to Ross!

 

 

Now onto the next topic: Simchat Torah.  I give it a hearty "Exceeds Expectations!"

 

First of all, I must explain that Simchat Torah is often fairly frustrating for me.  In theory it is one of my favorite holidays.  I love the dancing and singing!  I also love the women's Torah readings that have been part of many of my Simchat Torah experiences.  However, there are usually challenges that sour the experience a bit for me. 

 

I am a little spoiled by my JTS experience-- back before  I was orthodox, I first experienced the holiday in an egalitarian setting where men and women danced together (which avoided some of the issues I will explain later), and the party was full of energy and spirit that can only be produced by hundreds of college guys.  The people who came were there to dance.  The people who came were also there to drink (though this wasn't endorsed by the school).  As I became more religious and looked back, I used to mock that these people would get drunk while dancing with the Torah (and reading from the Torah after the dancing!)  And while I still think that this isn't the holiest idea, just this year (that is to say, this morning) I started to get the logic of it.  I'll explain that in a moment too.

 

When we lived in Teaneck, we celebrated Simchat Torah in synagogues that would not allow the women to hold a sefer Torah.  So the men would be dancing on one side of a mechitza, and on the other side, the women were mostly standing around shmoozing, or watching the men from the side of the mechitza.  The idea was for them to dance too, and sometimes a few women would try, but when the whole idea is about celebrating the Torah, it feels a little ironic to not be dancing with one. 

 

When we moved to Vancouver, I thought it would be so amazing, because Ross would make sure the women also had a sefer Torah to dance with!  The only thing is, in the early years the place was pretty small, and getting anyone to dance was a challenge.   I think this is where the alcohol makes sense (though I am not endorsing it, as it has its drawbacks as well).  I am thinking that the alcohol might help lower inhibitions.  People are not used to dancing around with Torahs.  It feels wierd.  It's hard to get into.  So here we were with a Torah to dance with, and the women were still just standing around shmoozing, or watching the men.  Not that the men were such great shakes back then, but they were more into the dancing than the women. 

 

After a few years, Ross had the idea to import ringers for Simchat Torah.  He brought in a few rabbinical students (and also non-rabbinical female students) to help lived things up.  It was a big success.  between that and the growth of the shul, Simchat Torah began to be a holiday for me to really look forward to!  (along with, of course, the women's Torah reading which my friend Naomi had been organizing since before we got there)

 

But we still had another problem, which is inherent is any Orthodox Simchat Torah celebration-- the singing has to be coordinated by someone-- someone needs to be leading the songs and deciding when each of the dances begins and ends.  This job, without any intervention, will naturally fall to the men.  They are the ones on the bima, and holding most of the Torahs, and in almost all cases leading the davening part which leads into the dances.  So the women are neccessarily out of that loop, and having to listen carefully to keep up.  Sometimes in more modern orthodox settings, the women will try to overpower the men's singing here and there by starting their own songs really really loudly.  So then you maybe get your song in and you feel like you've just won some big feminist battle, but is that really the spirit you want when celebrating the giving of that most precious gift of the Torah from G-d?

 

So if i remember correctly, I think there were times that Ross intentionally planned for women to lead some songs, which was very nice (a huge improvement, in fact!), but not too spontaneous.  You could still feel the tension of the imbalance of it all.  Though as Ross is pointing out (while reading over my shoulder.  Hi Ross!), he also planned times for the women to dance on the bimah while the men danced in the back.  As our friend Cigal just wrote to Ross today, I always miss Shaarey tefillah particularly at this time of year (Purim too-- how bout it Camille?)

 

The most amazing Simchat Torah experience of ours, though, doesn't have much to do with this whole egalitarian thing.  It is the penultimate Simchat Torah experience as recalled by many of the gang at Shaarey Tefillah in Vancouver (and probably what Cigal was referring to today).  One year on Simchat Torah night we were getting hot , and we went outside for a hakafa (a dance).  We then spotaneously (oh- hi again Ross!  Ross is pointing out that it was my idea, so I guess that's not so spontaneous) danced around the corner to Beit HaMidrash-- the sephardi synagogue that was by then under the leadership of our good (though fairly conservative with a small c) friend Rabbi Acoca.  As we were heading over there, Ross pointed out that it would most likely be offensive to enter there with a woman carrying one of our sifrei Torah.  In deference to them, we handed our Torah to a man, and danced in.  The honor and love with which we were received was beyond words.  Their congrgation swallowed us into their dancing, and Rabbi Acoca welcomed Ross onto the bimah like a king (I think he even put on him one of those tall red sephardic royal hats).  He spoke about how terrific Ross was, and Ross spoke back about extraordinary he was, and after a long time of dancing, we danced back home. 

 

As we were getting ready to wrap up our last dance, we heard singing approaching the doors to our shul.  Ross danced to the back (to the entrance), and saw a sea of sephardim (and ashkenazim-- the shul was actually pretty mixed, but permit a little poetic licence here, will you?) dancing toward us.  Ross ran out before they could enter and discreetly pulled aside Rabbi Acoca to explain that in our shul the women are dancing with a sefer Torah.  Our tremendous friend replied that this is our shul and they will respect our local customs.  We then had a sequel to the earlier dancing but in our shul this time, wrapping up a sevice that both synagogues are still talking about, almost a decade later!  (For those of you who know a bit about our shul in relation to the other Orthodox synagogues in town, the story is that much more astonishing.  This may have been the first cooperative effort our shul had with another orthodox synogogue, except for Chabad). 

 

The following year, we were going to do it all again, but there were a few people in our shul who were strongly opposed (I can't even remember on what grounds).  As Ross was just about giving up trying to convince these people why we should go over there again, our doors opened, and in flooded our dancing sefardim (and ashkenazim, but you know what I mean).   The scene was just as beautiful that second year, except with the added feeling of the development of a tradition. 

 

So you can see the competition they are up against when a shul is trying to impress me for Simchat Torah (not that anyone is, I know).  But given all that, I had a great time here on Maale Gilboa.  It has some of the same ole challenges-- for some reason, even with all these religious and spiritual and openminded women, most tended to sit around and talk most of the time.  Many of them got up and danced sometimes, but then returned to hang out with friends.  n fact, in the beginning, it seemed that no one was really poised to dance except the rabbi's wife and her daughter.  I went over to join a small circle that was starting up well into the first dance, and the rabbi's wife said they usually take a little time to warm up.  She said it's always been like that.  I asked if they had ever tried giving a sefer Torah to the women, and she responded that they always get one, but she waits until there are more people dancing so she isn't shlepping it around all night by herself.  And indeed, slowly but surely, things started to pick up, until a very significant group was dancing, and dancing like they meant it!  They brought in the Torah, and at that point it was more spirited than I have seen in most places.  There were eventually a pretty solid core of older women who kept things going and younger women who kept things interesting-- changing the dances and directions periodically.

 

There are still things I have yet to understand about ALL Simchat Torah AND simcha dancing, for that matter.  Like why is it that men can just keep going forever and ever, but never doing anything more interesting than locking their arms around each other and walking around in a circle screaming, while the women have all these creative and beautiful dances, but after every song they stop and let go of the hands of the other women and listen, as though the next song will probably not be something conducive to dancing around in a circle, though almost all of them are?!  And in Israel, it seems to be totally passe (1990's) to do the horah (aka grapevine step) that I grew up on, and instead, the fallback dance is this one that involves HALF a grapevine, followed by a little step kick with each foot, and then a return to the half grapevine, which makes for a SIX count, when all the songs are 4 or 8 counts (i don't really know exactly what I am talking about musically here, but I do believe i have a point...).  What's up with that?   Does anyone know what I am talking about here?  Does anyone find this jarring?  I spent all of Shani's wedding trying to master this simple dance, and I have had to get used to it all over again at every simcha since!  

 

But these issues are universal (or nonexistent except in my mind), and either way, not a fair critique of the experience here.

Oh, and i almost forgot-- AMAZING women's Torah reading-- THREE simultaneous readings to enable all the women who wanted to have an aliyah in time to return to the main sanctuary for the conclusion of the service.  VERY impressive.  And very warm-- with a special mi sheberach (blessing) for each woman who read or had an aliyah, and the gabbaits put in special blessings where appropriate (like "may she have an easy birth" for the pregnant ones, and for me "an easy absorption."  And of course here everyone understands the blessings, because everyone speaks Hebrew!  That's just so cool!!!!

 

Anyway, sorry this is so long.  I'll sign off here, and keep y'all posted when things get interesting again.

 

Shabbat Shalom!

 

Love,

 

Em

Sukkot

Sukkot has been such a great vacation!  But I can't wait for it to be over so I can relax a little....

