israeli politics

“Will your house be kosher for Passover??” a religious friend asked when I invited him to visit sometime soon.  “No,” I answered, remembering the big vats in our yard where we used to scald all our pots and dishes.  I didn’t continue to say we don’t buy bread for the holiday, because I knew that for him it wouldn’t matter.  Kosher for Passover demands the complete package.  Even the cat food is sold to the cat for the week.

But what happens in the hospital?  For years it was not possible to bring in food during the period of the holiday because of the danger of bringing in leavened food.   The large families of patients that come with their feasts to bring comfort to the recovering relative were not to be seen on the days of Passover. 

But this year it is being allowed – and the government may fall as a result.   As much as I love tradition, I really don’t like the idea of disturbing other traditions.  A Jewish State to me doesn’t mean the imposition of Jewish laws on non-Jews.  “But can we be responsible for an institution breaking the Jewish laws?” a different friend asked me.  “It’s not our business what they do,”  I replied.  


april 4, 2022 – Passover kosher Read Post »

israeli politics

From everything I understand about Islam, from followers and from scholars like the late Uri Rubin, it is meant to be a month of holiness and reflection, of self-control and resignation to the will of the divine.  And when you’re told the will of the divine is the destruction of the Jews, you have to succumb. 

Last night 3 terrorists, part of the holy war group, were stopped on their way to a attack.  I cannot figure out a way this can be justified even though I do understand the sense of threat that many feel about the third holy place for Islam.   I understand as well that Al Aksa was erected deliberately over a holy site for Jews.

But I’ve also always understood that for Jews holy places are less important than spirituality, that Isaac and Ishmael buried Abraham together, that there are things more important than rivalry.

Ramadan Kareem, a generous Ramadan to all.

 

 

 

 

   

April 2, 2022 – Ramadan Kareem Read Post »

israeli politics

Spring

 

Don’t let April fool you.  It isn’t only in the buds

That your hope is renewed, but the aromas, the tastes in the air

Entering your flesh in ways it wasn’t awake to know.

Close your eyes, feel the sun play into your pores

recalling how cold you were for so long,

how much you depend on the renewal

of the world for your own survival.

 

Don’t let April fool you.  It’s not just little truths

That poets turn to for lifting their spirits,

and it’s not only the cruelest months

that wake you to your integration with the trees,

the snails, the details all around. 

Think of the months before, the worn light

Graying your sight from the thought of revival.

 

Maybe it was always there, that hope

And when it comes, you call it April.

Don’t let it fool you – it’s here whenever

You have the courage to remember it. 

april fool Read Post »

israeli politics

Am I worried that on the eve of Ramadan there have been so many terror attacks, with over a dozen people killed?  That’s not good, but that’s not what bothers me.  Here’s what bothers me – that we’re all so worried about it.  We’ve been through so much worse, we’ve made such progress with our Arab neighbors, we have learned so much about each other – I really believe we can work together against Isis, that most of us are benefitting from living together.

But we have to remember this, and make sure we have leaders we trust, and not leaders who react in fear.  We need someone to say, like Roosevelt said – the only thing we have to fear is fear itself.

april 1, 2022 – what, me? Worry? Read Post »

israeli politics

With the world gone so totally mad, we picked up a friend for a beer

and some sushi

and no one looked.  No one noticed because we are all so involved in our tragedies and fears.  So I thought I might share this fun with you.  Sharing the news is just too depressing.

march 31, 2022 – Read Post »

israeli politics

I was wrong.  Every victim keeps coming into my mind – as individuals: the young father who bent over the carriage to protect his baby he’d taken outside the house to lull to sleep, the Christian policeman who was passing on his motorcycle, each one of the 11 victims this week has been appearing before me when i close my eyes.  

march 30, 2022 – continued Read Post »

israeli politics

Do not think it is all terror around here.  We have been ignoring our obligations and rejoicing in the return of good weather.   Yesterday we celebrated at Shila, a restaurant everyone seems to know but me – classy and tasty.  No parking, however.  Then in the evening we 

well, you know.

unfortunately, at that moment i looked down at my phone and saw the news. Fortunately, there is another day for us and we went to the river.

 

 

 

 

march 30, 2022 – relax Read Post »

israeli politics

I have never understood the possibility of rejoicing in the mourning of someone else – even if the mourners are enemies.  The parades in East Jerusalem yesterday evening have left me mourning even more than the murders on the streets of Hedera, Bnai Brak and Beer Sheva.  Most of us don’t know that when we celebrate on Purim we’re also celebrating a huge massacre of Persians at the end of the story, and I’m sure it would change the atmosphere if we knew it.  

But I fear there will be many more Isis celebrations before peace will be restored.

The two Ukrainians who were killed in the last terror attack struck me as the most strange.  Not because Jewish lives are less significant than the lives of others, but because they weren’t in this deal.  I guess everyone who lives in this country puts his life on the line.  

 

march 30, 2022 – mourning Read Post »