ותיקים חדשים - New Old-Timers

We've got an apartment!

2012-02-07T10:49:00.001-08:00

We found an apartment to rent in Eilat, and we are really quite excited. It is on the top floor (4th floor here, although it would be considered 5th in the States) of a rather new building in the best part of town (called Shakhamon). The landlord and landlady are moving out of the apartment to a townhouse not far away since she is pregnant with their second child. They are very nice people, too.It took us a day longer than we had planned because we wasted a whole day waiting for an answer from the owner of the first apartment we wanted. Then, in the end, he decided he wanted to sell it instead!Anyway, it is a great relief to know that we'll have a good place to live.

Making progress on our move

2012-01-31T10:49:00.000-08:00

Yesterday evening, we finally received the first payment for our house from the buyer. The next payment will include paying off our mortgage, on the 26th of February, and, on the 1st of March, we'll receive the final payment and turn the keys over to him.

We have been busily packing for several weeks now and have made good progress on that front. I think we're well over half-way packed.

Now that we have some money, we have begun seriously hunting for an apartment to rent in Eilat. I found 10 apartments on yad2.co.il that looked interesting, and I called about several of them this evening. I've already arranged tentative times to see 3 of them next Sunday. All of these conversations were totally in Hebrew, and I felt pretty confident, too! We'll travel down there on Shabbat and back on Tuesday. Between Sunday and Monday we expect to be able to find an apartment and rent it. I took Monday and Tuesday off from Berlitz in order to make this important trip.

I'll try to take time to write another update after we return from that trip. In the mean time, wish us lots of luck. We're optimistic that we'll be able to find a nice place to live on a high floor with a wonderful view. On a clear day, we may even be able to see Saudi Arabia!

Big change coming soon

2012-01-07T06:19:00.000-08:00

This is a personal post about David and me. Another title for it might be: "Good news and bad news".

Let's start with the bad news to get it out of the way. Due to a recent decrease in my income (one of my jobs cut the money I get from them by about 75%!), we can no longer afford to live in our beautiful, but really rather large, house. This means that we will have to sell it and buy a smaller, less expensive place. We had hoped that we would never have to move again, but we will, and quite soon.

The good news is that our house has gone up some in value (we'll get more details about this over the next week or so, hopefully) and that this gives us the opportunity to live in a climate that will be more suitable for us. Our biggest complaint about Tsfat has always been about how cold it gets here and how long it STAYS cold (that, and the wind and rain!).

Since we have to move anyway, we figured we might as well pick a place with weather we preferred. All my work in online, so that is not a factor. So, we went through a process of elimination. The coastal plain, from Shlomi in the North to Ashdod and Ashkelon down near Gaza, is significantly warmer in the winter, but it's WAY too humid in the summer, something that neither of us likes at all. The Jordan River valley, from Metulla to Beit Shean is also too humid. Jerusalem is not much warmer than Tsfat. Besides, Jerusalem and Tel Aviv are both MUCH too expensive and MUCH too urban for us, as well. Be'er Sheva is dryer but still a little more humid than we like, and, besides that, neither of us is crazy about it either. Mitzpe Ramon (in the middle of the Negev) is very dry, but it's also a bit chilly in the winter, since it's at a fairly high elevation, at it, too, has little appeal to us.

Those of you familiar with Israel can now see what is left: Eilat! Eilat is mild and dry in the winter, getting very little rain at all. Of course, it's VERY hot in the summer, but it's also a very dry heat, and it does cool off at night. Besides, both of us find Eilat to be an interesting city. The geography is interesting, with the dry Eilat mountains immediately back of the city (to the west), the Arava Valley to the north, and the Red Sea on the east and south (with Aqaba, Jordan, and the mountains of Edom to the east). Eilat is also a nicely laid out city, with broad boulevards, easy parking, and very little traffic, even at the height of "the season" (we were there on the 26th of December!).

A little research on real estate prices convinces us that we should be able to get a place there with 2 or 3 bedrooms that we can afford. It won't be a villa, but it should be nice for us, and it will be cheaper to heat and cool, as well.

Of course, there's much to do to make all this happen. We must contact a realtor here and get the process of selling our house started immediately. We must also contact a realtor in Eilat to find a place there. And we have TONS of packing and cleaning to do before we can move. It will probably take at least 2 or 3 months to make all of this happen, but we're convinced that it CAN be done, and that our lives will be better at the end.

We'll miss the North, and we will especially miss our wonderful congregation, Emet V'Shalom, in Nahariya. But Israel is a small country, and we should be able to make trips to the North several times a year without much trouble at all (and without busting our budget).

So, in the end, this is mostly good news, and we're actually beginning to get excited about the possibility. I'll try to remember to keep you posted as the process moves forward.

A short vacation in Eilat

2011-12-31T06:32:00.000-08:00

The cliffs of Makhtesh Ramon at Mitzpe Ramon

David and I have long wanted to take a short winter vacation in Eilat. This year, we just decided to go ahead and do it. I booked a room for us at Kibbutz Eilot (located 3 km north of the city of Eilat) for 2 nights (the 25th and the 26th of December, 2011).

Here are some pictures I took on this trip. Rather than driving down the Jordan River valley and past the Dead Sea (the shortest route), we decided to go on highway 6, west of Judea and Samaria (the area also erroneously known as "the West Bank", the name given to it by the Kingdom of Jordan during the 19 years of illegal occupation of it, from 1948 to 1967).

We ate lunch at a pizza place in a mall in Be'er Sheva. Then we continued south to Mitzpe Ramon, a town that sits right at the edge of Makhtesh Ramon, a deep, dry valley with steep walls. The picture above was taken from the spot where the highway leaves Mitzpe Ramon and starts down into the makhtesh.

Here's a friendly Nubian ibix (we thought it was a goat, but the picture in the Wikipedia article shows one just like it and states that it's a Nubian ibix) at that same turnout.

An ibix at the overlook of Makhtesh Ramon from Mitzpe Ramon

This next view is from the floor of the makhtesh, looking back up towards Mitzpe Ramon.

Looking up towards Mitzpe Ramon from the floor of Makhtesh Ramon

This picture (and the one above, also) was taken on our way back north. This view looks north at two mesas which are on the south side of Makhtesh Ramon.

Taking pictures, looking north at 2 mesas on the south side of Makhtesh Ramon

I woke up early on our first morning at Kibbutz Eilot, so I grabbed my camera and went for a walk. I took the following picture from a spot only 100-200 meters from the border crossing to Jordan. The sun was just about to rise over the Jordanian mountains behind Aqaba, Jordan.

Sunrise over the Jordanian mountains behind Aqaba, Jordan

As I walked back up to the kibbutz, I saw this flock of little birds. Although you can only see 5 of them in this picture, there were at least a hundred in the flock.

Little birds near the entrance of Kibbutz Eilot (3 km north of Eilat)

Along the shore of the Red Sea south of Eilat, there is a coral reef. The structure in the picture is the above-water part of an underwater observatory there. Inside the small round center part, there are 2 interleaving spiral staircases by which one can go up to the balcony at the top of the tower or down to the underwater observatory. The city of Aqaba, Jordan, is in the background of this photo.

Tower above the underwater observatory at the Eilat coral reef (Aqaba, Jordan in the background)

This is the view south-southwest from the balcony at the top of the tower. The mountains in the background are in Sinai, the vast territory given by Israel to Egypt in exchange for a promise that they would not attack us. They've kept the promise so far (at least at the governmental level), but, with the current turmoils there and the rapid ascent of the Islamicist parties, it's anybody's guess how long that will last.

Looking south-southwest from the tower, towards the Sinai (Egypt) shore

Before going down to the underwater observatory, we took a short cruise on a ship that has windows below the water level. The young woman who was the guide on this little trip narrated everything in fluent Hebrew, Russian, and English!

Next, we went down to the underwater observatory. The views from both the boat and the observatory were absolutely stunning! Unfortunately, they generally didn't photograph very well. In real life, there are vivid colors, but in the photos, nearly everything seems blue-green. Nevertheless, you can get a little idea of the beauty from this photo, taken from the observatory.

A view of the coral reef and fish from the underwater observatory

In the afternoon, we were quite tired of being on our feet, so we took a drive up highway 12 into the Eilat Mountains, located immediately west of the city. Here's a view of the Red Sea taken from up there. Judging from Google Earth, the mountains in the distance, and possible even the smoke near the middle of the picture, are in Saudi Arabia!

Looking south-southeast from the Eilat Mountains, towards Saudi Arabia

Here's another nice picture from the Eilat Mountains. This small tree seemed quite lonely there in the nakhal (wadi), but it made a nice frame for my picture.

A lone tree in a nakhal (wadi) in the Eilat Mountains

We really enjoyed our short vacation in Eilat and the Negev. At this time of year, the weather up here in the North is really quite cold, and it's a constant (and expensive!) battle just to keep the house reasonably warm. In Eilat, on the other hand, it was warm enough to be comfortable in a short-sleeve shirt, at least by late morning. It WAS cold at night, of course, but not nearly as much as here!

Is the proposed "State of Palestine" part of a 2-state solution?

2011-09-11T20:53:00.000-07:00

With the Palestinian Authority now going ahead with its attempt to seek recognition of a "Palestinian State" from the UN, most of the world is assuming that this is merely another attempt to come to the 2-state solution. However, the following recent statements clearly show that this is NOT the case. Instead, this move is yet another step in the Arabs' attempt to eliminate the Jewish State of Israel:

a) Nabil Shaath, interviewed on Lebanese TV 11 July. Two states means a Jewish people over there and a Palestinian people here. We will never accept this...‏

- [The new French UN peace initiative has] reshaped the issue of the “Jewish state” into a formula that is also unacceptable to us – two states for two peoples.

- They can describe Israel itself as a state for two peoples, but we will be a state for one people.

- The story of “two states for two peoples” means that there will be a Jewish people over there and a Palestinian people here. We will never accept this – not as part of the French initiative and not as part of the American initiative.

- We will not sacrifice the 1.5 million Palestinians with Israeli citizenship who live within the 1948 borders, and we will never agree to a clause preventing the Palestinian refugees from returning to their country. We will not accept this, whether the initiative is French, American, or Czechoslovakian.

- The recognition of a [Palestinian] state is basically a bilateral action, which receives the blessing of the UN. This act, however, will make many things possible in the future. Eventually, we will be able to sign bilateral agreements with states and this will enable us to exert pressure on Israel. At the end of the day, we want to exert pressure on Israel in order to force it to recognize us and to leave our country. This is our long-term goal. (translation - MEMRI)

b) Hamas in Gaza: 'Palestine means Palestine in its entirety, and Israel cannot exist in our midst' - Fri. 29 Jul. 2011 @ 13.06 -

- Hamas foreign minister Al-Zahar reiterates Hamas' rejection of two-state solution and commitment to gaining 'Palestine in its entirety' by force. He also declared that Hamas would view any Israeli withdrawal from the West Bank, or a compromise agreement with the Palestinian Authority, as only a 'first stage' towards the destruction of Israel in its entirety. He asserted that this was the key difference between Hamas and their secular rivals, Fatah.

- In a recently conducted a television interview he once more set out Hamas' rejection of Israel's right to exist. According to Memri, Al-Zahar used the interview, from 21 July, to argue that 'Palestine in its entirety is Islamic waqf land, which cannot be relinquished':

'At this moment in time, we say to you, first of all: We want Palestine in its entirety - so there will not be any misunderstandings. If our generation is unable to achieve this, the next one will, and we are raising our children on this. Palestine means Palestine in its entirety, and Israel cannot exist in our midst.'

The 10th Anniversary of 9/11

2011-09-10T06:01:00.000-07:00

On September 11, 2001, we were still living in California. The Fall quarter had not yet started at Cal State San Bernardino, so I had no classes that day. I got up in the morning and switched on the radio to the local NPR station, KVCR, as was my habit. Immediately, I realized that it was NOT the usual Morning Edition. I turned on the TV to see the shocking pictures of the twin towers burning and then, a little later, collapsing. I felt numb the whole day, even though I've never even been in New York and didn't have any friends living there. This was clearly a terrorist attack on the entire country, and, in reality, on modern civilization.

It wasn't long before it became very clear who had carried out the attack. More perplexing, to Americans at least, was "Why?" Americans are good-hearted people, and so they naturally have been trying to figure out what horrible thing they must have done to deserve such a terrible attack. This tendency to blame themselves has only grown as we prepare to mark the 10th anniversary of these attacks.

But what if the premise is wrong? Perhaps it wasn't a reaction to ANYTHING America had done at all. Or, perhaps it was a reaction to something GOOD that America stood for.

The first stop in searching for the reasons should be the writings of Al-Qaida and other radical Islamicist organizations. If you do this, the reasons become clear almost immediately.

Their entire philosophy and mode of operation is based on their interpretation of Islam (which, unfortunately, is quite orthodox and mainstream). Here are some of the key points:

According to them, Islam is the only true religion (something several other religions, though not all, also claim to be), and it is to be carried to all the world. Non-believers must first be told of the religion and given the opportunity to accept it. But, if they do not, believers are instructed to impose Islam by force (this is quite UNLIKE other religions). Islamic law, known as sharia, is to be imposed on everyone. At least two other religions (Judaism and Christianity) are tolerated, to some extent, under sharia law, but their adherents are to be strictly limited in many ways, including special clothing, lower places of worship, special taxes, and other clear symbols of their second-class status.

Most of America's most cherished ideals are basically anathema to sharia law, including nearly all freedoms: freedom of religion, freedom of speech (especially freedom to criticize religions and their prophets, including Mohammed), equality of men and women, etc. etc. In other words, by their own views, the radical Islamicists attack America precisely because of its ideals.

This means that there are really only two possible responses. The first is to capitulate to Islam and give up on American ideals and freedoms. Freedom of speech must be limited, especially speech critical of Islam or not sufficiently respectful of its Prophet. Other religions can, and perhaps even MUST, be criticized, but Islam must NEVER be criticized (no "Islamophobia" allowed!).

The second possible response is to defend America's values. This would require courage, long-term commitment, clarity about the enemy, and a willingness to fight, even when it means war.

So far, I'm sorry to say, America seems to be gradually but steadily choosing the first option more than the second. If this continues, the terrorists of 9/11 will have won.

The International Klezmer Festival

2011-08-16T07:28:00.000-07:00

We are now right in the middle of a 3-day event (or, more accurately, 3-NIGHT event) that happens every summer right here in Tsfat. In fact, פסטיבל הכלייזמרים הבנלאומי festival ha-klezmerim ha-benleumi ("The International Klezmer Festival") is by far the biggest event of the year in Tsfat.

We have now lived here for more than 5 years, but last night was the first time we ever ventured into town to check out this major event! Partly this is due to geography. Although we do live within the city of Tsfat, the festival happens in the old area (the downtown) of Tsfat, which is probably a good mile from here, even as the crow flies, and, of course, since Tsfat is on a high hill, with several peaks and ridges, one does NOT get there in anything even approaching a straight line, not even when walking. Furthermore, we live at a somewhat higher elevation. So, whereas the walk into town is doable but much too tiring and time-consuming, the walk back home is simply unthinkable for us at our age and in our condition!

Even on normal days, parking in town can be tricky. During Klezmer, it could only be worse, despite the fact that only residents are allowed to even drive up from the base of our big hill after 5:00 p.m. So, driving into town is out of the question. That leaves the local buses, which means a wait at both ends and some worry about how late the buses will actually run.

Finally, this year, however, we decided to get in there. I had even planned ahead and taken Monday through Thursday this week off from Berlitz (as vacation time, so I'll still get paid). From the official festival website I downloaded and printed the schedule of events and the map of town showing where the various stages were located. The first concerts (ALL of which are outdoors and free!) begin at 8:00 p.m. each evening, and the last ones don't end until 1:00 a.m. (which is WAY after our bedtime!).

We left the house before 7:00 p.m. and arrived at the bus stop at about 7:05 - 7:10. We figured the bus should arrive soon, but it was quite some time before we even saw it going the other way. It didn't get back to us on its way into town until about 7:40, and it was already quite full of people with many standing in the aisle. A couple of young women actually got up and offered us their seats (which I was very thankful for but which made me feel rather old, I must admit!).

During the day, the number 4 bus is the only one that comes to our neighborhood, but, in the evening, both the number 4 and the number 3 are replaced by the number 10, which basically covers BOTH routes. So, rather than heading more or less directly into town, we had a tour of Kiryat Sara and Ibikor, with even MORE people getting on along the way. The central bus station was the end of the route, though normally the buses all go from there up Palmach Street and then back around down on Aliyah Bet Street.

So, we finally got off the bus and headed up into town from the Central Bus Station. Normally, at that hour (around 8:30 p.m.) downtown Tsfat would be pretty much dead, but, of course, it was just coming to life last night. A lot of the regular stores were closed, but the eating places were all open and even serving food along the sidewalks. People were walking in the street since almost no vehicles were being allowed to use it. After the intersection with Aliyah Bet Street, Y'rushalayim Street was completely closed to vehicular traffic. We continued under the bridge and down to the stage we had selected, in the Artists' Quarter.

Our friend, Norman, at our synagogue had mentioned to us that his cousin was the accordion player for a group from Vienna called "Shalom Aleichem" that would be playing in the Festival. Sure enough, I had found the group on the program, and naturally we had selected the stage where they would be performing.

We got there around 8:40, just shortly before the group playing the 8 o'clock hour had finished. Shalom Aleichem was scheduled for the 9:00 to 11:00 time slot. While listening to the last number of two of the previous group, David noticed that he was probably having an insulin reaction (i.e. dangerously low blood sugar levels). He tested, and, sure enough, he was. He immediately took glucose tablets that he always carries with him for this purpose, and I headed up to a nearby market to buy candy, completing my purchase there just before their 9:00 p.m. closing time! Between the glucose tablets and some of the candy I brought, he was soon just fine.

The Shalom Aleichem group was fabulous! Besides the accordion player (whose last name was indeed the same as Norman's!), they had a violinist, a string bass player, a trumpet player, and a clarinetist. The latter two were brothers, and the clarinetist also played the keyboard brilliantly for a couple of their pieces. There was also a singer for the most of the selections (the others were instrumental), and he also introduced each piece and said a few other things, as well. The words for the songs were invariably in Yiddish. All of the musicians were excellent, but perhaps the trumpet player was the most amazing. In part of one song, he played TWO trumpets at the same time, something I've NEVER seen before! One of the two trumpets was also somewhat bigger and a different shape, another thing I'd not seen before. I took a couple of pictures of them, but, not surprisingly they didn't turn out well because of the night and the bright illumination of the band.

On the walk back to the bus station, we heard booms. When I looked up, I saw that they were doing a fireworks show, launching them from the m'tzudah at the top of the hill of the old city. We stood there and watched until they were finished, and I'd say they were as good as some of the 4th of July fireworks I'd seen in the States.

Unfortunately, we couldn't stay for the whole 2 hours that Shalom Aleichem played (so we only heard their 1st hour) because it was already past our bedtime, and we still had to walk back to the station, wait for the bus, ride it to our neighborhood, and then walk home. Actually, in fact, David waited at our neighborhood bus stop while I walked home quickly and came back for him with the car. In the end, we got to bed around quarter to midnight. At least I slept very well and didn't get up until about quarter to 8:00 in the morning.

The whole thing was a bit much for us, so we won't try it again this year, at least, even though the Festival continues tonight (Tuesday) and tomorrow night. But it was a great adventure, and we enjoyed it very much, especially the wonderful Klezmer music!

Asuta Hospital - Tel Aviv

2011-08-13T21:18:00.001-07:00

Recently, David has been having some extensive dental work done. Because of his unique combination of illnesses, we have to travel (many times!) to a dental clinic in Tel Aviv. The clinic is part of the MaccabiDent network, which is the dental service of our kupat kholim (health fund -- like an HMO in the U.S.). This particular clinic is in the Asuta Hospital of Tel Aviv.

The hospital is located in a new, very modern building in an area of the city that is still rapidly developing. The architecture of this building is very interesting, with different textures, many non-right angles, and even some walls that lean outward! The back side of the building faces a large natural park along a river, and there is a large, multi-story glass window. One of the most interesting features in this part of the building (which we walk right by on the way to the dental clinic) is the synagogue. As you can see in the picture below, it is a black box that looks likes it's suspended between heaven and earth. I rather like that symbolism for a place of prayer!

Dangers avoided

2011-08-06T03:49:00.000-07:00

Today, I'm writing about 3 complete unrelated things. Unrelated, that is, except by the fact that, in each case, something dangerous ended up causing no one any harm at all.

