Carnival Time, Late Summer Blog Roundup

from the good old days
Make Blogging Great, Again

I was debating on whether or not to call this a "Pre-Rosh Hashanah Blog Roundup" or not. And I decided on the "not," because later next week other bloggers may end up blogging some gevaldig posts to prepare ourselves for the Jewish New Year, so I'll then be able to do a pre-holiday roundup. Besides that,  for me today really is "late summer," since it's the last day of the season for our local Shiloh Swimming Pool. Three months of convenient swimming just aren't enough, sigh.

Please read, comment and share, of course. You know, the usual routine. We bloggers really appreciate your feedback, thanks. And if you know of any blogs to recommend, please send the link in the comments here, thanks.

Please take note that I am not responsible for the content of blogs I don't write. If you have complaints or praise then, please refer to the blogs themselves, thanks.

Enjoy!

How Do You Like It So Far?
Parshas Ki Seitzei Message 5778
Ofra Haza: Israel’s Greatest and Most Tragic Star
"One Man's Ceiling is Another Man's Floor," Derech Eretz Lesson
Compartmentalization
Give, Serve, Joyously (Ki Tavo)
Homemade, Handmade Challah So Simple
Vanessa Redgrave Does Not Regret “Zionist Hoodlums” Remark – Nor Labour’s Antisemitism, Apparently
Martin Peretz Falls Victim to Fake News
08/30 Links Pt2: Ron Prosor: A Note to Jeremy Corbyn: You Can’t Fool Everyone All the Time; The sparkling waters of the West Bank; Israel renames nuclear facility after late Shimon Peres
Summer Craziness... Shabbat is almost here AGAIN!

Shabbat Shalom u'Mevorach

May You have a Peaceful and Blessed Shabbat

About John McCain, Crocodile Tears

I'm not going to get into the pros and cons of the life of the late John McCain, but what does irk me is the great praise he only got once he began to condemn US President Donald Trump.

credit: Crocodile tears

Do you remember how unpopular McCain was when he ran for the United States Presidency? I do. The media, movers, shakers and of course the Leftists prefered the young, inexperienced, untested Barack Hussein Obama. They didn't give McCain a fair chance at all.

But eight years later, once Trump galvanized the Republicans, got the nomination and shocked the pundits completely by defeating Hillary Clinton, McCain's anti-Trump statements made him a media darling. And his brain cancer was just the icing of his popularity cake.

The dying, and now dead, John McCain became the poster child for the anti-Trump Republicans. Politics! I guess I shouldn't be surprised.

"One Man's Ceiling is Another Man's Floor," Derech Eretz Lesson

This simple little tune, with an easily repeatable title/refrain, "One Man's Ceiling is Another Man's Floor," says so much in just a few words. It's funny that all my mind recalls from that song is the refrain. I've always considered it an important lesson.

To me "One Man's Ceiling is Another Man's Floor" shows how not only are we all connected, but the small, innocuous things we do can have major influences on others, for good and for bad.

Most people are almost exclusively tuned into themselves and are oblivious to the hurt or annoyance they cause others. It's worse in recent decades, since many people pay more attention to the smartphones and tablets they carry around, than to people. Earphones are almost permanently implanted in people, like hospital IVs and medical tubing in an ICU patient, but without any medical need.

Being that I've inherited Misophonia, I'm hypersensitive to certain sounds, vibrations, sudden disturbances etc. The positive, good aspect of this syndrome is that I'm a dancer by nature. Certain sounds inspire me to move. I'm also very sensitive to different genres of music, which means that while some music makes me soar, others make me sour, mean, miserable and irritable. When I once very politely asked someone not to clap loudly, her reaction was:

"Isn't there a pill you can take?"

I guess that was nicer than recommending a lobotomy. Even when in theory I can take the sound of light clapping, but if it's out of tune, it drives me nuts.

