Winter Friday in Rehovot

Nothing says Israel more than Friday noontime downtown. People are coming and going with their last minute purchases and there is a general feeling of rushing to get ready. By 3 PM (summer or winter) everything is closed or closing down. Religious and the not yet religious alike are winding things down in preparation for something that unites us all. Shabbat, shabbos, sabbath. This is Israel's day of rest. No matter how you define it. 

My daughter Racheli and I met for conversation, coffee and quiche on Friday. I met her on the busiest corner of  downtown Rehovot. The one where these three men have been singing for many years. They brighten even the grayest of Fridays making getting ready for Shabbat special. 

Racheli and I spent almost two hours at a lovely cafe and bakery a few blocks from this crosswalk where the proprietors had enlisted this gentlemen (dressed as I'm not so sure exactly what) to brighten our coffee date. 

Have a great week everyone!

Wild flowers, spring and hopes for better times

Wild flowers

Yesterday we fasted the 'Fast of Esther' commemorating the fast Esther and the Jews kept before she risked her life to go to the king and get Haman's decree revoked. Tonight we will be lighting Shabbat candles and tomorrow we will read the 'Zachor' describing the attack by Amalek on the weakest of the travelling Israelites during the travels in the Sinai after leaving Egypt. The tradition is that Haman, the villain of the Purim story, was descended from Amalek and so we read this portion which includes a commandment to remember (zachor זכור means remember) the attack by Amalek and wipe out Amalek.  This public reading is done on the Shabbat before Purim and both men and women are required to hear the reading. Then on Saturday night we will be reading the Purim story and celebrating yet another deliverance. 
In the Megilat Esther (the Purim story is read from a scroll named after Esther) there is not one mention of the name of God. How could that be? How could there have been deliverance without God's intervention. There have been many many interpretations given through years but the one that rings especially true this year is that God is not mentioned in order to show us that the evil decree is an example of hester panim (when God figuratively hides his face) as the word hester is alluded to in the name of the queen Esther. The deliverance came not by supernatural miracle - as in the parting of the Red Sea - but through Esther's brave deed along with the moral support of Mordechai all the Jewish people. This teaches us to look at all of life as a miracle through which God manifests his presence in the world. Sometimes his plans for the world are in tune with our expectations and we consider that state 'natural' and other times it is harder for us to accept events because we fail to see their meaning. This week has been one of those weeks when it is difficult for us to understand God's presence in our world. 

This week began with the funeral of the Fogel family of Itamar.Over 20,000 people accompanied them to their graves. It was difficult even to watch the broadcast and I can only imagine what it must have felt like to be there in person. All the eulogies were emotional and raw reflecting the shock of the brutality. The former Chief Rabbi of Israel Rav Yisrael Meir Lau, who was the youngest survivor of the Buchenwald concentration camp (7 years old at the liberation) said

"it appeared as though the cycle of terror closed 66 years ago, when the blood of infants was spilled like water, when a million an a half children were trampled at the hands of beastly people.  "Sixty-six years have passed. We announced a State, we achieved independence. We established the magnificent Israel Defense Forces. And still, this cycle of terror and the river of blood flows, and we stand here helplessly." 

In addition he addressed remarks to twelve year old Tamar Fogel saying that she will now take on a role of 'little mother' to her surviving brothers (8 and 2 years old) who will have to be the 'kaddish' for their parents' memory in the years to come.  I noticed many well-meaning folks, mostly women, who felt that this thought was out of place. Let the little girl remain a child. Don't burden her with this responsibility. Would that we could! But Rav Lau knows different. His life is a testimony to to just how resilient a child can be. But no matter how much everyone wants to help, and will help, those children will ultimately share with each other an emotional tie that is like no other. .
(If you haven't read his autobiography אל תשלח ידך בנער in Hebrew you will apparently be able to read it soon in English and everyone should read it!) 

Cyclamen

And in another one of those weird 'only in Israel' ironies an IDF army medic saved a new born Arab baby girl in the Neve Zuf settlement where the Fogel's parents are sitting shiva. 

It's been a sad week for us in Israel and around the world. The earthquake in Japan and the bad to worse condition of the nuclear power plants have yet to be fully understood. When we empathize we usually call upon a similar emotion or reaction in our memory to help us feel the pain of others. But the horror that is happening in Japan, I have no parallel experience to call upon. I can only imagine. Japan is the only country to have experienced nuclear fall-out and that was in wartime. I always imagine that what Japanese must feel towards nuclear destruction is similar to the horror which we feel about the Holocaust. I am trying to imagine an earthquake killing thousands followed by a Holocaust and no end in sight.

