Safra-Knit

In 1990 I graduated from college, and had no clue what I wanted to do with my life.  I decided to spend a year in Israel and take some time to think about my future.  I went to Kibbutz Ulpan and then did a volunteer program in what was then the development town of Beit Shemesh.

While on kibbutz, I met a few of the non-Jewish volunteers; one from Alaska and another from Wisconsin.  These were individuals I never would have met under “normal circumstances.”  One was a dairy farmer, the other an Air Force pilot.  I think for all three of us it was a pivotal time in our lives.

Jump ahead nearly 20 years, and we managed to have a reunion of sorts during my visit to the US.  You might wonder what would a dairy farmer, airline pilot and a religious Israeli librarian have in common, but we managed to have a wonderful day together, chatting, walking around and reminiscing. The thought that kept going through my head is whether or not any three people could be put together and get along so well…it just seemed so natural.

I’m not sure where I’m going with this, but after 7 years of living a rather homogeneous life, it was nice to have some diversity. (But isn’t it funny to note, that all three of us consider Israel to be a central theme in our lives?)Technorati Tags: israel, reunion, friends

So, we’ve moved on to the next stop on our tour, and the hubby is here.  Just having him here has improved the situation. I don’t think that he is the only disciplinarian, but I do think that the girls like testing, so they do better with two people telling them the same message.

The  kashrut and shabbat issues here aren’t as bad because hubby’s mom isn’t as into cooking for us, so the grill is the only in house cooking. Also Shabbat won’t be too bad because there is an eruv.

I slept until after 6AM, so that helps as well….

Hopefully I’ll also have time to get some knitting done here.

Thanks for all the well wishes and suggestions!

I haven’t posted in nearly a month, and I’m in a deep funk, so I don’t know if posting is the right way to go….  I’m currently in Florida…nearly half way through my month long trip to the US.  My current thoughts aren’t very positive….

• My kids are treating each other more horribly than usual.  Not only that, but they don’t show any respect to me, my parents or any other authority figure.  I feel that this is a reflection on me, and not a positive one.
• Being religiously observant with family that isn’t sucks…no sucks doesn’t begin to describe it.  I have never felt so alone religiously in my life.  Firstly, I’m rather apathetic about my Judaism…despite being Orthodox, so it is even harder when I do "minimum" and I can’t get any support for that.  Shabbat with children under ten without an eruv, or with a semi-eruv….keeping kosher when your kosher dishes are being treyfd…early shabbat…how many things have I had to transgress for Kibud Av v’ Em….and even that is being kept up on a wire.
• Tomorrow will be gatherings with other family members, and other issues will come up.

I really need a vacation…from parenting, from my family…but within Judaism.  I don’t see it coming up in the near future. 

I know I’ve been absent… Twitter and Facebook have been taking over my time. There is one thought I wanted to share about Purim and the story of Megillat Esther.

I always considered myself to be rather a peacenik and although my views about Israel are rather rightist, I still had a problem with certain verses (chapter 8 verse 11) and chapter 9 verse 13. In summary, Esther is asked by the king what do you want to do, and she answers, kill and maim people for one day, then the king asks her the next day what she wants, and she answers another day to kill etc…

Until this year, I thought that sounded very bloodthirsty…why couldn’t she ask for self rule in the land of Israel (if he had control of India through Ethiopia…that is definitely in the middle). So what changed my mind? Cataloging. Well, not simply cataloging, but a specific collection of personal videos by professor Dov Levin. As a Jewish partisan, and survivor of the Kovna Ghetto, he has collected videos with personal narratives, and meetings of groups of survivors. The most touching for me was the gathering of child survivors from Kovna, where the “older survivors (who were 12-17 at the time) told the younger survivors (infant-8 or so) what went on and helped them to understand things that at the time were beyond their comprehension.

So what does this have to do with the story of Esther? Most of us think of the Holocaust as Hitler and the Nazis, or Germany killing all the Jews. Unfortunately, that is very incorrect. The survivors of Kovna, and other places recount how before the Nazis even crossed the border into Lithuania, and Poland, the natives of those places started their killing spree. The hatred was there…just waiting for an opportune moment. In the Purim story, the decree to kill the Jews had been sent out and then retracted, but the underlying hatred and bloodlust was still there. If the Jews hadn’t defended themselves, they probably wouldn’t have survived that day… sort of a gee, we never got the retraction notice…maybe it got lost in the mail…

So, there you go…my thoughts for the year on Megillat Esther….

Sunday night was the meeting for the parents of the little girl’s kindergarten. The group has 2yrs 9 months-4 year olds…my daughter is one of the oldest, but she is with a group of at least 5 from last year who are also the same age. The meeting was fine…even easier than most. We have a very experienced teacher, and about 31 children. (It was 35, but it looks like it might be a little less.)