In synagogue during religious services/prayers, Misophonia can be most handicapping. Losing my "train of thought" when communicating with Gd is extremely problematic. I'm there to pray, not to make enemies and silently curse my neighbors.

In recent years there is a new and horrendously problematic phenomenon; some people have added loud clapping to the Silent Prayer aka the Amida. I'm sure you can guess that many people find themselves disturbed. Some are lucky enough to be able to easily and quickly get back into prayer mode, but others, like myself, are completely lost. It's like waking up suddenly because of a nightmare and not being able to relax back to sleep.

Apparently the clapping is from the Jews who follow the rather un-Jewish custom of solitary prayer, popular with the followers of Rabbi Nachman of Breslov. Jewish Prayer ideally requires community, a minyan, quorum of at least ten men over the age of Bar Mitzvah. It seems that to compensate for the lack of community and prayer leader, the Rabbi Nachman followers have been instructed to clap at various times in prayers to keep themselves focused. That's fine alone out in the wilderness, but it's worse than rude when in a group, when everyone else is totally silent.

"Look at me! Look at me. Stop praying; look at me!" They seem to be saying.

We also need to remember that Gd isn't deaf. Gd knows what we're saying out loud and in our hearts, even our quietest whispers.

I also find it problematic when people bang and clap loudly when prayers are sung to catchy tunes, because in too many cases they are so busy making noise that they aren't saying the words of the prayers.

We're now in the midst of Elul, the Month of Teshuva, Repentance. Let us all try to be nicer to other people, Gd willing.

Deja Vu, Why This Blog has Quieted Down

אין חדש
Nothing's new
Kohelet, Ecclesiastes, is 100% correct.
Rivers run into the seas.
There's a time for everything.

Should we be surprised that The European Union supports the Arabs, the Arab terrorists over Israel?
No. Don' t you remember their quiet as European Jewry was exterminated? Genocide? The Holocaust? And centuries before the Inquisition and how until well into the 19th Century Jews weren't allowed to live freely as Jews in most countries there.

And don't ignore that a requirement for political success is an oversized ego, which has its problems when it comes to honesty, etc.

I've written about all that. Recently, I feel that I'm writing the same articles, with a change in name or date.

So, I'll still write on occasion, when I find something worth writing about or when I'm in the mood. Today I'm not in the mood, not at all.

I've been keeping up with my other blog, A Jewish Grandmother, so please read that.

Shabbat Shalom U'Memevorach,May You have a Peaceful and Blessed Shabbat

Life in Judea-Samaria No Longer Frontier Pioneering

In 1981, when we first moved to Shiloh the heart of Biblical Israel, Judea-Samaria, we were certainly pioneers. And you needed that old-fashioned frontier spirit to survive and enjoy life.  We didn't live in tents, but the prefabricated cement home reached by a dirt path wasn't easy suburban living.

There were just a few dozen other families here in Shiloh. Electricity was provided by a tempermental generator; water was trucked in daily at best. And public transportation didn't reach our neighborhood. Actually, most of the buses only stopped on the main road, a few miles from us. And only after a few months was there a telephone, just one for the entire neighborhood.

It was a twenty minute drive to the nearest communities, and they were also struggling with the essentials of minimalist conditions. Forget about modern life.

During those early years, we were frequently visited by journalists who took for granted that we were just a temporary presence in the area, soon to be removed. Nobody imagined that in forty years Shiloh would be the center of a large bloq of communities, one larger and the rest smaller, stretching west, north and east all the way to the Alon Road and Jordan Valley.

Today's Shiloh is more suburban than rural, and we're not at all isolated. The city of Ariel is just ten minutes  away and has a university, cultural center, government offices and a mall, among other things. Here in Shiloh there are two supermarkets, an enormous hardware/building supply store, clothing store, two clinics, two bus lines, schools and more.

