G-Force

Today, we went down again to Rosh Pinna for the children's movie at 11:00. The movie this week was "G-Force", a Disney movie dubbed into Hebrew for the kids. It's very much an action movie, and the dialog was much too fast for me most of the time. Still, I could follow the story, and I did catch a little of the dialog. We're planning to go back down this evening for the movie "The Rebound", which will be in English with Hebrew subtitles.

University of the People

About a week and a half ago, I started a new job (in addition to my current job). I'm now teaching College Algebra (actually, more like Precalculus) for a new online university, a non-profit institution called "University of the People". This is only their second term, and it's the first time they have offered this class. I feel like I'm getting in on the ground floor of a new concept, one that is almost certain to represent a significant part of the future of education. So far, it's going pretty well.

Another hospitalization for David

With the pain in his chest that David was having on Tuesday, we were very worried about possible heart problems. But when they checked him out at the emergency room, they thought it might be swine flu, and slapped masks on both of us! They also sent him rather more quickly than usual up to the hospital ward, his usual, פנימית א (internal medicine aleph).

A day later, though, after the tests had apparently come back, they concluded that it was not swine flu but pneumonia. In any case, the antibiotics that they had already started him on did their work in short order, and he is feeling much better now. They have already said that he'll be released tomorrow (Sunday, 15 November).

Shabbat in Rosh Pinna

Today (Shabbat), we went down to Rosh Pinna and watched not one but TWO movies at the סינמטק Cinemateque. Two COMPLETELY different movies!

The first movie, at 11:00 a.m., was במבי שתיים Bambi 2, dubbed (very well!) into Hebrew. It was very enjoyable, and both David and I picked up a fair amount of the dialog. We MUST continue to go to children's movies like this; it will certainly help us improve our Hebrew!

After this movie, we drove down further down, to Rene, our favorite restaurant in Rosh Pinna, and had lunch. We both decided to try the סלט מקסיקני Mexican salad. It was delicious despite not being very Mexican (do they actually even HAVE "bulgarit", Bulgarian cheese, in Mexico?!?). The actual salad was quite healthy, but the crispy fried tortilla strips served on top of it definitely were NOT. Still, I was more than happy to eat both mine and David's!

The second movie, at 3:30 p.m., was "In Search of Beethoven", which was in English with Hebrew subtitles. Well, at least MOST of it was. There were several places where experts talked in German. There WERE English subtitles, but they were obscured by the HEBREW subtitles, alas! In some cases, I was able to read most of the Hebrew, but the person speaking German, a little of which I also picked up, was NOT helpful in this endeavor. In any case, the movie was EXCELLENT, and I highly recommend it. I gained some appreciation for the greatness of Beethoven and enjoyed the music of his that was included, even though he still is not my favorite composer (that would be either J. S. Bach or W. A. Mozart).

Scenes from a Burial

Our first funeral in Israel. Mud. A shallow grave. The body, on a stretcher, wrapped in a shroud, no coffin, brought to the cemetery in an ambulance. The family, all חילוני (secular). The mother, screaming: "Jason, don't leave me!" The daughter, crying, fainted and fell to the ground, twice. The rabbi, disconnected, saying all the correct prayers (presumably) but unable to remember the name of the deceased, Jason ben Leonard (unspoken: "What kind of a Jewish name is that?"). המקום ינחם ... "The Place will comfort you ...". Just tromp through the mud that way, and turn right to return to the parking lot.

אל מלא רחמים שוכן במרומים,
המצא מנוחה נכונה על כנפי השכינה,
במעלות קדושים וטהורים, כזהר הרקיע מזהירים,
לנשמת ג'ייסון בן לנארד שהלך לעולמו,
בגן עדן תהא מנוחתו.
לכן בעל הרחמים יסתירהו בסתר כנפיו לעולמים
ויצרר בצרור החיים את נשמתו,
יי הוא נחלתו,
וינוח בשלום על משכבו,
ונאמר אמן.

G-d, full of compassion, dweller in the heights,
May he find true rest under the wings of the divine Presence,
In the holy and pure heights, in the bright shining firmament,
For the soul of Jason, son of Leonard, who has gone to his eternal rest.
In the Garden of Eden may his rest be.
And so, may the Master of the heights hide him in the hiding place of His wings forever
And bind his soul in the bonds of life,
And may he rest in peace on his bed,
And let us say, "Amen."