First story

The first is about an anniversary. Five years ago this past week (on August 2, 2006, to be precise), two Katyusha rockets fell in our immediate neighborhood. This was, of course, during the Second Lebanon War. For those of you who haven't heard or don't remember the story, this is a very brief synopsis. It was about mid-morning, and David and I had just finished taking a shower. He was on the side of the bed right next to the north-facing window, and I was still in the bathroom (on the south side of the bedroom), drying myself. There were no sirens, but, suddenly, there were two very load BOOMS and we knew that we had been hit. Something (we later discovered it was a ball bearing) had come through 4 panes of glass (the window was open because of the lovely summer breezes), also damaging the frames as it came. It had to have flown less than a meter from David's head. It then bounced off the ceiling of the bedroom nearly on the opposite side and then hit the A/C unit located right above the door to the bathroom. I heard the coolant hissing as it leaked out.

As it turned out, one Katyusha had hit just across the street (which was where the ball bearing had come from) and another had hit very close to our neighbor's house. The first Katyusha did some minor damage to the north side of our house (including the above-mentioned broken windows), and the second broke the outer pane (but NOT the inner one!) of the upper half of our large stairwell window (which faces south). All the south facing windows on our neighbor's house were broken, and there were pock marks on the walls and ceilings of nearly every room of his house. The other 3 houses in our complex also suffered varying degrees of damage. But no one was injured at all.

The emergency services people showed up within only a few minutes and quickly determined, of course, that no one was hurt. Later that same day, someone from the government insurance agency came out and assessed the situation. Within a week, all the damage to our house was repaired, and by the end of August, the money from the government was in my account.

Second story

Last night, we were at Kabbalat Shabbat prayers at our synagogue, Emet V'Shalom (EVS), in Nahariya as usual. This week, there was a bar mitzvah. The boy is a descendant (great grandson, at least, if not more generations) of a founder of the synagogue (it was founded by German Jews before WW II, as was the city itself) who was also its rabbi at one time.

The service was nearly finished, and Rabbi Horovitz had just begun to talk about the bar mitzvah boy, as he usually does, when a policeman burst in the door and told us we must all get out immediately. Although I don't think he said why, we all pretty much knew, and we proceeded very calmly to exit. Of course, the reason was a suspicious package. David actually saw it as we went out. At first, they just sent us to the other side of the street, but then they pushed us back even further, around the corner. There was no panic at all, and, in fact, we all just hung around talking and socializing. I don't know exactly what the bomb squad (at least I assume they were called) did, but after some time, we were allowed to go back in. As soon as we all got back in, Rabbi just picked right up where he had left off.

As you can imagine, unattended packages are always considered suspicious here, especially if they are located near any significant group of people.

Third story

After we got home last night, David got to bed a little before I did. When I was about to get into bed, I noticed that Pascal (our BIG black white with a white bib and some white paws) was playing with something over on David's side of the bed. I went over to check it out. When I got there, I saw that there was a good-sized black scorpion, right on one of David's thongs by the bed! Very quickly, I could see that it was dead. I'm sure the cats had killed it, since, as you may remember, they are experienced scorpion hunters. Anyway, I just picked up the thong, took it into the bathroom, dumped it into the toilet, and flushed. If I hadn't have found it, though, David would have had a possibly nasty surprise when he got up in the night and put his thongs on.

Blackie finally caught!

2011-07-30T06:47:00.000-07:00

A quick update to my last post. Last Monday, we finally caught the black cat that had been stealing our cats' food and molesting the kittens. We put the cage with him in it in the trunk (well, actually the small hatch) of our car. Then, with our neighbors, Shimon and Hava, in the back seat, we took off for the Golan, releasing "Blackie" in the same area where we had released Spot several years earlier.

We've decided to coin new verbs in both Hebrew and English to describe this action. Both mean "to catch a misbehaving cat and relocate him/her to the Golan". In English, the verb is, of course, "to golan". In Hebrew, it's לגוולן l'gavlen, a verb in the פיעל Pi'el binyan (conjugation) where nearly all new modern verbs are created. It's based on the root ג-ו-ל-נ gimel-vav-lamed-nun, the letters of the word גולן Golan in Hebrew.

Kitten scratches

2011-07-23T05:54:00.000-07:00

There's a male cat in our neighborhood who comes around nearly every day and tries to steal some of the food we put out for our outdoor cats. In fact, there actually are SEVERAL cats that try to do this, but one, a medium-haired black male, whom we have nicknamed Blackie, is the most frequent visitor, and he often does manage to get some food when we're not watching closely. Of course, this only serves to reinforce his behavior.

Stealing food is bad enough, but lately we've caught him trying to molest the kittens, too, and this is just beyond the pale for us. So, we went down to our favorite builder's supply store in Khatzor and bought a cat trap.

Here, I'll insert a little story that the lady there who sold us the trap told us. She said she's caught a dozen cats using a similar trap. One of them was actually very clever. He would open an unlocked window, come into her house, steal a schnitzel she had laid out, go back out through the window, and then, most remarkably of all, CLOSE the window behind himself! They couldn't figure out what was happening to the schnitzels until someone actually saw him doing this! By the way, she spoke almost no English, but I was able to understand her story in Hebrew.

So back to the trap we bought. Of course, one of the problems is trying to catch the bad black cat but NOT catch any of our own outdoor cats. Our first plan was to try to put the 3 kittens into the cat carrier so they wouldn't be able to go into the trap. Of course, they were NOT enthusiastic about this idea! :-)

Let's just say that this plan didn't work. Here's a picture, taken today (2 days later) of what one 3-month-old kitten can to when he or she REALLY wants to get away. This is my right arm:

Despite the pain, I was NOT angry at any of the kittens, but we did give up trying to put them into the cat carrier.

And what happened later, you may ask? Well, one kitten DID get trapped and was quite frantic about it. Later, Mr B, one of our adult outdoor cats also got stuck in there. So far, Blackie, the one we're TRYING to catch, has NOT gone in. He will eventually, though, I'm sure, and then we'll "golan" him. We invented this new verb, "to golan", which means "to take a cat to the Golan and release him there". Blackie should be the 2nd intended object of this unpleasant verb. Some of you may recall the first object, Spot.

I can't resist adding one more comment here. As many of you know, we had snakes for about 10 years and bred them during most of that time. Some years, we produced more than 100 babies in a single year. But the sum of all the snake bites I received during that entire time (not really that many, actually) was less than the damage done by one kitten in only a few seconds. And yet, people somehow think that snakes are dangerous!

Argentine Independence Day 2011

2011-07-23T05:34:00.001-07:00

July 9 is Argentine Independence Day, a fact we were not aware of until some of our South American friends from our congregation invited us to a celebration of the event this year.

The celebration was held in the same room at the מתנ"ס Matnas (a common Hebrew word that is actually an acronym of מרכז תרבות נוער וספורט Mercaz Tarbut No'ar v'Sport, which means "Center of Culture, Youth, and Sports") where our congregation holds Friday night prayers.

Since July 9 fell on Saturday this year, the celebration was on Saturday night. The room was PACKED. Almost everyone there was from South America, of course, but at least one couple we know was from Uruguay rather than Argentina. Probably others were, as well. Anyway, I think we may well have been the only ones there who were NOT South Americans. But, for the evening, we were honorary Argentinians, which we loved!

The theme for the evening was clearly the tango. Of course, everything was in Spanish except the Nahariya mayor's short welcome speech (which was in Hebrew), meaning that I caught very little of it. David caught quite a bit more since he knows more Spanish than I. But we both really enjoyed the evening. There was singing, music, poetry readings, and, of course, some tango dancers!

Here are a couple of pictures I took from my spot in the middle of the audience using my iPhone 3G. The quality is not the best, but it will give you a little idea of the atmosphere. The first picture shows our good friend and fellow member of Congregation Emet v'Shalom, Julio, reading a poem about the tango:

This second picture shows a couple doing the tango. It was particularly hard to get a picture of dancers that was not blurred due to their motion. Even this one is a little blurry, but it will give you a bit of an idea of the dance:

My drasha last night at EVS

2011-06-11T06:04:00.001-07:00

Last night, at the request of our rabbi, I delivered the drasha (sermon) of the week during the Kabbalat Shabbat prayers at our synagogue, Emet V'Shalom. It's on this week's Torah portion, בהעלותך B'ha'alotkha. If you'd like to read the original Hebrew (which is what I actually delivered), click here to read about it on my Hebrew blog. Here's the English translation (which was handed out in printed form to the English speakers in the audience):

Shabbat Shalom!

The Torah portion for this week is B'Ha'alotkha. As with many portions, there are several stories in it, but I would like to focus on one of them, which tells us about one of the complaints of the Children of Israel in the desert. Here is my version, a somewhat updated one.

The Children of Israel and all the other people with them developed a craving and they all began to cry together, "Who will give us meat to eat? We remember the fish and the squash and the watermelons and the onions and the garlic that we ate in Egypt." Apparently, they did NOT remember the hard slavery!

They continued: "And now, all we see is the manna." It should be pointed out here that the manna was a perfect food and was itself a big miracle that G-d gave them every day they were in the desert.

At this point, both Moses AND G-d got angry. Moses began to complain to G-d about the difficult people and this heavy burden. He really wanted to just die!

G-d told Moses to gather 70 of the elders of Israel and promised that they would help Moses with this matter. G-d also instructed Moses to say, in rather dramatic fashion, to the people, "G-d will certainly give you meat, and you will eat it, not one day, not 2 days, not 5 days, not 10 days, not 20 days, but a WHOLE month, until it comes out of your noses!"

Moses simply could not believe this, and he began to argue with G-d. But G-d told him, "You'll see if this happens or not."

And so Moses told the people about all this and gathered the elders, and they began to prophesy. It's not clear to me how this helped Moses, but he seemed satisfied.

And then a strong wind came that brought thousands of quail from the sea. For a whole day and night and the day after, the people gathered the quail and ate them. But while the meat was still in their teeth, a terrible plague occurred which killed many of them. It's written that they called the name of that place Kivrot Ta'avah ("Graves of Craving").

So, what can we learn from this story?

First, let's talk about cravings. Do we not have many cravings that we know are not good for us and not healthy? It's also hard for us to control them, isn't it? My mother of blessed memory used to say that we are creatures of habit. In general, this is good, in that we don't have to think about everything we do. But when we have a bad habit, it is hard for us to change it.

There's another lesson from this story, I think. Only a short time before this story takes place, the Children of Israel had come out of hard slavery in the Land of Egypt. According to our tradition, this was the greatest miracle in history! Besides that, every day they had the manna, which was a perfect food for their needs. It was also a big miracle. Nevertheless, they continue to complain many times against Moses and against G-d.

I'm afraid we are not all that different from them. We live in the Land! Is not this the greatest miracle of the modern world? Every day, we see the flowers, the butterflies, and all the good things that are in this country. We have comfortable homes, beautiful clothes, and all manner of healthy (and even not so healthy!) foods. But how many times do we complain, even about small matters that are not all that important.

I would like to encourage all of us to think about the good things in our lives and not to complain!

Shabbat Shalom!

Kittens, a cow, and horses

2011-06-04T23:10:00.000-07:00

Today, I'm sharing several animal pics.

There's a sad story behind the first two pictures. A few weeks ago, one of our neighbors found 4 tiny baby kittens trying to nurse on their dead mother! Shimon, our next-door neighbor brought them to his house, put them behind his gas tanks (where they were fairly well protected), and began giving them diluted milk. He informed us, and we began feeding them cat food, as well. He also bought some dried milk especially for baby cats, and we tried giving that to them, as well. One of the kittens was very weak, and so we brought him/her into the house to try to save him/her. Unfortunately, we did not succeed.

The remaining 3 kittens are doing well, though, and are eating regular cat food with no problems. A little later, the kittens moved from behind Shimon's gas tanks to our yard, where they hide in the pipe that drains water from our roof (when it rains). This is a perfect place for them -- they're well protected, they're further from the road, and the pipe opens out right under our etrog tree, which provides some shade for them, as well.

One of the kittens has really taken a liking to me and is not shy at all. He (or maybe it's "she", since we really can't quite tell the gender yet) comes running to me and LOVES to be held and petted. I decided to name him "Moti", which is a Hebrew word that used somewhat like "sweetie" in English. Here's a picture of Moti sitting on my lap on the steps right above their pipe:

Here's a picture of the other 2 kittens. The one on the left is slightly lighter in color than the other 2, so I call him/her "Bahiri" (from the Hebrew word בהיר Bahir, which means "clear", but it also used to describe lighter colors). The one of the right, who is basically indistinguishable from Moti except by his/her behavior, is "Shai", a popular Hebrew name but, of course, also a play on words, in this case, on the English word "shy", which is pronounced the same.

Yesterday morning, we heard a cow bellowing. When we looked out, we saw this cow near our yard. Although you can't see it in this picture, she looked a bit pregnant. Maybe she was getting near delivery, but she later wandered away, so we really don't know.

In recent weeks, David and I have been trying to walk more. Just on the outskirts of town, there is a great paved path (called a טיילת tayelet in Hebrew). It's about a mile long. We usually park at the far end, and then walked both directions, since this puts the more uphill direction first. Along the tayelet, there is a large fenced area and a group of horses is somewhere in it. Sometimes, we can't see them at all because there are many trees, but very often we do see them, in different areas along our walk. Here's a picture of them that I took yesterday. You can see the horses in the foreground, including a brown baby next to his brown mother in the lower right. In the background, on the right, is the edge of the Ibikor neighborhood of Tsfat. And the picture also gives you a little idea of this beautiful area we have to walk in!

The "refugee" problem

2011-05-23T04:31:00.000-07:00

According to the Oxford English Dictionary, a refugee is a person who has been forced to leave his or her home and seek refuge elsewhere. The UN definition is longer, more detailed, and more restrictive than this one. This definition can reasonably be applied to many of the perhaps 700,000 Arabs who left Palestine before, during, and after Israel's War of Independence, and it definitely applies to the over 865,000 Jews who left Arab countries from 1948 until the early 1970s, of whom about 600,000 settled in Israel. In effect, there was a significant population between the Arab countries and the new Jewish State.

What happened next, though, was COMPLETELY different. The Jewish refugees who can to Israel were resettled by the young country, at great expense, with some social problems, but with brotherly love. The descendants of the Jews who came to Israel from Arab lands, Turkey, and Iran now account for more than half of the Jews in Israel. They have had full citizenship from the day they arrived and are an important part of the country today. The Arab refugees, on the other hand, were almost all forced to live indefinitely in refugee camps. With the exception of Jordan, their host countries refused to allow them to become citizens and limited the kinds of occupations in which they could work. For Palestinian refugees ONLY, the official UN definition was expanded to also include DESCENDANTS of refugees. These "refugees" now number about 3 million, few of whom, of course, were even BORN yet in 1948!

Why were these Palestinian refugees and their descendants treated so poorly by their Arab brothers? There are at least two reasons. First, the brotherly love was obviously not very strong, and the people in the host countries were not keen on these new-comers potentially taking their jobs. This, of course, is a common prejudice against immigrants that exists in nearly any country that has an immigrants in significant numbers. Even Israel isn't totally immune to this.

But the much more important reason for this bad treatment is that these unfortunate people are essentially pawns in the Arab world's determination to destroy the Jewish state. The Arabs' one demand that has never changed to this very day is that ALL of these "refugees" be allowed to return, not merely to somewhere in Palestine, but to their exact homes, many of which are in villages that no longer even exist. Such a return is absurd and would certainly mean the end of Israel. Also, note that no one would even CONSIDER demanding such as "right of return" for the Jews who left Muslim lands, even though their families had lived there continuously for centuries, pre-dating Islam!

So, when you hear that Palestinian "refugees" want to return to their homes in Israel, THIS is what it's really about.

The Nakba

2011-05-22T20:50:00.000-07:00

Now let's get to the Nakba itself. "Nakba" is an Arabic word meaning "catastrophe". It's used to refer to what happened to the Palestinians in 1948. Let's review some history from that time.

In November of 1947, the UN adopted a plan to partition the part of the British Palestine Mandate that had not already be given to the Kingdom of Transjordan (later called Jordan). The plan called for 2 states, one Jewish and one Arab, and included detailed recommendations for the boundaries of the two.

So, we already HAVE a UN resolution for a Palestinian state! Why doesn't one exist? The first answer is that, while the Jews accepted the partition plan, the Arabs did NOT. Instead, when the British withdrew in 1948 and the Jews announced the establishment of the State of Israel, ALL the surrounding Arab countries immediately attacked the new State the very next day. There was no mystery about what they planned to do -- they loudly and very publicly proclaimed that their goal was to kill the Jews or to push them into the sea and to completely eliminate the State of Israel. So this was very clearly a war of survival for the Jews. Not surprisingly, it was a bloody war, with many casualties on both sides. The new Jewish state lost about 1% of its entire population, more than a third of them civilians. Entire villages were destroyed or depopulated on both sides, and many people became refugees (more, MUCH more, on that issue later).

To nearly everyone's surprise, the Arabs did NOT succeed in their goal. When an armistice was finally signed in 1949, Palestine was, in fact, divided betweens Jews and Arabs, although not very close to the UN-recommended borders. This armistice line, commonly called "the Green line", is the one we have been hearing so much about recently, misleadingly referred to as "the 1967 lines".

The Jewish part of Palestine continued to be the State of Israel, of course. What happened to the proposed Arab state? Here's the 2nd reason there is no Palestinian state: all the Arab parts of Palestine were occupied by neighboring Arab states. The so-called "West Bank" was occupied by the Kingdom of Transjordan (which explains the later name-change to "Jordan" -- they were no longer only "trans-", i.e. on the other side, of the Jordan River!), and the Gaza Strip was occupied by Egypt. These occupations continued for nearly 2 decades, but NONE of the Palestinians objected to either of them during that entire time! In other words, what the Arabs wanted was NOT a Palestinian state, but the end of the JEWISH state. The "Palestine Liberation Organization", established during this period (in 1964), was NOT opposed to Jordan or Egypt. It was opposed to ISRAEL, which did not occupy one square inch of the currently proposed Palestinian state.

So, what was the Nakba, the catastrophe?

As I mentioned before, many people were displaced from their homes and became refugees. The exact numbers are HIGHLY disputed, and there are no really reliable records. The best guess is probably somewhere in the neighborhood of 400,000 to 750,000 Arabs. There are at least three main explanations for these displacements. The most easily documented reason is quite simple. Arab radio from surrounding countries that were invading told Arabs to leave temporarily so that the Arab armies would not be impeded in killing the Jews. Of course, it's hard to tell how many of the refugees actually were motivated by these broadcast, but at least SOME must have been.

The second reason, though, is probably the most important. As the Jewish forces began to have successes, the Arabs panicked. Remember that the Arab threat was not only to destroy the Jewish state but also to massacre the Jews. Remember, too, that in 1929 and on many other occasions as well, Arabs HAD, in fact, massacred Jews. There is almost NO doubt that the Arabs feared that the Jews would do to them exactly what they had promised to do to the Jews, had the war gone the other way!

The third reason for the Arab refugees is that some were definitely deliberately driven from their homes by the Jews. Although some of these evictions may have been unjustified and unnecessary, at least in retrospect, many of them were also strategically required by the conditions of the war. Remember, this war was NOT started by the Jews, and they were fighting for their very survival! This was most definitely NOT ethnic cleansing, as most of the Arabs in territory that was to become part of the State of Israel were encouraged to stay and did stay and become citizens of Israel with full civil rights, including the right to vote and to hold elected office (the Knesset has ALWAYS had some Arab members!).

In the third post of this series, I'll talk much more about the "refugee" issue.

The Hebron massacre of 1929

2011-05-22T20:31:00.000-07:00

This is the first of 3 posts I intend to write regarding the Nakba and the current push of the Palestinians for UN recognition of a Palestinian state. So, you may ask, "Why is this one about 1929?"

We actually have a 92-year-old Palestinian woman to thank for making this connection. Click here to watch a short video (about 1.5 minutes) of an interview with her (in Arabic, with English subtitles).

Notice how the interviewer keeps trying to talk to her about the Nakba (the "catastrophe") of 1948, whereas SHE keeps wanting to talk about murdering the Jews like her father did in 1929!

In 1929 there was NO Jewish state, the Jews were still a minority in this area, and the British were the colonial power in charge. Based on fabricated rumors, Arabs rioted in Hebron (and several other places, as well, including Tsfat!) and brutally murdered Jews -- men, women, and children -- in cold blood. It's also worth noting here that the Jewish communities attacked were ones that had been here for hundreds of years, long BEFORE the Arabs were. In other words, there is NO way that this could be construed as attacks on "foreigners" or "new immigrants" or "colonizers".

Did the British punish the Arabs? Well, while some WERE arrested, tried, and convicted, the major reaction was that the British caved in to the Arab demands and, in particular, severely limited the number of Jews that were allowed to immigrate here (and thereby escape the coming Holocaust in Europe).

For more information about the Hebron massacre, I suggest checking out the Wikipedia article about it and also some of the external links at the end of the article.