Anemones

And so it goes. Life is made of cycles, grief and danger, joy and deliverance. Through all of it certain things stay the same. The winter is drawing to a close and next week is spring solstice. There are wild flowers blooming in Rehovot and as the seasons change the flowers bring hope of nature's renewal.
And now we can only pray that God bring order back into our lives and give us strength to go forward. 
עושה שלום במרומיו 
He who keeps the peace in his world 
הוא יעשה שלום עלינו
He will bring peace (and order) upon all of us 
ועל כל ישראל
And on all Israel 
ונאמר אמן
And we will say amen!

It rained in Mizpe Ramon!!!

Hooray for winter! We spent Shabbat in Mitzpe Ramon with some of our grandchildren. It was cold and windy as we have come to know winter in the hills of the Negev. 

On motsaei shabbat (Saturday night) just as we were getting the car packed a cloud burst and it began to rain. So the kids ran to get their umbrellas and run outside to romp in the rain. The rain lasted just about long enough for us to get all excited, turn on the camera and snap the photo. But up north it did rain quite a bit, they say, and when we returned home to Rehovot we got caught in a downpour. 

Speaking of winter Batya hosted and posted the latest Kosher Cooking Carnival  #62 celebrating Rosh Chodesh Shevat here. I'd also like to take this opportunity to wish Batya good luck in her new job which began today.  

Esser Agoroth has the thoughtful and well organized edition of  Haveil Havalim #299 here. .

#1 grandson has begun guitar lessons and we hope to be hearing more chords from him soon while his little cousin is very enthusiastic about her art work. 

From Generation to Generation

Happy Birthday Mom!!! 
April 9, 1925 was the night of the (first) seder and also the night my mother was born! 


This year David and I were privileged to be at the first seder led by our son  in Mitzpe Ramon. It was an evening of great joy and satisfaction because more than any other holiday Pesach (Passover) stresses the importance of passing on our traditions from one generation to the next. I watched as my son worked hard at making the seder an enjoyable lesson as well as a showcase for his kids to show off what they had prepared in school and kindergarten. How well I remember the first time I recited 'ma nishtana' (in Hebrew and Yiddish, so actually I was the only one who didn't really understand what I was saying). So, now I have participated in seders led by my grandfathers and  my father and prepared by my mother, seders of our own doing here in Israel and now we have the joy of seeing our traditions passed on and enhanced by our own children. It is a great 'nachess' moment. 


My mother's generation, born in the freedom of the US was faced with the challenge  carrying on the traditions of their parents (see here) and taking advantage of the opportunities that America offered. I am proud that my mom was able to do both, and do them both well! Growing up in the difficult years of the great depression she took family responsibility seriously and worked and studied hard all her life. She was determined that we keep our traditions and learn as much about them as possible. She and my father whose 10th yahtzeit we marked erev Pesach were determined that both my brother and I get the best Jewish education. I am very grateful that they didn't listen to the 'wisdom' that it important to give the day school education to the boy, but the girl didn't really need...


In my mom's honor I would like to answer TrilCat's niece's Bat Mitzva project survey

Sabbath Candle Survey

• 
  

  When did you start lighting candles for the Sabbath?

  I think when I was about three, I started making the blessing over the candles with my mom. We always lit the candles together and sang the bracha out loud. 
• 
  

  What made you start lighting them?

  She noticed that I would mimic her by putting something on my head and covering my eyes. She began to sing the bracha out loud (to the tune used for lighting the chanuka candles). 
• 
  

  Do you light candles every week? If so, what makes you keep lighting them each week?

  Yes, I light candles every week. It is my earliest connection with Judaism and the one I identify with most. 
• 
  

  Do you have any special traditions related to lighting the candles (e.g., my husband always gets them ready, I cover my hair, etc.)? If so, what?

  I always put a scarf on when I lit candles, even as a little girl. My mother told me that candle lighting time was a special moment for connecting to God and should be used for important wishes.
• 
  

  How do you feel after you have lit the candles?

  I usually feel tired and happy to have reached Shabbat once again.
• 
  

  Are you the first generation in your family that lights candles for the Sabbath?

  No, I am part of a long chain of Jewish women who lit and light candles for Shabbat. 
• 
  

  Do you have any memories to share from previous generations?

  My father's mother did not cover her eyes when she lit candles she blocked her sight of the flames by  spreading her fingers the way the cohen (priest) does for the blessings. Her father was a cohen.
• 
  

  Is it important for you that your daughters light candles for the Sabbath?

  Of course.
• 
  

  How meaningful do you feel it is to you to light candles for the Sabbath and why?

  All mitzvot are meaningful because they represent the way we practice and apply the laws we have from the Torah. Lighting the candles mark the end of the preparations for the Shabbat the culmination of the six days we have worked and the beginning of the day when we remember and mark Hashem's resting, looking around, taking stock and pride in what he created and hope to be worthy of it all. 

Shabbat Shalom!