March 28/06..........Election Day

Well, who are you going to vote for? Who? Why?............Who are you going to vote for? And so on, and so on and so on............and you can't answer I don't know yet, because whoever is asking will proceed into a discertation about who and why you should vote for! And if you even dare say, I rather not say............well, you're asking for it.............then EVERYONE will know that you are from North America (as if they didn't already know!). It was a huge day for us new olim, to cast your vote and be counted among the jewish people in the jewish nation. At the same time, it was a difficult time for us because we sort of felt that this year, it didn't mean much! The writing was on the wall, and our vote wasn't going to change anything. We felt frustrated with the whole electoral system here, that made us feel powerless. There is a disconnect between how votes are cast to what ends up in the knesset, it feels somewhat like a will you dance with me and in return for what sort of process. We also felt saddened by the pre-election hullabaloo and the rifts and lack of any real understanding between different segments of Israeli society. Some of the ads were downright disgusting and untrue........on both sides. As we have felt many times over the year, there was a saddness we couldn't beat about the lack of knowledge and connection that so many people here feel. There was also this worry, about the results, and how this would affect are day in and day out regular lives..........in other words, it was all so real and so intense!


In Israel, voting day, is a day off! Darrell, wouldn't commit to having the day off, until the day before, only because he couldn't believe he was going to get the whole day off to go into the ulam on our yishuv and vote, which would take maybe 5 minutes. Well, he realized that this was going to happen and we would vote in the morning and .................have a SUNDAY!!!!


In ulpan, we had gotten a lesson on the how to's of voting which I had given over to Darrell. You go in, show your teudat zehut, they cross your name off, you go behind the curtain, where you will find a hodge podge of white pieces of paper, many many pieces of paper, each with a letter or group of letters on it in black ink(each piece represents a different party). You choose your letters, fold it, put it in the envelope provided to you by the people who crossed your name off, and seal it. You come out from behind the divider and put your envelope in the box! Ve Zehu! You may now go and have your Sunday.At six in the morning , Darrell was up and anxious..........okay, let's get ready, gotta go vote, it opens at 7:00, get up , get ready............we're voting today!! Okay, okay Darrell, it's only six the poll is a 5 minute walk from the house. No that wasn't good enough.......every five minutes I got a countdown to the poll opening hour...........I felt like Mufasa in lion King when simba wakes up at the crack of dawn and is jumping all over simba to get up and get going on their little tiyul together.....come on Dad , come on let's go. We finally did get out of the house at the more decent hour of 8:00 am. We waited in line with everyone else, and had to endure many comments about "oh, first time voters, how do you feel?" It was exciting and monumental for us, and although we knew the results would not be to our likingthe fact that we were standing up and somehow were being counted was important. We cast our votes, and then we were off to Wadi Kelt with the Beit Sefer Sadeh (field school) of Gush Etzion, who had organized many election day tiyulim.


It was a great day, beautiful and fun. We spent the day in the Judean Hills/desert with our fellow Israelis and we had a great time. We wouldn't know the results to the next day............maybe..........and then how long would it be until we knew who was in the cabinet ..........???

Sara's Siyum Sefer Bereishit

Soon after purim we were invited to Sara's gan for their siyum sefer Bereishit. This was my first Gan event so I was unaware of the calibre of the show to be. Darrell was unable to attend as he was working but I promised all to video the extravaganza and we would watch at home together when Abba came home. We were greeted in the gan by a group of 30 happy, excited kids dressed up as Jews in the time of Avraham Avinu. The show began and the kids went from song to song, welcoming us and then going through the story of Sefer Bereishit. Sara and her buddy Rivka were also excited and we wondered how much they would be able to participate or would they shy out. To our great surprise, the two of them were stars singing away in hebrew and acting out the stories just like everyone else!!! As happy as I was to see Sara singing away and participating, it was seeing Rivka smiling and singing away unabashadly in hebrew that really did me in. I knew that Sara was able to speak hebrew and had begun to do so in school on a regular basis. Rivka was having a harder time and while I know she understands she has not been ready to say much in hebrew. So when she stood beside Sara and sang away in hebrew I felt a huge lump in my throat and was flooded with emotion. To see these two little girls who were plucked from their nice comfortable , english environment and pluncked down into a place where for a long time they did not understand anything going on around them and to see them part of a greater group, participating and being happy.............it was beyond. The content of the show was also very touching to us as olim. When the little Avraham avinus stood around a map on the floor and sang a song about how hashem promised them this land, I looked out the huge gan windows and thought yes it was exactly here where this happened, they were acting out a story which is right out their window. When they sang "ata etein et ha'aretz hazot"...........again, just look outside your window. Schools and teachers work very hard to help kids internalize the torah and its beautiful stories, yet here I don't think it is as hard a job, just look outside your window!!! It was a beautiful show and both the Frankls and I were overcome with joy and pride in our little girls! Wow, they have come so far and overcome so much and here they are singing about their torah and their inheritance of eretz yisrael and they are looking out the window!!