My new CD is out!

2011-05-14T03:16:00.001-07:00

I'm very excited to announce that my latest CD, הללו בעוגב Halelu B'Ugav ("Praise with Organ"), is now available for sale at CD Baby!

For more information about this album (and my previous ones, as well) and to hear (and even download!) one whole track for FREE, click here.

On CD Baby, you can read all about my music, you can buy my CDs, you can buy and download digital versions of all my albums, and you can even buy and download individual tracks. Click here to go directly to the page for this album, from which you can also easily go to my artist's page and to the pages for my other albums.

Yom HaZikaron in the Jordan River gorge

2011-05-09T05:12:00.000-07:00

Today is יום הזיכרון Yom HaZikaron ("Day of Memory") here in Israel. Although the name of the day is similar to Memorial Day in the U.S. in May, the day itself is VERY different here.

First, it's not actually a holiday here at all. Because it's always the day before יום העצמאות Yom HaAtzma'ut ("Independence Day"), it is an ערב חג Erev Khag ("Eve of a Holiday"), that is, the day before a holiday. Therefore, it's treated much like any Friday -- businesses are open in the morning but close by early to mid afternoon.

Second, despite businesses being open, the day is very solemn here in Israel. It starts at sunset the evening before and includes 2 long, nationwide siren blasts. The first comes in the evening at 8:00 p.m., and the second is the following morning (today) at 11:00 a.m. These are quite remarkable events. Everyone in the entire country, including all traffic on the highways, comes to a complete halt for about 2 minutes. People actually pull over to the side and get out of their cars. The reason for this great solemnity is quite simple: nearly any family that has been in Israel for some time has lost at least one person in a war or a terrorist attack. This is the one day a year when all these people are officially and publicly remembered as a whole.

David had a dental appointment today in Tel Aviv, one of the long series of procedures that he is undergoing. We have tried to schedule them all for Sundays, but sometimes it's not possible because a particular dentist that needs to work on him isn't there on Sundays (which we only found out AFTER signing up for the work and being assured it could all be done on Sundays!). So, today I had arranged weeks in advance with Berlitz to take a vacation day in order to take David to this appointment.

We started out from home this morning at about 9:00 a.m. and had gotten as far as the gas station at Kadarim (near the start of highway 65) when I got a call from the dental office saying that the dentist would NOT be in today, and, therefore, the appointment was canceled! At least I was glad that we had only been on the road for about half an hour. We're NOT pleased, though, that this probably means that I'll have to use up yet ANOTHER Berlitz vacation day to get this work done. I didn't quite pick up enough of the Hebrew to understand WHY the dentist wasn't in today, but he had better have a GOOD reason!

Anyway, suddenly we had a free, unplanned vacation day. We decided to take a dirt road that we had only been on once before. In fact, we had only been part of the way on it. It starts near כפר הנשיא Kfar HaNasi ("President's Village"), which is next to Tuba-Zangariyye, the bedouin city I wrote about recently, and heads down towards the Jordan River. It connects to another road that we had been on before.

This road (also a dirt road) goes along the Jordan River, from the highway 91 bridge over the river, to the access road to Carcom, a kibbutz in the hills above the northern end of the Kinneret ("The Sea of Galilee"). This is the stretch of the Jordan River where it flows from the Hula Valley through an increasing deep and narrow gorge to the Kinneret. This road starts in the north near the river but doesn't descend nearly as much so that, at its southern end, it's not near the river at all and it's much higher up.

The road we drove down on meets the river road when it's still not too far from the river, and, in the same area, there is another dirt road that goes right down to the river. In fact, there was once a bridge over the river there called the Kfar HaNasi Bridge. The remains of most of it are still there, but the west end is no longer connected to the bank. When the river is low, it's possible to walk across it, but no vehicle could make it. Right now, however, some of the water is flowing OVER the bridge, so it's completely impassible, and anyone trying to walk across would be swept down the river!

Here's a picture I took from the road before it got all the way down to the river:

Here's a picture from the open flat area near the west end where the bridge was once connected:

Finally, here's a picture of the cascade going over and under the bridge, as seen from a rock slightly out in the river below the bridge:

Our vehicle couldn't make it quite all the way down to the river, so I had to walk the last bit while David waited patiently in the car.

After I got back to the car, we continued south on the river road towards Carcom. The 11:00 siren sounded as we were driving along this road, so we stopped, got out of the car, and stood and waited in silence until the sirens had stopped. It seemed an appropriate place to mark this solemn moment. I should note in closing that we saw not a single other person or vehicle during our whole drive today on these dirt roads! We DID see quite a few cows (including some that had to be coaxed to move out of our way!) and a lot of beehives.

A drive in Tuba-Zangariye

2011-05-04T00:36:00.000-07:00

Yesterday, we had some time between classes, so we decided to take a short drive. Believe it or not, there's a city that we can see from our house but which we had never been to. Its a Bedouin town named Tuba-Zangariyye (actually, I think it was once 2 separate villages that have since grown together). It's located a short distance east of highway 90, the other side of the highway from Rosh Pinna. These Bedouins, although they are, of course, Muslims, have been allies of the Jews since the early days.

It's quite a lovely city with a very suburban "feel" about it. We saw a variety of people, including many children. It seems to be nicely laid out, and there are many beautiful Arab-style houses, some painted in vivid colors. Unfortunately, I didn't take any pictures. Perhaps on our next visit!

New album soon to be available!

2011-05-04T00:31:00.000-07:00

I'm excited that everything is now finished with my latest album הללו בעוגב Halelu B'Ugav ("Praise with the Organ"). I sent it off to CD Baby on Sunday. They should get it in about 1-2 weeks, and it will take them another 2-3 weeks to process it. Then it will be available for sale. You'll then be able to order a CD or buy and download either the whole album or individual tracks from them.

Here's a picture of the cover:

Finally, here's a link to my home page where you can read a little more about this album, as well as my previous albums.

Victor Halvani Park HaPsalim

2011-04-25T09:37:00.001-07:00

After returning from our trip to the Hills of Gilboa, David took a nap and I went for a walk. One of the places I visited on my walk was the Victor Halvani Sculpture Park (named for the sculptor), which is located right by the main entrance to our neighborhood, נווה אורנים Neve Oranim ("Pine Oasis"). Here are a couple of pictures I took there. In the first one, you can see the large antenna tower in our neighborhood on the right side of the picture:

In this picture, you can see the name of the park in large letters made of concrete. The name can be translated as "Victor Halvani Sculpture Park" or, more irreverently, as "Victor Halvani Park of the Idols". :-)

The Hills of Gilboa and Har Barkan

2011-04-25T08:52:00.000-07:00

Since today is the last day of פסח Pesakh ("Passover") here in Israel, it is a holiday. We decided to drive to the Hills of Gilboa. We went to הר ברקן Har Barkan ("Mt. Barkan") where some beautiful deep purple irises bloom every year. But, this year, we were too late, and they were already gone. However, there were still many other lovely flowers, and the view was great since it was quite a clear day. Here are some pictures I took there.

Here's a nice shot of some interesting purple flowers:

These flowers are quite small, but the light makes them sparkle like gold in the photo. Notice the tiny bug on one of them:

These pink flowers are quite small, and there are also a lot of them in the pasture near our house:

Here's an interesting insect just sitting on the rock in the trail:

I saw a few thistles like this one. Can you spot the 2 bugs in this picture?

These pink hollyhocks are in bloom all over the place right now!

This is the look-out tower at the top of Har Barkan:

I shot the next four photos from the top of the tower pictured above.

This is the view looking east toward the Jordan River Valley. The city on the left is Beit She'an, one of the 10 towns of the Decapolis in Roman times. The hills in the background are on the other side of the Jordan River in the Kingdom of Jordan.

This is the view looking south. Har Barkan is just north of שומרון Shomron ("Samaria"), the more accurate name for the northern part of the so-called "West Bank", the part of the Palestine Mandate that was illegally occupied by the Kingdom of Jordan from 1948 until 1967. In the foreground of this shot and on the left, you can see part of the separation barrier. If you look carefully, on the right side you can see an Arab village in Shomron, complete with 2 minarets.

This is the view looking west. In the distance in this photo, you can barely see הר כרמל Har Karmel ("Mt. Carmel"). At its right end is the upper part of the city of חיפה Haifa, right by the Mediterranean Sea.

Here's the view looking north. In the foreground is the parking lot. You can barely see the roof of our little red car at the near end. Further up in the shot, you can see the fertile Jezreel Valley. Still further back, on the left, is Har Tavor ("Mt. Tabor"). On a REALLY clear day, you might be able to see Tsfat. I think it would be a little to the right of the center. It WAS clear enough to see Har Tavor from Tsfat today.

And, finally, I just couldn't resist. Here's a nice shot of our wonderful new car, sitting right there in the parking lot!

I want to end by commenting on what these views show about Israel. The first thing that should strike you is how small it is. From this one point, you can see Jordan, much of Shomron, nearly to the Mediterranean, and nearly up to Lebanon and Syria. Or, to put it another way, you can see almost all of northern Israel and parts of several neighboring countries.

Why the sea parted?

2011-04-25T08:45:00.000-07:00

Here's an interesting sign we saw when shopping at BIG in Karmiel this week. The Hebrew words at the bottom translate to "shopping and gifts for Passover are done only at Big". And here you thought that the reason the sea parted was so that we could escape from Pharaoh and his army!

What is Freedom?

2011-04-25T07:58:00.000-07:00

Pesach is the holiday of freedom, and it lasts a whole week. So during this week, my mind has kept returning to this topic. I think now, perhaps, it's time to try to organize some of these thoughts and try to write a coherent essay on the matter.

Let's start by considering the word "freedom"; its Latin-derived synonym, "liberty"; and their related words: "free", "liberate", "liberated", "liberation", "liberal", and "libertarian". Notice the variety of connotations, feelings, and ideologies that these represent. This brings us to the first point that I'd like us to note: "freedom" and "liberty" have many complex layers of meaning and many different contexts of application.

The first, most intimate level of freedom is the personal one. Roughly, this means that an individual person is free to do what he or she likes and is not controlled by anyone or anything else.

If we think for a moment about this and its implications, it immediately bring us to what I believe is the most important thing we must consider. Freedom is NEVER absolute. Even if you were the only person in the universe, you would not be completely free. You can't travel to the moon just because you fancy doing so. If you jump off the cliff, gravity will take its course, and the collision at the bottom is likely to end all of your freedoms forever! Furthermore, you are NOT the only person, and the very existence of others means that your freedom is limited by their presence and by your need and, perhaps, desire to interact with them. Every person's freedom is limited by the freedoms of others in the environment.

Now let's start at the other end: slavery. At first thought, we think we know what this means -- one person "owns" another. This kind of slavery is quite easy to define, and it can be outlawed, as it has been essentially throughout the world (of course, outlawed things do not completely disappear just because they are illegal!). But there are other, more subtle kinds of slavery, as well. A desperately poor man may not be owned by his rich neighbor, but he may still have to do many things that he would not choose for himself, just to survive. A woman from a disadvantaged background may spend her whole life serving others in a way that is hard to distinguish from actual slavery.

Economic wealth and other kinds of social and political power certainly bring MUCH more freedom to some people than others have. A rich woman can quit a job she doesn't like a lot more readily than a poorer one. A wealthy man has many more options regarding where he lives, what he does, where and when he travels, and, in general, what his life can be like. The Hebrew word for slavery is עבדות avdut, which comes from the root that means "work". The emphasis, then, was NOT on ownership but on who had to do the work. In this sense, perhaps we could say that MOST of us are slaves in the modern world! Very few of us can actually live without having to work at all. And it's absolutely certain that the world simple could not function if NO ONE had to work!

Let's consider another type of freedom that is very important, especially in the modern Western world: political freedom. For Americans especially this usually means the freedoms and rights that are delineated in the U.S. constitution: freedom of speech, freedom of the press, freedom of religion, freedom of peaceable assembly, and so on. We tend to think of these as absolutes, but, in reality, NONE of them actually are.

Let's start with freedom of speech and its close relative, freedom of the press. The first limitation here is the proverbial one: you are NOT free to yell "FIRE!" in a crowded theater! More seriously, though, you are not free to bully and intimidate others, and you are not free to incite others to murderous actions. You are also not free to say or publish deliberate falsehoods for the purpose of ruining others' reputations. If you do, you may be sued for libel, and rightly so.

Freedom of religion can be particularly difficult in actual implementation. Let's start with an extreme example -- you are NOT free to kill your neighbor no matter how much your religion may say that you must! But there are also many more realistic and subtle limits. To what extent are you allowed to proselytize (i.e. to try to convince others to join your religion)? What are the limits on the public practice of your religion? Can you blast calls to prayer out on loudspeakers at whatever hour your religion requires? What about ringing church bells? Most of these questions have been dealt with in different ways by different countries at various times. Almost all of the answers reflect more the political and social situations than any kind of absolute notion of freedom of religion.

Even freedom of assembly can be problematic. If large numbers of people plan to gather in a given area, the issues of crowd control can become a matter of life and death. For this reason, prior coordination with some kind of authority is surely important and, of necessity, puts some limits on this basic freedom.

Finally, I'd like to talk about another kind of freedom, one that's not as familiar to Americans perhaps: group or ethnic or national freedom. The Israeli national anthem, התקווה HaTikvah ("The Hope"), speaks of our desire להיות עם חופשי בארצנו lihyot am khofshi b'artzenu ("to be a free people in our Land"). What does this mean? It's surely about more than individual and political freedoms, things which we can have, at least subject to the general limitations discussed above, in many countries in the modern world. It's something more communal, more cultural. It includes our desire to determine our own collective destiny, to avoid having to depend on others for the continuation, development, and free expression of our national identity.

Of course, this type of freedom also has its limits. Even the United States, certainly the most militarily powerful country in the world today, feels the need to cultivate allies and get some kind of international consensus, however limited, for most of its operations. How much more so is this true of tiny Israel, even though we have of necessity managed to develop a formidable military.

And so my conclusions are that freedom is never absolute but is always a continuum. It has many aspects and operates and many different levels. Perhaps this is why we have a holiday every year that focuses on this topic. May we ALL be freer next year than we are now!

20 years later, the Cold War is really over

2011-04-23T05:35:00.000-07:00

Last night was a unique experience at Emet V'Shalom, our Reform congregation in Nahariya. As you may recall, our rabbi, Israel Horovitz, is on a 6-month sabbatical. So, very lay congregants and visiting rabbis have been leading the prayers. Last night, Mark Sirontinski had volunteered to lead. As he explained at the beginning, he had led services many times in Russian, but this was his first time in Hebrew, and he was doing it in memory of his father, who was a captain in the Red Army but was killed in battle (along with many thousands of other Russians) in 1942.

Mark is a retiree from Russia and one of the very few Russians who regularly attends our synagogue regularly. His Hebrew is perhaps not even quite at the level of mine, and his English is only a little better. But we do manage to communicate.

Normally at EVS, just one person leads, but Mark wanted a khazzan (cantor) to assist him, so Norm, the chair of the ritual committee, ask me if I would help him. Of course I agreed. Mark and I communicated a bit by e-mail, and then we met 45 minutes before the start time to do our final coordination.

Mark made a few brief remarks at various times before and between the prayers, he led a few of the songs, and he did some of the readings. I led most of the songs, and we recruited the Shchorry kids, Odelia and Eyal (native Hebrew speakers), to do other readings that neither Mark nor I were prepared to attempt in public. I noticed that Mark used transliterated Hebrew (i.e. Hebrew written with Cyrillic letters -- the alphabet used for Russian and a few other languages). It was a little strange watching him read letters which I don't completely know but hearing Hebrew come out that I do know and understand!

Who of us would have thought, at the height of the Cold War, that someday an American and a Russian would stand together side by side to lead Friday night prayers in Nahariya, Israel? But, in fact, the story is even more interesting. Mark used to work for the U.S.S.R. missile program, and I used to work for the U.S. ballistic missile program!

A walk with 2 cats

2011-04-16T08:11:00.001-07:00

The weather yesterday and today here has been absolutely perfect! This afternoon, I decided to take a walk up the trail (well, really a rough dirt road) from our house. The flowers are in full bloom now, and so it's REALLY beautiful. This year, the dominant flower in this area seems to be the white daisy, but there are plenty of other kinds of flowers, as well. Every year it's a little different.

A ways up the road there is a cattle guard where the pasture begins. It's actually new within the last year or so. Before that, there was a make-shift gate which, too often, was left open, allowing the cows to wander in our neighborhood and sometimes even get lost.

Before I had gotten far at all, two of our outdoor cats, Mr. B and Priscilla, were right there with me. Mr. B often follows me if I go for a walk, but Priscilla usually doesn't. Sometimes their mother, Beatrix, follows us, too. But they ALL have their limits on how far they will go. On this walk, Mr. B stopped about half to two-thirds of the way to the cattle guard. But Priscilla continued even a little PAST the cattle guard!

Here are some pictures of the 2 cats that I snapped with my iPhone. In this first picture, you can see both of them looking at the flowers. Okay, so that's probably not REALLY what they were looking at!

Here's a good shot of Mr. B:

And here's a great one of Priscilla:

Finally, here's Priscilla navigating the cattle guard (she had already gone down between the bars to check out what was below!):

Cherry blossoms

2011-04-16T08:08:00.001-07:00

Japan and Washington, D.C., are not the ONLY places that have cherry blossoms! Here's a picture of the cherry tree in our yard blooming:

New car!

2011-04-09T05:24:00.000-07:00

We finally got it! Last Thursday, we took delivery of our brand new Fiat Panda 1.2 from the Fiat dealer in Haifa. It's actually been quite a saga.

About 4 weeks ago, we decided that it was time to trade in our old car, the 2003 Hyundai Getz GLF that we bought used in 2006, less than a year after we arrived here in Israel. The Getz was a great car for us and gave us excellent service, but it was beginning to have problems. Last Fall, the A/C quit working, and various other things were also beginning to cost us money nearly every month.

So, I did some research on the internet about the smallest and cheapest new cars sold here in Israel. We picked 6 of them and located dealers for each of these in Haifa, the nearest really large city. The 6 on our list were: the Nissan Micra, the Chevrolet Spark, the Peugeot 107, the Suzuki Alto, the Hyundai i10, and the Fiat Panda.

The first one we checked out was the Spark. Although they had one in the showroom, it's not actually going to be available until May (and, in Israel, who knows what the REALLY means!?). Besides that, they informed us that they would NOT be taking trade-ins for it. So, it was the first on our list to be ruled out.

Next, we visited the Suzuki dealer located right across the highway from Cinemall (formerly called Lev HaMifratz -- the name was changed when they added a huge, 23-plex cinema) in the Checkpost area. They didn't have an Alto in the showroom, but they managed to book us an appointment to drive one -- the following Sunday! Well, actually, we might have been able to try it only a few days later, but I'm almost always too busy with Berlitz classes to have time to get to Haifa and back Monday through Friday.

Then we went across the highway to the Hyundai dealer, which is right in front of Cinemall. They had an i10 in the showroom. We sat in it and then talked to a salesman who was very helpful, including giving us detailed pricing information and an estimate on what our old car might be worth as a trade-in. However, they were unable to schedule an appointment for us to test drive one until more than a week later! We left with his estimates and a brochure.

After that, we drove a little ways east of that area to the Peugeot/Citroen dealer. They had a Peugeot 107 in the showroom, but the saleswoman there told us that it also would not actually be available until May. Furthermore, there were several things about it that left us rather unimpressed. We immediately ruled it out, as well.

The next stop was the Fiat dealer just a short distance north on the other side of the highway. The salesman there, Avi, was also very helpful, and they, too, had a model in the showroom for us to check out. After quite lengthy discussions, he managed to find a red one (the only color they come in that we really liked) for us that was not already reserved and arrange a test drive for us the following Sunday (right after our Suzuki Alto test drive, although we didn't actually tell him about that).

The final stop of the day was the Nissan dealer, located a mile or 2 north on Highway 4, across from the oil refinery. They had a Micra (a new model only recently released) on the showroom floor, and they were the ONLY dealer that actually had one right there that we could test-drive immediately, which we did. There was one really BIG problem, though, with the Micra: it only comes with an automatic transmission, which I have always disliked. But I thought to myself, "Well, maybe automatics have improved since my last experience in one, 5 or 6 years ago. I'll check it out." Theory disproved -- it was fully as awful as ever! No chance AT ALL that we would get THAT vehicle!

During the intervening week, I did some more research on the internet about these small cars. None of them are available in the U.S., of course, but they ARE available in the U.K., so I was able to find quite a few reviews in English. However, the engines and other details are not always the same, so I also made sure to check out articles in Hebrew since they definitely refer to the vehicles actually available here in Israel. Reading in Hebrew is a bit slow for me, but I managed to slog through a few articles, and in some cases I cheated and used Google Translate to speed things up. The translations are quite rough (and even a little humorous sometimes), but I was able to get the meaning quite well. I became quite convinced that the only really viable competitors for us would be the Hyundai i10 and the Fiat Panda. But the delay in when we might be able to test-drive the Hyundai was fast eliminating it, as well.

