May you be comforted

I don't even know where to start with this. We have ongoing assignments in Ulpan to write a story on a particular topic and read it in front of the class. The current topic is "best friend."

This morning in class, a student wrote about his first wife, who died a few years ago. Today was her yahrzeit. She sounds like she was an amazing woman, and our classmate certainly did his part in elevating her neshama (soul) today. It was a privilege to share in her story.

That's not what got to me. Well, yes, her story did touch me, of course. But in any classroom, anywhere, this story could have been heard. Many people have lost loved ones, and have shared stories about them.

But what wouldn't typically happen in a typical classroom anywhere? You wouldn't have the entire class be attentive while the storyteller gave a learning, and then stand together while he recited Kaddish (mourner's prayer), with nearly the whole class giving the appropriate responses. You wouldn't have that followed by a little nosherei in the wife's honour. You wouldn't have all this done with the teacher's approval, encouragement and participation.

It was an honour to be a part of this man's observance of his first wife's yahrzeit, and I am grateful he felt this was something he wanted to share with his classmates. And I am so grateful to be in a country where this didn't seem at all out of place. To anyone.

May her memory be for a blessing.

Someone's gotta toot his horn

Quick! Run out and pick up the latest edition (24 November 2008)of The Jerusalem Report! Turn to page 66 and before you do anything else, read the byline.

Then let Morey know how impressed you are that he's been published in a major Israeli magazine. :) You can read an excerpt of the article here.

You won't find caped crusaders or masked superheroes in any of these comic books. Instead, Miriam Libicki's "jobnik!" chronicles her day-to-day life in the Israeli army in frank, often blunt terms. Jobnik is Israeli slang for soldiers in non-combat roles. More of an illustrated diary than a comic, "jobnik!" takes us behind the heroic façade, to where soldiers wash dishes, file reports and fool around.

If you want to read the whole article, you have to buy the magazine.

If you want to buy Miriam's comic, you can order it here.

If you want to give Morey a Mazal Tov!, you can email him here.

Yasher koach, Moe!

Vote early, vote often

Today we voted in our very first Israeli elections! Exciting stuff.

After being told that we weren't eligible to vote, we received voting cards in the mail. Which, naturally, confused us. Upon investigation, we discovered that the candidate for mayor who informed us we weren't eligible, was wrong. That does not bode well for a mayoral candidate. And it meant we had to cram about who to vote for.

So today, we took our voter cards, found our polling place, asked for help in English, listened to one of the volunteers make a joke about all the people asking for help in English - probably not realizing that we understood what she was saying - and were shown to our voting room.

Only one person at a time can go into the whole room. I showed my Teudat Zehut (identity card), gave the (thankfully English-speaking person who was extremely friendly and helpful and enthusiastic about this being my first time voting in Israel) my voting card, she confirmed me on the list (I was dead last) and gave me a yellow envelope (for mayor) and a white envelope (for city council). I took my envelopes, went behind a cardboard screen, picked up a yellow square of paper with my candidate's name on it and put it in the yellow envelope, then picked up a square of white paper with the party's designation on it and put that in the white envelope. Then I came out from behind the cardboard screen, and placed my envelopes in the big box and "ze hu!" I was done.

I don't know what they would have done if I didn't read Hebrew, but I was excited that I could read all the candidate's names without thinking about it. It's such a simple process here, yet I feel disproportionately proud about voting. Maybe because it emphasizes the fact that I am here. Gee, how am I going to feel about voting in the Federal election??

(yes, yes, I know, we need to post more. It's hard during Ulpan. Ulpan sucks your brain dry. There is no thought power left after Ulpan. Well, after Ulpan and Facebook.)

Hebrew for dummies

Dear Blog,
Today in Hebrew skool we uzed our sissers and made big cuts in our notebooks. Then we drew lots of lines and rote words at the top for catagoecatagorees. Then teacher yelled us at us becuz we rote the catagorees rong. I membered to bring my erasur, my ruler, my pensil sharpener, my sissers and my yellow magic marker. Then teacher had us rite words in Hebrew but we had to be very very careful to put the rite word on the rite page. I did not want teacher to yell at us again.

Yep, this is what we’ve been reduced to. Arts and crafts for first graders. Every day I have to come home and look at myself in the mirror and say, “I am a college graduate” just to remind myself.

