Lag BaBuchman

I know this post is a little overdue, but what can I say, I'm a busy lady...
In one of my recent posts I described how the kids prepare for Lag BaOmer. I forgot to mention how the kids transport all their wood. Think about it, they don't drive yet! So instaed, they take the shopping carts from the supermarkets, and they put all the gathered wood in there. Ayelet's ganenet was telling me that the country loses a lot of money from this holiday because of all the "stolen" wood and shopping wagons. I asked, "Don't they return the wagons?" She said "No, they get thrown into the fires!" Theres only one word for that: pyromaniacs! Anyway, now that the chag is over, I can actually say- that if only we all prepared that intensely for Mashiach, and got as excited about it as these kids are for Lag BaOmer, he'd be here in a second. The investement of effort devoted to Lag BaOmer is realy unparalleled. And I finally got to see what comes of all of it: Bonfires. Humongous, 20 ft. bonfires!
We had plans to go to our shul medura (bonfire). Before we set out we closed all our trisim completely- as we had been warned, so that the smoke doesnt penetrate and stink up the apt. We set out and arrived at the medura site. This is how you can tell that our shul is all American: we get to the site, and everyone is just standing around. Some people start spreading out their blankets, start feeding their kids snacks etc. But there is no wood in sight! Here I am mocking the 2 week search for wood, but now I can say understand why its necessary. So finally, one mom starts taking kids with her to go scavenging for wood. Thank Gd the neighboring Israeli bonfires had pity on us and gave us some of their stash! There was about 10 other bonfires going on around us, in this big open space. Seeing what some of these people planned on putting in their bonfires what just incredulous- broken furniture, wooden cabinet doors, mattresses, and of course the shopping carts too! The fires lasted all night, but we got out of there relatively early. It was a great night, and I can certainly consider it a true chavayah!

Sof-Shavua Raguah (Relaxing Weekend)

Every Friday, on my way home from school, I hear on the radio an advertisement that says sof shavua raguah... in a singy songy tune, and I always sigh and say to myself, "If only my weekend realy was relaxing..." My weekend is a one day break from school. By the time you start to forget about school, shabbat is over, and I'm planning lessons again. But, last week I actually managed to have a relaxing weekend! The trick was to DO SOMETHING on Friday afternoon. That is, aside from preps for shabbat and Ayelet-naps. Early last week, we decided that we would go to the beach Friday afternoon. That meant that we got all of shabbat ready before. Yaakov picked me up from school and we went straight to Bat Yam, the closest beach to us. We had a fabulous time. With Israeli disco music playing in the background, Ayelet and Yaakov played in the sand and ran alongside the water, and I got to take a nap in the sun. We had fun watching how the locals were enjoying the beach too. One of the men there was particularly interesting... A chassidish looking guy in his twenties- beard, payot... ran onto the sand, stripped down to tighty-whities and ran into the water. A couple of seconds later, I see him using my beach a a mikveh! Yup, thats right. It was quite methodical, actually. After he finished undressing, dunking, and re-dressing, he ran right back out of the water, quickly put on pants and ran off, just like he came. It reminded me of the Batman movies- Batman appears out of nowhere, takes care of business, and then dissapears into thin air the same way he came.
Anyway, it was wonderful to be there, despite the naked chassid, and it really felt like a getaway. Now I know what a sof shavua raguah feels like!

City That (never) Sleeps

Yaakov and I have started thinking about communities in Israel that we're interested in checking out before we settle on Modiin. Don't get me worng, we like it here very much, but we just want to see what else is out there. I was talking to one of my dati co-workers who happens to live in Jeruslaem, in a part called Rosco (which always makes me think of chocolate syrup!), I think its next to Katamon. I was asking her, as a veteran Israeli, how she interprets Modiin, how she would categorize it, how it compares to other places where datiim live. She said she doesn't really know Modiin well enough, but there's something about it that's very unique. Aside from the fact that its brand new, that everything is clean, and white, and planned out well.... thats not what necessarily makes it unique. After all, there are many new areas that are going up all the time... Whats unique about it is that its an almost unnatural place. Its Never-Never-land. No one is old here. no one. Not one cane, or waker, or Philipino aid. This is a city of youth. Its also not a busy city. Here, you have a city, but its quiet. Why? Because, she explained, its an "Ir Shayna"- city of sleep, (not to be confused with "Ir Shmayna"- city of fat). Ir Shayna means that people leave Modiin during the day, they travel to Tel Aviv or Jerusalem for work, and then they come home to ... sleep. Regardless of the point that she was trying to make- that it will take time for Modiin to become a normal society- I just couldn't get over the fact that here I was thinking that I was moving to the closest thing to suburban New York. But in truth, I had gone from the City that Never Sleeps to the City that Sleeps. How did that happen??!!

Its coming

It all started about a week ago. I was at the park with Ayelet at about 5 PM. Out of nowhere, I see a group of 5 or 6 teenage boys shlepping wooden beams. I was tempted to yell at them, they had clearly stolen them from the construction site across the street. But I held my tongue and figured, why start, let someone else yell at them... then a couple days later I saw kids hanging out at the construction site. Rolling over stones, climbing on the mountains of dirt. I was actually begining to see this almost daily. I was a little suspicious, and again, tempted to speak up, but I just minded my own business and continued on my way. Finally last week, on Friday, the principal was making some school-wide anouncements, as she does every Friday. One of her announcements said essentially the following: "Remember to be careful not to get hurt by splinters or nails when collecting branches and wooden beams for Lag Ba'Omer..." A light bulb went off in my head! So thats why the kids are now all of a sudden hanging out at construction sites! They're on the prowl for wood... and everyone knows that wood doesn't come easy in Israel. This was such a new phenomenon to me! --that kids of all ages, from the day after Yom Haatzmaut until Lag Ba'Omer turn into hunters and foragers! I couldn't help but wonder if their parents knew where they were, or whether they supported these actions. Here's the answer: Monday night I was walking home at 10PM from a lecture I had attended. I get nervous walking the streets alone at that hour, but it was literally down the block, so I assured myself. I was already halfway home and I saw a white car driving very slowly up my block, on the side of the construction site. At first I thought, maybe its an Arab driver, coming to take home the Arab workers (they do stay pretty late, and sometimes sleep over!). This made me nervous, so I studied the car a little more closely. I saw that next to the car, on the side of the construction site was a young girl, walking at the same speed of the car. Guess what she was doing? Thats right! looking for wood, at 10 PM at night, with her father, on a construction site! So the answer to my question is YES!