The beginning was not so eventful-- building the sukkah involved all of buying schach and throwing it on the already existing frame.  I prepared top make frozen pizza fingers for dinner, but totally misunderstood our oven, so we had delicious nothing for dinner.  Well, there was soup and then challah with salads. 

Then there was a one day reprieve during which we took advantage of the pool and got ready for the whole thing all over again, though we were invited to new friends for Shabbat dinnner, who were totally awesome!  He is the fit it guy for our apt (I don't know if that's through the yeshiva or the kibbutz), but it turns out that he is also finishing up a degree at Maale, which is a religious film school in Jerusalem that Ross is crazy about.  He told us about some of his films and they are SO interesting!  And his wife has a degree in talmud and another in Jewish History (I hadn't even thought about it until just this second, but I also have those same 2 degrees, and she was teaching Talmud at the school but now she works for the local municipality.  Their son is one of Abaye's good friends, and always has us in stitches (did I write about him when the yeshiva guys were here for RH?)

Sunday we met our good friends the Richters (whose daughter had her bat mitzvah and all their family was in town?  Have  I mentioned them yet?)  at their hotel nearish by.  We swam in their hotel pool all morning, brought in the very worst pizza any of has ever tasted ever (their daughter Moriah described it best as "Blah!  BLAAAH!!!      BLAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHH! (with much long tongue wagging), and then we went to Katzrin, which is an ancient Talmudic village where people dress up in ancient garb and give a tour and tell stories Colonial Williamsbug style-- very cool!  With a film about the story of Elisha ben Avuya (big rabbi turned heratic in the Talmud-- read As A Driven Leaf-- Mom and Lon, have you read that?  I think you'd enjoy it-- a novel recreating his life) and Rabbi Meir. 

After the place closed, we stood outside and did the negotiating where to eat with 20 people thing, and the Loebs and Richters decided on a very popular place in Tiberias called Decks (the fact that the name is only in English says a lot).  After negotations, traffic and parking, it was 7:30 when we got there.  The place is a full city block (or most of one at least), and has a huge parking lot in back (which also says a lot around here).  The restaurant is designed like a boat dock, and sits right on the water of the Kinneret.  they had 2 enormous wrap around sukkahs-- one on the top deck and one on the bottom (each covering half the restaurant, so they would both be kosher).  The place was packed, and they sill sat the 15 of us within 5 minutes in a very roomy area.  (5 Richters had gone back to the hotel).  We sit down and order from the menu which is several pages long, with all the food fitting on one page (the rest is drinks).  Of the food page, most of it is a comprehensive list of every possible kind of meat (except the non-kosher kinds), offered a la carte in 3 ounce portions.  But they have a fe elegant veggie things, all beautifully served, and cookd on separate grills to accomodate the vegetarian diner.

So we placed our orders, and I was a little nervous about the kvetchy wait of our weary underage travellers, when suddenly, just past the table next to ours, a waitress lights up an enormous bundle of sparklers, and on the loud speaker comes a heavily accented "Happy Berrrsday to yououououou!  Happy Berssssday to youououou!  A happy happy bersday and mazel tov to the Sasson family on ze occasion of zeir son David's bar mitzvah!  On behalf of the State of Israel, we welcome you and thanks you for choosing to celebrate your bar mitzvah here and for choosing Decks!"  then a boat which has been sitting offshore on the middle of the Kinneret starts making its way towards us.  They invite everyone to the upper deck, so we head up there to check out the scene (not so different from a BT affair), and then they announce that the bar mitzvah boy and his friends will be going on a boat cruise.  We go back down to our table, where the boat has docked right next to us.  we sit down, but the boat has blocked the breeze from our table, and the neon lights from the boat's dance floor are roasting us.  Now our entire party is dripping with sweat-- tugging at our collars and guzzling water.  Finally the boats goes out for a spin, and we relax to enjoy our meal, which was delicious!  All the kids had a great time, which is not something to be taken for granted.  We had a lovely time, and just as we were finishing up, we saw the boat approaching to redock.  we all agreed it was time to ask for the bill and book it out of there.  But just as the boat was deboarding, there were more sparklers, and another announcement: "Happy Berrrsday to yououououou!  Happy Berssssday to youououou!  A happy happy bersday and mazel tov to the Stein family (I don't really remember the name, but you get the idea) on ze occasion of zeir daughter Heidi's bat mitzvah!  On behalf of the State of Israel, we welcome you and thanks you for choosing to celebrate your bat mitzvah here and for choosing Decks!"   On that note we paid and came home. 

Then yesterday we spent the day at another kibbutz that hosted a festival for our whole kibbutz.  it just so happens that good friend of ours from Baltimore live there (the Kings), so that was a blast.  Home late again, and today we are seeing our friends the Potters (for you Vancouverites and now Jerusalemites who know them), and then we are off to "relax" at a sea side cottage overnight.  Ross and I are not entirely in agreement about how relaxing it will be to pack up our family of 6 for an overnight and hang out at the beach all day, but Ross and Abaye are very excited about it (Shai and Tali less so), and it will be interesting to see how it goes.  It will definitely be much easier for me since Ross is determined to show me it will be relaxing, so he plans to do most of the packing and stuff.  I am sure it will be fun regardless.  relaxing is perhaps best left to when the kids are in school!

We get back tomorrow afternoon, with minutes and minutes to prepare for the holiday (OK, probably a few hours, unless we get lost, in which case perhaps seconds...).  And then we have Friday to prepare for Shabbat. 
I have been asked (well, in a group email to everybody, but still) to read Torah in a woman's reading, which only happens once a year here, so that should be fun (if I can unpack the tikkun). 

OH  I almost forgot!!!!-- Friday night they asked Ross if he would like to give the sermon the next day!!!  So he did, and he was awesome!  He talked about how Shabbat usually takes precedence over Yom Tov because it is set by G-d, and it therefore has more kedusha (holiness), but he pointed out that when it comes to simcha (joy) Yom Tov takes precedence-- formalistically because we set the times for YT, but he mentioned Rabbi Saul Berman who says we have greater joy on the holidays because we were part of the history that mades those days worthy of celebration (leaving Egypt, agreeing to take the Torah, travelling around in the desert, etc).  He finished off by saying that people have been so generous and welcoming to us since we got here, bringing us food and inviting us for meals, and it as been amazing, but we look forward to the time soon when we can also be giving back and participating more in the community and then it will be real complete simcha for us.  It was great-- people really loved it!

Now I am off to get through the rest of these festivities (wish me luck!) 

Have a happy, singy, dancy Simchat Torah! 

Love,

Emily

Happy Succot!

NEWS FLASH

dootdootdootdootdootdootdootdootdootdootdootdootdootdootdoot

I just heard a wierd noise outside and I went to check it out, and IT'S RAINING!!!!!

What a bracha!!!!!!  (except I had to run out and save the laundry and the sukkah decorations...) 

It may seem pretty mundane there, but here it was feeling like it will NEVER rain!!!  It feels amazing! 

(and Estarisa-- now I am relating to your Vancouver sukkat building experience!  Except I'm not really, b/c it shpritzed for like 10 minutes and now the excitement is over and the floor is already dry -- but I do have great memories of the year when everyone's sukkot blew down when we lived there-- when Ross watched out the window at 2 in the morning as our massive Shaarey Tefilah sukkah collapsed, and Marie Dodek's sukkah blew right into the river and downstream and was gone in the morning, and Ross had to find a place for lunch the next day, and had a carnivorous feast, because when I ran into Rochelle Enkin (am I spelling that name right?-- boy was that a million years ago!) in the supermarket, the first thing she said to me was, "When was the last time that boy had meat?!")

Anyway, our sukkah is up, but the shopping, cooking and cleaning yesterday gave way to sitting in the ER with Abaye, who thought he broke his toe (though he didn't), and who for some mysterious reason is not signed up with our health care (unless his name is David Koffman).  Last night we were at Hadas Richter's bat mitzvah (SOOOOOOOO amazing!!!!!), and on the way we took a little detour to our old Jerusalem stomping grounds, where the kids had some pizza sababa, and I did a bit of Sukkot shopping-- I hit the ole Super Moshava for some wacky mac (3.50 a box), heinz baked beans (2.50 a medium can), and cream cheese  (GASP!!!! $6 a little tub!!!!-- I didn't even look till just now!) -- shopping in little America!  they even had Imagine soups, but not the tomato kind, which is the only thing I would consider paying these prices for.  Please remind me we can't afford to do that again!! 

Oh-- and 2 dozen Tal Bagels!!!

Have a super terrific, sweet, meaningful, beautiful, dry Sukkot!