So, the next Sunday, March 20, we headed out bright and early for Haifa to make sure we beat the rush-hour traffic. What we didn't remember, though, was that it was the actual day of Purim, when schools are not in session and many places are closed. So, the traffic was actually quite light, and we arrived long before our appointment at the Suzuki dealer. Of course, we had to wait a while, but they did manage to get the car there for us to drive some 15-20 minutes before our scheduled time. The guy who took us on the test drive was very nice. He lives in Haifa, and he and I chatted quite nicely in Hebrew. The Alto was quite an impressive car, considering that it is the very cheapest new car sold here, I think. However, the impression inside was also a little cheap, and the engine was slightly buzzy. But if it had been our only option, I probably could have lived with it without too much difficulty. It did NOT feel underpowered.

Immediately after that test-drive, we headed right up the street to the Fiat dealer to try out the Panda. Even before driving it, I was pretty sure that this would be the car we would choose. The guy who took us on that test-drive was from Tel Aviv and had brought the car up from there. When I struggled just a little with talking with him in Hebrew, he asked if I'd prefer English, and so we switched to English from there on. Like most Israelis, he was a little apologetic about his English but it actually was, as usual, FAR better than my Hebrew! Anyway, at that point we definitely decided to go for the Panda. We took our old car to a test place up the highway (actually, near the Nissan dealer) for an independent evaluation so that Fiat would be able to quote us a trade-price (but not that day!).

The Panda's list price is around 13,000 shekels HIGHER than the other cars in this competition, but Fiat and המשביר לצרכן HaMashbir LTzarkhan ("The Consumer Supplier" -- the largest and probably oldest department store chain in Israel) had a deal going where members of Club365, the store's membership club, would receive a discount of, you guessed it, 13,000 shekels off the price of the Panda. We were already members of the club, but it would have cost only 100 shekels to join, so it's really more of a marketing gimick than anything. The important thing is that it makes the Panda truly competitive with the other vehicles, all of which are newer on the market.

In the States, that would have been just about the end of the story, and we probably would have driven home with the nice red Panda that we had just taken the test-drive in. The financing would have been done on the spot at the dealer, and they would have done all the registration right there, too. But this is NOT the States -- this is Israel!

Our loan had already been approved, but the following Sunday, March 27, we had to go to Karmiel, to Bank Mizrahi/Tefachot, to sign the loan papers. The bank sent the money the following day, and we paid our down payment (over the phone, by credit card). Avi then assured me that we would have the car -- in less than 2 weeks! TWO WEEKS!!! Ouch! Anyway, we realized that this is just how things work here. That's how long it takes the bureaucrats to issue the new registration! When I was obviously not too pleased with this time-line, Avi promised to do everything he could to shorten it. In fact, the process only took nine days, although we weren't able to find time in my schedule to turn in our old car and pick up the new one until one day later.

So, here's how the exchange went. We drove our old car to Auto-Deal, a used-car dealer on the other side of Haifa. They did some paperwork there and took possession of it. Then they hired a taxi to take us to the Fiat dealer (on THIS side of Haifa) to get our new car. To my delight, the taxi took us through the new tunnels, our first time in the southern one! When we arrived at the Fiat dealer, Avi was waiting for us, and we were off in our shiny new red Fiat Panda 1.2 in an amazingly short amount of time! It had only 2 kilometers on the odometer when we got it!

Although Fiat is, of course, an Italian car manufacturer, the Panda is actually built in Poland! Of the other cars on our list, three are made in India (the Alto, the i10, and the Spark), and the Peugeot 107 is built it the Czech Republic. I'm actually not sure where the Micra is made.

The new car is really wonderful! I had some concern going into this about several things. But my biggest worry was that the cars would be underpowered and might not handle very well. Of course, they're NOT sports cars, but I can assure you that the power and handling of the Panda is VERY nice. It's quite well-equipped, too, with a trip computer, ABS, airbags, power front windows, A/C (of course -- this is hot Israel!), and a CD player. Having driven it now for a couple of days, David and I are both very pleased with it.

Yesterday morning, I took some pictures of the new car sitting in our driveway. Here are a couple of them. Enjoy!

Tel Anafa

2011-03-26T03:31:00.001-07:00

It's still a little chilly out today, but the rain that we had during the week has gone, and the sunshine is very welcome. We decided to take a drive in the Hula Valley. We went up the east side, part of the way back across the valley, up past Kfar Blum, and then back again to the east side, proceeding northwards from there. On the left side of the road, I noticed a small hill. As we passed it, I saw that there was a small parking area and a sign that read "Tel Anafa". Although we had driven past this spot quite a few times before I had never noticed this hill. We decided to stop and check it out.

The trail leads across a small bridge and them up the hill through lots of lush greenery. Here are some pictures that I snapped with my iPhone. First, an interesting flower that I don't recall seeing before:

Here's a whole group of them:

Finally, here's a view from there looking west-northwest towards the cliffs of Menara. Kiryat Shmona is just out of sight on the right side of this picture:

Highway construction in Haifa

2011-03-26T02:59:00.000-07:00

Over the last few years, they have been gradually improving the highway system in and around Haifa. I'll talk here about a few of the projects that I am aware of.

First, there's highway 22. It was already partly in place by the time we arrived here. It's a freeway (no traffic signals or cross traffic) that starts just east of downtown Haifa, where it branches off from highway 4 and immediately crosses the railroad. It wasn't very useful at the beginning, but within the last year or so they have added a bridge across a river and back across the railroad so that one can get almost all the way to the Vulcan Junction, north of the oil refinery. It's still not so useful for us generally, but it will become much more so when it is extended past the Vulcan Junction and around the Krayot, after which it will join highway 4 just south of Akko. Construction has already started on this part, although it has a long way to go.

Another recent project was a bridge for the southbound lanes on highway 4 just south of Lev HaMifratz, in the Checkpost area. A longer bridge for the northbound lanes was already in place when we came here on our pilot trip in December of 2004.

Another exciting project recently completed is the Carmel tunnels. One has to pay a toll to use these, but it makes it MUCH easier for northbound and southbound traffic to get through the Haifa area. Instead of going all the way around the tip of Har Karmel (which juts out into the sea) and right through the middle of downtown Haifa, one can now simply go right UNDER the mountain (well, actually more like a big hill). It actually consists of 4 tunnels, 2 in each direction, with an exit and entrance between them for access to several of the upper parts of Haifa. This exit is almost right next to the Grand Canyon mall (an interlinguistic play on words -- the word for "mall" or "shopping center" in Hebrew is קניון kanyon!). We've only checked out one of these tunnels so far, the northern one in the northbound direction, so I don't know exactly what the southern connection is.

A very dramatic construction is underway right now in the לב המפרצ Lev HaMifratz ("Hear of the Gulf") area. This is at a very busy junction, where highway 75 ends at highway 4. On the other side of highway 4 is one of the 2 central bus stations of Haifa (מרכזית המפרצ Merkazit HaMifratz "The Gulf Center") and the Cinemall, formerly called Lev HaMifratz (before they expanded it with 23 theaters!), which is also a train station. They are building 2 long bridges, one for each direction of traffic, to fly right over this junction (and even over part of the bus station itself!). This will connect highway 75 (also a freeway west of the Yagur Junction) to highway 22, the one I talked about first. This will be very helpful to us in getting more quickly to downtown Haifa and, most importantly, to Rambam Medical Center. Here's a picture I shot last Sunday of the bridge, which is literally being built right over this busy intersection! The cars in the foreground are stopped at the current end of highway 75, waiting at the traffic signal for their turn to go onto highway 4:

Holidays in Israel

2011-03-19T05:14:00.000-07:00

The holidays here in Israel are different.

First of all, the big U.S. holidays are not celebrated here at all. No New Year's Day (at least not on January 1), no MLK Day, no Presidents' Day, no Memorial Day (well, at least not the American one), no 4th of July, no Labor Day, no Thanksgiving, and no Christmas (well, at least VERY, VERY little). This is no surprise, really.

However, even the Jewish holidays here are different. Yes, they're the same holidays on the same days (except for no 2nd-day holidays other than Rosh HaShana). But the "feel" of virtually ALL of them is quite different. We experienced a good sample of that today.

We drove down to Rosh Pinna for the Saturday morning children's movie this morning. It happens about one or two Saturdays a month. The movie today was Tangle, a Disney re-telling of the story of Rapunzel (which was, by the way, was shown in English with Hebrew subtitles and was excellent!). As we were taking our seats, two little boys (maybe 5 or 6 years old or so) came in a couple of rows ahead of us, one of them distinctly singing:

אחת-אשרי אני יודע akhat-esrei ani yodeia ("eleven I know")

As all Jews around the world know, this is a tiny snippet from a popular song from the Pesach (Passover) seder. But, remember, this was SHABBAT morning, at a movie. These kids are DEFINITELY NOT religious! Besides that, Pesach is still a whole MONTH away!

After the movie, we went to eat at Greg Café in Rosh Pinna. Again, Shabbat, no religious people, not even a kosher restaurant (because, if it were, it couldn't be open at all on Shabbat). Yet ALL of the waiters and waitresses were in costume for Purim (which is actually TOMORROW)! Here's a pictures of two them:

In fact, Purim is a really BIG holiday here, even though it's mostly for the kids. We begin seeing people in costumes as much as a week or more BEFORE Purim. Our local supermarket has been selling hamentaschen (or אוזני המן oznei haman "Haman's Ears") since about Hannukah!

Of course, there are many other differences, too, but I'll save writing about them for some other time.

Shkediot in town

2011-03-07T02:16:00.000-08:00

The rain STILL hasn't come, and I had a 2-hour gap between lessons, so I took the opportunity to drive into town. First, we went to the market to make sure we won't have to go out during the rain that is expected over the next few days (and maybe even SNOW on Thursday!). On the way back from the market, I grabbed some pictures of the beautiful blooming שקדיות shkediot (almond trees) along the way.

This first picture is a view of the hillside above the Sonol gas station near the main entrance to town:

From there, I crossed the street and pointed my camera towards town. The Old City of Tsfat is on the other side of the hill at the extreme right of this picture:

A little further up the road towards home, I captured this lovely sunlit tree:

Here's a close-up view of some of the blossoms of another tree in that same area:

These are all cropped but NOT zoomed pictures taken with my iPhone 3G. Enjoy!

An early morning walk

2011-03-06T21:45:00.000-08:00

This morning, I was up early. I had finished checking my e-mail and everything else for the morning, so I decided to go for a walk. Although we are expecting rain today, it was still sunny out.

I headed up the trail north of our house and crossed the cattle guard into the pasture. Many cattle were out grazing. Here's a picture of the first one I encountered:

Further up the trail, I saw this cow and these two calves. Yes, there ARE two calves; look carefully, and you'll see that one the same color is nursing right under his/her mother. And isn't the calf on the right really cute?

Here's a black horse that was out grazing but not in the pasture. He was actually tethered by a chain.

When I got back home, I took this picture of our very own שקדיה shkedia (almond tree). There are also LOTS of wild almond trees near here (although none along the route I walked), and they are all in full, GORGEOUS bloom now. It's really quite spectacular, with whole hillsides and valleys covered with them!
One final note: all of these pictures were taken with my iPhone, which has no zoom. I did crop them, however.

Another trip to the Golan

2011-03-05T09:45:00.000-08:00

Today was a beautiful warm sunny day, so we decided to take another trip to one of our favorite area -- The Golan.

We started by driving down and across the Hula Valley, crossing the Jordan River, driving up to the Golan on the other side, continuing through Katzrin, and following the Road of the Falls.

Spring is in full swing here, especially in the Golan. There are gorgeous wild flowers everywhere! We stopped at the first parking lot, and walked a short distance to Ayit Falls. I began taking pictures of the lovely flowers. Here's a slightly cropped version of the second picture I took. It wasn't until I got home, loaded the pictures into my computer, and looked at them that I noticed the lizard you see in the upper right!

Here's a close-up view of another nice flower. There were LOTS of these there all over the place:

Here's a view of the falls itself. It was in the shade but all around it was sun. My camera adjusted for the shade so that everything else around is a little washed out. But it gives us a great view of the falls:

Here's an interesting white-on-green flower:

I have seen lots of these flowers every year. It wasn't until I looked in my iPhone app guide to the flowers of Israel today that I learned that it is called a "Great stork's bill":

This is the view from right next to our car in the parking lot there (you can see a little of it in the lower right) looking directly back towards the mountain we live on!

This is a zoomed view of a reservoir in Syria that has just been built within the last couple of years. You can see that there's a town on the far side and also on this side, including a minaret at the extreme right of the picture:

This is another zoomed view towards Syria. In the foreground, you can see the ruins of the city of Kuneitra. This was a major Syrian base before the Yom Kippur War (1973), and that's how it got destroyed. As part of the cease-fire agreement, Israel returned it to Syria and Syria promised to rebuild it. As you can clearly see, they did NOT keep their promise. Instead, the re-built the city of Kuneitra some distance to the east, as you can also see in the background of this picture. It's important to keep this picture in mind when you hear talk about Israel giving back the Golan to Syria in exchange for a "promise" of peace.

Before leaving the Golan, we drove north to the Druze city of Mas'ade and ate a delicious lunch at מסעדת השלום Misadat HaShalom ("The Peace Restaurant"). Note that, although the Druze speak Arabic, the name of the restaurant was ONLY shown in Hebrew, as are MOST of the signs there.

We drove down the road from the Golan that ends up next to Gonen. From there, we could choose to drive a little distance north and then across the Hula Valley and south on Highway 90, the nice, 4-lane road on the west side of the valley; or we could choose to drive south on the small road on the east side of the valley. At the last minute, I decided to take the latter, and, boy, was I glad I had! On a few kilometers down the road, we came to whole fields of fabulous blue lupens! I pulled over where the shoulder was wide enough and walked back a short distance to take pictures. Here's the general view looking north:

Here's a close-up, zoomed view of a single lupen with sky in the background:

Here are two pictures of two different bees doing their work on two different lupens:

After this, we returned home. We must be sure to make as many more trips to the Golan and other places in northern Israel as we can over the next month or two. The flowers are really great this Spring!

Adventures in Public Transportation

2011-02-07T09:46:00.000-08:00

David is having a lot of dental work done in Tel Aviv (the only place that will do it for him because of his various medical issues). So, we've been trying to save wear and tear on our car and go there by public transportation. Usually, they can do the necessary work on Sundays (when I don't teach), but this week we had to go on both Sunday and Monday (so I took a Berlitz vacation day).

The most comfortable way to get to Tel Aviv on public transportation is to take the bus from Tsfat to Akko, take the train from Akko to Tel Aviv, and take a local bus out to the dental clinic (at the Asuta Hospital in the Atidim area of Tel Aviv). In fact, we're actually cheating just a little, since we drive our car into town in Tsfat and park near the Central Bus Station rather than riding the local bus in.

The train ride between Haifa and Tel Aviv is really very beautiful. Most of the way, the train passes through idyllic farm country, with green fields (thanks to the recent rains) and pleasant fruit orchards and even banana groves. In several places there are soaring eucalyptus trees near the tracks. In Herzliya, there are some lovely large houses (called "villas" here in Israel) not far away.

Here are a few vignettes from the 2 trips this week.

Yesterday as pulled out of Karmiel on our way down, I happened to notice a sign on the back of the Egged bus that was right in front of ours. It read ואהבת לנהגך כמוך. I immediately caught the Torah reference. The line translates to "And thou shalt love thy driver as thyself." I deliberately used the King James English here to give you a little flavor of how this must sound to Israeli ears.

On our return trip yesterday, when we arrived at the train station and saw a northbound train that was going to Binyamina. I said, "Let's get on this train. We can get off at Binyamina and then catch the next northbound train from there." It was only AFTER we were well underway that I remembered that many of the express trains do not STOP at Binyamina. While we were pondering this, I heard some announcement about getting off at Beit Y'hoshua to catch a train to points further north. However, I must have misunderstood the announcement, because, after watching 2 or 3 northbound trains blow through the station, I checked the schedule and it looked like there might be no more trains from there to Akko that day! We went under the tracks (in the pedestrian tunnel) to catch a southbound train back to Tel Aviv, but then we heard at announcement that the next northbound train would go to Binyamina from where we could catch a train further north. This announcement was very clear, so we rushed back through the tunnel to the other side and managed to get on the train in time. Sure enough, when we got to Binyamina and got off that train, the next train arrived almost immediately, and we continued our journey back to Akko. All in all, my mistake probably got us home 30-60 minutes later than we would have if we had just waited for the next express train in Tel Aviv. The one good thing is that I'm getting pretty good at catching train announcements in Hebrew!

Today (Monday) was a rainy day. Just after we got off the train at the University Station in Tel Aviv, there was a flash of lightning and a clap of thunder and it began to rain. When we emerged from the tunnel linking the train station, which is in the middle of the Ayalon Freeway, to the east side, we had to put up our umbrellas for the walk to the bus stop, which has a roof. Just as we got there, a motor scooter pulled up and parked, and the rider came in under the roof, as well. A few seconds later, a second motor scooter rider also joined us under the bus stop roof. At this point a fairly friendly argument ensued between one of the other people waiting for a us and one of the scooter guys. I really didn't get much of the topic except to hear some mention about fuel and, I think, fuel prices. I did have to chuckle to myself when I heard the obviously secular rider (no kipah) say כתוב בתורה ("It's written in the Torah ...")!

Today, we had learned well from our experiences yesterday, and so we caught the express train with no problem and had an uneventful ride to Akko, and from there home by bus. Although we arrived back home rather tired, we felt good that we had managed well today. Public transportation is not so bad!

The Doric String Quartet at Kibbutz Ein HaShofet

2011-01-29T07:50:00.000-08:00

Every other Shabbat morning, there is a concert of classical chamber music at Kibbutz Ein HaShofet. Our friend Ruth had been telling us about these, but we had never quite put together plans to get there until today. We arranged to meet Ruth at the Akhihud Junction so we could follow her from there, since we didn't know where it was.

The performers today were the Doric String Quartet, from London, England. The concert consisted entirely of string quartets by Robert Schumann. Unfortunately, he only wrote three of them, but we got to hear all of them this morning, performed by one of the best string quartets in the world! It was glorious!

The auditorium at Ein HaShofet is a nice, not-too-large amphitheater with acoustics that are just right for chamber music. As Ruth had warned us, the place was packed. Virtually every seat was already filled when we got there about 15 minutes before it started. However, they had also placed chairs on the stage on either side of the performers, and they were still available. What fabulous seats! I was sitting right behind the violist and a little to the left, David was on my left, and Ruth on my right.

Their playing was absolutely wonderful! Not only did they make no mistakes, they made it look easy (which I'm SURE it wasn't!). Much more importantly, however, was the way they played so musically together. It was as though they were one person, and an exceedingly musical one, at that. Every phrase, every nuance, was spot on. If you EVER get a chance to hear these guys play, do NOT miss it!

Here's a link to their website.

Visiting another synagogue in Haifa

2011-01-22T07:23:00.001-08:00

As I mentioned in a previous post, I also received information about the other Reform synagogue in Haifa, אהל אברהם Ohel Avraham ("Abraham's Tent"). So, last night we decided to visit it. We got there WAY early and simply sat in the sanctuary waiting for more people to show up. Sure enough, they did, and the prayers got underway within 15-20 minutes of the scheduled starting time (5:30 p.m.).

This congregation seems very Israeli. I think I only heard people talking among themselves in Hebrew, unlike any other Reform or Conservative congregation we've attended here. Usually, ones hears quite a bit of English, and maybe a little Spanish or Russian. I rather like hearing only Hebrew conversations around us, since it made it a truly Israeli experience. At the kiddush afterwards, the main leader, who I assume was the rabbi, came up and greeted us. He asked us where we were from, and it turns out that HE is originally from Khatzor HaGlilit, the town just below us next to Rosh Pinna. He was a very nice guy with a big smile, and I managed to carry on the whole conversation in Hebrew.

The prayers themselves were also very enjoyable. There was a guy who played the guitar very well, unobtrusively but supportively. It was a great spiritual experience. Many of the melodies were familiar to us even though we don't use them at Emet V'Shalom, our home congregation in Nahariya, but there were also a few new ones. All in all, we were very happy that we had gone.

Another trip to Agamon Hula

2011-01-22T06:59:00.000-08:00

Today was a beautiful, sunny day here in Israel even though the temperatures are a little low. So we decided to take another trip to Agamon Hula, one of the nature preserves for migrating birds in the Hula Valley. We did the usual and rented a golf cart to make the tour around the lake. Here are a few of the pictures I took.

