israeli politics

breathless in tenerife - 2.16.26

After an amazing day visiting the volcano Teide and the area around it – I look up the news.  And guess what – The Canarian Review reports that that Tenerife is volcanologically active.

For this I had to take a vacation from Israel?  

I was so excited by the sights that I forgot how to use my camera and will have to rely on Ezi’s facebook…  

In short, it feels like there are openings to hell  there, and it is inviting us in.  Many years ago I slept in Naples and felt Vesuvius breathing.  This is more real and more inviting.  

Yes, yes, I’ll get the pictures up soon.  I’ve got some more time in Tenerife.

This situation reminds me of the old man who once told us “for 2000 years the jews have been longing for zion…un punct mir hot us getroffen.” (and it had to happen to me)

and here we’ve been worried about going back home with a war going on in Iran.  How it follows us everywhere…

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israeli politics

carnival - tel aviv-las Palmas, canary Islands - 2.14.26

what’s the difference between carnival in Las Palmas and Tel Aviv?  In Tel Aviv we say we will dance despite the terrible challenges we are facing.  We’re very conscious of the need to celebrate despite the dangers.  In Las Palmas it’s more Cuban but there’s a lot of simple fun.  

Funny, I think it’s the Baal Shem Tov who said that joy can nurture belief in the Divine.

i think joy is wonderful wherever it come from – but it must be wonderful just to dance.

    

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israeli politics

now that there are no seasons (our warm spell, for example, will turn into thunderstorms tomorrow and return to winter), we have no summer wardrobe and winter wardrobe.  It’s all onion – layers and layers of clothes.  We usually determine our behavior as well as our clothes by the holidays – pesach is festive and almost light, shvuot is the beginning of the swimming weather and the scraps of material remaining to signify bathing suits. Sukkot is the beginning of the rainy season and the end of sandals…. 

But now – who knows.

This is particularly obvious when a war threatens.  Getting ready to go away for a few days, I think – what if the time extends and i need more underwear? more meds? more coats?

So silly to have to think of such trivia when the world itself may be destroyed…

 

clothes – 2.13.26 Read Post »

israeli politics

taking off a bit - 2.9.26

i’m taking off a few days to catch up with my life.  My latest book is pulling in all kinds of interviewers and I’m not keeping up.  i’ll tell you more tomorrow when I find I can’t keep away from you.

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israeli politics

Matti Caspi z"l

With all that’s going on in the country, the death of Matti Caspi feels to me the most tragic.  Chava Alberstein once said that his songs grow – and every time I hear them I hear something greater, something different, something new, something deeper.  As much as I love Arik Einstein, Matti Caspi crawls into my heart every time.  

And now that he is gone I suddenly realize I never met him.  I saw him once, on his bicycle, missing a tooth, on the street where my dentist’s office was, and the fact that the memory was burned into my mind, means to me that even his presence itself was magical.  

Even my sister-in-law and I had long talks on different rhythms in his songs – the deepest conversations we ever had.

We have known he was dying for the year and yet I always hoped…


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israeli politics

literary evening - 2.7.26

I just came back from a literary evening that blew my mind – so many intelligent people with such knowledge about literature – as well as good poems on profound subjects.  The problem is that we were all old.  They were talking about old literature and and literary history and their literature all was linked into a tradition.  One of the participants has a weekly show that includes participants with music and stories from all ethnic backgrounds.  we always watch it.  I told him about how much I enjoy that he brings all cultures together and he said “write about it” and I realized that he too reads my diary.  And that he knows that I too find it very important to reveal the similarities of cultures.

literary evening – 2.7.26 Read Post »