Love,

Emily

Driving In Israel 101

Hi all,

 

Before I address the issue at hand (or at least the issue in the title), I have to share one thing.  In fact, before i do that, I want to mention that if you go to the blog Ross included a link to our picture and an article about us in the Israeli newspaper Mekor Rishon.  It appeared within the week we got here.  It made us a little famous-- lots of people saying-- hey aren't you the family that was in the paper?! 

 

now back to tangent #1:

 

We gave someone from the kibbutz a ride down the mountain.  We were talking about all kinds of things.  Ross was saying how amazing the community is.  He said it is so diverse.  Then he corrected himself and said that considering that everyone is modern orthodox and zionist, it is very diverse.  the guy added "...who are all teachers and social workers."  We all laughed.  Then the guy said that he just read that there is someone on the kibbutz who is a teacher with a masters in social work.  I said that's what I am, and we realized it was from the blurb in the newsletter welcoming us.  Then we all had a big laugh at my expense!  : )

 

Now then-- scroll op to remind yourself what is the subject of this update....  I'll wait.... 

 

Our comedian friend Yisrael Campbell laughs about the fact that Israelis have to have 25 driving lessons in order to get their license.  He jokes, "What are they teaching them?!  Lesson 17-- driving on the sidewalk...."

 

So when you make aliyah, you can drive with your foreign license for a time, but you need to get an israeli license (within a year?)  Besides that, if you want to buy a new car, you need an israeli license.  So Ross has begun the process (I have begun too, but I haven't done the go to Haifa part yet.  Or the doctor's exam for that matter.  In fact, I have just gone for the eye exam).  Anyway, to get an Israeli license, you need to go for at least one driving lesson.  The best part-- at the end of your lesson, the guy who you are paying for the lesson determines whether or not you need to come back again and hire him for more lessons.  It's just awesome how they get away with that! 

 

So Ross went for his lesson (I was with him).  The teacher kept going on and on about what a great driver he was.  But he has to learn to signal left every time he is jutting over into the next lane because of parked cars, and if he passes a garbage truck, he has to look in his side mirror to see if the garbage truck came at that moment and is trying to pass him.   And when turning onto the ONLY one-way street in beit Shean he needs to turn onto the left side of the road and not the right side to show he knows it is a one-way street.  When he looks to the left, he has to move his head with his eyes to demostrate to the teacher that he is in fact looking left, even if this takes his entire line of vision off the road.  And he has to look in the rearview mirror every time he breaks so he can watch the guy behind him smash into him.  And he will need at least 2 more lessons to brush up on these rules.  Oh, and I forgot to mention what the teacher calls "the circle of tears."  It is a "circle," except it has a couple of yield signs IN THE CIRCLE to give the right of way to oncoming traffic!  It is the most dangerous thing since they started letting cars into the old city!

 

Anyway, there's more to tell, but I'm tired, so I'll end there for now, sticking (sort of) to the topic.  I feel like there's a lot more, but tomorrow is another day (at least for another half an hour....)

 

G'nite/morning,

 

Love,

 

em

Burning Candles Not Korans

On Rosh Hashannah I heard from a Shabbat guest about Pastor Terry Jones plan to burn a copy of the Koran.  Thinking about this today I remembered another incident of Koran burning that explains one of the reasons why I decided to decided to change careers and move my family across the world.  Last Chanukah, a group of Jewish extremists vandalized a mosque in the Arab village of Yusuf.  There, they burned a number of Korans.  A group of Rabbis decided to speak out against this.  They even went to the outskirts of the village to deliver new Korans to replace the burned ones (click here to read the story on ynet). One of these Rabbis was Rabbi Yehuda Gilad, Rosh Yeshiva at Maale Gilboa. 

Picture of R. Yehuda Gilad
from the ynet article

Rav Gilad is no supporter of Islamic extremism.  In fact, our Yeshiva is made up of students who combine their Torah learning with service in the IDF.  They are on the front lines against Islamic Jihad, Hamas, and the like.  Yet one of the messages of Yeshivat Maale Gilboa is that we must strive to maintain our humanism even in the face of the indiscriminate violence that some perpetrate in the name of Islam.  Burning other's holy books is not part of the war on terror. This message of balancing between the right of self defence on the one hand and recognizing the divine spark in all humanity and the sanctity of other traditions on the other is to my mind of the utmost importance at this time.  I feel so privileged to be part of an institution that teaches this very message day in and day out to people directly involved in this deadly conflict...

Raw, Burnt and Spoiled, or Three Havayot

Raw, Burnt and Spoiled, or Three Havayot

I am really getting close to using the blog. Ross said it's really easy, and I just need to ask him when I'm ready. I just feel like right now there isn't even a drop of room left in my brain for any new information. even something like "press B." (which probably isn't actually all you have to do anyway...), so I have a new tentative plan. Let me know if you actually prefer getting emails this way, or if you prefer to check it out on the blog. I will make a new short list of just those people. I'll leave Ross on the list. Then he can keep updating the blog with the letters. Of course, I haven't updated ross on this plan (easier to ask forgiveness than permission, and all that), but I think it just may work.

In the meantime, here is my latest update of "havayot" (experiences):
Let's start with preparations for Rosh Hashana. Fortunately, we were invited out for 4 out of the 6 meals. As many of you know, this was a 3-day holiday (counting Shabbat), which happens fairly often in America, where holidays are celebrated for 2 days instead of 1, but not so much here, where RH is the only holiday that can be 3 days. People talk about it here the way they talked about Y2K-- like AHHHHHH-- what are we gonna do?! I went to a class about Eruv Tavshilin (a special voodoo ceremony that allows us to cook on a holiday for the next day when the next day will be Shabbat), where the rabbi spent the first half of the class talking about how we don't know the laws about it so well because it is such an unusual occurance. In America we did eruv tavshilins as often as we watered our plants (which also says a lot about our plants...).

Anyway, so we were eating 2 meals here, for one of which we invited some yeshiva guys (including our own Nachum Shapiro of Baltimore, whose house we were at and whose pool we swam in just over a month ago in Baltimore). In fact, Nachum's mom had called us to tell us that she was so happy that we invited him and that he would be getting a fresh home-cooked vegetarian meal, with real fresh fruits and veggies. Yeah, well....
So up until then, we had dome ALL of our grocery shopping at the little store on the kibbutz, which has all your basic staples. But we thought for RH, we should brave our way out to a real supermarket. In Israel, the supermarkets are a riot-- they are all competing to show that they are the biggest and cheapest. We happened to be in Afula, where our choices were MEGA, Supersol DEAL, Big Zol (Big Cheap), and finally, at the end of the block, Machsanei kimat Hinam ("The Almost Free Warehouse"), which we have taken to calling "We pay you to take our food." And on the eve of Rosh Hashana, we discovered why. Upon entering, the guy in the produce section announced to us that all produce is 30% off. Which was nice, except for the fact that THERE WAS NO PRODUCE!!! Literally, 3/4 of the shelves were completely bare, and what was there was mostly rotting or completely wilted (except the tomatoes, which were rock solid green and tasted like apples). The apples were all bruised, and there were 2 remaining pomegranites, with worms crawling in and out of them. There was not a pepper of any kind in sight. So most of the produce with which we fed our guests was actually canned or frozen.

Back at the kibbutz, someone explained to us that the problem was not entirely the supermarket (though many suggested we not shop there again), but the issue was that it was the day before a 3 day holiday for them too, and they didn't want to be left with any rotting produce over the long weekend, when they would be closed. It had totally not occured to me to anticipate this! I don't know if there is even ONE day when supermarkets are closed in North America anymore, and I don't imagine there ever were for 3!! So that was,as we say, a "havaya." So Liz, i you're reading this, we did the best we could....

And as long as we are talking about our momentous first crack at hosting guests (not counting the 4 year old who stayed when her mom brought us dinner), I must talk about the meal for which this entry is named. It involves our new oven, and its handy dandy attached Shabbat warming platter. We have very little experience with Shabbat warming platters, and anyway, they are apparently all very different. So trying it out for the first time with guests was an unfortunate choice. I had prepared and eggplant parmesan, Matza ball soup, and a huge pot of creamy mushroom pasta. Guests were coming on the second day for lunch.

Regarding the soup, my kids decided when I was napping the day before that they would like to eat it cold for a snack. They depleted more than half the soup, and left a bunch of matza ball mush at the bottom. I decided this was not a big deal, and cut up some onions and carrots and threw them in with some soup powder, and put them on the warming platter first thing in the morning, giving them a good 6 hours to cook.

I added the pasta and the eggplant right before I left for synagogue. I had no idea how strongly this thing would heat the food.