First, a picture of David on a little bridge. Just to the right of him, you can see the golf cart that we rented. A little further to the right, by the tops of the trees, you can see the snow-capped Har Khermon (Mt. Hermon, the highest point in Israel):

Of course, the main attraction of Agamon Hula is the birds. Here's a nice flock of them:

Here's a group of them in flight. It's hard to get these pictures of moving objects on my camera. Basically, I have to point in the general direction, shoot, and see what I get. Of course, ALL of the pictures I'm posting (except the one of David, above) are cropped somewhat. This one and the next are SERIOUSLY cropped:

Here's a lucky shot of a single large bird in flight:

The birds, however, are not the only animals there. This large rodent (about the size of a cat), sometimes called a coypu and sometimes called a nutria, is native to South America. It was introduced to Israel by farmers hoping to create a fur business, but, alas, in the warm climate it didn't produce the nice fur that it had in its native lands. So, the farmers released them into the wild, and they have become an invasive species. There are LOTS of them at Agamon Hula, and they are rather cute, I think:

A busy week

2011-01-15T21:22:00.001-08:00

Last week was a very busy week.

On Sunday, we left home before sunrise in order to get to an appointment for David at Rambam Medical Center in Haifa at 9:15. The appointment was with an ophthalmologist. After that, we headed down to Tel Aviv, where David had an appointment at 1:00 with the dentist. After returning home to Tsfat, I did my weekly shopping at ShuferSal, our favorite supermarket in town.

Monday through Friday, it was one of the busiest weeks I've had in a long time with Berlitz. Lessons are measured in units, each of which is 40 minutes with a 5-minute break. Last week, I talked a total of 39 units, which is nearly 30 hours of actual teaching.

The variety of countries represented is also quite interesting. For example, on Tuesday I taught a student in Slovenia (formerly part of Yugoslavia -- she lives only a few hundred meters from Austria!) in the morning. In the afternoon, I taught a student in Norway. Then, in the evening, I had a student in France, followed by a class with 2 students, one in Germany and the other in Spain. I ended the evening teaching another French student.

Another interesting example is Friday. I only had 3 students, but all of them currently live in different countries from where they were born. The first was a Vietnamese woman who now lives in France. The second was a Czech student who now lives in Slovakia (well, actually the two countries were no doubt one, Czechoslovakia, when she was born!). The third student was a Belgian guy (from the French-speaking part of Belgium) who now lives in Luxembourg.

Besides all of this work, I also spent some time the past week preparing for the end of the current term at my other job, University of the People, and I wrote some Hebrew lyrics for a song that a good friend of mine is planning to record in the States.

So, it was a busy week but quite productive, I think. The coming week will also be busy, at least at Berlitz.

Visiting a synagogue in Haifa

2010-12-27T06:21:00.000-08:00

Our rabbi at Emet V'Shalom, our Reform congregation in Nahariya, is on sabbatical for 6 months. Normally, we are still attending there, of course, and, in fact, I often participate in leading. But this past Friday night, we decided to check out one of the 2 Reform synagogues in Haifa. On Friday morning, I wrote to both of them. Of course, I should have written a day or two earlier. Anyway, one of them, אור חדש Or Chadash ("New Light"), managed to write back to me the same day, and so that's where we went. We'll check the other one out another time, since they, too, have now answered my e-mail to them.

Or Chadash has a beautiful building with a spectacular view of Haifa Bay, and they sponsor many activities going on all the time. It's not the sort of place that appeals that much to us, but we still enjoyed our visit. Groups of people from 2 different congregations in the States were visiting there that evening, together with their respective rabbis. Both visiting rabbis spoke, partly in Hebrew but mostly in English. One of them was quite fluent in Hebrew and had relatively little American accent. The other had a really bad American accent! At any rate, I was pleased to find that I understood virtually ALL the Hebrew, from the American rabbis AND from the rabbi of the congregation.

The most moving part of the evening for both of us was the welcoming of a couple of new converts to Judaism. They live in Katzrin, the city in the Golan that we can see from our house. They were a middle-aged to older couple, and by their names we could tell that they were Russian. They had traveled for something like a year, every week, all the way to Haifa (a drive of at LEAST an hour and a half to two hours!) to study at Or Chadash for their conversion. According to the rabbi, a full 2% of all people converting in Israel study at Or Chadash! However, they all have to appear before and be approved by an orthodox Beit Din (religious court). After introducing them and reading the official proclamation, the rabbis led us in welcoming them by saying 3 times:

את אחותינו at akhoteinu ("You are our sister.")

אתה שחינו ata akhinu ("You are our brother.")

What a wonderful way to welcome new Jews! Both David and I were moved to tears.

A visit to Khamat Gader

2010-11-13T07:09:00.000-08:00

Today, David and I visited חמת גדר Khamat Gader for the first time. It's located in the Yarmukh River Valley (the Yarmukh River flows into the Jordan River not far south of the Kinneret) right on the border with Jordan (the country, not the river!) at the southern end of the Golan. There are mineral hot springs there, so there are big pools of warm water (upper 86˚-88˚ F). There is also a small zoo with lots of many different kinds of תנינים taninim (alligators, crocodiles, Caymans, and other similar large reptiles).

We enjoyed soaking in the pools and seeing the animals. The air temperature was just perfect down there (150 meters below sea level). Of course, there were lots of people, but it wasn't too crowded to enjoy. We plan to go back again sometime during the winter, hopefully on a weekday (Sunday through Thursday) instead of on the weekend.

New street signs (and names!) in Neve Oranim

2010-10-23T07:13:00.000-07:00

Within the last few weeks, street signs have finally been put up in our neighborhood, Neve Oranim. Before this, there really was no way to tell what the names of the streets were, and, in fact, I think they really didn't even HAVE names! So, yesterday I went around taking pictures of the signs, and here they are (only one for each street):

Next, I went to Google Maps and downloaded a satellite/map image of the neighborhood. To this image, I added the names of the streets in red letters inside a red box. I'm sorry that it's a little hard to read. Our house, which is too new to be visible in the satellite picture, is just inside the loop north west of the intersection of Yahalom St. and Leshem St.
By the way, they picked a nice system for the street names. The name of the connector road, רחוב דרך אבני החושן Rekhov Derekh Avnei HaKhoshen ("Way of the Breastplate Stones Street"), is the clue. All of the other streets are named after precious stones that were in the breastplate of the high priest, as detailed in the Torah.

אודם Odem, as you might guess from its Hebrew root, means "ruby".

ברקת Bareket means "agate".

נופך Nofekh means "turquoise" or "garnet".

ספיר Sapir means "sapphire" (as you might guess from its transliteration).

יהלום Yahalom means "diamond" (so OUR street is the MOST precious!).

לשם Leshem means "opal".

David is home!

2010-10-20T07:16:00.001-07:00

Although they had planned to send David to a rehab hospital, after further evaluation, Maccabi (our kupat cholim, or HMO) decided to release him to come home and to send nurses, physical therapists, occupational therapists, and perhaps others to our house. So, David came home with me yesterday (Tuesday)! He was a little unsteady on his feet yesterday, but today he's much improved. He can walk fairly well on his own now, although I still help him go up and down stairs.

Thanks for all of you for your thoughts and prayers!

David much improved

2010-10-17T10:51:00.000-07:00

I am so happy to report that David has improved markedly. Today, he was able to walk by himself with someone (i.e. me or the physical therapist) just hovering next to him. This is a dramatic improvement from barely being able to lift his legs while lying down a couple of weeks ago.

Tomorrow, he is scheduled to be transferred to a rehab hospital (Fliman Hospital) in the Nave Shaanan area of Haifa. I suspect that he actually won't be there very long because he'll be ready to be sent home. But whatever time he does spend there will be very helpful for getting him really back on track and healthy again.

So, you may be asking, what caused all these problems? We asked the chief neurologist on the ward about that today, and she said that they have concluded that it was a reaction to, of all things, his anti-epilepsy medicine! At one point, they had been concerned about an irregularity that his MRI showed, but now they think that it was a result of the seizures rather than their cause. He is to have another MRI to be scheduled 6 weeks after the first, and they expect that the abnormality will have disappeared by then.

David and I are now both feeling much relief, and we want to thank all of you for keeping us in your thoughts and prayers.

Pictures from around Rambam Medical Center

2010-10-04T23:45:00.000-07:00

Here are some more pictures that I took on my walks around Rambam Medical Center (in Haifa). The first one is a nice view of the area just outside the neurology department where David is hospitalized. The sliding glass doors on the right of the picture lead directly into the ward. The path of the left side of the picture is part of the ramp between the corridor along the "pavilions" (David's building is one of them) and the main building, which is out of sight to the left.

If you go up the ramp and enter the main building, you are immediately in a little mall. The following picture is a view inside that mall. On the right side, you can see an ice cream stand, which has yummy ice cream! Further to the right, out of the picture, is a food court, including a MacDonald's, a pizza place, and a couple of other fast food joints. On the left side of the picture, you can see a lottery sales stand and, further back, a branch of צומת ספרים Tzomet Sfarim ("Book Junction"), one of the two major bookstore chains here in Israel. Further to the left, out of this picture are a candy store, a pharmacy, and a gift store.
I actually took this next picture a day or two earlier. This is a view of the big hole they are digging there. It will house an underground parking structure, above which will be 3 new large buildings. The hoses that you see coming out of the vertical pipes are carrying the ground water that is being pumped out to the sea. See my previous post for pictures of it entering the sea. The tiny size of the workers in this picture can give you a sense of the scale of this hole!
Here's another picture of the big hole, taken from the main entrance to Rambam. This is also the road that they use to get down into the hole. In this view, you can see the two large cranes that are working there. Also, on the left is the tower that houses the Technion Medical School. The tall building on the right is the Sammy Ofer tower, the current main building of Rambam. The mall seen earlier is on the ground floor of this building but actually the other side of the tall part. The building a little to the left of the main building in this picture is the Rambam Children's Hospital.

By the sea near David's room

2010-10-02T00:05:00.000-07:00

The unit where David is at Rambam is on the ground floor of a small building. If you walk out the main entrance, turn right, and then turn right again, you can follow a path between the buildings, past the window to David's room, and on to a small parking lot. The other side of the parking lot is the Mediterranean Sea.

The other day, when I was there, I saw this crow. At first, he was sitting on a fire hydrant, but then he flew over and perched on this sign:

At the time, I just snapped the picture without bothering to read the sign. But later I returned I read it. Here's my translation of what it says:

"This water flowing into the sea is only pumped ground water necessary for the construction of an underground parking structure for the Rambam hospital. This pumping and piping is being carried out with permission from the Office for the Protection of the Environment and in coordination with the City of Haifa.

For details, telephone 8542417."

Actually, I had already figure out where the water was coming from by following the pipes back. Already for quite a few months now there has been a HUGE deep whole right near the main entrance to the Rambam Medical Center complex. Not only are they building an underground parking structure, but on top of it will be three new large buildings. There's a model just inside the current main building showing how the campus will look when the construction is done. It seems like it will be very nice, and the parking situation should be much better, too. I also noticed that the whole row of small buildings where David is now will be gone.

Here's another picture (actually taken the next day) showing the fountain of water. In the background, you can see small sailboats, large container ships, and, on the horizon, Rosh HaNikra, which is the Lebanon border!

David settled well into the hospital

2010-09-29T11:01:00.000-07:00

Today (Wednesday, 29 September) I spent the whole day at the hospital with David. I left home at 7:00 a.m. and didn't get back until after 7:30 p.m. David is doing quite well and feels better and much more rested. He isn't having any more seizures, but his hands are still pretty unsteady and his cognitive processes are still a bit messed up. I got him some candies and a couple of bottles of Coke Zero before all the stores in the hospital mini-mall closed for the holiday (last day of Succot and Simchat Torah).

Tomorrow, I'm planning to attend the morning prayers at Emet V'Shalom (our Reform synagogue in Nahariya) and then to pop on down to Haifa to spend the rest of the day with David.

Thanks to all of you for your prayers and good wishes!

David hospitalized after series of seizures

2010-09-28T10:14:00.000-07:00

Yesterday (Monday, 27 September), David had multiple seizures during the day, so we took him to the Emergency Room at Rambam Medical Center in Haifa. After all night and all morning this morning in the ER, they finally admitted him to the Neurology unit at about 1 p.m. The seizures are apparently due to dangerously low levels of sodium (of all things!) in his blood. But the real question is WHY the sodium levels (which have been detected before and resulted in his last admission to Rambam) are so low.

I'll try to post more news as I have it. Thanks for keeping him and me in your thoughts and prayers!

- Arlan

Gamla National Park, in a wheelchair

2010-09-25T08:58:00.000-07:00

We got up fairly early today, and David was feeling relatively good. So we decided to drive over to Gamla National Park, in the Golan, a place we have visited several times before.

The weather was not too hot in the morning, and they have a nice paved loop path there. So it was pretty easy to do with me pushing David in the wheelchair.

We spent quite a bit of time in the covered area they have there for observing the vultures, and we listened to a park ranger telling about them. Although he did speak a little English, and some other people who happened to be there translated a bit for us, he spoke mostly in Hebrew. I picked up maybe 15-20% of what he said, but it was still interesting.

The vultures have a wingspan of more than 2 and a half meters, yet they weigh only 8 kg (less than 18 pounds). They can soar very high on the updrafts and travel long distances, as far away as Turkey, Bulgaria, and even Russia! They can carry as much as 1.5 kg (more than 3 pounds) of food in their throats back to their babies in the nest! The babies grow from only 20 g (less than a pound) at hatching to full size in only 4 months!

I didn't get any pictures of the vultures this time, but I did photograph some strange and interesting flowers that were blooming there all over the place. Here's one of my pictures:

David's recent and continuing problems

2010-09-25T08:52:00.000-07:00

I know that this is a terrible time to post an entry like this. Succot is supposed to be זמן שמחתנו zman simkhatenu, the time of our joy, and we are told והיית אח שמח v'hayita akh sameakh, "and you will be especially happy". But life doesn't always follow the neatly laid out seasons, and so here we are.

I don't want to bore you, and, more importantly, I really don't want to dwell on negative things. So I'll try to be brief (not my forte, as you all know!) and to give you only the highlights.

Already by last winter, we had realized that David was having some kind of cognitive difficulties. We feared that it might be early Alzheimer's, since his father had had it, starting at about his age. So, we arranged an appointment (at our own expense, since it wasn't covered) at the Cognitive Clinic at Rambam Medical Center in Haifa last February. The appointment took several hours, during which time an expert neurologist specializing in this area interviewed us together and did extensive cognitive tests on David alone. The conclusion was that he did, indeed, have some abnormal cognitive problems but that it is NOT Alzheimer's. She also said that he should have an MRI, but, of course, that has to be ordered by a Maccabi (our HMO) neurologist and approved by Maccabi, since it's very expensive. So it was not initially approved.

Meanwhile, David began having epileptic seizures, although they happened when no one was present in the room to view precisely what happened. Nevertheless, he had several falls, and he also began having "drop outs", short times when it is like the electrical system dropping out for just a fraction of a second. These, too, however can cause falls if he is standing. Besides this, his balance began deteriorating and he became quite unstable walking. He began using an old cane of my Mom's and eventually we got a better one for him, although it's currently only on loan.

In the week before Yom Kippur (which was on 18 September this year), we realized that we would need a wheelchair for that day. Virtually no one in Israel drives on Yom Kippur, so we had arranged to spend the night with friends who live in Nahariya. However, there was clearly NO WAY that David would be able to walk between their apartment and the synagogue. So, we went to a medical equipment store in Kiryat Shmona and purchased a wheelchair, figuring that he would need it for other occasions as well.

Last Monday night (or, really, very early Tuesday morning), David got up in the night to go to the bathroom, which is quite normal for him, even though he had fallen several times in the past when doing this. This time, he fell as he was turning around to sit on the toilet and hurt his ankle. We thought that it was broken, but when we had it x-rayed we found that, thankfully, it was not, only sprained. Nevertheless, he has not been able to walk on it and thus has become wheelchair-bound, making us very thankful for that purchase! The ankle has definitely begun healing, but he still can only take a step or two on his left foot. We set up a roll-away bed for him in the living room so that he doesn't have to get up the 17 steps to our upstairs bedroom (or even the 5 steps to the closest bedroom). This has worked well for him. We also hit upon the idea of using old empty coffee cans for him to pee in instead of having to risk getting to the bathroom during the night (which we should have thought of long ago!).

So, you are probably asking by now, "What is causing these problems?" Unfortunately, we don't have any answers yet. The local Maccabi neurologist, who is very good, sent him to the Epilepsy Clinic at Rambam, where he was seen by an expert there. She also said that he should have both an MRI (magnetic resonance imaging) and an EEG (electro-encephalogram). This time, when the local neurologist ordered these, Maccabi approved both of them. We still have to schedule the EEG (which should be fairly easy), and the MRI is already scheduled for 4 October (after the holidays, of course!). Thus, we are simply waiting and wondering what they will find, which isn't particularly easy.

The balance problem and the cognitive difficulties have both continued to slowly deteriorate. The latter tends to be somewhat sporadic, so often David's thinking is perfectly normal. But then, suddenly, he will forget what he is saying in mid-sentence, or he will become very confused about something that happened very recently or about what day it is. It's all quite worrying for both of us, especially since it's also very mysterious. We try to remain hopeful, but I must admit that it hasn't been so easy.

We have tried to continue doing interesting things and to live as normally as we can. Today, we took a drive to Gamla National Park, where we have been many times before, and I took David in the wheelchair on the nice paved path. I'll post more about that, including a picture, in the next post.

The scorpion hunters

2010-07-10T05:33:00.001-07:00

Last night, as we were preparing to go to bed, we got an unwelcome surprise. David was grabbing a light blanket to put over himself when he felt something crawl on him. By the time he saw what it was, it was going down the edge of the bed, and before he could get something to squish it, the black scorpion had crept under the bed!

The black scorpions here are not aggressive, and we've found several before in the house, but never up on the 2nd floor, in the bedroom. Luckily, we've never been stung, but I've been told that their sting is very painful!

We tried moving the bed back and forth to ferret out the scorpion, but it managed to remain steadfastly under there somewhere where we could get it or even see it. We knew that we had better be careful if we got up during the night not to step on it! I figured that mostly it would want to hide, but, in the dark (although we DO have a night light!), it might come out and go exploring.

Sure enough, in the wee hours, when I happened to be awake, I heard one of the cats scratching around near the far corner of the room. After a while, I sat up to take a look and saw that it was Pascal, our BIG one-year-old male who is mostly black with a white chin and chest and some white on his paws. I was pretty sure that he was after the scorpion. Somewhat later, I decided to put on my glasses and go over there and check more carefully. By then, his sister, Peachy, our petite adorable calico, had joined him, and, sure enough, there was the scorpion, probably already dead. I didn't take any chance though -- I took several paper towels, made sure it was thoroughly squished, and put it in the trash. The cats didn't really get what I had done and continued to look for it for some time after. Of course, I petted them and praised them (quietly, though, so as not to wake David!).

Since I had found the cats with scorpions a time or two before, I wasn't too surprised. By the way, our American cat, Katom, simply stayed up on the bed, sleeping!

A surprise on Friday night

2010-07-10T05:18:00.000-07:00

Last night, the room where we hold our prayers every Friday night (at Emet v'Shalom, in Nahariya) was full of chairs. This is because we knew that a group of about 88 young people from the States would be attending. They arrived a little late, but we didn't start until they got there.

Early in the prayers, before L'cha Dodi, the rabbi's wife came over to me and told me that I was requested to join the rabbi (who always leads the prayers) up front. He has had me join him a few times before, mostly when his voice felt a little shaky and he wanted some extra support, so I wasn't too surprised.

Throughout L'cha Dodi, I noticed that he didn't sing as much as usual, leaving much of it to me. At the end of L'cha Dodi, he suddenly took off his tallit, handed the microphone to me, said תמשיך! tamshikh! ("Continue!"), and quickly walked to the back and out the door. I knew he must really not be feeling well to do something like that, and I also knew that I had better pull it together and concentrate in leading the prayers to the very best of my ability. I did notice that several people followed him out the door to help him.

The singing part is not too difficult for me, although I hadn't really prepared mentally for it, of course. The parts where the leader simply reads the Hebrew are more difficult except for a few parts of the Amidah that I know well. After I stumbled through the middle part of the first Psalm ("Mizmor Shir L'Yom HaShabbat") after L'cha Dodi, Odelia and Ayelet, two of the teenagers in the congregation came up and asked if I wanted their help! Boy, did I! These two girls are both native Hebrew (and English!) speakers, so the reading is pretty easy for them. When I try to read these things, I sound like a 2nd grader -- with a horrible accent, to boot!

