From my friend and neighbor, Kara, who sums up the current situation better than my Pesach-cleaning brain can:
Friday, April 19, 2024
Guest Post by Kara
Sunday, April 14, 2024
Iranian Missile/Drone Strike, aka: What.....A.....Night.....
Iran has increased its rumbling (for lack of a better word) for the past few days, leading many schools that started Pesach break on Friday to send kids home with extra work for *after* Passover has finished in case school can't resume. Friday, Iran sent warnings that an attack would happen in the next 24-48 hours. Okaaaaay......Penina and Menashe spent Shabbat with us, not so much because any of us were so stressed, more because we were having a mellow Shabbos and they had had a busy week. Shabbos, thankfully, was beautifully quiet. Maybe Iran was having second thoughts? Went to the tehillim group on my street and said some extra.....
Menashe, Penina, Ilana and I went to the biggest grocery store in the area Saturday night to do our Passover shopping. I felt like, "at least if something happens, we'll have our matzah and jam". Didn't buy the dairy products, so no cream cheese and jam :)
And then.....
Around 10:30, just as we were finishing the shopping, Iran announced that they had started sending missiles that wouldn't arrive for a few hours
and the Israeli government announced that everyone should stay near a bomb shelter
and that all schools and pre-Pesach camps/programs would be closed today and tomorrow (Sunday and Monday)
WHAT A NIGHT. The first missiles arrived around 1:30 in the morning. The noise was unbelievable.....a LOT of missile interceptions seen/heard from our city (b''H although many areas close to us got azakot/sirens and had to enter their bomb shelters, our city did not) and fighter jets going all through the night. (I heard that something like 99% of the Israeli air force was in the air last night)
(A friend's photo and caption) |
We were up most of the night (I have NEVER texted with so many people at 3 in the morning before) and have also never before said so much tehilim in the middle of the night (Shalom Shachne found an article [it's in Hebrew, lmk if you want the link] that says that the most popular Google search from Israel last night was for people looking to say tehillim).
Best memes of the night (just a little Pesach humor) |
All in all, an extremely miraculous night. Thank you, Hashem. According to the Wall Street Journal, over 350 drones and cruise and ballistic missiles were launched at Israel and zero people died and only one person (a Bedouin girl) was seriously injured. In the meantime, economists are estimating that the cost of thwarting that attack (also known as "the first direct flights from Iran to Israel since 1979"), cost over $550 million (maybe you want to invest in an Israel Bond?!)
And sorry I am too darn tired to write a more coherent blog post. This will have to do!!
Tuesday, April 9, 2024
I Didn't Know Him.....And Yet I Feel Sad.....
When the war started, spreadsheets went around asking people to sign up to do mitzvot or learn religious texts/say tehillim for a particular hostage. All of the children who were being held hostage instantly had a long list of people praying for them. I found two people who, in those early days, didn't have anyone signed up for them and began to do my bit to help Elad ben Chana (single, age 47) and his mother, Chana bat Sarah. Their father/husband Rami, hy''d, was murdered on October 7 at their home in Kibbutz Nir Oz, where Elad was his parents' main caretaker. Chana was released November 24 and is in poor health due to lack of receiving her medications and inadequate food while being held hostage (looking at you, Red Cross: you're doing a LOUSY job here. In the early days, I tried to believe your "we can't say what we're doing but we're really doing a lot behind the scenes". But now it just seems like Roosevelt playing with Stephen Wise all over again).
Every Friday, I've been signing up with Nation On Pause for Elad ben Chana. I've found out a little about him. He was a farmer....He loved soccer, especially the Maccabi Haifa team, traveling hours to get to their stadium....He volunteered for the Hadar Goldin Foundation (horrifically ironic, since Hadar Goldin, too, was kidnapped into a terror tunnel and killed by Hamas)....He loved his niece and nephew,,,,,,
And now he has been added to the list of those murdered.....Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ, Hamas' totally evil first cousin) killed him in January, and an Israeli commando brigade operation brought his body back to Israel where it was buried on his beloved kibbutz. This was the news that greeted us when we turned our phones on after Shabbat. I didn't know him, and yet I feel sad.....
Elad ben Avraham, hy''d, may your memory be for a blessing
HTTP://www.jpost.com/israel-news/article-795684 |
Friday, April 5, 2024
Koach = strength
When the war started, my sister (genius that she is) asked me to post on my Whatsapp status every day so she'd know we were okay. In the beginning (mostly bc were were in the bomb shelter fairly frequently), it was easy to post. Now I'm often scrambling (photo of Percy, anyone?!).
I think a lot of us in Israel are feeling tired and beaten down. We've been at war half a year, Iran's breathing down our necks, antisemitism is going crazy all around the world and it just doesn't seem to end....(Fun fact: Israel is scrambling GPS signals , making everyone very confused [the joke on other people's Whatsapp status is that GPS is showing them to be in Lebanon. Although it might not be a joke])
So when Tuesday rolled around and that's when I usually make dinner for two families of soldiers and I was feeling blah, I posted this to my Whatsapp status as a reminder both to myself and others:
Friday, March 22, 2024
Purim Gifts in a Time of War
Still gotta give mishloach manot so here we goooo
And two food gifts with the names of hostages to daven for (big thanks to Morah Sheila for finding that file. PM me if you'd like it)
Wednesday, February 21, 2024
You Say 'Potato', I Say, "Whaaat?!"
Just a few funny linguistic moments to share:
In ulpan this week, we had to share a recipe. I chose to talk about chocolate chip cookies (specifically this fabulous no-bowl recipe that has literally changed my chesed abilities as I never was a big baker). To recap, I'm the only American in the class. The teacher (formerly from Moscow) asked if I thought it was true that Americans only like sweet food (which struck me as a gross generalization, yet also likely true). Another former Russian in the class was stymied about the concept of chocolate chips. This puzzled me because they are sold in every grocery store and the Hebrew is literally "chocolate chips" transliterated.
Thursday, February 8, 2024
Marathon Update
WOOHOO! I did it!
On Friday, 2/2, I completed the Dead Sea Half Marathon. Wow, what a "chavaya" (experience) *that* was! I left with my running partner Libi, her 11 year-old daughter and two young friends at 4 in the morning and returned home at 2 pm.
What kind of things does one see at a marathon in Israel? First off, a parking lot minyan ("yeah, we're right by the Lamborghini. Look for the guys davening--you can't miss us")