So after shul, I joked to Ross, "do you think lunch is raw, burnt, or spoiled?" Well I'll be darned if it wasn't all 3!!!!! The onions and carrots were as hard as when I had put them in the soup (for an experiment, I left the soup on there the whole rest of the holiday through Shabbat, and while the liquid mostly cooked out and everything was shrivelled up, the carrots and onions remained raw and hard). The eggplant was actually fine -- delicious, even-- but it did have that blackened layer on the bottom. And the heat was just the right temperature to cause the creamy pasta to turn completely rancid. Fortunately we had all kinds of nice salads (store bought, except a canned bean salad and a carrot salad, as our downstairs neighbors somehow has some sort of carrot barrage and begged me to take as many as we could eat), and more importantly we had a cheesecake someone had baked for us, AND ice cream, which was perfect, as it was Nachum's birthday (in fact it was the alignment of his Hebrew and English birthdays on the same day, which is guaranteed to happen every 19 years-- did you knwo that? and it was his 19th birthday).

So in the end it was great, but definitely a havaya!

The final havaya of this update is about shul. As Ross explained in his entry, we had reserved seating for the holiday. I hadn't been aware of this, but we actually had reserved seats in both the kibbutz and the yeshiva. So the first day of RH we went to the kibbutz, which was very nice. Not quite as spirited as the yeshiva, but hey-- it's an intergenerational mix of people, and it was actually pretty moving and spirited. And everyone is so nice. And so many people have so much kavanna (focus and concentration on their prayers). No one is sitting in the shul and shmoozing (unless it is with a kid who comes in needing something).

The second day, when we were hosting the yeshiva guys for lunch, we figured we would pray there (it gets out at least an hour later). The whole davening was very very beautiful, but I wanted to share this one particular bitter sweet experience.

So these young guys are just full of amazing energy. There are not many women there, but this is mostly due to the fact that it is a guys' school, the vast majority of students of which are single. Considering that, the spouses and families that there are do come pretty frequently, and also seem to really enjoy the services. I have mentioned before that I am not a big fan of the mechitza there, but again the reality is that there are only a tiny handful of women coming, so I can't expect it to be one of these down the center jobs, right? So anyway, they get to this one song (V'yitnu lecha keter melucha), I had never seen anything like this on RH. the guys were howling out the song, and they joined together in a huge circle, hugging each other and flying around the room dancing at the chorus, and they passed around the verses between the choruses so everyone would have a chance to sing one. Just like how in Simchat Torah everyone gets an aliyah, it seems like they must have been giving everyone a chance to sing a verse, as they kept repeating the song over and over). I was standing in my spot among the women, behind the thick white curtain, and singing and kind of swaying back and forth in my place. One woman, the wife of one of the founding rabbis, was passionately dancing in her place, thoguh there wasn't really any space to make it a communal thing. It was so exciting and moving, I peeked around the curtain to see if perchance any of our boys were dancing with Ross (they weren't there-- they were outside playing). at first I was disappointed, and then I remembered that hey-- we live here! So if they don't dance this year, they an always dance next year! Then I took note of the fact that Rivital wasn't with me either. She had also gone to play. And I thought what a shame. and then I had a differen't thought-- what would it be like for her to be stuck back here behind the mechitza listening to all those guys having all that fun. and finally (it really went on and on), I started to tire of standing in my place singing the same thing over and over, and I felt suddenly very left out. I know that this is the situation for women in many Orthodox synagogues (though they often don't seem to mind), but here of all places, where the rabbis are so inclusive and creative and always thinking outside the box, it just doesn't make sense for them to have it set up in this way.

I tried to speak to some people about it afterwards. I started with that dancing rabbi's wife (well, she asked how things were going...), but it's like Israelis just don't get it. She was very open to listening to me, and she said she could see my point, but that it really didn't bother her, and that this place is so much better than most (which I suppose is true, though it's not as good in this area as the shuls Ross and I have been a part of in Vancouver, Baltimore and Jerusalem). The only woman so far I have spoken with who also feels this is an issue is an American wife of one of the yeshiva rabbis, and it bothers her lots. What we need is a good fundraiser who can collect money for the progressive feminist mechtza! I wish I knew a good one of those.... : )

So I am left wondering is it better to have the spirit and the excitement of Torah and have my kids surrounded by all that tremendous enthusiasm, or were we better off with the less ecstatic but more "fair" and feminist institutions where we had to beg and drag people to dance with us. I'll keep you posted on that. At least we live in a place that is open to growth and change, and where peolpe can talk about anything. I mean really, we just got here.

So that's a wrap for today, Unless you are interested in the fact that our new fridge comes this week, and we have to take off the front door to get it in, whcih we discovered just involves lifting it up off it's hinges. but if that's nit interesting to you, just don't read that last part....

HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

שנה טובה


Love,
Em
PS That last hebrew bit was copiedfrom Mike Stern, who is more proficient at emailing in Hebrew than I am! but i can handle the ole cut-and-paste

Shannah Tovah From the Mountain

Hi gang,
First of all, I don't know if you are all aware, but Ross created a blog for these updates. The next step will be for me to learn how to use it, but that ain't happening before Rosh Hashana (tonight!!! Eek!!!), so i wanted to send out this last email. You could erase it and check it out on the blog at your convenenience if you want. Ross will add it.
But with the new year rapidly approaching, I want to share some cool thoughts about our new life here. Where to start?

We'll start with Adin's gan. he still says he doesn't understand Hebrew, but he runs to gan in the morning, and doesn't want to leave when I pick him up. His teacher says that when people talk to him hin Hebrew, he often responds appropriately in Ehglish. When one of hte moms asked him if he is learning Hebrew, he said that he doesn't know Hebrew, but he is just going to teach everybody English. So at least he has a plan.

The gan is very Israeli kibbutzy-- the toys are all old and broken-- some toys, and lots of old appliances and random household goods. One day the teacher announced that they were going to break up into groups, and they undertook a massive building project where each group made a "home" out of all these old random things. It started with big, heavy boards and broken tables, and old cloths that they used to make a tent-like structure. Then they added all kinds of small appliances and other random things. Then they did something really messy with diert and water and food coloring that I think was also related. And did I mention messy? It was VERY exciting for them! I am torn between feeling like we are getting ripped off and he is spending all day in a hazardous zone, and feeling like it is the most awesome recycling education!!

And my favorite thing about his gan-- all the kids and teachers are around all the time -- at shul, at the store, and everywhere. One of the activities for the first week or two was to go on "hikes" around the kibbutz, and to point out where everybody lives. How cool is that?! Adin was so excited to show everone where his house is!!!! It doesn't help so much for him to have seen the other kids' houses, since he doesn't really know their names (except his best local friend Shachar, who is yet another cute blond who lives right across the way from us! (sound familiar?)

Abaye (remember the negative infinity on the Aliyah meter?) said he LOVES school. He especially loves math and PE. He has good friends and seems to really be adjusting great (poo poo poo poo poo). He had one kid sleep over last week, and got aanother sleepver invitation from someone else last night (though he decided not to go).

Shai (er... Shmuel) is also doing great. He has decided to go by "Shmuel", unless we go and officially change his name to Shai. I can pretty much still call him Shai (I'm kind of grandfather claused in), but I try to use both to show him the respect of his choice but to not lose what I have called him all his life. He actaully tried this the last time we lived in Israel, and people knew him as both. We'll see what will happens with that.... He loves his teacher. He goes to all the activities happening on the kibbutz for kids, and he is making friends, though no one as close as Abaye has made so far. No Yannivs or Bens and Elis to hang out with yet.

Rivital also seems to be enjoying school. Did I mention that she is in the highest math class, which involves staying late at school an hour and a half once a week? She "complains" about it, but I ask if she wants to drop out, and she clearly doesn't. She is desperate for us to sign her up for some music and theater. the good news is there seems to be a place for each not too far away, and other kids from here go. We just need to settle in a little more before taking that on. I am hoping it doesn't really get into full swing until after the holidays.

Ross is starting to work (slowly, in between helping with the house and trying to get a drivers licence and buy a car). He is full of great ideas for work, which will probably also start in earnest after the holidays.

I'm fine-- a little sick of unpacking and buying stuff, but I know there is an end in sight. Everything seems to fit in the apt except for the books. But there is always room for books, so I'm sure we'll figure that one out too.