Various other people helped out with other aspects of the evening, and, all in all, I think it was a success. This morning, I found out that the rabbi was having a high-blood-pressure attack but that he's OK now.

Leaving the hospital (and some pics from my stay there)

2010-07-03T06:26:00.000-07:00

On Thursday, they finally released me from the hospital. The main reason they were keeping me, I believe, was so that I could continue to receive the intravenous (i.e. directly into the vein) antibiotics 3 times a day (about 6 a.m., about 1-2 p.m., and about 9:30 p.m.). Another reason was so that my bandage could be changed every day. I actually never felt very sick the whole time I was there.

Tomorrow (Sunday), I'll go into Maccabi (our HMO) to get the bandage changed again. Then, on Tuesday I have an appointment at the hospital outpatient clinic for them to check me again (and no doubt to change the bandage again, too).

Last Monday, while I was still hospitalized, I took a little hike out behind the hospital and down to the helicopter pad. Here are a couple of pictures I shot from there. This first one shows the bridge on the Tzfat bypass, which runs around below Tzfat on the south side and then connects to highway 90, the Jordan Valley highway. This bridge is said to be the highest bridge in the Middle East!

Finally, here's the view of the south side of the hospital, looking back up from the helipad. The building on the left, which is connected to the main building on the right, is where the emergency room is located.
Note that I did not leave the fenced hospital grounds for this entire hike. In fact, that first picture was actually taken by holding my phone through the chain link fence (topped with barb-wire!).

Pictures from today

2010-06-27T10:11:00.000-07:00

Here are edited versions (Photo Shop for iPhone) of 4 pictures I snapped today in and around the hospital.

I hiked all the to the top of the main stairwell, and all the way to the bottom. At the top were 2 doors. The locked one obviously led to the elevator mechanism room. The other door was wide open to the room you can see in the 2nd picture. The 1st pic shows a close-up of the floor-tile pattern, the same one used throughout the hospital wards.

Since the door at the other end of the room led directly out onto the roof, it was, of course, locked. But the window right next to it was wide open with no screen. I could easily have climbed through it out onto the roof, but I restrained myself. Instead, I reached out through it with my phone held as high as possible and snapped the 3rd pic you see here, a sweeping view of most of the Kinneret (the "Sea of Galilee") with the rim of the hospital roof in the foreground.

The last picture shows the sunset behind הר מרון Mt. Meron. I took it just a few minutes ago, from the balcony next to my unit's dining room, but it's essentially the view from my room!

Har Meron from the hospital

2010-06-27T05:59:00.001-07:00

Here's the view of הר מרון Har Meron, the highest point in Israel west of the Jordan River, as seen from the balcony on the other side of my hospital unit's dining room.

The Kinneret from the hospital

2010-06-27T05:48:00.001-07:00

On both sides of the dining room of my unit at the hospital there are outdoor balconies. The post and the next show the views from these balconies. In this view you can see Akhbara and the cliffs behind it. Further away is the Kinneret (the "Sea of Galilee"), including Tverya ("Tiberias") on the right.

A totally new adventure

2010-06-26T01:36:00.000-07:00

I'm on a totally new adventure. It really all started a couple of weeks ago, but I didn't know then what a different experience it was going to be.

For some reason, my left elbow tends to get really dry. I try to remember to put moistening cream on it, but the cream is greasy, of course, so I often put off doing it, even for days! I think I'll be more diligent from now on.

Here's what happened. The skin cracked, and some nasty little germs managed to get established in there. I noticed, of course, that it was infected, but I figured it would heal up shortly. Boy, was I wrong!

Last Wednesday, I finally made an appointment and went to see the doctor. Our regular family doctor isn't in on Wednesdays, so I saw Dr Darmon instead. We communicated quite nicely in Hebrew, he scolded me for not coming in sooner (which I deserved!), he gave me a prescription for Augmentin (a strong antibiotic), and he told me to make an appointment with the surgeon on Sunday.

By Thursday morning, I had taken 3 doses of the antibiotics, 2 on Wednesday and 1 Thursday morning. As I was having Internet connection issues while trying to teach my 1st student (such timing!), I saw a drop of yellow pus on my desk. A quick look at my elbow confirmed the problem -- the skin had broken. As soon as possible I put alcohol on it and continued to do so repeatedly throughout the day.

I realized that the danger of an even more serious infection had now increased. In the evening, at a time when I knew the nurses' clinic at the Maccabi (out HMO) office in town would be open, I had a 3-hour break between classes. So I drove into town, parked on Palmach Street (where it's free), walked down to the Maccabi office, and waited my turn to see the nurse.

As soon as the nurse saw my elbow, she immediately said I must see the surgeon. I had to wait a while until he was free, but I passed the time pleasantly enough thanks to my iPhone. ;-) As soon as the surgeon saw my elbow, he said he was sending me to the hospital!

The ER wasn't very busy, so I moved through pretty quickly. They admitted me to the hospital and told me I'd probably be having surgery the next day. The doctor also told me not to eat anything after midnight.

So, late Friday morning, wearing nothing but a hospital robe (even my earrings and wedding ring had to be removed!), I was wheeled down surgery. The surgeon triple-verified my identity (of course I know my 9-digit ID number by heart since it's used EVERYWHERE here!), the anesthesiologist had me sign giving my permission for general anesthesia, they wheeled me into the operating room, and I scooted myself over onto the narrow operating table. They hooked up the IV, put the plastic mask over my nose and mouth, and after a few deep breaths I was out!

When I woke up, I was lying comfortably on my bed in the recovery room. I felt like I had just awakened from a long, refreshing, deep sleep. Of course there was some pain in my elbow, but Ruti, the nice nurse who was there, gave me some liquid Optalgin (a common pain-reliever here in Israel). I had a fairly long and pleasant conversation with Ruti, mostly in Hebrew. Then the guy from hospital transportation took me back up to my room.

I felt just fine and was, of course, hungry. But they told me I should just drink a little water first, which I did. I later ate a little fruit but didn't eat a full meal until dinner, which I enjoyed thoroughly. I have always liked the hospital food here (having eaten a lot of David's food when he has been hospitalized here). Of course, I liked the cafeteria food when I was in college, too, so it figures.

Today (Shabbat) I'm also feeling fine and typing all this on my iPhone! Breakfast was also good.

This may not seem like such an adventure to some of you out there, but it marks a couple of important milestones for me personally. This is the very 1st time I have been hospitalized since I was born (in a hospital) more than half a century ago. It's also my 1st time under general anesthesia since I had my tonsils out (NOT in a hospital but in the doctor's office) when I was only 3 years old.

An interesting concert

2010-06-21T07:27:00.000-07:00

Saturday night, there was a concert at our synagogue. Two great singers, our rabbi, Israel Horovitz, and a former student of his from way back in Argentina, both sang for us. The room was packed with people, and the music was varied. Included were traditional Yiddish melodies, modern Israeli favorites, and several others. For example, we heard "If I Were a Rich Man" (from "Fiddler on the Roof") -- sung in Yiddish, which seemed somehow appropriate, even though the song was certainly originally written in English. We also heard "I Did It My Way" -- in Spanish! How's that for cross-cultural?! There was even a combination of a song about a Yiddish mama and an Italian mama song! Anyway, it was an enjoyable evening.

An interesting film

2010-06-21T07:16:00.000-07:00

Last Shabbat afternoon, David and I went down to the Cinematheque in Rosh Pinna to see an Israeli movie. The title of the movie was כלת הים, which means literally "Bride of the Sea". I suspect, though, that there's some allusion that I'm missing. At any rate, according to the Cinematheque website, the movie was in Hebrew and Arabic, with English subtitles. In fact, it was mostly in Hebrew, with some Arabic, and the subtitles were in French! Nevertheless, we were able to follow the story quite well.

The story was about a secular Jewish family in Jaffa, the mixed Jewish-Arabic part of Tel Aviv-Yafo. The family owned a car-repair shop and employed an Arab man and his son, who was 21. The family's daughter also worked there as the desk person. Without getting into too much detail, let's just say that it was a rather dysfunctional family, and that a mixed romantic relationship was a pivotal part of the plot. Add in the Jewish-Arab question and it's hardly surprising that you get a pretty sad story.

The movie was very good. The acting was great, the story was gripping, the characterizations were real and human, and the pace was well controlled. We enjoyed the movie, and I felt that the ending was appropriate, realistic, and hopeful. If you get the chance to see it, I highly recommend it!

The perils of English

2010-06-21T07:12:00.000-07:00

This is about something I actually saw a week and a half ago. We were at the Golani Junction (between highways 77 and 65, west of Tiberias), waiting to turn left (north) onto highway 65. The car right in front of us was a rental car from some small company that I had never heard of before (and whose name I also, mercifully, don't remember!). The reason I knew this was their sign, which was in Hebrew and English. In English, their slogan was -- I kid you not! -- "In your way!" :-)

Medicine against homophobia

2010-06-12T07:23:00.000-07:00

While I was walking up and down, exploring the Gay Pride Festival yesterday in Tel Aviv (see my previous post for more details on that), someone handed me a box. I put it into my backpack and only checked it out after we got home.

The picture below shows the flyer that was inside the box. The big picture in the middle shows you what the box looks like. It's about the size of a medicine box. In English it says: "GAYvil: Liqui-Gels", as you can see. Below that, it says, in Hebrew "a new medicine against homophobia". On the green strip, the Hebrew says "contains 20 capsules full of pride". In the green circle on the left, it says (again in Hebrew) "Is homophobia making you nauseated? 2 capsules a day and this will pass." On the lower left, it says "For details, peruse the flyer inside the package."

On the other side of the box, the title and slogan in the same English-Hebrew combination is repeated but smaller. In addition, there are the following words (my translation):

Warnings:

* It is recommended to take it out of the closet (or the cabinet) carefully.

* Do not use the gel capsules as a lubricating material.

* Side effects: the medicine can cause good taste (especially in clothes).

* It's OK to combine this medicine with OptalGay.

That last one is referring to their other "medicine", OptalGay, a play on "Optalgin", a popular pain medicine here. You can see a picture of its box at the top of the flyer shown above.

On another side of the box, the Hebrew translates to "capsules with unique homo-empathetic qualities".

And what, you may ask, was in the box besides the flyer? A variety of brightly colored jelly-beans, of course! :-)

It wasn't until I looked at the BACK side of the flyer that I saw who was sponsoring this. It's Clalit, one of the major HMOs here in Israel (we're not members of this one, but of Maccabi). They have apparently recently opened a new especially gay-friendly clinic right there beside the park where the festival was taking place. Here's a picture of the back side of the flyer -- my translation is below:

Clalit is proud to present:

Meir Park Clinic

The most equal clinic in the City

New! a clinic friendly to the gay community, in cooperation

with the Center in Meir Park. Come to receive health care in a different atmosphere.

In the clinic, you will find an attentive, open, and understanding doctor.

Meir Park Clinic. Feeling good. Feeling at home.

The clinic is open Sunday through Thursday

until the late evening hours

and on Friday until noon.

Come to visit us in the Gay Center.

For appointment scheduling, dial: 057-9900328

E-mail address for all questions: ganmeir@clalit.org.il

For additional details:

clalit.co.il/20plus

Clalit

Best for the community

Tel Aviv Gay Pride 2010

2010-06-12T06:53:00.000-07:00

Although we've been here in Israel for four and a half years, we had never before attended the Gay Pride Festival in Tel Aviv. This year, we decided it was about time. So I arranged well in advance to take the day off from Berlitz (even though Friday is generally part of the weekend here, I am normally required to work Fridays). I got up in the morning just in time to capture this gorgeous sunrise over the Golan (taken from my study window!):

I had learned from Facebook friends that the parade would begin at גן מאיר Meir Park, a few blocks from the huge Diezengoff Center (really TWO large malls on opposite sides of the street connected by two indoor bridges across the street!). They told me I could park in the large parking lot at the central railway station and take the #18 bus from there, which is what we did. As soon as we got on the bus and I told the driver we were together (since I was paying for both of us), he asked if we were going to the מצעד "mitzad" (parade or march) and gave us a big grin!

We had to walk a few block to Meir Park, but we had no trouble, thanks to the trusty GPS on my iPhone! When we got there, we discovered that the Festival was happening there, at the beginning of the parade route, rather than at the end (although I think there was probably also a big party after the parade, too). So, we proceeded to explore the Festival. Here are some pictures that I took there. First, a broad view to give you a feel of the atmosphere:

This guy all in green was doing various poses. I couldn't resist taking some pictures. Here's one of them:
There were several people on stilts. Here's a picture of a couple of them:
And here's another one, in a beautiful gown that went nearly all the way to the ground. Although it's not so easy to see in this view, this is actually a man!

I love this guy's shirt (it says: The IDF is defending OUR values) because it's so TRUE. The IDF (the Israel Defense Force) really IS defending OUR values. Gays and lesbians have always served openly in the Israeli military. We've even had at least one openly gay general. More importantly, our rights is this country are VASTLY better than among ANY of our enemies, where GLBT people are seriously persecuted and even in mortal danger.

When we asked for more details, we learned that the parade was not scheduled to begin until 1:30 (and we had gotten there about 11:30). After exploring the Festival and sitting on a park bench there to watch people go by, we were both a rather tired, especially since it was quite hot, even in the shade. So, we decided NOT to march in the parade (we had planned to march with the bears' group) and to call it a day. We walked a few blocks to Diezengoff Center, a HUGE mall (really, TWO malls, one on either side of the street, connected by 2 enclosed pedestrian bridges over the street). We found a Greg's Cafe there, managed to get a table, and enjoyed a nice lunch in the coolness.

After eating, we took a bus back to where our car was parked and headed home. I guess we're getting old! LOL Anyway, although we wore ourselves out, we had a good time and were both glad that we had gone.

Construction update

2010-06-12T06:21:00.001-07:00

The construction project across the street (and down a little) is proceeding rapidly. Here are a couple of pictures. This first one shows the entire upper row (along the street -- there's another row of lots behind that they're also building on):

This second picture shows just the first building (2 apartments upstairs, visible in the picture, and 2 downstairs, underneath these, facing the other way):

Newly re-opened now one-way street

2010-06-12T06:11:00.000-07:00

Here's an update on the connection road to our neighborhood that was closed. It has been re-opened now, but, as they told us, as a one-way street (uphill ONLY!). Before re-opening it, they put in a curb and a paved side walk on the right side, and repaved the street. Here's a picture:

A perfect celebration -- the culmination of years of education

2010-06-05T01:28:00.000-07:00

Last night, David and I celebrated our 14th anniversary (which was actually June 1). The fact that this may seem quite unremarkable to many readers is, in itself, a small miracle.

Let me unpeel the layers a bit. We'll start in the early 1970's, when gay people were generally considered depraved, sick, immoral, and undesirable people by all religious groups. The best one could hope for might be condescending pity. Gay and lesbian people at that time were usually deep in the closet, for obvious reasons. Those that weren't were hardly inclined to attend the religious institutions of any religion. In a way, David and I represent these 2 groups. He was very out at that time, and I was very deep in the closet.

A few from Christian backgrounds who did not want to abandon faith completely had formed their own denomination, the Metropolitan Community Churches. In 1972, with some help from MCC, the world's first GLBT synagogue, Beth Chayim Chadashim, was formed in Los Angeles. After some controversy, BCC was accepted as a member congregation in the Reform movement of Judaism. More GLBT synagogues followed. Much hard work was done by these pioneers, gradually opening the Reform movement to greater acceptance of queer people in all aspects of community life. We're proud to say that we were members of BCC until we moved to Israel!

Fast forward to 2010, in Nahariya, a lovely but hardly central and perhaps somewhat provincial city on the Mediterranean Sea, in northwestern Israel. David and I had talked to our rabbi, Israel Horovitz, some weeks before, letting him know that we wanted to celebrate our 14th anniversary with our congregation, and showing him our wedding pictures.

Last night was the big night, and it could hardly have been better. At the point during (or really mostly AFTER) the prayers, at which celebrations and announcements are done. Rabbi asked us to stand. He then gave a short speech in Hebrew and Spanish (the majority of the congregants, including rabbi himself, are from South America). I think I picked up most of the Hebrew. These were his main points. He told the people that David and I had decided to form a family (a powerful concept here in Israel!) 14 years ago. He said that we were an example for the congregation. And he urged us to continue our path.

Everyone congratulated us afterwards, including visitors (who were dear friends of the rabbi and his wife). I detected not one iota of animosity or avoidance whatsoever. People there were truly happy for us, and expressed their love and affection for us openly. We could not have felt more supported!

After the kiddush (wine, bread, and refreshments following the prayers), our friends Egonne and Yehudit (a couple, and the only other non-straight people in the congregation) had invited us to their house and told us that we could invite several others among our closest friends. In all, there were 9 of us, ranging from a straight couple in their late 30's or early 40's to a survivor of Auschwitz who is in her mid-80's. It was one of the best parties I've ever been to, with delicious food and lively and fun conversation! Thanks, Egonne and Yehudit!

Now, take a deep breath, and try to tie this all together. Could the people nearly 40 years ago have ever imagined such a possibility: a gay couple being honored by a mainline congregation in a small city on the fringes of Israel?

They say that the personal is political, and this story could hardly illustrate it better. And there's yet one more point that must be made. Many on the left of the political spectrum have expressed solidarity with the enemies of Israel and have been very quick to villify the world's only Jewish country. I'd like to remind all of you about the state of our GLBT sisters and brothers in the rest of the Middle East, including all of the countries that our trying to destroy Israel and, especially, in the areas controlled by the Palestinian Authority and Hamas. These unfortunate folks are in an even worse situation than the gays in the U.S. were in in the 1970's. These people are in constant and real danger of being murdered, not only by their governments, but even by their own families. Many have actually fled (or attempted to flee) to Israel, the great enemy according to all that they have been taught, rather than face death in their own communities.

The same governments and other entities (such as the PA and Hamas) who are trying to destroy Israel are the very ones who also actively promote this extreme persecution of gays and lesbians. They are NOT friends of the queer community in any sense and certainly deserve no support whatsoever from the GLBT community. Please remember this!

For more information, check out this link:

http://www.gaymiddleeast.com/

Jordan River canyon

2010-05-29T07:07:00.000-07:00

Today we took a drive on a gravel road that we'd never been on before. I knew from my map that it existed, but previous times the weather had recently been rainy, so I figured it would be too muddy to go on. But now the weather has been dry for some time, so it was a good time.

The road begins at the switchback on highway 91 just before it crosses the Jordan River and heads up to the Golan. So, instead of crossing the river, we followed it south on the west side. This is the area where the Jordan River flows from the broad, flat, fertile Hula Valley through a rather narrow canyon and on down to the Kinneret (the "Sea of Galilee"). This gravel road is quite high above the river all the way, but at at least one point there is a cross road (also gravel) that goes right down to the river, to a bridge across the river, known as גשר כפר הנשיא Gesher Kfar HaNasi. The name comes from Kfar HaNasi ("President Town"), which is where the same road goes in the other direction (I only know this from my map, and from Google Earth!). We can see Kfar HaNasi from our house. Here's a picture of the bridge:

However, in the above picture, you can't quite see the west end of the bridge. In the next picture, you can see why it's not possible to drive across this bridge:
The west approach has been washed out by the river. Nevertheless, it was easy for me to WALK onto the bridge. Here's the view from about the middle of the bridge, looking downstream (south):
And here's the view from the same spot, looking upstream (north):
Though it may now be so clear from these pictures, there's really quite a lot of water flowing in the river, especially for nearly the end of May.

This point on the Jordan is about the closest point to our house, but of course we can't see it because it's down in the narrow canyon.

Closure of the main access road to our neighborhood

2010-05-22T02:10:00.000-07:00

As I've mentioned before, a lot of construction has been happening in our neighborhood in the last several years. Most of this has been generally positive, including the elimination of a couple of ugly, never-completed structures. However, a few weeks ago, the construction caused a serious problem.

The main access road to our part of the neighborhood was always too narrow, but one of the construction projects has now made it so dangerous that the city has closed it completely! On the satellite image below, I have shown the problem. The marker shows where our house is (although the picture was taken before it was built). I have drawn a yellow line to show our former route out of the neighborhood. Then I drew 2 short blue lines to indicate the ends of the road they closed (putting big rocks to be sure that no one can drive there!). The magenta line shows our new route, which is now the only paved road connecting us with the rest of the world!

