As if we hadn’t had enough, as if we hadn’t done enough damage to ourselves and our environment and our neighbors, as if we haven’t had enough trouble from the covid and the extreme weather, our earthquakes are coming back. 90 odd years ago hundreds died around here from quakes, but now I think we are a bit better prepared. Maybe not.
january 23, 2022 – earthquakes Read Post »
This is where I get to explain the poems I wrote in Yiddish, translated to Hebrew, then English.
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january 7, 2022 -Invitation to explain Read Post »
How can one not go out into nature on a sunny shabbat afternoon? We were about to take a trip up north, the possibility of seeing a grandchild and a daughter encouraged us to change ouhr plans and go down the street to the nature reserve. Everyone else seemed to have the same idea, and we couldn’t decide if we had to wear masks because of the crowds or breathe fresh air for our health.
And indeed the confusion is apparent in every aspect of our lives. Someday someone will study the differences in the traffic accidents in this period for example. The lack of understanding and patience, in addition to the increased nervousness, make for stupid mistakes. And this is true for many aspects of our lives now.
Take this father we came into contact with today, for example, We found a stone to sit down off the path, and made sure to keep Ezi masked and at a distance. But a snot-nosed baby from a nearby picnic crawled over to play next to him. We moved Ezi over, but it wasn’t far enough away. And the father neither came over to take the baby, nor asked us if there was a problem with his playing next to us. As if we weren’t wearing masks, as if there was no rule about social distance. And we didn’t have the sense of the proper social conduct of the moment. We didn’t know what to say to the father. So we had to leave our comfortable place and move on. This would not have happened in a normal situation – at the very least I would have wiped the kid’s nose. More likely we would have all played with him, picked him up, given him an item to play with.
Had the social rules of today been clear, the father would have kept the child from the vulnerable old man.
I have the feeling this is true on all levels of society – and this has affected the workings of the governments, the army, the medical profession, et al.
january 22, 2022 – living in confusion Read Post »
I’ve become suddenly aware that Ezi’s continued need for isolation – shingles and all – has given me the opportunity to be missed by my family. I don’t dare see them but I can make them long for me, right? So that by my birthday they’ll all be looking for a way to make me especially happy. That in itself thrills me.
But you realize of course that all these zooms have given me opportunities to see the world and see my friends in ways that probably never would have existed for me before. Just think. Last week Beit Levick launched my Yiddish book that you can click on here and will be talking about it with Ben Gurion University on February 7. You can register here for it
Join Zoom Meeting
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Meeting ID: 861 2949 9226
Passcode: 288139
There’s another talk by me in April, but that’s far off.
it doesn’t take the place of grandchildren, but it is heartwarming.
The event with Nessa and Mattie should be particularly interesting –
january 21, 2022 – what’s next Read Post »
Our neighbor for over forty years, a Mengele graduate, has always appreciated Ezi, as much as she hates a certain ex-broadcaster who apparently closely resembles one of her torturers. And now, just as Ezi was helping me set up my new computer, at a crucial moment she knocked on the door screaming that Haim Yavin has broken her table. The table was indeed broken, and Ezi took it to his room and glued it together.
I stare at my computer in wonder – what defines a righteous man? Job has nothing on him – he’s once again failed his serology test, has developed a case of shingles on his back, and is burdened with a mad wife. And yet he has time to fix a table for a schizophrenic neighbor. You may well ask why such acts of random kindness make me define him as a righteous man since he has not changed the world or discovered a cure for corona. And yet he is my ideal model for a mensch.
Whether poor Haim Yavin should be blamed for breaking her table, whether her anger at him made her smash it, or whether someone tried to stand on it and it collapsed, the only important thing is that she live out the rest of her life in some measure of peace.
What does this tell you about blame? For me the only time blame is worth exploring is if it leads you to a solution to the problem.
January 20, 2022 – Blaming Read Post »
The changes in our lives have become apparent, violence is in all the executive behavior around the world, it is as if no one is watching – from the behavior of the individual in governments, to the individual on the roads, to the individuals at home.
Now that the epidemic is beginning to wind down, we have to remember the warning of Thomas Hobbes about the reason we joi n together in government: because we endanger ourselves on our own, and our lives become, as Hobbes notes: solitary poor nasty brutish and short.
january 19, 2022 – solitary, poor, nasty, brutish and short Read Post »
I don’t know about you people but around here we’ve lost all sense of orientation – what test when and how accurate and where do you put the negative sibling when the other is positive – and should we have worn a mask when the delivery man dropped off a package. We’ve lost count of how many people have tested positive. Ezi has just had a serology test and I’m breathless waiting to see if he has antibodies. And then do antibodies count? Who knows anything?
As I was saying to the dentist on the three-minute break during my root canal today, we’ve lost our sense of community. ” Yes,” she said – repeating what she told me last week: “When I watch movies on TV I get upset when I see people kissing. Where are their masks”
And like last week, my time was up before I could respond to her. So – here’s the answer: We have to be so suspicious of others, we can’t listen to each other. We’ve learned to listen only to ourselves. Other people are just dangerous so we drive into them, scream at them, blame them… The entire concept of society has been broken.
I am sure we’re on the way out of this epidemic…
january 18, 2022 – testing Read Post »
I really wanted to honor Rony Someck as well as his yiddish translator, the beloved Rivka Bassman, but it was late when we arrived at the library in Haifa, after a long day at the hospital, and I started fudging half way through the poem. Still, you may find it amusing.
january 17, 2020 – my yiddish flop Read Post »