Last night Ross encouraged me to check out Slichot services at the yeshiva. I never enjoy them, because they go so fast and I never can follow, and I didn't see how it would be better with a bunch of Israeli guys. But it was really awesome!!! First of all, they combined ashkenazi and sephardi slichot, and for me anyway, it was the perfect mix of tunes-- old familiar songs, plus that sing-songy sephardi tune that is flowy and easy to follow. And what ruach!!! (spirit!!!!) They started at 11:00 PM. The singing was BEAUTIFUL and lasted until midnight. Then a bunch of yeshiva guys (ans a couple of the rabbis) stayed behind to sing some of the melodies and dance!!!! It was great!
And last night I went to choose my seat at shul for the holidays. Rivital and I have our own table-- with 2 seats and a cubby inside!! And guess how much it costs!! Well, it's included in our free rent!!

And finally, some of you have probably heard me say this before, but one of my favorite things about living in a Jewish state-- they are changing the clocks just in time to shorten the fast for Yom Kippur!!!! (I know, it doesn't really shorten it, but it makes it end at an earler hour, which makes it feel shorter). Then they change it back again just in time to help the Passover seder start earlier! I think they don't always do that anymore, because it affects the economy in some way (the length of the work day of daylight hours) and also the environment I think, but it's working out for us this year!!!!

On that note, I am off to go do 500,000 things before the holiday. If I list them all, I won't be able to do all of them, so I'm off.

Have a super amazing happy new year!!!

Love,
Em

Assigned Seats

It is very common in Israel for synagogue pews to be designed like in the picture below:

Everyone has a seat and in front of them (on the back of the seat of the next row) there is a small shtender (?lectern?) The top of the shtender opens up and you can keep a siddur, chumash, tefilin etc… in a box underneath. Well this past Shabbat the Singer men (Emily and Rivital haven’t asked for theirs yet) were assigned our seats/stenders in the Kibbutz synagogue. I was very moved by this seemingly small detail of our integration into our new home. I think there are three main reasons why. First of all, I have never had a seat in a synagogue as a member. For years I was a student and then I was a Rabbi. For the past four years I have sat up front in a seat that wan’t exactly my own – it was “the Rabbi’s.” Right now that same spot has been taken by Beth Tfiloh’s new Rabbi. No one would/should say that he is in Ross’ seat for in fact it isn’t Ross’ – it’s the Rabbis. Well now for the first time I have a seat in a synagogue. Everyone will identify it with me and not my position. In fact, once while I was looking for the spot on Shabbat some else pointed me towards my seat. Ironically, there are ways in which a “simple member” of a synagogue is more connected to the community than its Rabbi. While there will be aspects of the Rabinate that I’ll miss, on this level it feels great to be a member and not clergy. The second reason why I was moved by my new seat is that my boys have assigned seats next to me. I get a very warm feeling when they come into schul and sit down next to me. They couldn’t do that in our previous synagogue the way they do now since there was no seat for them on the Bima. Finally, I now have a designated place in communal space in Israel. For me this is no small thing. Despite the fact that I know a lot about Israel and that my Hebrew is pretty good, being American born and bread I have always felt a bit of an outsider in my “homeland.” But now, a Kehilah in Israel has told me, “this is your place here with us.” My name is even on the back of the chair…

Cars Licences and Taxes by Emily

Hi everybody,




I hope you don't mind, but I was writing a letter to Elaine (and Robert. Dee him in the background?), and I realized it would be easier to forward it to you than to write another whole update. Check out what she wrote at the bottom first. It's really incriminating!....



Hee hee hee. First of all, I do laundry just about EVERY day (have for the last several years), but I'm touched you were thinking of me. But right now we are up to our ears in boxes (did I mention our lift came last Thursday?) I haven't had any time to update everybody, as I keep trying to get to the bottom of boxes and to find our floor. Laundry has become just a minor annoyance. Today we came very close to buying a car AND a fridge!! (and I think we have probably at least decided on which ones). The car is a whole big thing because we can't buy it until we have Israeli licenses, which is a whole production. Ross already got an eye exam and a doctors exam, and now he has to go to Haifa for a driving lesson, which apparently costs a fortune, and after the lesson, the teacher (yes, the guy who gets paid for the lessons) determines whether or not he needs further lessons in order to take his test. So that'll be fun. (I'll do this too one day, but probably after we have the car already). Then hopefully at some point soon he'll have a license, and then we will go back to this dealer (presuming we indeed still want this car), and it will take a MINIMUM of 14 business days from when we buy it AFTER we have the license. It's really unfortunate, as we have a rental for exactly 2 more weeks, so we will be either without a car or shelling out another little fortune to get us through the licensing process. But I can't complain, since we will be getting a brand new car with ONLY 75% sales tax instead of the Israeli 135%, which is a difference of around $10,000 for us!!! (and twice as much as we have ever spent on a car in our lives, for a car half the size of our Odyssey). But I'm not bitter. This is all part of the fun of Aliyah-- stories to tell the grandkids. These are way better than the stories the aliyah grandparents used to tell-- of malaria and no indoor plumbing and wars and stuff like that....



And the most amazing unbelievable part ever: (Really I just can't believe it!!!!):



THERE'S NO HAGGLING TO BUY A CAR!!!!!! My dream (you can ask Ross) used to be to buy a Saturn just because there was no haggling with them (that and the commercial with the baby seat in the back-- remember that one?)



We went to this one "dealership" and he insisted that it is not a dealership. I can't remember the word he used, but he said they are all offices of the central Honda sales in Israel, and prices are standard, and he is not competing with any other Honda stores. (Unfortunately, the Honda which seemed to be the best car for us is no longer being made, so that was just an example. The car we are hoping to get is a Toyota, which is what we looked at today. Neither of these cars is available in the gas-guzzling US of A-- they're little cars with special roof racks for small children... OK, not really roof racks, but squishy seats and little storage space).



Then again, when we left the salesman asked to take our number, and said he'd give us a call if any special deals came along. So maybe there is haggling and I am just being a naive American. Uh oh. I am still holding off on buying a dishwasher in case it comes free with the car!



Anyhoo, I am off to bed. Today was good. Today was fun. tomorrow is another one (anyone know the reference? Anybody?)



G'nite!



Emily



PS Hint: From there to here, from here to there, funny things are everywhere

First Day of School -- Sept 1 by Emily

I know I've been writing a lot, and I'll try to contain myself soon. In fact, Ross said he'll help me start a blog instead of the emailing thing when he gets a chance, so I'll keep you posted about that. But in the meantime, I have to share about the first day of school. It was AWESOME!!!!!! Abaye already has 4 really good friends. One of them lives right across from us, and yesterday they went and played at his house, and today he came over and played here, and had dinner with us. Also over for dinner was Shachar, a little girl who, while she's no Leya and no Chaya, told her mom about Adin, and together they brought us over dinner, and Shachar stayed to eat with us and play with Adin. She doesn't speak a word of English. Adin is going to play there tomorrow. Adin is still really frustrated that he can't understand Hebrew, but he still wants to go to gan, and it is definitely not stopping him from wanting to go to Shachar's house. One of Abaye's friends declared that he is Abaye's bodyguard, though Abaye insists there is no one to defend him from. I asked if the guy who speaks English has been helpful, and he's one of the 4 friends, but apparently there is no need for the help. Abaye said he understands everything, and his Hebrew is better than that guy's English. Shai has an amazing teacher, and he said school is great, though so far he has only made one friend. There is only one other boy in the school from the kibbutz, who he hasn't really met yet. There is this really adorable pack of girls on kibbutz who are in his class, but he refers to them as the "nutcases." I think he means it as a term of endearment.

Anyway, I'm trying to keep it short for now. Stay tuned for a new format to come....

Layla tov,


Emily
PS I totally forgot I would have to FOLD all that laundry!!!!!

PSS But really, that's my last word about laundry. I'm moving on....

New Laundry Solution by Emily Sept. 1

Laundry Update by Emily Aug. 31

So I got the new machine, and it is AWESOME!! I can do an "eco" load in just over an hour and a half. So that means I should be able to do 16 loads a day. Which means I should be able to have it all done by Rosh Hashana!!! So since the machine was installed, I have been putting in load after load. The only thing is, we don't have a dryer. I hung the first load on the clothesline we have, which is enough to hold almost exactly one load (squished). Then we went out for a few hours, so it was dry enough to take down to hang up the next load. With a mother, brother and uncle who are all physicists, you'd think I'd have done the math and figured out that it might be wise to hold up on new laundry until the old laundry was dry. But I couldn't resist. I was obsessed. Whenever the machine was free, I felt it had to be washing laundry. the towels were banging down the washer door begging to come in! So I just did a few loads, and then put the towels on the longest, hottest, cycle to run overnight, adding the optional "intensive" button to that, in hopes of getting the moldy smell and small rodents out of them, and that is going now. And the rest of the laundry that is clean so far (which is still a drop in our bucket of filth) is hanging off of every possible surface in the apt. There are shirts strewn over the top and bottom of every chair (in fact, I am suddenly aware that my back is all wet...) and off the stroller, and on the big cardboard box in which they delivered the machine (thank G-d we haven't gotten rid of that thing yet!), and socks and underwear hanging from handles of all the kitchen cabinets! Whooo-- it's a sight! But why describe what I can show with pictures? See for yourself! And while you're at it, check out Ross hanging the mezuzah at the little mezuzah hanging party the yeshiva staff threw for us this morning! (OK, OK. He wasn't actually hanging the mezuzah there. I made him pose because I couldn't get a shot of him really doing it. There's my bit of "academic integrity" for the day).