Here are a couple of pictures on the ground. This first one shows the new wall that was built, and you can see part of the duplex that it's a wall for on the right side of the picture. The road used to go right where the car is parked! There is still room for a road between the wall and the other house's wall, but it does not line up with the lower part of the road, and the high wall creates the danger, especially for pedestrians, if the road remained open.
Here's the view from the opposite direction, looking down half of the closed segment:
Clearly, the problem is one of city planning. While this construction may have been technically legal, it certainly should never have been allowed. I don't know how the law works here, but I know that, in the U.S. (whose law is based on English common law, as is Israel's!), if an owner of a property allows the public to pass over a part of his property for a certain number of years, the passage becomes a public thoroughfare and cannot be closed to the public. This is the reason you see so many "No Trespassing" signs in the States -- it's not so much that the owner cares if you go there; he just doesn't want it to legally become a public road, and I'm pretty sure that he could use the presence of the signs to prove that he did NOT actually ALLOW the public to go there.

A couple of days ago, we received a letter in our mailbox from the city that had no addressee listed on it. I suspected that this meant that it was a general letter to all residents of the area, and, indeed, that's what it was. Here's the letter, which I scanned in:
I'm not sure if this will work, but you may be able to click on it to see an enlarged version, which should then be legible -- well, at least if you read Hebrew. Since most of you probably DON'T read that much Hebrew, here's my translation (with my sometimes snide comments enclosed in square brackets):

To All Residents of the Neve Oranim Neighborhood

In the course of the last year, a period of accelerated construction has begun throughout the neighborhood, and as a result many residents have exercised their property rights [Hmmmm... apparently including the right to cause the closure of our main access road!]. On 4 April we arranged a comprehensive working tour throughout the neighborhood with all the professional municipal staff in order to join you in solving the problems that have arisen as a result:

1. The road connecting parts of the neighborhood [Well, at least they know what the NUMBER ONE problem is!]

• Close to the connecting road [well actually ACROSS most of the road itself!], construction was carried out, in accordance with the law [notice how they made sure to mention this], as a result of which the road became very dangerous, and therefore a directive was received [from whom? obviously no one wants to take responsibility for this!] to close it immediately at both ends.

• The city engineer, with approval from the Office of Transportation, is checking into the possibility of a temporary solution of making this a one-way street [NOT a good solution, and why would it be temporary, anyway?!?]. However, until a decision is received from the Office of Transportation, the street will remain closed in both directions for reasons of safety and mortal danger.

• The municipality of Tzfat has already been awarded 2.5 million shekels (about $660,000) from the Office of Transportation for planning and implementation of the main streets and sidewalks [it doesn't say WHAT they will be planning and implementing!] in the neighborhood, and we are working to proceed quickly ["quickly" is a relative term in Israel!].

2. Street lighting

• During 2010 we will be investing in the construction of a regional electrical center [this probably means a new substation, I assume], and at the appropriate time we will connect the northern part of the neighborhood to the electrical system [I think they mean only the street lights here -- all of us are ALREADY connected to the electrical system! But this is NOT good news! We really don't WANT our street lights anyway! We like seeing the stars at night. Besides, all this electrical work is probably going to cause power outrages, especially on days when I have lots of students -- this one could costs me big time!].

3. Street signage

• In the next few months, we will be preparing new signs [of course they're NEW -- we don't currently have ANY street signs at all!] with names of the streets in the neighborhood plus house numbering. [This, finally, is really GOOD news!]

4. Municipal supervision

• All contractors building throughout the neighborhood have received directions regarding cleanliness and order on building sites, and any damage to the infrastructure of the neighborhood will be repaired by the end of the work. Any contractor violating these directions will be fined in accordance with the law. [Hmmm... will this be more than a small fine that amounts to nothing but a gentle slap on the wrists?]

We in the Municipality of Tzfat understand the daily difficulties that residents of the neighborhood are currently experiencing, and we are working with maximum speed to finish the planning processes and solutions listed above.

In the near future, we will arrange a general meeting of the residents of the neighborhood in which we will give details and present the additional plans of the municipality for the neighborhood. Thank you for your patience, and we apologize for the disappointment.

With blessings,

Ilan Shochat

Mayor

So, there you have it. In exchange for really botching the planning of access to the neighborhood, they are going to make some as yet unspecified improvements and they're going to finally put up street signs. Why am I not impressed?

The Grand Canyon, in Haifa

2010-05-06T23:08:00.000-07:00

Last Sunday, we had an appointment with David's doctor at Rambam Medical Center. Since we were already in Haifa, and we wanted to check out the new Apple Store, we decided to head up to the Grand Canyon -- no, not in Arizona and, in fact, not even a canyon, but a קניון kanyon ("mall"). As an interlinguistic play on words, this large mall in Haifa is actually called גרנד קניון Grand Canyon! I had been there once or twice before (in 2005), but this was David's first visit. The Apple Store there, however, is new. Anyway, we ate lunch there, ended up buying a couple of small items at the Apple Store, and then headed on home.

Another trip to Agamon HaHula

2010-04-29T21:50:00.000-07:00

On Wednesday this past week, it just so happened that I had no classes scheduled. So we decided to take our friend, Cynthia, to Agamon HaHula, which we had promised her some time ago that we would. This is really not the season, since nearly all the migrating birds have long since headed further north. But it was still very beautiful. The sun was warm, but there was a perfect breeze to cool us without making us cold.

Here's a nice picture I took from there of Keren Naphtali ("Horn of Naphtali"):

The Grinding Machine

2010-04-29T21:39:00.000-07:00

There has been a lot of construction going on in our neighborhood lately. The biggest project is the one across the street from us and down a little, where they are currently building 3 buildings which apparently will each have 4 apartments. They have also leveled 3 additional lots and have begun drilling foundations on them, as well. So, there will be 3 more buildings, although I don't know yet how many apartments each of them will contain.

Earlier this week, they unloaded this strange machine on a track vehicle. At first I didn't know what it was, but it wasn't long until we found out. It's a machine that grinds rocks into gravel. In this first picture, you can see the rim of the big bin that the rocks are dumped into:

In this 2nd picture, you can see the machine in action. The "monster" has just dumped a load of rocks into the bin. On the right side, you can see the belt where the grinding machine is dumping the gravel it has produced. Behind the grinding machine, you can see a big pile of white gravel that it produced earlier. Finally, on the far right side of the picture, you can see Har Khermon (Mt. Hermon), the highest point in Israel, in the distance.

Israel's 62nd Birthday and Us

2010-04-20T06:20:00.000-07:00

Today (Tuesday) is יום העצמאות Yom Ha'Atzma'ut ("Independence Day") here in Israel. So we are celebrating Israel's 62nd birthday today. Most businesses (including Berlitz!) are closed today, except for some restaurants and, of course, gas stations.

Every year, Yom Ha'Atzma'ut is preceded immediately by יום הזכרון Yom HaZikaron ("Memory Day"), when we remember all the many people, soldiers and civilians, who died in Israel's wars and terror attacks. It's a very solemn day, since nearly every family here has at least one loved one whom they are remembering. The only programs on TV are those showing grieving

families and telling about their loss. Men are at least as likely to be seen openly crying as women -- army buddies comfort each other with warm hugs.

At the end of the day, to mark the transition from "Memorial Day" to "Independence Day", every year there is a huge nationally televised ceremony held on הר הרצל Har Herzl ("Mt. Herzl") in Jerusalem. The proceedings start solemnly, with bugles heralding the entrance of important dignitaries. The Speaker of the Knesset (the Israeli Parliament) gave a speech. With much pomp and circumstance, the ceremony continues. Each year, Israeli citizens from diverse backgrounds are chosen to light 12 torches, symbolizing the 12 tribes of Israel. Each person gives a short speech, always ending with ולתפארת מדינת ישראל ultiferet m'dinat Yisrael "and to the glory of the State of Israel") just before lighting the torch.

The ceremony then progresses to a joyous celebration of "Independence Day", with live music and elaborate professional dances. The theme this year was the 150th birthday of Theodor Herzl, the real founder of the State of Israel, even though he died more than 40 years before it was actually achieved. At one point, people carrying flags formed a picture of Herzl's profile on the large open area!

Today, David and I decided to take a drive to the Lower Galil (the more southern parts of Galilee), trying out a couple of roads that we had never driven on before. After traveling through the part of עמק יזרעאל Emek Yizre'el ("The Jezreel Valley"), we passed through Afula and took the highway from there to נצרת Natzeret ("Nazareth"). We had never been on this beautiful 4-lane highway before, and part of it is apparently quite new, since it's only shown as dotted lines on my relatively recent map. The new part is very dramatic, too! It rises on a bridge across the face of a canyon and then enters a tunnel (actually TWO tunnels, one for traffic in each direction), after which it follows another narrow valley up to Natzeret. Here's a picture of the bridge:

My 2nd Drasha in Hebrew

2010-04-10T08:18:00.000-07:00

Last night, I delivered my 2nd drasha (sermon) in Hebrew at our Reform congregation, Emet vShalom, in Nahariya. Rabbi Israel Horowitz had asked me a couple of weeks ago to do it. If you'd like to read it in the Hebrew original, I posted it on my Hebrew blog at this address (I don't think it will be a clickable link here -- you'll probably have to copy and paste it):

http://harpatkaot-beretz-haniflaot.blogspot.com/2010/04/blog-post.html

Here's my English translation of it:

Shabbat Shalom!

This week's Torah portion is Shmini. In this portion we read about many sacrifices and about the precise procedures that the priests followed in order to offer all these offerings in the tabernacle in the wilderness. We also read about the strange death of Nadav and Avihu, sons of Aaron who offered "foreign fire" before Adonai. After that, it is written: "And fire went out from before Adonai and consumed them and they died before Adonai"! Perhaps even worse than this, Aaron was not allowed to mourn for these sons of his! It's very hard to understand stories like this!

In the haftara, there is a similar story. This happened after King David had established his capital in Jerusalem. He decided to bring the Ark of God to Jerusalem, to a place in the capital of the kingdom. King David arranged a big party, with all kinds of music and dancing, and all the people went up in great happiness. But, apparently, the road was a little rough, and the Ark almost fell from the new cart on which it was riding. A man named Uzzah touched the Ark to prevent it from falling. We might think that he would be thanked for this. But the exact opposite occurred! God killed him immediately, right on the spot!

When we read things like this in the Tanakh, we today may feel that we live in a completely different world from that of the Tanakh. But, as I thought more about this, I realized even now things happen that we can't explain or understand. Perhaps our world is NOT so different.

There is also a story of hope in this haftara. King David wanted to build a house for Adonai. Nevertheless, God wouldn't let him build the Temple. But King David did receive a very good promise. Adonai promised him that his kingdom would be forever and that his son would build the Temple of Adonai in Jerusalem. And until this very day, whenever we celebrate a simcha, we sing "Siman tov umazel tov umazel tov usiman tov ... David, King of Israel, lives on!" And, at the end of every Havdalah ceremony, we sing, "with mashiach, son of David."

Shabbat Shalom!

Pesach 2010 at the Loberants'

2010-03-30T03:10:00.000-07:00

Last night, we celebrated פסח Pesach (Passover) for the 2nd year in a row at the home of our friends, the Loberants, in Nahariya. We had an absolutely wonderful time! Here are a couple of the many pictures that I snapped with my iPhone.

First, my beloved, David, who was, of course, sitting right next to me:

The Loberants have a wonderful tradition for the kids. They dress up in costumes representing the various characters in the well-known Pesach song, Chad Gadya, and then play out the actions described in the song. Here's a shot of most of the "cast" in their post-performance pose. From the left are Norm (our host, the grandfather), six of his grandkids, and one of his sons, Moshe:

The Kinneret View Tower

2010-03-21T09:31:00.000-07:00

Yesterday, Shabbat, was a nice day, so we decided to take a drive. I picked some roads southwest of the Kinneret that we had never been on before.

We started on the first new road at Kfar Tavor, which is just east of Har Tavor (Mt. Tabor). From there we drove east across a fertile, fairly flat plain. Just before the end of this flat part, we had to wait because a truck trailer had either overturned or just slipped off into the ditch, and a big crane was there trying to get it back up onto the highway, blocking both lanes (it's only a 2-lane road). Finally, the crane finished it's work and we could get past.

Shortly after that, the road descended into a valley and went through a town. After that, we went up a bit and came to a junction. I saw a gas station just to the right of the junction with this tower. We both needed to use the restroom, but, of course, I also wanted to go up this tower for the view!
We readily paid the price of 2 shekels per person and started walking up the tower. When I got to the top, here's the first thing I noticed:
A handy place to make a nest for your eggs, isn't it? Except maybe for all the humans that could disturb them.

The views from the tower were indeed spectacular. Here's the view towards the northeast, showing most of the Kinneret (the "Sea of Galilee"):

Looking east, you can see the southern end of the Kinneret and, beyond that, the southern end of the Golan. Further right are hills in Jordan:

This is the view looking southeast, showing the Jordan River valley south of the Kinneret and, again, hills in Jordan on the other side:

For the curious among you, here's a Google satellite image with the position of the tower shown very precisely with the stick pin. My iPhone got the location exactly right!

Hike in Nakhal Amud

2010-03-14T05:58:00.001-07:00

Yesterday was a lovely Shabbat here in northern Israel, so David and I decided to take a short walk in upper Nakhal Amud, which is just down the hill west of Tsfat. We started our hike where the road from Tsfat to Meron crosses the Nakal, somewhat north-northwest of Tsfat, and went down from there. Here are some pictures that I took along the way.

First, a view looking up this beautiful nakhal:

Here's a pretty yellow daisy:

Here's a nice red flower. I think it's a poppy, but it might be one of several other types of red flowers here that look very similar. I saw quite a few of these, but most of them had damaged petals.

Here are some nice lacy white flowers:

Here's a beautiful tiny pink flower:

We smelled these flowers before we saw any of them. They have a lovely sweet smell, something like start jasmine but a more full-bodied fragrance, I think:

Maybe this cow or one of her herd-mates was responsible for the damaged petals on the red flowers! In any case, she turned around when she saw us, and I was barely able to get this picture before she disappeared up the road!

We've bee seeing a lot of flowering trees like these recently. These particular ones are near the highway where we parked.

"The Cat Came Back"

2010-03-09T10:30:00.000-08:00

Here's a very interesting story. Ts'hovi, the presumed father of our outdoor kittens (including the two that we adopted and brought indoors, Pascal and Peachy) had not been behaving well, at least some of the time. He would try to mount the other cats, especially Mr. B, biting their necks to keep them from getting away.

Finally, we had had enough of this rude behavior, so on Saturday we decided to relocate him to Rosh Pinna, in an undeveloped area that's not far from some houses. On this Google Earth image, you can see almost all of the route we drove. I have marked it with a yellow line. In the upper left, you can see where our house is (although it's not actually in the picture because it hadn't been built yet when the picture was taken). About half-way down the right side of the picture, I marked the place where we dropped him off. What you can't really tell from this picture is that our house is high on a hill, and Rosh Pinna is at the foot of the hill. The elevation at our house is about 2800 ft (855 m) above sea level, and the elevation where we dropped him off is about 1235 ft (377 m) above sea level. That's a difference of above 1565 ft (478 m)! If you click on the picture, it should open in a larger, full-screen version so that you can see the details more clearly.
So, imagine my surprise this morning (Tuesday) when I saw him sitting on the spool table on our porch, waiting with the rest of his family for me to feed them! Here's a picture of him that I snapped several minutes later, after most of the cats had eaten all that they wanted.
So, I think that we'll just adjust OUR attitudes about his behavior. Of course, another option would be to get him neutered, if we're willing to spend the money. We already got Beatrix, the kittens' mother, and all the kittens neutered, as I've mentioned before here, I think.

First time as khazan at EVS

2010-03-05T22:59:00.000-08:00

Last night I served as חזן khazan (cantor) for the first time at our synagogue, אמת ושלום Emet v'Shalom, in Nahariya. Our rabbi, who usually is also חזן, is in Argentina for a month, visiting family attending attending a couple of family events there. Everyone said that I did a good job, and I felt that it went well, too. Some parts of the prayers (usually the middle parts) are not usually sung but are read instead. When I tried reading them at home, though, I sounded like a 1st- or 2nd-grader who hasn't quite learned to read fluently yet. So I enlisted help from 3 of the young people of our congregation, all of whom are bilingual native speakers of both Hebrew and English. They did a beautiful job! Thanks, Ayelet, Odelia, and Elad! I also had some help from David Lahav, a member who usually sings certain of the songs. Thanks to him, as well!

Construction near us

2010-02-28T01:20:00.000-08:00

The area around us is really beginning to build up. There are currently at least a dozen houses under construction within a short distance from our house and at least 5 or 6 others that have been completed withing the last year or 2.

Now, they are preparing the land just across the street and down a little from us. Our neighbor, Mordechi, says that they are building 8 duplexes. Since the hill slopes down from the street, they have been digging out a lot to make level plots. Probably these will be 2-story buildings with entrances at street level to the 2nd floor. The first floor will be a basement on this side but will be ground level at the back. At least that's what I think they'll build.

To prepare plots around here, they have to do a lot of digging, and the ground is very rocky (and red). So they bring in one of those big earth movers with a huge scoop that runs on tracks (like a tank) instead of wheels. We call it "The Monster". They parked it up near our neighbor's house, to the west of us. Then, each morning, they opened its huge "hood" (presumably to check all the fluids etc.), started it up, and drove down right past our house and around to the work site, which is east of us. After working all day moving dirt around, they drove it back up to its nightly parking place.

This morning has been quite rainy, so I was surprised to seem them start it up. Then, they only drove it to the end of the road, just north of our house and stopped. An hour or 2 later, I found out why. Its work here must be finished, because they drove it up onto its flat-bed truck carrier. The Monster is now on its way to its next job. We're going to miss her (I say "her" because the Hebrew for "The Monster" is המפלצת HaMifletzet, which is feminine.).

The rain is supposed to clear by tomorrow, so they'll no doubt be back at work on the construction. We'll see very soon what form these new building will actually take. Obviously, the construction slump in the States has not affected us here at all!

Purim at EVS

2010-02-28T01:13:00.001-08:00

Last night, we went to the Purim party at EVS (Emet v'Shalom, our synagogue in Nahariya). We hadn't even decided for sure whether to go until earlier in the day. The weather has been quite stormy, and David had not been feeling so well recently. In the end, though, David was feeling better, and there was a good lull in the weather, so we decided to go. David wore a funny rainbow clown wig. I wore black jeans, a white long-sleeve thermal undershirt, my black leather biker's jacket, sparkling dangly earrings, and a genuine Hasidic black hat! Not surprisingly, my costume was a big hit! Our friend, Cynthia, who hadn't even planned to attend but changed her mind, didn't even recognize me at first.

The party itself was nothing terribly special, although they did have nice falafel with all the fixings (salatim, the so-called "salads"), and oznei Haman (hamantashen, literally "Haman's ears"!). We were glad that we had gone.

The supermarket security guard

2010-02-21T09:28:00.000-08:00

This evening we did our usual weekly shopping at our favorite supermarket. As we were going in, the security guard (all large stores here have security guards) asked us about how to pronounce "color". Of course we told him.

When we were coming out of the store, we greeted him and helped him with some additional English words. He told me that he wants to learn English because all the rest of his family is in America or Australia. I noticed that he was writing the pronunciation in Arabic letters, not Hebrew. So I told him that after I learned Hebrew well, he could teach me Arabic. He then told me that he also spoke Aramaic!

After some further conversation, I found out that his family was originally from Iraq but had moved to Lebanon. While there, they had helped Israel in its fight against Hezbollah and the other enemies there during the time when Israeli troupes were still in southern Lebanon. I had known that when Israel withdrew from Lebanon completely in 2002, we had allowed our allies (mostly Meronite Chrisitians, I think) to move to Israel in order to avoid retaliation. But this is the first time that I had met one of these people personally.

So, just another one of those cool, only-in-Israel stories!

Golan trip (Gamla and Har Bental)

2010-02-20T05:19:00.000-08:00

Today is a beautiful, warm day here, so we decided to take a drive to the Golan. Our first destination was Gamla National Park. We had hoped to take a tour of the ruins of the ancient city (destroyed by the Romans in 67 C.E.), but apparently they no longer offer vehicle tours down there and thus the only way would be to hike down and, more worryingly, up again! Since we weren't willing (or perhaps even ABLE!) to do that, you'll just have to settle for this picture, taken with the maximum zoom on my camera:

There were plenty of other lovely things to see there, though. Here's a gorgeous white flower of a kind that I'm not sure I've seen before:

Here's a close-up view of a bee enjoying a yellow Bishop's Weed flower:

Here's a caterpillar that was hurrying across the paved path. We saw several of these:

We see a lot of these small birds all over the place in the North. This one was hanging around the eating area near where they sell snacks:

After we left Gamla, we continued north along the Waterfalls Highway and stopped at this one, called Ayet Falls. In this picture, you can see the waterfall and you can also see the highway right above it:

Further north in the Golan, I stopped to snap this picture. In the distance on the left, you can see Har Khermon (Mt. Hermon) with some snow still on it. Somewhat closer, on the right, you can see a row of power-generating windmills (which we have visited and I have written about previously):

At the same place where I took the previous picture, next to a road leading west, I saw this sign, a reminder of the military presence that is necessary in the Golan:

We finally arrived at Har Bental (Mt. Bental), one of the many volcanic peaks in the Golan (some of which, including this one, we can see from our house). Along both sides of the path from the parking lot to the top of the mountain, there are scrap metal statues by a Dutch artist. These little signs have always seemed just a little humorous to me. This is the entire sign; notice that it's only in Hebrew. What is the message that needs to get across, but apparently only to Israelis, you may ask? It's "Please don't touch!" I guess they're not worried about other people touching?!