The entire development of Jewish return to our Biblical Homeland, Judea and Samaria, is miraculous and I'd even say Messianic, as in the Jewish prophecies. Only those whose vision is distorted by Leftist ideology can cay that we're marginal or temporary.

It's hard to say when it all changed, but changed it has. In the more veteran towns like Ofra, Shiloh, Efrat, Kiryat Arba, Kedumim and more, there are many families raising second and third generations of children.  Yes, to put it simply, we are here to stay, Baruch Hashem, thank Gd.

Dealing With Change

As readers of my other blog, A Jewish Grandmother must know, we're in the midst of getting a new kitchen.

I'm not exaggerating to say that a new kitchen is a life changing event, certainly shouldn't be compared to illness and death, but it does demand numerous decisions, deprogramming, reprogramming and causes sometimes severe disorientation.

My need for a new kitchen stemmed from a need, not just a simple gimme desire for two full-sized ovens. There was no way we could fit them into our old kitchen, which had been designed with a niche barely wide enough for a narrow stove with two tiny ovens underneath. The size, about 57 centimeters, was very popular in 1971 Israel when we bought our Jerusalem apartment, but as time went on it became almost impossible to buy replacement stoves. The last one we got, just over ten years ago, if not more, was just a bissel too wide which prevented us from opening the sliding kitchen door. Luckily, we could enter the kitchen from the dining room part of the "L."

It also took so long to cook in tiny ovens. I couldn't do more than one small tray at a time.

We've been in our house close to thirty-three years now, and the kitchen plumbing was problematic, too. So, after squirreling away money for the past few years earmarked for "new kitchen," Over a year ago, I began trying to find out how such a thing becomes a reality. Choosing workers and a plan aren't easy. The nitty-gritty of that aspect is more the style of  A Jewish Grandmother, not this blog.

Now, thank Gd the heavy destruction, deconstruction and construction necessary for a new kitchen have been mostly completed. Yesterday I got the green light from our "kitchen guy" to start filling the new cabinets. In all honesty, it's easier said than done.

Most storage space is "drawers." I don't mind change, but my husband finds it traumatic, so I planned regular upper cabinets for the Meat/Fleishig dishes near the Meat/Fleishig sink. The Dairy/Milchig sink and counter are totally different and I'm storing in drawers.

It's also so difficult to accurately just space requirements and convenience. I am glad I didn't take an "expert" to help. After close to half a century as a housewife, I have a pretty good idea of what I need and how I work. Also, I'm blessed with a fairly good skill at spacial judgment/measurements. But even I, while planning, vacillated between confidence that we would have more space than needed and panic/acceptance that I'd be giving away or throwing out lots of my kitchen items. I did get rid of a few things while packing up the kitchen, and that includes all of my cookbooks and health/diet books.

There's a certain excitement in moving into a new kitchen and embracing the challenge of change.

We are now in the Jewish Month of Elul, the time of the year when we're supposed to make extra efforts to rid ourselves of sin, confess to Gd and try to live a more Torah Life. I see the parallels between Teshuva, Repentance and reordering my kitchen possessions and priorities.

Well over fifty years ago I made the momentous decision to live a Torah Life, while at the NCSY National Convention 1965. I've treasured the changes I've made ever since. It wasn'[t in the Month of Elul, but in a way I've been in the Elul State of Mind ever since.

May my new kitchen be used for good, for observing the mitzvot, chesed and smachot, Gd willing.

Aliyah, 48 Years Since We Docked in Haifa Port

Today is the 4th of the Jewish Month of Elul. Forty-eight years ago, Saturday night after Shabbat, September 5, 1970, we docked in Haifa Port as olim chadashim, new immigrants to Israel.

Yes, the title is correct. My husband and I did not fly to Israel as we made aliyah; we had a leisurely, enjoyable two week trip by ship. I can't really call it luxurious, because the cabin we were assigned to not only didn't have a porthole to see the view, but it had bunk beds.