It's raining Macs

So we said goodbye to the Betty and while we were at the airport waiting for the El Al counter to open, we treated ourselves to kosher McDonald's. And it was a treat, because it cost just as much as a meal in a nice cafe. Yep, a Big Mac sets you back 40 shekel. Auoof.

But we figure, it's been many many years since we've had a Big Mac, and it will likely be a very long time before we have it again, so we'll spend the extra kesef. And it's not that Mickey-D's is a hot spot of ours, it's just that it's one of those things that everybody else gets to have, but we couldn't because it's not kosher. But here in Israel, there is kosher fast food. Yes, even people who keep kosher can now stuff themselves with saturated fats, trans fats and any other kind of fat you can think of. Exciting, eh? We had our hit of Mac, and now we're good.

In other news, when it rains in Israel, it rains! It's been raining nearly every day, and when it rains, it pours. Torrentially. It's really cool to watch, but it means clothing takes forever to dry, and in these stone/cinderblock houses built for the summers, things get cold very quickly with no sun. The temperature has actually only dropped 5 or 6 degrees (celcius), but with little sun, and nothing to retain the heat of the sun when it is out (big trees, grass, soil, insulated buildings), it feels right chilly.

Which meant today was the perfect day to go and pick up our new duvets, a housewarming present from Betty (thank you!). We're looking forward to being snuggly warm tonight, because we want to avoid turning on the (extremely expensive) heat as long as possible.

Ulpan started up again; it's nice to be getting back into a routine. Chol HaMoed is hard here. Have I said that? Have I mentioned how busy it is during the break, and how the break is really no break at all? Have I?

The next break is Chanukah. We're going to sleep and eat sufganiyot (donuts) the whole break.

Torah!

In Israel, Shmeni Atzeret and Simchat Torah are squished together into one holiday.

Thank G-d. I don't think I could handle another holiday.

Er, I mean, how wonderful to increase the joy of a holiday!

Today was very cool. I walked over an hour to the other side of town to the womens' tefillah group, where I read Torah with and for other women. It was a tremendous blessing to be leining (reading) the Torah, our holy words from G-d, in Israel, our holy land given to us by G-d. Yes, I got a little choked after the first reading (we read this portion of the Torah over and over again, until everyone has a chance to come up and make the blessing - or in the womens' case, a statement and request - over the reading).

There was much dancing, much singing and many introductions for me. I had been worried about Simchat Torah here in Israel, because it winds up being a men's festival. In the Orthodox community, women tend to get left out of Simchat Torah for reasons that would take more detail than I have energy to go into here. In Vancouver, we had a womens' reading every year, but in Israel, it's not very common. I certainly didn't expect it here in Modi'in. I'm so glad I was wrong. I had a kickin' Simchat Torah, topped off with lunch with one of our first new friends in Modi'in. And that was topped off by her father being in town visiting. Oscar was Gabbai at Schara Tzedeck in Vancouver, and it was fun catching up.

Next up: our first tiyyul!

Succah!

Yeah, yeah, sorry we haven't posted in a long while. Chol HaMoed is reeeeaally busy around here! We foolishly thought we'd be getting a break, some time off to take care of some errands and chores and maybe finally get around to getting those bookshelves and cupboards we need to finally finish emptying the boxes.

Yeah. Um, not happening.

We have been having a lovely time, it's just been go go go! First there was Yom Kippur, then we had to buy s'chach (the roof for the succah), then we wound up having to buy succah walls, then we had to build the darn thing, then it was Succot and Pamela joined us. Then we were off to Jerusalem to see my Kaufman cousins, then a friend came to visit, then Morey's mum, Betty, arrived from Ottawa. So now we're off to Zichron Yaakov, then it's Simchat Torah (I am, b"H, reading Torah at a womens' tefillah group), then Wednesday we have a tiyyul (a trip, like a touristy kind of bus/group trip), then Thursday it's back to Ulpan.

Phew.

I need a break from our break.

Meanwhile, we were thrilled to be able to go to the local home store and buy all our Succah supplies. Yep, at the local equivalent of Home Hardware. Sweet. And all the succahs!! So cool!

Enjoy some pics of Sukkahs! Although, I don't think I'd want to eat in the succah on the 4th floor that's balanced on scaffolding...


Morey on the roof making the roof.