The scene reminds me of when we went to visit the Mivassairs when they were living in Jerusalem and they had cloth diapers strewn over all the windowsills and radiators. Remember that? (Oops-- was that not for sharing? Some people don't like to have their dirty laundry aired-- HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA!) Boy, is it late. Or else I should get a day job. Nah....

G'nite for real! (maybe... hmmm.... I woner if those towels are almost done? Maybe I could squeeze in another load before sun rise?)

ZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZzzz

Aliya Update Newsflash by Emily on Aug. 31st

So Ross has developed a system of checking in with everyone about how they feel about the move. He calls it the "aliyah meter." It goes from one to 10, from "worse than horrible" to "couldn't be better." Abaye has declared from the start that he is negative infinite on the meter. But today, after we got his school supplies, and the two kids came from the kibbutz to offer to help him, and one even stayed for awhile to play with him and his friend Avinoam who was visiting (who we knew from Baltimore but they live not too far from here), I could tell he was in much better spirits, and aat bedtime he declared to Ross that his aliyah meter went up ten points. Ross replied. "wow! Really? 10 points?" but then the little boy genius pointed out that 10 points up from infinite is still infinite. So while the progress is statistically insignificant, it's a great start!


I'm off to switch some laundry!

Em
PS Did I mention that when they installed the dishwasher, true to the rumors we heard, the guy tried (successfully) to sell us extra stuff (something to keep rocks out of the water, and something to protect the electricity from blowing-- we were told there are important)? And did I mention that for purchasing those extra stuff he have us a free "toaster?" And did I mention that a "toaster" is not a toaster, but an electric grill-- like a sandwich maker? (because here a grilled sandwich is called a "toast") I think I didn't. So now we have purchased 2 appliances, and received 4 free (I think I mentioned the kumkum, mixer and juicer they gave me at the store for buying the 2 appliances, right? Are all of you keeping up?) Do you think if I hold out at some point we will get a free dishwasher? Like maybe if I buy a food processor or something?

Yesh!!! from Emily Aug. 31st

YESH!!! (translation: Woo Hoo!!!)



Washer fit out the door, was installed, and is awesome!!!! I LOOOOVE it! It has so many cool options and stuff, and is super energy efficient, and just AWESOME!!!! It will still take us most of the week to catch up on the laundry, but WOO HOO!!!!


In other news, school starts tomorrow, and now that we bought all the supplies and labelled them today, all the kids seem really excited. ALL of them!! One kids who is in Abaye's class came by today to tell him that he wants to help him find the bus tomorrow and help him to his class. The other boy who is in his class and lives on the kibbutz told his dad that he is excited to help Abaye. And then there is an English speaking boy from the neighbor kibbutz who the teacher said will sit next to him to help him in class.

Last night we were at the wedding of Rav Gilead's son. One of the most beautiful weddings I have EVER been to. That family is just so extraordinary-- so sweet, and thoughtful, and sensitive, and smart, and fun!! You could see a glimpse of all of Rav Gilead's extraordinary qualities in his son. Under the huppah, some rabbi was singing one of the sheva brachot, and a bunch of his friends were singing along, and Rav Gilead started jumping up and down to the music. Literally jumping-- boing! boing! Boing! Right under the chuppah! It was SOOOOO adorable!!! There were hundreds and hundreds of people there (he is the rabbi of Kibbutz Lavi, a large kibbutz, and he invited the whole community), and everything was so laid back and heimish and NOTHING was overdone. A small table of simple hors d'oeuvers (but delicious) and drinks, and then one buffet meal (great Israeli salads and a couple of main and side dishes), followed by dancing, birkat hamazon and then dessert (and more dancing, though we left for that part).


During the dancing, I was on the women's side (duh), and at some point the groom wanted to dance with the bride so all the family danced over, and the two of them took turns doing these very free flowy dances for each other for a long time, and then his parents joined in to make a circle, and then his brother and sister came too, and then the sister-in-law ( think), and then her parents and more of her family came into their circle, and everyone was trying to make sure to be holding hands with someone who was either the same sex or a direct relative, and it was all happening very organically and smoothly, and then somehow someone (maybe a sister of the bride) ended up right next to someone else (I think maybe Rav Gilead), and they were about to hold hands and they laughed, and then Dini (Rav Gilead's wife) flew over from the other side of the circle to "save" them by joining in between them, and everybody burst out laughing. They all had a great sense of humor about it!


I'm going to run because we are waiting for THE KINGS (YAYYYYY!!!!!!) to come for dinner. They are bringing us pizza (also yay!).



All the best,



Emily

Appliances 101 by Emily Aug. 29

Hi guys!

Our washing machine was delivered today! (YAYYYYYYYYYYYYY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!)


...but it may not fit through the balcony door to the laundry closet (RATS!)
But it does look very nice in the middle of our kitchen/dining room/living room....

It certainly doesn't fit out the balcony in its big box, and they have this rule here that the delivery guy is not allowed to install the machine, or even TAKE IT OUT OF ITS PACKAGING, so we won't know for sure if it fits until the technicians come on TUESDAY to install it. (The machine supposedly measures 60 cm, and the doorway is PRECISELY 60 cm, so that could really go either way, eh?) According to the delivery guy, it can ONLY be installed by technicians from the company, who apparently install everything, teach you how to use the machine, and then try to sell you all kinds of accessories. (Really!) Do we have this rule in America too? Where no one can touch your appliance until the company comes out and installs it? I never bought a really major appliance before, but I don't remember anything like that with my toaster oven! Or my hand blender!


Apparently, they don't actually have this rule with ovens. We also got our oven delivered today. The guy in the store said if I wanted he could arrange for someone from the company to come out to install it, but he told me I could just read the instructions, which are in English, and hook it up myself. That didn't sound too hard.... It turns out the instruction booklet is filled with all kinds of useful instructions such as (I am not making this up) "Please check your product that it has got any failure or lacking. If you find a damage sourced by transportation, please contact with sales department that you bought product or region store that sent product to you;" and (no one could possibly make this up...), "Please be sure that plug of your oven cooker is accidentally if the pulled beyond the extent of the power cord, the Earth wire will pull out last. If your residence did not contain earth system the producer company dose not responsible about the damaged event."

I know that must be what I sound like when I try to explain to salespeople what I am looking for, but I am not getting PAID to shop for my appliances.... Are there really no better English speakers they can find to translate these things? I was just on a plane with 300 Americans looking for work!!


Anyway, I tried to use the "grill" component of the oven (it's a totally separate section of the oven) to make dinner (veggie dogs and buns), and I am thinking of renaming it the "slow defrosting component." i don't think the problem is the oven, as much as my lack of understanding of how to use it. Good friends of ours have the same oven, and they have not mentioned anything about a slow-defrosting grill. Once I realized the food wasnt' cooking much, I turned up everything to the highest setting that wasn't obviously meant to do something else (like the stove elements and the big oven). Shockingly it didn't burn anything, and in fact, it cooked our food just right. But I am wondering if I actually call the company and ASK them to come and check it out for me now, and teach me how to use it, if they would do that. I plan to do a little experiment tomorrow....


But our little hot water kettle is working great! even better after we solved the mystery of the shockingly short cord! The cord to plug it in was so short that to plug it in, I had to stand it on the box it came in so it would reach the outlet. Just as ross and I were standing there laughing about how we both noticed that (he was wondering why I was keeping it on top of its box), on a whim, I turned it over, and realized that the cord was wrapped around and tucked well underneath the machine. So that was no one's fault but ours.

Well kids, that's enough stories for today. It's time to close your eyes and go to sleep (now I'm talking to myself...).


It's been great sharing. Now what's going on with you?!



Gnite.................................................................................zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz



Love,
Em

I found the Ski Slope! from Emily Aug. 29

Hi everyone!


Shavua Tov (loose translation-- hope you have a good week after this restful Shabbat)!


There is lots to report, so we'll see how long I (and you) can stay awake.


