israeli politics

You’re supposed to see the stars from a sukkah – that’s one of the only rules. And you’re supposed to invite everyone. So we are spending a good deal of our time visiting and not getting to all the people we loved in time. And we’re too old to build a sukkah and invite everyone (Come to think of it, we’ve been too old for a long time). So we’re having a large portion of the kids over tonight. They’re all green – one set is out of lockdown.

I like the idea of ushpizin – of bringing people together, and I like the idea of placing oneself under the stars. And I like the idea of connecting with the idea of transience, not clinging to places or buildings. Says the person who chose to live in Israel half a century ago.

israeli politics

The last days of warm weather = last days of holidays. And as soon as the holidays are over the children go back to school. And as soon as the children go back to school, we old folks who are vaccine-challenged can start going out to museums and maybe even shopping. Of course, the kids will start catching the usual diseases including Corona. But we will start going out…

Yes, this is heartless, but it’s also heartless that we old people will be last in line in the hospital to be put on ECMO machines, to get treatment at all – so let’s be heartless for a minute.

And while we’re on the subject of medical treatments – we got flu shots today. I asked the guy who poked me to give me a written reprieve from cooking for a few days and I swear the needle shook as he tried to keep himself from laughing.

september 23, 2021 – Read Post »

israeli politics

The sun kind of fell into the sea today around six-thirty. It was hard for me to tell the exact time because I was very busy with my first beer and almost missed it. And I didn’t even take a picture of the first autumn moon. It was a little weird anyway, some pieces of the circle hidden by clouds and making it look like someone was taking little bites out of the sides. It was even a bit chilly, for the first time since we started coming here regularly this summer, and I realized all over again that the whole ritual of sitting in the sukkah is kind of our last chance to mark this unique change of seasons.

There was a man at the beach with a lulav and etrog, and Ezi refused his request to bless them. “I’ve had enough of blessings, of having them forced on me,” he said, speaking for so many liberal Israelis. But I felt blessed all the same.

September 22, 2021 – Fall Read Post »

israeli politics

I keep getting letters and pictures from all around the world – friends who are traveling, or who found new homes far away. One sends a sukkah from a monestary with a cross in the background, another from a field of pomegranates in Majorca with a message from Buddha. And yet it is about sukkot. how inclusive this holiday is, how it incorporates the world and all religions.

The Sukkah

After the gates of heaven close

leaving us alone

facing an unknown year

three fragile walls

invite us in

sheltering from the world

and opening a connection

with the sky.

Yes, yes, the frail hut says,

we are all wanderers

in our precarious havens.

Let us make this transience holy

september 21, 2021 – sukkot moving around Read Post »

israeli politics

we’re not doing well with sukkahs this year. oh yeah sure, my aging friends are trying to keep up some tradition and maybe we sit on their porch under the pergola. But the prayers and the thoughts and the discussion has nothing to do with the holiday. I’m not complaining – we had a wonderful evening last night, but I think we’re really too old and tired to build sukkahs and get the kids the bring chairs and furniture and arrange a discussion about transcience and the need to understand that houses, like the houses of worship, are temporary – that only the lord is permanent. and all that. the kids want to stay home and play video games or skate board. We used to have semi sukkahs – and actually we wanted to eat under our car port with the idea that we could watch the full moon rise and feel the movement of the skies, but we’re at the point where the effort of convincing kids to help out is too much…

so we’re having dinner at home with friends and tomorrow at the beach

friday we’ll try the family again.

september 21, 2021 – weak sukkah experience Read Post »

israeli politics

When we heard how miserable the kids were in isolation after they’d made such elaborate sukkot plans with their class trips, we decided to try to alleviate their misery with a tepanyaki. It may seem completely ridiculous, but our hopelessness is in so many directions that anything is a diversion.

For example, friends write me constantly about how bad the Palestinian situation is, and even those who are physically endangering themselves to protect Palestinians and to work for an independent Palestine register their sense of the impossibility of their situation – unless of course, they manage to destroy us totally.

And we’ve been trying to get hold of a tepanyaki for months. Also unsuccessfully.

september 20, 2021 – sukkot Read Post »

israeli politics

My poor grandchildren are in lockdown – I don’t know the details yet but the vacation they were planning for the holiday is now cancelled and the untrained puppy who was going to keep us grandparents occupied this week is suddenly staying home. Since we can’t go out anyway with all those holiday vacationers, it means I’ll be getting some work done….

september 19, 2021 – one thing after another Read Post »

israeli politics

Don’t get too attached to your house.

It may feel like you

but you may have to move

if only to survive

And that temple too

may be destroyed,

the school refuse

to contain your mind.

The sky is a better roof

always there in place.

Even when clouds cover the light

you can still see the stars

september 18, 2021 – a poem for sukkot Read Post »