Rocket fire from Gaza. We respond. Rocket fire from Lebanon. We’re responding. The holidays have begun. Especially in Shlomi. Hamas and Hizballah have united, and we’re divided.
I really need something good to happen. Suddenly I feel all the years of Covid, the internal division here, the personal losses – all at once.
seder 2023 – april 6 Read Post »
since we’ve done all our cooking and finished with the shiva today, we took the kids out to lunch in Beta Cafe. To my surprise, everything was open until 2, and every store was crowded – even the second-hand book store. That’s when I realized I still had a present to buy.
The choices were few – housewares, an art book, a plant. I stood outside the housewares shop where there was a table of unappetizing dishes and wondered what to do next. A woman came up to me – old, bent over, a little crazy looking, and began to ask me what to get as a gift as if I was a salesperson. “I’d go into the store,” I told her, “and see if there is something nicer.” And then I listened to my own advice. I walked in, poured through a lot of practical, not-pretty things, and chose some yellow pot that tickled my fancy but would probably not suit anyone else. In the meantime, the woman had found her way to the shelves I was looking at and berated me. “Why did you leave me?” she said. I can’t buy anything without help!” “Who are you buying for?” “My brother’s ex-wife,” she responded, and rejected the cookie jar I chose for her. “You can’t help me,” she said. “You don’t understand.” Since I had just left the kids for this mission sitting around next door, eating ice cream and talking about things I couldn’t quite hear because of the noise, I was feeling like I really don’t understand much.
But I know that even though I don’t know most of the people in the seder tonight, we’ll all come together on one thing – that we’re a free people, and we’re celebrating that freedom.
before the seder – april 5, 2023 Read Post »
As we sit shiva, mourning for Dina with the family, all kinds of people come to visit and comfort us. Some are our friends, some are friends of one of the dozen-odd family members. And the subject of politics comes up.
No one argues, because we are in mourning, and some people have the facts and have read all the documents, and some have their information from the specific channel they watch on tv. And it is all becoming a mess in my head. I know that the changes in the government are extremely destructive, but I don’t know the answer to the question I was asked today, “What is the worst that could happen?” “Don’t ask me now,” I said, “All I can see are graves and weeping.” “Oh, come on,” he said, “Isn’t there anything positive?” I thought and thought and realized that since this government has been in power, and the religious parties have made petty demands, the price of the six-packs of diet 7-up I’m addicted to has gone down 25% even though prices of everything else have risen dramatically. And I checked the price of disposable dishes so favored by the religious parties and they too are down at least that much. The fact that Iranian drones are entering our airspace seems to pale in significance….
objectivity – april 3, 2023 Read Post »
When they started whipping protesters from the heights of their horses, I began to wonder about the politics of the police. But now that we’re going to have another, separate police force, one run by a convicted criminal who has become the right-hand man of an accused criminal, I feel much safer.
securitate, – april 2, 2023 Read Post »
Despite all the rumors that the protests have stopped because the government halted the reform process for a few weeks, there are over 150 thousand in the streets of Tel Aviv. Despite the hoses, despite the threats, people know what they have to do tonight.
I was particularly heartened by the return of our counsel in the US, Assaf Zamir, who claimed he could no longer represent the government after the firing of our defence minister for declaring a crisis. I assume he’s back here to try to revive the Labor party and take some responsibility for changing the government. I hope so.
it goes on – april 1, 2023 Read Post »
The death of my Dina, my dear sister-in-law, is wrapped around my birthday. Disconnected nuggets of her wisdom and naivete keep coming to my mind – but they’re not moments I want to share. Like me, she always noticed and remembered the details that should be ignored and/or shouldn’t be discussed. Usually they were buried in some simple chatter, so most people wouldn’t notice. She’s the one who told me about the rocks her mother carried in her pockets. In case Rommel invaded Palestine, she was going to take her daughters to the sea to drown herself with them. She would have had her 85th birthday in 2 days. Do the math.
the day of domestic accomplishments, when your house is clean, your larder is full with exactly the ingredients you will need for the week, and you possess all the right garments for the events to come….I long for those days. Even my poor grocery store that is clearly planning to shut down during the holidays – is changing my month. It’s not just the prices, because we’ve had inflations before. It’s the ldea of expectancy. You have become used to basic things – local apples, the vegetable man, a certain spice.
then there are the certainties of justice. For years we’ve all been following the Zodorov murder trial, and although he was already in prison, we suspected the miscarraige of justice. And now it has been proven that there is no justice in our system, and the idea of ‘reform’ that the government has been calling for is right. THE JUSTICE SYSTEM IS ALL WRONG and needs reform all the way through. But the justice system needs a completely different kind of reform, built from the ground up, one that can deal with justice and not corruption.
me and my day – march 31, 2023 Read Post »
I know the week of mourning is supposed to be restorative, but I look at my niece who had been taking care of her mother in her final weeks and is now taking care of her father, and I think the period of mourning sometimes does not take care of the chief mourner. So even though the shiva is at her home, I would really appreciate it if you let me know if you’re going to visit us so we can be sure to be there and pouring the coffee.
shiva – march 30, 2023 Read Post »