Let's start wth the ski slope: As some of you know, we had heard rumors of the building of a multi-million dollar ski resort on our very mountain. We had heard that maybe it will be indoors like a similar one in Dubai, and that it would be snow made from something that didn't have to be very cold. Well, this past week we drove right past it. It is not yet open (though supposedly very close), and we didn't get such a close up look, so I don't know exactly how accurate this report will be, but I can describe what we saw.


First of all, you should understand that our mountain is really a little range of mountains, and the slope is not exactly on ours, so it's not like we see it every time we drive home. It's around another side that we only pass when we go in one particualr direction (I forget which).


So when I hear "ski slope", I picture something where a lift takes you way way up to the top of a mountain, and you start somewhere way up high where you can't see the bottom, and there are some sort of markings that indicate what direction you should go to make it safely to the bottom. Does this sound about right? I have only been skiing once, over 20 years ago, but that's about what I remember (and have seen since in movies and video games). So compared to that, this "slope" looks more like 2 giant slides. It is entirely outdoors, and I am not good at judging lengths from a distance, but it kind of looks like they laid out a couple of big white synthetic carpets down towards the bottom of the mountain. I can't wait to see what it will look like for people with skiis to slide down this thing!!! We have heard there will indeed be a ski lift, and it is apparently conveniently located on the site of a new mall of expensive shopping. So that's that, for those of you who were curious....


Speaking of local tourism, there is a really awesome place located right at the bottom of our mountain. First of all, we live in an area called "the Valley of Springs," and there are several springs that are excellent for swimming. It seems that a bunch of them are free, but we have so far only had the pleasure of the big touristy one. We were actually supposed to go to a different one with our friends the Richters, but the one they wanted to take us to was closed, so we went to this one, which is called Sachne, and is very popular for Israelis. It is a giant desert oasis resort. It has a long flowing spring, where the water is natural, but it has been build up to provide a really big variety of water opportunities. It has a number of really big pools that are amazing for swimming, a variety of waterfalls of all different shapes and sizes that can be climbed, sat in, or stood behind, a couple of wading aread for little kids (all the natural pools are too deep to stand it), and some other really cool things that are hard to describe, like a little open tunnel sort of thing you can walk through that is right at the top of a waterfall, and just on the edge of a wading pool. Anyway, it is endless, and really fun and very heavly populated, with people barbecueing in every corner. In one spot there is the remains of an old mill, and a sign explaining that in the last century the water was used to power a flour mill. Several feet away there is a store selling ice cream and water tubes.


The day after we went there we had plans to meet other friends (well they are now, but we were just meeting them-- friends of the Franks who have been helping us on line, and then on wednesday they packed a big picnic for us and met us there at Sachne). So we did that 2 days in a row. We are still recovering from all the excitement and hot sun, but we can't wait to take you all there when you come visit!


On more mundane matters, we saw the kids' school, and it looks great, and everyone was so nice. even Abaye admitted that it looked really good, and he seemed to like meeting his teacher. He was amused by the fact that his class will be more than twice as large as his class at BT (though it's only 32 kids, which by Israeli standards s not so big). The other kids will meet there teachers this week. They have a uniform, but it's really just a t-shirt logo that can be put on any color t-shirt, so it's way more relaxed than at BT. They can wear whatever they want on bottom as long as it covers their knees.


On even more mundane matters, we are expecting our new washer and stove to be delivered tomorrow. this is good, becuase the growing piles of dirty laundry that are increasing exponentially and filling up our guest room (wanna come visit now?) are so disgusting that soon they will get up and walk out and wash themselves. Gosh, if they really did that, maybe we wouldn't need a machine after all. Maybe we should wait. Hmmmm......


I wasn't sure about the place where we bought the appliances, becuase the guy seemed to not know some things he should have (like the oven I just bought -- it has an oven and a separate grill just about the oven, but when I asked about the machine he insisted that you can't use them both at the same time, so I wasnt going to get it, until friends of ours told us they just bought the same oven, and you CAN use them both at the same time, so I asked him again, and he sad you can't, so i read the manual in the store, and it says explicitly that you can, so I told him and he just shrugged his shoulders). He was mostly nice, but with that Israeli gruffness that is hard to read. and Ross tried to bargain with him, and got him to agree to take 100 shekel off the washer and give free delivery (which I think he was going to do anyway), but he seemed a little annoyed about being bargained with, so I was a little nervous about that. But when I came by later to tell him we decided on the color of the oven, he had already put together a little gift package for us that included a hand mixer, a juicer and an electric hot water kettle. Ya gotta love (or hate) this country!


The final topic for this letter is Shabbat. We had an AWESOME Shabbat! We were on Mitzpeh Netofa, which is one of the very most beautiful places to live in Israel-- a little community on a mountain (not unlike ours, though not at all a kibbutz or moshav), that is just stunningly beautiful, and has a higher standard of living than most kibbutzim and moshavim, so the houses are gorgeous, and everthing laid out beautifully to maximize the view for everybody. The people are also really terrific-- a very warm and thoughtful bunch of people. So we were there for the bar mitzvah of friends we know from Vancouver (Hananya (Norman) Ship, for those who know them)). The bar mitzvah was amazing-- a family that made aliyah 7 years ago with one son (an old friend of Tali's) and it was so beautiful to see how they have been embraced by this community, and how much Hananya has learned and grown and made friends here! And we stayed with good friends who we adore who we met when they spent a year in Vancouver (in fact, I believe it was their influence that brought the Ships to Mitzpe Netofa). These friends have a daughter who was also a friend of Tali's back in Vancouver, and they all reconnected and had an amazing time. Abaye connected great with their son who is his age who he didn't really know in Vancouver, because they had been too young, and lived in very different areas. The Potters were also there (for those of you who know them-- they made aliyah last year). The Potter girls were among Tali's best friends in Vancouver, and their son Daniel was Shai's best friend there. They have even written letters over the years and stayed in touch (even though Shai was only 5 when we left), and they were so extatic to be with each other, and they went off with Hananya all afternoon, and had an amazing time.

Meanwhile, Adin became good friends with Harvey and Michelle's son (anyone remember them?-- He was the best caterer in Vancouver, and is now working in some fancy restaurant here), and he went to the house where they were staying, and we didn't see him until Seuda Shlishit (towards the end of shabbat).


Ooh, I didn't mention that on thursday there was a party for the bar mitzvah, with a massive reunion of Vancouverites, including the Baumols (just the grown-ups) -- for those of you who know them.... So that was all exciting too.


OK-- now it is really late, so that will do for now. Adin starts gan tomorrow morning, so wish him luck!


G-nite for now!



Em

Israel Update #1 by Emily Aug. 21

Hey there everybody!
I just put together a group of people from my email list that I thought might be interested in receiving updates about our Aliyah adventure. Please let me know if you do not want to be on this list. It truly won't insult me. I know that you are all really busy people, and not everyone likes to hear big group updates. It's just the best way for me to write about the things I think most everyone would want to know without my fingers falling off. After the group letters, I would love to reply personally to anyone who writes back.


If you would not like to be in the group, you could let me know any number of ways. Feel free to cut and paste from the following options, or create your own:


(a) Diplomatic: "I would love to hear all about your Israel adventures, but I am really busy and have trouble with big long emails""
(b) Honest: "I don't enjoy group emails"
(c) Brutally honest: "I don't enjoy YOUR group emails"
(d) Subtle: "Failure notice-- I'm afraid I wasn't able to deliver your message to the above address.
This is a permanent error; I've given up. Sorry it didn't work out. Please remove this address from your contact list"


Anyway, this is the first installment. Please note that writer is still exhausted and jet-lagged, but up anyway due to 3 hungry boys at 1:00 AM....

Where to start? We finished packing up the house in Baltimore Tuesday night around 8:15, after which we went out to dinner with the Franks and slept at their house for at least 4 hours before they drove us to our charter bus at 5:00 AM. Bus was pretty uneventful. Lots of sleeping and eating the goodies Elaine prepared for us for the flight (Thanks Elaine! Don't worry-- there was still PLENTY for the plane, and still more leftovers now...).

At the airport-- we first ran into our good friend Tzvi who lives in Israel but was there with NBN helping people like us. We went through ticketing and baggage pretty seamlessly, except for the part when Ross said he'd get in the ticket line and I should wait with the kids in the security line to make things go faster. So I am waiting approximately 73 hours in this line, pushing our 13 bags, 10 carry-ons and 2 gate check luggage, and Ross is in a similarly long line to pick up tickets, and finally my turn comes, and this large and intimidating-ish female security personnel asks where the rest of my family is. I explain that Ross is waiting in the ticket line, and she looks at me disapprovingly and says "Well he must be here right now!." I say "Should I go get him?" She nods and gives a look of, "Well DUH!" So I leave my kids in her care (thinking that with her no one else is going to sneak up and hurt them), and I run over to Ross' line, which is miles long and curling out the door, and he is 3rd in line. I inform him that the security lady needs him right away. he informs me that he is not moving until he gets his tickets. I go back to explain that he will be there shortly-- that he is right at the front of the line. She repeats that he needs to come right away. I go back and relay the message, and then walk very slowly (2 steps forward, two steps back kind of thing) until Ross is ready to come. Security lady is not happy.