For entertainment there was a movie every night, though as I remember, the second week was a repetition of the first. And the last two weeknights there was live entertainment. One night the Greek staff put on a show, and the second night a bunch of us "Israelis" provided a show of Israeli Folk Songs and Folk Dance. My husband and I were featured entertainers.  There were three kosher meals a day; I don't remember any snacks.

The boat was Greek Line, Annamarie, with which the Jewish Agency had an arrangement for new immigrants and a kosher kitchen which most of us required. So many people requested kosher food that the smaller "kosher dining room" wasn't large enough, so quite a number of tables in the regular dining room was sectioned off as kosher for the rest of us. We had assigned tables, and there were two "sittings," first and second for meals. We ate at the early one.

During the day we'd wander around the ship, and the last week we rehearsed for the show. The economy/tourist section we were in was nothing like the television series Love Boat. It's a good thing that show postdated our trip, or I would have been disappointed for sure.

Twice we docked for tours at foreign ports, Lisbon and Piraeus. Maybe I shouldn't call them  tours. We just wandered around; there was no organized tour with a guide. You can hear my story by clicking.

According to halacha, Jewish Law, it is permitted to sail/travel by boat on Shabbat, as long as the trip begins before and ends afterwards. Our trip by ship from New York to Haifa, Israel got us close to Israel while it was still Shabbat, so the boat had to float/waste time until Shabbat was over before docking.

After Havdala all of the Sabbath Observers rushed to our rooms to finalize packing and then go where the Jewish Agency staff was waiting to handle the bureaucracy/paperwork. There were also journalists who considered our mass aliyah of over four hundred American Jews at one time to be newsworthy. The founding garin, settlement group, to Neve Ilan was among the 400+.

Somehow we were allowed to leave the ship, found a couple of friends who had been waiting to greet us at the port, and we all got onto a bus to Jerusalem. I remember most people sleeping on the bus, but not me. I looked out at the amazing stars up above us trying to recognize constellations.

And that's how our life in Israel began... just forty-eight 48 years ago... thank Gd. And Gd willing we will continue to enjoy life until 120....

hanging laundry in our first Israeli home, Maon Betar, Plugat Hakotel, Old City Jerusalem, September, 1970

Celebrating 37 Years in Shiloh, Memories of Day 1

On the Jewish Calendar yesterday was our "move to Shiloh" anniversary, the 2nd of Ellul. On the goyish calendar we moved on September 1, 1981. Our daughters came by bus the day before, so they'd be here for the opening of the school year.

When the girls, then aged ten 10, eight 8 and five 5, were sent on the bus alone by my husband, we didn't think it a strange thing to do. Never having owned a car, the girls were used to traveling by bus. In those days, private cars were rare, and the other passengers were mostly commuters going home to Beit El and Shiloh. I don't think there were any other stops on the route. The bus went through Ramalla; this predated today's Route 60. Most men, and a few women, had pistols for self-defense.

The girls slept at the neighbors who had been assigned as our "mishpacha ma'ametzet," adoptive family, who were responsible for helping us settle into our new life in Shiloh. I had packed the girls up with what they needed for the first day of school, 5th Grade, 3rd Grade and Kindergarten. They were all going to study in different places.

It was easiest for our youngest daughter, whose pre-school was located near where they were staying, though she didn't know any of the other children. Our eldest had to travel to Ofra for school. There was a van that took her and the other children 4th Grade and up every morning and then back to Shiloh at the end of the school day. She never missed it; there was no other way to get to and from school. Our second daughter was privileged to be able to study in Shiloh. The community had decided to open an elementary school to make Shiloh a more attractive and easier place to live in. Luckily, it had been decided to have a 3rd Grade class, and there were six children in it on September 1st, boys and girls together. She was the oldest girl. There were four children in the 2th Grade and eight in the 1st Grade. Over the next couple of months, one family left, a few moved to Shiloh, and the number of children in the school rose to about twenty.

