israeli politics

The tree that seemed dead weeks ago, suddenly began to blossom, today on Tu B’ Shvat. And I wanted to go out to the newly re-opened grocery.  But just for a second I couldn’t remember what I had to take with me.  A gas mask, a surgical mask – all the wars, all the history of survival for the past 50 years came back to me in one second.  The Tu b’Shvat during the ‘73 war, where I was the only driver in the neighborhood and spent all my time chauffeuring the other women and children, bringing class notes to my soldier-students on reserve duty.  But on Tu B’Shvat my neighbors and I took the children to the field to plant trees.  And the Gulf War when we spent our time getting everything ready for six p.m. when the rockets would start falling – and we carried our gas masks with us everywhere we went during the day.  All this came back to me for a moment as I stopped at the door, wondering what I had forgotten. 

And that’s what I’d forgotten.  That everything blossoms again.  Like they say in Yiddish, “Az men lebt, derlebt men.”  If you live, you live through.

 

(p.s. In case you don’t know about the Gulf War in Israel, check this out.

and in case you want to see how it felt, here’s my book on it: Love And War

January 17, 2020 – Tu B’Shvat again Read Post »

israeli politics

This was my tree in my study, and this is what’s left.

Because the plot is city property, they uproot everything we plant, and now have neglected the plot.  

Because this is the holiday of trees, I am particularly pained by this sight.

 

 

january 17, 2022 – TuBishvat Read Post »

israeli politics

The Jordan River is looking pretty good now that it is filling up with water, but this rain that comes down with such force in other places may just be rinsing the topsoil away.   Or what’s left of it.  Still, maybe the rains can wash away some of our sins.  

And as far as our government is concerned I have my hopes that Benny Gantz is around when the rain clears up and we begin again.

 

 

january 16, 2022 – topsoil Read Post »

israeli politics

It was announced as the coldest day of the year so I took down my New York Winter Coat from the top shelf, unpacked it, put it on, looked in the mirror, laughed, took it off and went back to my usual Israeli winter gear. 

That and an umbrella were plenty for this weather.  Even though the tv showed flooding all over, I barely saw a puddle.  There were rivers that had been dry for years and boats in the streets of Petach Tikva, but in our neighborhood, it was a regular rainy day.   

It’s pretty amazing how in this tiny country there are so many different climates, and they can change from day to day.

Maybe that’s why our politics and our moods are so unpredictable.

 

january 16, 2022 – coldest day of the year Read Post »

israeli politics

Are you blue?  You’re not alone.  Most everyone is going down.  Should we give up, let it take us, concede we’ve wasted a few years but will be back – eventually?  I don’t know but today we really felt like just lying down and waiting under the covers until it passed.  

But obsessively active as I am, I dragged Ezi to the beach – My thought was to take a walk.  There were so many people behaving as if everything was fine – running, surfing, taking pictures – that we stuck out like sore thumbs.  We were all winterized, with puffy coats and hats and masks, watching all these guys taking the waves.

 

january 15, 2022 – corona wave blues Read Post »

israeli politics

The neighborhood grocery was back in business today and the customers’ delight was palpable.  The father and two sons who run the business seemed desperate and so were we.  After all, since our daughter was in isolation with her family – each in separate rooms – and they had run out of the basics, a little trip to the grocery was essential.  She lives three doors down and the grocer is one door down, so for us it was a brief jaunt, but with the supermarket on- line having gone a bit daft, it was essential.

How has the supermarket online gone daft you ask?  Well last week, while I was in the middle of some zoom and it was essential I not leave the screen, the delivery came 3 hours early.  Ezi put everything away and I forgot about it.  But the next day I began noticing that some things were missing, and I assumed I’d forgotten to order and couldn’t find a receipt.  But as more and more things turned out missing I began querying Ezi and realized that more than a third of my very large order had not been delivered and I had been charged for it.  It took me another two days to figure out how to speak to someone, and almost as long to figure out I was right and then to add the items to my next order, which, hopefully, will be next week. 

I know I should be grateful that there is such a thing as online grocery shopping, but I’ve been doing it for over a dozen years and very rarely had any trouble at all.  

I know also that there are far greater troubles in the world and in the country than my groceries, but … food first.

january 14, 2022 – grocer Read Post »