Purim in Neve Daniel

It was with much trepidation that we approached the chag of purim in Israel. So far all the chagim had been so wonderful here in Israel, way more meaningful and real but this one i thought wasn't going to be one of those. Purim in Toronto had become a very special time at which we celebrated year after year with the same friends and it was so great. It began on Fraserwood with the Friedmans including Reena and Ari and us including only Avital and it has grown each year in numbers of people and in the extent. First it was a seudah which we alternated from year to year between us, with great food lots of music and dancing. Then somewhere in there, the Friedmans added a megilla reading and breaking of the fast, with themes, costumes and even some shpiels. When that happened the seuda was by us every year and the megillah by them..........it worked well and everyone of us looked forward to it. Megillah reading at the Friedmans was with the exact group of people year after year and it was a hoot. Last year each family was asked to present some form of purim shpiel. We chose to dress up as "settlers" and sing a song called Tunnel Road (to the tune of country road) all about Gush Etzion, our soon to be home. I remember getting all choked up in the middle of our shpiel, looking out at our dear friends and wondering who will I be with next Purim and how would I feel. When our seudah ended last year, it was a hard "good night" to say as we couldn't talk about next year. So I geared myself up for not a great purim, I thought if I expected the worst then whatever it was would be fine. We called the Friedmans before Purim began and had our tearful conversation which I knew we would, what is the theme this year? we miss you! What are you dressing up as? What are we going to do without you? I figured we better get it out of our systems before the chag began.

So began our Purim. We went to megillah reading at a small shul near our home where we daven Friday night. Okay, it was fine...........wasn't Lazer , but it was fine. Afterwards, we were part of a pot luck dinner of 20-25 families at the shul.......no theme and not as wild but it was also fine. The yishuv had a magic/illusionist show, which Darrell went to with the big kids, I stayed home with the little ones. They enjoyed, Yonatan said it was pretty cool.


The next morning Avital and I headed over to Elazar the yishuv next door. Our friend's daughter was reading megillah for a womens group. We had never been a part of anything like this before and it turned out to be really nice. Each women did a chapter and each one had their own style, voice, some even added a little bit of acting or role playing to their perek. It was fun and really nice! We headed back to Neve Daniel in time to join up with the yishuv activities. First, there was a "parade" around the yishuv. This consisted of a few decorated flatbeds or trucks and lots of people and kids in costume and music of course.

It went around the yishuv and stopped at different homes along the way of families who had upcoming simchas and offered a kibud.......something to eat and drink. Each stop also involved dancing. The whole thing was amazing and so much fun for the kids. For us, it just felt great being a part of this place. We really felt part of the community, we now knew people and they knew us and it was neat to feel part of something so special. The parade lasted a couple of hours and we ended up at the top of Neve Daniel. There was a quick costume contest, someone won a bike and then we were all of to the shuk Bnei Akiva..the Bnei Akiva carnival. The kids had worked on this for weeks and Avital's shevet was in charge. It was very sweet with tickets, games, prizes. Avital at one point was the subject who stood in a picture frame and had wet sponges thrown at her face............guess which two boys cashed in all their tickets to have a go?


We headed home to get ready for the seudah which began at 2:00 pm. We along with five families were invited to the Ports.

The Ports were our phone friends before we made aliyah and have become our real live friends since we arrived. Three of their five kids have become buddies with Avital, Yonatan and David, and are a big part of our whole aliyah experience. We arrived at the Ports where a lot of meat and bbqing was happening. Everyone began showing up with their costumes, food and great spirit. Each family, except for one which we met that night only, had become a part of our lives over the last year. The seudah was an absolute blast. The Werter boys were a definate hit of the party...........unfortunately their parents, our friends, were in Florida and were not a part of the celebrations.
They pulled out Darbugas and guitaras and began singing, dancing, drinking, shpieling......they were hysterical. The atmosphere was so contagious that everyone, really had an amazing night. We sang our shpiel from last year..........you know Tunnel Road, with everyone singing along, this time we really understood the song better.
Avital and Aviva were hysterical, dancing and singing up a storm. Yonatan and Shimon, well they like to eat a lot.
David and Gaby, well they were their cute selves and later on David let it all out and danced his little feet off with Abba and Natan the Chassid.
Natan gave an amazing "dvar torah" ........let's just say it was the most political gemarra I ever heard quoting such scholars as reb Olmert, Reb Bibi and various other characters. It was hysterical but also reminded me of how real and political our lives are here................references to events in the media and people in power are part of our lives here and we feel them so acutely. So our seudah turned out to be wonderful and fun and we were relieved for everyone.

We are part of a new community now and we have new friends and we are building new memories and history here.................by the way, that doesn't mean we don't miss our old routine and friends, we really do, but we will wait for you to come on over and start anew here with us! We called the Friedmans once more, to find out about their megillah reading and wish them a great seudah. I know Shayna was worried about us so I wanted her to know, it turned out even better than okay.............but that we were still thinking about them and everyone else. We cleaned up the seudah and all the young folk (not us of course) headed home to get ready to head out to Yerushalayim, there Purim was just getting started all over again!