The only long discussion was about the extra fees we need to pay. She would like 750 shekels for the year from everyone. This is to cover special treats, shows, classes from outside teachers (chugim in Hebrew) and to cover basic stuff like toilet paper and cleaning supplies. Their whole budget from the city is only 2000 shekels a year for everything! There was a discussion about giving a bit more, and everything was fine with that.

Then a parent asked to speak. She is someone I know reasonably well, but I wasn’t prepared for what she had to say. In the neighborhood kindergartens (both K-4 and K-5) there are a number of missionary families. What does she mean by missionary? Some are Jewish and believe in Jesus as the Messiah, others aren’t Jewish but all are actively involved with activities to bring Jews to this belief system. I was horrified. Firstly, this is a public, but religious kindergarten and this has no place in our school and secondly because I only knew of one family involved with these activities, and I knew their children weren’t at my daughter’s kindergarten.

As someone who grew up in a primarily non-Jewish environment, and even worked for five years at a Catholic college, I have no problem with non-Jews. I don’t even have a problem with non-Jews who believe that I’m going to Hell because I don’t believe in their messiah. (Although, I do feel sad that they are so concerned about my soul.) BUT…nobody should be trying to convert my children via their children. Apparently last year, one girl at this kindergarten told anther boy that Jesus was the Messiah, and that he lives in all of our hearts!

I’ve heard that the city attorney is working on this, but I really didn’t want to have to explain to my 4 year old about different religions on this level for a number of years.

Sigh!

• On the needles: Winter hat for the little girl (completed the socks yesterday!)

(Benji says you need a catchy title to draw people to your posts)

Well, last night was the First(?) International Jewish Blogger Conference. They had a meat buffet, Bibi Netanyahu spoke, and a good time was had by most.

Some interesting points:

• I met some people that I really wanted to meet, and visit (however briefly) with others who I haven’t seen in a while.
• I agree wholeheartedly with Gil who said that Jewish bloggers aren’t a “community” but “people who share the same hobby”….although there are people in every community that you want nothing to do with, and the Jewish bloggers have those types as well.
• The speaker from the Foreign Ministry spoke too long, and only got to an interesting point in the last three minutes. I wish she had known her audience better.
• Bibi Netanyahu is a wonderful speaker, I’d love to see him as Foreign Minister or Finance Minister. (Notice, I didn’t say Prime Minister.)
• I was happy that Carl gave a shout out (well, really just a mention) to Tachlis. It was there way before NbN existed.
• Nefesh B’Nefesh has a new website for asking questions and answers are voted on. If they don’t hyper-moderate, and they allow honest but not pro-aliyah answers, this could be a good thing.
• I’m kicking myself for not talking to The Big Felafel. She has done such a great job in such a short period of time. (Plus she is a crafter…what more can you ask for?)
• You can accomplish quite a bit of sock knitting while listening to bloggers speak.

Please see some other blogs for a more detailed summary.

In conclusion, I enjoyed myself, and I hope this will inspire me to spend more time blogging.

Yeah, I’ll be there tonight…I’m very cynical about it, but not in the way that was publicized in Haaretz. I’m just a big cynic regarding one of the sponsors. You can check Sarah’s blog to see what I think of them.

We had a very nice vacation, and I highly recommend what we did! We spent three nights (Thursday through Sunday) at the Belmont Hotel at Kibbutz Tzuba. By staying at the hotel, you get free entrance to Kiftzuba and the pool.

Kifzuba is great for kids 2+, but even our little one enjoyed the play area which they have for babies. She was able to crawl around with other kids, be tossed (gently, I assure you) in the ball pit, and even go on some of the bouncing castle type toys. (She also went on the train, but I don’t think she liked it so much.) The bigger girls went on the bumper cars, bumper boats, slides, inflatable houses etc.

The down-side of Tzuba, is that it isn’t a religious kibbutz. They do have kosher food, but there aren’t activities appropriate for Shabbat. I took the girls for a hike up Tel Tzuba, which is ruins up on a hill. It was outside the Eruv, so we couldn’t carry water, but we did enjoy the walk. On the way, we saw a man picking Sabra fruits for his family. He used a long piece of wood, with a tin can on the end to pluck them from the cactus plants. We asked him a bit about how he knew they were ripe etc.

At the top of the Tel, you can walk in and out of the buildings, and even on the roof. We saw some lizards, and beautiful views. The little one was terrified to enter the buildings, but I enjoyed it. Both girls also made friends with the other kids staying at the hotel, and engaged in some games of Tag and “Dag Maluach” (It is similar to red light green light)

We ate most of our meals on the Kibbutz, but we did do take out (delivery) from Burgers Bar. That was a great idea provided by some helpful person on Janglo.

We managed to get to and from the kibbutz with taxis/van service. I’d say it would have been better if we had our own transportation, but on the whole everyone had a good time.

Devra and I met doing the tour of the hospital to prepare for the birth of her youngest daughter, and my middle one. Please send some prayers/good thoughts, whatever you do forChayim Zvi Ariel

May everything go well today.