As she goes through her shpiel, we are following the tried and true method of answering all questions simply and briefly. Meanwhile, Shai is trying to help too, by filling in any detail we may have missed, like:

Security Lady: Did you pack your own bags?

Ross: Yes

Shai: Well, my dad helped me, and my friends Yanniv was over pushing the suitcase together whlie I zipped it

or:

Security Lady: "Are you bringing anything for anyone else?"

Ross: No

Shai: Well there's all the presents Abaye got for his birthday-- do they count?

or:

Security Lady: Do you have any weapons in your luggage?

Ross: No

Shai: Well, there is our rifle, some rocket launchers, and pocket nuclear bomb. Do they count?


OK, so I exaggerate a little on the last one, but you get the idea.

Anyway, after going through security, we rush to the place where any minute the big ceremony is going to start at 11:45. The kids are starving, but we assure them that this will be a unique, once in a lifetime experience, and there will be plenty of time to grab lunch.

After much exhaustion, starvation and kvetching of the kids, the "ceremony" starts promptly (by Jewish standards) at 12:40. The mic isn't working so it starts and stops, and then is really hard to hear, especially over the lady who has wedged her way in between me and the speaker, and is screaming into her cell phone, trying to direct someone from another part of the terminal over to where we are. She then spots her friend on the floor down below and starts screaming to her and waving. I am catching glimpses of the speaker -- how many people on the flight. How many are children. ow many have made aliyah since NBN started. How many have made aliyah from this very airport. "HEY! I'M UP HERE! WAVING!! DO YOU SEE ME?! NO!! OVER HERE!! OVER HEEEEEERE!!!!!....")

Then Ross and I made the first significant aliyah decision of our future-- we slipped away and went for lunch. First we flew straight through security-- only one other family had done the same, so it was just us. We soared to the gate, and got to choose any seats we wanted. We sprawled out, got lunch (hot water to add to those noodle soups), and were among the first people on the plane.

The flight was great. Our days of screaming babies are over (not true of everyone on the flight, but that's OK). There's the guys trying to figure out a way to daven in the back of the plane as a big group, against the safety instructions of the airplane ("if we just all go to the back of the plane at the same time, and we are each standing there as if we are just by ourselves, what can they do?-- pretty clever plan...); and the toddlers running underfoot as the stewards are serving hot coffee, but other than that you cold have been flying to London or Amsterdam.

The ministry of the Interior came around and collected our passports, and processed our papers while we slept (or watched Shrek Forever After for the 13th time). When they woke us up with breakfast, they handed back our passports with a card declaring that we were Israeli citizens. That was cool!

Landing was great-- everyone singing. Well, mostly a bunch of yeshivish guys singing about Mashiach, but that's close enough. Many people who didn't know the words were clapping. When I went in '87 everyone used to sing "Heveinu Shalom Aleichem", and now you're lucky if you land in Israel and the people arent' cursing at the flight attendants for not letting them smoke in the bathrooms or for not letting them congregate in the back for prayers, or something. So the singing was really nice.

To give us that pioneer spirit, instead of bringing us to the new airport terminal, they took us to the old place where planes used to land at the inception of the airport (or at least where I landed in 87). This meant stepping down from the airplane onto the tarmack (is that the right word? Spell check thinks not). Picking up our gate check items from the ground, and waiting to get on a shuttle bus (in thick, humid 100 degrees) to take us to the terminal. It was so fabulously pioneer-y!!! It also gave the press the opportunity to snap pictures of us coming off the plane after 2 hours of sleep and 16 hours of travel (including bus time) You can check us out on the NBN website-- don't we look happy? (Rivital insisted on wearing her sweltering hooded sweatshirt, to cover up her shirt which was dirty on the flight, so the stains wouldn't show up in the pictures).

Finally finally, the bus pulls up to the terminal, and we have the real ceremony we've all been waiting for. Hundreds and hundreds of people are there to greet us. To greet a NBN flight, one must sign up and be cleared in advance. Apparently this one was full, because we know people who were turned away. Still, We were greeted by Cigal and Morey and Alissa (for those of you who know them), the entire Richter family (minus the littlest one), Joel Wine, Tamar (one of the Shirut Leumi girls from Baltimore), Ross' good friend and colleague Mordechai with his kids, Matti-- a woman from our kibbutz who had met us the week before in Baltimore, our friend Joy who also works for NBN, and oh my gosh! Who am I forgetting? Uh oh! If I forgot someone, please don't be insulted.... But it was awesome. When Joy introduced us to a NBN colleague as the Singers, she said, "The famous Singers?" I didn't know what she meant, until I realized it was because of how many people came to see us at the airport! Anyway, it was very exciting-- People were singing and dancing and howling, and everyone was wishing us Mazel Tov and Welcome Home and all that stuff.

We'll skip the next part when they huddled us into a crowded room and locked the door (not literally, but you were really expected to stay), and guess what-- an hour of more speeches!! Sufficeth to say that by the time the thing was almost over and they for some reason called up one family by name to personally hand them their papers, Ross and I both had a strong suspicion that they were going to have us sit there and watch as EACH family came up one at a time to receive their papers. But thankfully this was not the case, which is shy, as I said, we're skipping this part, other than to say that from then on things went pretty smoothly, and before we knew it, we were on a private shuttle to our new home.

It is late and I am really getting tired and everyone seems to have fallen asleep (even you?), but I did want to say stuff about the kibbutz and about Shabbat. Hmmmm.... I'll try to be brief....

Well, the apartment is great-- feels very roomy without any stuff in it! We'll see what happens when we add stuff. It will be a little squishy, but doable. My idea of having a fridge with a water filter won't be practical, but it turns out that it really doesn't matter, as the tap water is fresh from the springs that run below the mountain! And while things might not all fit in an ideal way, with creative thinking everything should fit just fine (for example, there is really no room for a fridge in the kitchen, but they just put us a temporary one in the living room. It's not like the LR is so far from the kitchen!

They set up our apt with basic needs to tide us over, and aside form the laundry piling up in our guest room like Sarah Cynthia Stout's garbage, we have everything we need for now (and we had lunch with our friends the Ancelovitses (sp?) (Rav Elisha, as some of you may know him)-- who lives RIGHT NEXT TO US , and they offered use of their laundry machine in the meantime, which was really nice of them). We were worried with our kids and their dog about lunch, but first of all, the dog was super sweet and gentle in the house, and second of all, they kindly built a little makeshift wall to keep him out of the DR. So that was great.

Thursday afternoon (or was it Friday? I think it was Thursday), these 4 adorable little girls show up at the door looking for Abaye. We go get him. It turns out they just came by to say hi. It also turns out that they are really Shai's age, so I think there may have been some miscommunication somewhere, but that's OK. They came back on Shabbat to bring Shai to a class for kids after shul, and he went and had a great time!

Shabbat was awesome! First of all, all kinds of people came by with gifts of goodies and fresh baked challah. I didn't go to shul Fri nite because Shai was in a jet lagged sleep, but when we went to the dining hall to eat dinner with the yeshiva, I was flooded with a vision of why we are really here. The yeshiva guys were singing and dancing before dinner. I think they may have danced all the way up from shul, though I didn't see it. but they weren't dancing the kind of dance like at a bar mitzvah where you have to try to drag everyone on to the dance floor, but it was more of a spontaneous thing, like sure people are hungry and want to eat already, but first they just gotta dance! And all the young men-- yeshiva students who are also soldiers-- hugging and kissing each other, talking and laughing, sharing words of Torah. I was really disappointed that Shai wasn't there (still sleeping), but then I remembered that they do this EVERY SINGLE WEEK! (or actually every OTHER week-- alternate Shabbats they go home..).

That's about all for now. Or at least, I am too tired to write more, and I think I hit all the major stuff. Except that I saw Mirit and Dagan and their gorgeous girls Talya and Maayan-- they came by to visit Friday afternoon! And we will G-d willing be at Norman Hananya Dovid Ships bar mitzvah this week!! (for those of you who know him).

Alright, so with that I sign off, and I would love to hear from everyone, though please be patient as replies might not be as quick as usual (our internet is not really ours, and a little in and out, and our computer is slow and quirky, and in high demand).

Talk to y'all soon!

Love,

Em