Here's the overall view of the top of Har Bental. On the left, you can see the entrance to the coffee house. In the background in the middle, you can see Har Khermon with snow still on it. In the foreground, you see the bunker where soldiers can stay if they need to defend this mountain again. For now, though, it's open to tourists, and, in fact, I walked through it again today.

Looking east from Har Bental, one looks directly into Syria. Here's a view of the Syrian city of Kuneitra:

My first public speech in Hebrew

2010-02-19T20:56:00.000-08:00

Last night, at our congregation, Emet v'Shalom, in Nahariya, I delivered the drasha (sermon). This is the first time I have ever done a speech in Hebrew. If you'd like to read it (in Hebrew), click here to go to my Hebrew blog where I posted it.

If you don't read Hebrew but would like to know what I said, here's my English translation:

Shabbat Shalom!

This week's Torah portion is Parashat T'rumah. The portion is full of exact details regarding the construction of the Tabernacle in the desert and regarding its furnishings and utensils. This portion is very important for anyone who wants to know all the details about ancient worship in Judaism. But for people who are not that interested in such details, there's not much that's interesting in this portion.

I also read the haftara, and I was not surprised that it described the construction of the Temple in Jerusalem by King Solomon. Of course, the Tabernacle built in the desert was the model for the Temple.

When we read these part of the Tanakh, we immediately understand how different the ancient Jewish ceremonies were from the ones we know today. We have no Temple, and we don't bring sacrifices. Instead, we pray many prayers, most of which were composed after Temple times. Maybe it would be interesting to think about how our ancestors felt when they performed these ceremonies. What connection did they sense to God? Was it similar to the connection we sense today? I don't know the answers to these questions, but it's interesting to consider the questions, I think.

Probably all of us have been to Jerusalem and have seen the Temple Mount. But it's definitely impossible to see the Temple itself! The First Temple was destroyed by the Babylonians, and the Second Temple was destroyed by the Romans. Nevertheless, it IS possible to see the foundations of a temple similar to the First Temple.

When King Solomon died, there was a rebellion, and the northern part separated from the kingdom and became a second kingdom. The king of this new kingdom was Jeroboam. But he had a problem. Of course he didn't want the people going up to Jerusalem, because it was the capital of the old kingdom, and so there was a danger that the people would want to become part of that kingdom once again.

So Jeroboam built two new temples, one in Bethel, which is in Samaria, and the other in Dan. We can assume that these temples were similar to the Temple in Jerusalem so that the people would consent to go up to them instead of going up to Jerusalem.

Today, it's possible to go to Tel Dan, which is not far from Kiryat Shmona. There, archeologists have found the foundation of this temple! I very much recommend this place to anyone who wants to imagine what the Temple in Jerusalem was like. Also, there are many springs there and thus a lot of water. Highly recommended!

Shabbat Shalom!

Snow on the Golan

2010-02-06T07:57:00.000-08:00

It has been very cold here recently. On Thursday, we got a little snow in the middle of a lot of rain, so of course it did not stick. However, a lot of snow DID stick on the northern Golan. Here are some pictures that I took from our house this morning. First Har Khermon, completely covered with snow:
Moving a little further south, here are the twin peaks, Har Bental and Har Avital. We have been to the top of Har Bental (the one on the left) many times, but I don't think it would be possible today!

Another trip to Gamla National Park

2010-01-23T08:10:00.001-08:00

Today was another nice sunny day, so we decided to take another trip to Gamla National Park, over in the Golan. We invited our friend, Cynthia, to go with us, and all three of us had a great time.

Gamla National Park gets its name from a town from Second Temple times that was located there. The name comes from the word גמל gamal, which means "camel". In this first picture, you can see why -- the town was located on a hill whose shape greatly resembles the hump of a camel. In the lower left of the picture, you can see some of the town that has been excavated by archeologists. We had actually hoped to take a vehicle tour down to this spot, but it was too muddy today.

This second picture shows the lower Gamla waterfall. Not at all surprisingly, there is PLENTY of water here, since we had steady rain for about 4 or 5 days this last week.

Here's a zoomed view of the waterfall, using the maximum optical zoom on my camera.

Finally, here's a picture of a beautiful flower with an interesting orange bug sitting on it:

A beautiful Shabbat in Nahariya and M'tzuba

2010-01-16T06:56:00.000-08:00

Today (Shabbat) has been another lovely, warm day. So we decided to take a trip to the northwest. We traveled the northern road, a nice route at any time but especially on a beautiful day.

When we got to Kibbutz M'tzuba, no one was there at Golan's World of Reptiles. When I called Golan, he didn't answer, either. So we called our dear friend, Cynthia, in Nahariya. When we got her, it turned out that she had been about to pick up the phone to call us!

So, we proceeded down to Nahariya, picked up Cynthia, and head up to the beach just south of Rosh HaNikra (the extreme northwest corner of Israel). After some time there enjoying watching the waves crashing against the rocks, we headed back to Nahariya and had a light lunch outdoors at a restaurant just across the walkway from the beach. It was a perfect day for outdoor dining and conversation by the Mediterranean Sea!

After dropping Cynthia off back at her apartment, we called Golan, and this time we got through. So, we headed back up to M'tzuba. Golan has the last of the snakes that he had, and he showed us several of them, as well as some other interesting snakes that he has. Also, visitors were holding a couple of snakes that we recognized as our former "babies". I was particularly happy to see that the two surviving "fire opals" (snakes that are both corn snake lavender AND Emory rat snake amelanistic) are doing well. As far as I know, these are the only such snakes in the entire world! I held both of them in my hands again today, the results of our breeding project that we started 6 years ago in San Bernardino! They are both gorgeous. The female is essentially a solid pinkish white snake with slight hints of yellow now. The male has a faint saddle pattern and is slightly less pinkish. He's also a year younger than the female. He has always looked as though something compressed him lengthwise -- his saddles are narrower than usual, and he's shorter and fatter than usual.

A nice trip back on the northern road completed this enjoyable journey. I didn't take my camera, so I don't have any pictures. But Spring is right around the corner. The shkediot (wild almond trees) all around here near Tsfat at now in nearly full bloom, about a month earlier than usual. Before long, there will be millions and millions of beautiful wild flowers, and I won't be able to resist photographing them. So, stay tuned!

A trip to Tel Dan on a beautiful day

2010-01-09T07:22:00.001-08:00

Today was a beautiful, warm day in January, so we decided to take another trip to Tel Dan National Park. Here are some pictures that I took.

First, a view of the trail:

As you could see in the first picture, there were still Fall colors. The next several pictures show some close-up views of the stunning yellow leaves:

Nevertheless, Spring has also arrived. There were green plants everywhere. Here are a couple of especially choice views of the fresh green leaves:

Finally, a nice picture of David:

Vignettes from a Friday night at Emet V'Shalom

2010-01-08T12:58:00.000-08:00

The blessings of an evening at our congregation are numerous, colorful, and diverse.

Let's start with the music:

- the spirited singing and playing by Israel Horowitz, our beloved rabbi, a trained cantor from Argentina

- a melody for "L'cha Dodi", recently introduced to us, written by another Argentinean cantor, a friend of Rabbi Horowitz -- a touch of the flare, passion, and even melancholy of that country in the Southern Hemisphere

- a Moroccan tune for "Adon Olam", with obvious stylistic connections to Arab music, the kind you can easily pick up from many local radio stations

Let's talk more about the people:

- Alice Nauman, an American of Polish descent, who delivered a very spiritual and impassioned drasha ("sermon") in fluent Hebrew. Afterwords, at the kiddush, I hear her conversing easily in Russian with some of the congregants; next week, she leaves to spend a couple of weeks in Austria, speaking in German about Israel

- Shimshon, a tall, strong, sturdy man who must be at least in his 80s (if not 90s), almost certainly from Germany, he probably arrived here before the Shoah (Holocaust) -- when he's present he reads the middle paragraphs of the "Shma":

והיה אם שמע תשמעו אל מצותי...

V'haya im shamo'a tishma'u el mitzvotai... ("And if you really listen to my instructions...") -- really, he doesn't merely read them, he declaims them, elegantly, in עברית נכונה Ivrit n'khona ("correct Hebrew", an important thing for his generation especially) -- the jarring jumping back and forth between 2nd person singular and 2nd person plural, a distinction lost 3 or 4 centuries ago in English:

ולימדתם אותם את בניכם לדבר בם, בשבתך בביתך, ובלכתך בדרך, ובשכבך ובקומך, וכתבתם על מזוזות ביתך ובשעריך.

v'limadtem otam et b'nekhem l'daber bam, b'shivt'kha b'vetekha, uv'lekht'kha vaderekh, uv'shakhv'kha uvkumekha. ukhtavtam al m'zuzot betekha uvisha'rekha. ("And you(pl.) will teach them your(pl,) children to speak of them, when you(sing.) sit in your(sing.) house, and when you(sing.) go on the road, and when you(sing.) lie down and when you(sing.) get up. And you(sing.) will write them on the doorposts of your(sing.) house and on your(sing.) gates.") -- words written and surely also later edited, in this very land (or not far away), at least two and half millenia ago, and yet easily understandable, in their original language, to any average Israeli -- and now to me, as well!

- the bar mitzvah boy, very typically Israeli, but his parents' names are .... Igor and Olga, a clue about where they are from originally!

- the multitude (probably a majority) of congregants from South America, most of them a decade or so older than we are -- some speak Hebrew, but many do not

- a gentleman from Moscow who attends virtually every week, who was formerly involved with the Soviet missile program (as I was formerly in the U.S. missile program -- what an irony!) -- now he teaches Russians in Israeli about Judaism, something they were forbidden to study during the dark Soviet years

Aliyah anniversary and weed whacker adventures

2009-12-28T07:14:00.000-08:00

Today (28 December 2009), we celebrate the 4th anniversary of our aliyah (immigration to The Land). On one hand, it's hard to believe that that much time has passed, but, on the other hand, that day 4 years ago when we arrived here seems far away, in the distant past. So much has happened on our adventure, and some many more things seem ready to happen in the future. We love it here, and we are continually amazed by the people, the beauty, and just the general feeling of really, truly living in the Promised Land.

A couple of weeks ago, we had gone down to the hardware store in Khatzor and had bought a Hyundai (same Korean company as the one that built our car, too) weed whacker (well, actually the box says "grass cutter", in English). We had not yet gotten around to putting it together and using it yet, however, partly because the weather has mostly been much too wet and partly because we have been too busy. But, today the weather was dry (and has been long enough for the weeds in the yard not to be too wet), and I'm on vacation, so we had no more excuses.

I put it together without too much difficulty, but I discovered something peculiar. The handle was clearly turned 180˚ from its correct position (and this was NOT something that I had done!). After feeling rather discouraged, we pulled ourselves together and drove back down to Khatzor to see what they could do for us, especially since I had carelessly thrown away the receipt.

As we as we arrived, we saw the helpful (and cute!) young man who had sold it to us. Without any questions he proceeded personally to work on it until he was able to figure out how to get it turned around to the right position. Score one for both good customer service and the Israeli can-do attitude.

When we got home, I got back into my boots and old jeans, and started whacking the weeds in the yard by our front door. After only a very few minutes, however, the thing broke. Actually, it was a piece of plastic that broke. It's a circular piece that can be tightened and loosened in order to change to length of the pole. But when it broke, it could no longer be tightened, and this allowed the pole to break separate into 2 separate pieces, making the machine useless.

After another bout of discouragement, we hopped back into the car and drove back down to Khatzor once again. This time, Eliran (the cute salesman) was not there at first, but another guy (older, but also easy on the eyes!) helped us. We had to wait a while, and Eliran also returned during that time. Finally, the other guy taped the piece up as a temporary measure and told us that he would order a replacement piece, which should arrive in a few days (I'll take that to mean 2 weeks, since most Israeli time estimates need to be doubled!).

Of course, as expected, the tape didn't really hold it together all that well, but I still did manage to get maybe a third of that one yard trimmed in some fashion. By then, my back was about to go out, so I knew I'd better stop anyway, before I got seriously into trouble.

So, there you have it -- another excellent adventure in Israel. Although we often complain about customer service here, there are also times like this when it's just about unbeatable. And, did I mention the good scenery? ;-)

Hosting prospective עולות חדשות olot chadashot

2009-12-19T07:46:00.000-08:00

This week, some friends of friends contacted us. They are a couple from Long Beach, and they are planning to make aliyah (immigrate to Israel) in the near future. They were already in the country on a pilot trip, so I immediately invited them to come up and visit us here in Tsfat.

So, shortly after noon on Friday they arrived here from Tel Aviv in a rented car. The fog was so heavy that they could barely see the road once they started up the hill above Rosh Pinna, so I had to guide them by phone through the final turns. But they made it, and all of us were delighted!

We took them to prayers in Nahariya with us Friday night. Everyone was very welcoming, and we all had a wonderful time. Today, they took us to breakfast in Rosh Pinna, and then we took them on a grand tour of the extreme North. They are now seriously thinking of settling in Nahariya, which I think will be perfect for them. We are looking forward to them being here in Israel for good, because they have already become great friends!

Roof lakes

2009-12-19T07:35:00.000-08:00

The rainy season is here in earnest, and Israel has been getting quite a bit of much-needed precipitation. But this also means the season of leaks.

About a week ago, we came home and discovered that there was a wet spot on the bed. I looked up, and there was the source: drops of water on the ceiling preparing to fall. It didn't take long to find the source of the problem. When we went up and looked at the upper balcony (which is the roof of the bedroom), we could see that it was flooded. David volunteered to go out and unplug the drain. Luckily, it wasn't too difficult, and soon the lake was running down the drain pipe.

This made me wonder if the leaks in the upstairs ceiling might have a similar explanation. Sure enough, on Wednesday I was able to stand on a chair on the upper balcony and thereby get high enough to see the roof. There it was: a 4-5-inch-deep lake! And, more rain was predicted to start within hours, with menacing clouds emphasizing the threat.

Fortunately, we had enough time before my next class to zip down to Khatzor, to the large hardware store, and buy a ladder and galoshes. When we got back, David wanted to be the one to get up on the roof and fix the problem, but it proved to be too difficult for him to get off the ladder and onto the roof, so I made him come back down, I put on the galoshes, and then I got up there and waded around. I was sure that I knew where the drain was, but I could not see it, even though the water was crystal-clear. Finally, I kicked around in the area where it was supposed to be, muddying the water considerably, but clearing the drain. I knew immediately because I could hear the water begin running down it. Within hours, this lake, too, was drained. And we got it all down before that rain started!

So, we finally beginning to be able to take care of some things in the house ourselves, and we have a nice ladder to get up onto the roof, too!

Cat "fixing" project finally completed

2009-12-13T09:34:00.000-08:00

As I mentioned many months ago, our outdoor cat, Beatrix, had a litter of 6 kittens at about the end of March. In fact, if you look at some of my older posts, you can see pictures of them and read more about them.

With 6 additional mouths to feed out there, we knew that we had better get at least the females "fixed" (spayed) before we had dozens and dozens of cats out there! Beatrix was first, and we got her just in time: the vet said that she was in heat! Not long after, we got Pascal, the black-and-white male that we adopted and brought into the house, neutered. We knew that we did NOT want to have an unfixed male in the house.

In the last few weeks, we had begun to notice pre-mating behavior among the outdoor cats. In particular, Ts'hovi, the presumed father of most if not all of the litter, was beginning to mount the female kittens (and even the male one that was still out there!). So we knew that we had better not wait any longer to get them fixed. Our neighbors, who also feed and enjoy the kittens, graciously agreed to pay half the cost.

So, within the last week or 2, we have had the 3 female outdoor kittens (Priscilla, Goldie, and Gray-san) spayed, the 1 male outdoor kitten (Mr. B) neutered, and the female that we adopted and brought into the house (Peachy) spayed. Peachy just had her operation today, and she will be isolated in one room for the next day or 2 to recover so that her wound won't get accidentally re-opened by rough-housing with her brother, Pascal.

Of course, NONE of the kittens were enthusiastic about getting stuck in the cat box and getting carted off to the vet, but, in the long run, this will improve the lives of all of them.

An example of the efficiency of the Hebrew language

2009-12-13T09:21:00.001-08:00

We very frequently drive through the Rama Junction. It's only a short distance this side of Karmiel, so we drive through it whenever we go there. We also drive through it every time we travel to Naharia, which we do at least once a week. It's quite a dangerous junction because of the volume of traffic on both of the roads that cross there. So, recently they have been doing construction there, and it was immediately quite obvious to me that they would be widening the main road and, I assumed, putting in a traffic light. The last several times through there, I have been able to read part of the sign that actually tells what they are doing. The interesting word I learned from it is ורימזור v'rimzur. Now, although I haven't checked, I doubt that this word, or even the verb from which it comes, is in any of my dictionaries. Yet it's easy to figure out what it means.

We start with the word רמזור ramzor, which means "traffic signal" (see, Hebrew is already more efficient!). By the way, this was actually constructed from 2 separate Hebrew words, רמז remez, meaning "hint", and אור or, meaning "light" (which gives us a hint about the Israeli attitude towards this device!). From all of this, I was able to easily figure our that the word on the sign, ורימזור means "and traffic light installation". How's that for efficiency?

"Stars and Stripes and Pipes" now available!!!

2009-12-10T09:10:00.000-08:00

Well, it's been a long wait, but my new album, "Stars and Stripes and Pipes", is now finally available for sale!!!! Here's the link to check it out (and please do!):

http://www.cdbaby.com/cd/arlanwareham8

A Drasha on Va-Yishlakh applied to modern Israel

2009-12-05T04:56:00.000-08:00

I want to share with you the drasha that our rabbi, Israel Horovitz, delivered last night. I do not have the Hebrew original, and the English translation I have is rather rough, so I will instead be paraphrasing what he said somewhat. Anyway, here it is:

"וישלח יעקב מלאכים לפניו אל-עשו אחיו"
"And Yaakov sent angels (or messengers--the Hebrew word is the same) before him to Esav, his brother"

Yaakov sends a delegation of conciliation to his brother Esav, with the idea of ending the problems that exist between them.

The commentators say that the delegation really did consist of actual angels, not merely messengers (as one might be more inclined to read it). This is to teach us that if we really want peace we cannot be satisfied with common envoys, who have personal interests and cannot come to good terms. To obtain peace, angels, without envies, hates, and jealousies are needed.

Yaakov's peace envoys return and tell him that his brother, Esav, is coming to the meeting with 400 men. It is quite clear that Esav does not have any intention of carrying out a festive celebration to receive Yaakov. With such an army, he comes to show who he is.

Yaakov is afraid, and the situation hurts him.

Yaakov is in a state of fear and anxiety, and he prays that God will save him from his brother, Esav.

Yaakov has a more complex situation before him than fear of his brother. He is afraid of being killed and is distressed for having to kill; his quandary is moral.

What are the consequences of a war? Either you are killed or you kill.

This is especially anguishing when on the other side is a brother.

Yaakov prays: "Save me from the hands of my brother, from Esav, since I don't know if I'm going to meet Esav, an enemy who wants my life, or my brother." And if I kill him or he kills me, either way our parents are going to lose a son!

Is not this dilemma of Yaakov the big quandary of the State of Israel?

Here we come to the situation where the question always is: to kill or to be killed.

Either we kill the Arabs, Semites as are we, or they kill us.

In this land we have lived for many years with this terrible problem.

Yaakov summarizes all this in his prayer: "I am very poor in ideas to be able to apply Goodness and Truth together."

Truth says: "If someone comes to kill you, go ahead of him, and kill him first."

It is impossible to act with silk gloves with Esav when he comes to your meeting with an army of 400 men.

But Goodness says to us: "Do not kill, do not spill blood, do not make war."

Yaakov says that he is very poor in ideas to be able to apply Goodness and Truth, since he is not capable of deciding which one precedes the other.

Both together cannot be applied.

שבת שלום Shabbat Shalom!

G-Force

2009-11-28T04:11:00.000-08:00

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

2009-11-28T04:08:00.000-08:00

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

2009-11-14T05:15:00.000-08:00

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

2009-11-07T09:18:00.000-08:00

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

2009-11-01T21:28:00.000-08:00

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."