The new school was in three empty prefabricated houses in the new neighborhood where we live to this day. Then it was brand new without a paved road, sidewalks etc. Forty small cement houses had been placed on the barren hilltop, over a mile from Tel Shiloh, where everyone else lived. I don't think there were a dozen families when our moving van, with my husband in it, pulled up that day. I came with our newborn baby son by bus a few hours later. Of course, the bus didn't come up the hill; Egged only travels on paved roads. I had to go up in a ride.

Not all of the houses had been hooked up to the electric generator, water and sewer. That had limited our choice of which to choose. During the first few days in our house, even though the toilets worked, we had to wash our hands in the kitchen sink.

Despite the obvious difficulties, I really enjoyed being part of the great Zionist experience/adventure. Our neighborhood/community became very close, and we were helped a lot by the more veteran families "down the hill."  Even for a writer like myself, it's hard to clearly verbalize what attracted me to Shiloh, but I've never had a doubt that Shiloh is the right place for us. I'd say that the best decision I/we ever made was to make aliyah and the second best was to move to Shiloh.

Ohel Shiloh Elementary School 3rd Grade girls, spring 1982

Shiloh at Forty 40, The Dream Keeps Growing

As I blogged earlier, we in Shiloh are still celebrating forty 40 years since the return of Jewish Life to one of the holiest cities for Jews.  As Yehoram Gaon mentioned during his performance, Shiloh as the most important city for the Jewish People predates Jerusalem.

The anniversary events from Thursday night until and including Shabbat are supposed to be the end of about a year of celebrations. It has been a very thrilling time. In all honesty, I feel very privileged  to have taken part and be part of such a miracle, the revival of Jewish Life in the Land of Israel. And  no doubt this will be considered an extremely important event in Jewish History, like Ezra and Nechemia.








On Shabbat there were two get-togethers during which now-adults who grew up in Shiloh, some who were born when their parents had already moved to Shiloh while others came as children, spoke about what they've made of their lives. A few live in Shiloh, raising third a third generation of Shiloh residents, while others live in cities, other yishuvim and some of our locally grown kids have even founded/established new communities far and wide in the Land of Israel.

It was interesting to hear how their childhoods in Shiloh have influenced their lives and decisions as adults. The community life and chesed, helping neighbors taught them a lot, and they have all integrated that into their present lives.

One thing mentioned was so deja vu for me. I remember at a Bnai Akiva youth movement ceremony about twenty-five 25 years ago, a neighbor of my generation told the youth that she grew up trying to emulate her parents, chalutzim, who built a new community in the early days of the State of Israel. For that reason, she and her husband were among those to establish Shiloh. On Shabbat, one of the children raised in Shiloh said that she felt it important to emulate her parents and establish a new community.

We consider ourselves and our younger generations as the continuation of the early Zionist pioneers. This isn't a matter of political Right or Left; it is just pure Zionism, the return of the Jewish People to the Land of Israel. 

I thank Gd for the privilege to live in such a holy and historic location, Shiloh. And even more than that I thank Gd for giving me life in the generation which has seen such great miracles as the 1967 Six Days War and the opportunity to help bring Jewish Life to Our Holy Land.

SHILOH 40 שילה Memories

In Hebrew, made for the 40th celebrations.

בעברית לכבוד 40 שנה בשילה, זכרונות

Arab Terror War Against Israel, Bibi, Wake Up!

LIVE UPDATES: GAZA VIOLENCE ESCALATES, OVER 150 ROCKETS LAUNCHED

Jewish homes have been hit, and innocent Jews have been injured by these Arab terrorists. These violent attacks can't continue!

My friend in the South of Israel reported:

Missile siren in the South Sderot, Shaare HaNegev.,8 missiles. 4 rockets fired at Sderot. Iron Dome took out 2

2nd siren for us in 20 minutes

The State of Israel must react strongly and decimate the Arab terrorists!