Last Post (for now...) About El Al

 El Al sent this out and I found their metrics very interesting:

And if you, like Damon (hi, Damon!) would like to hear the hold music Dr Avraham listened to for hours and hours on end, here it is (translation-ish: "El Al, the most at home in the world"): 

El Al theme song

Guest Post by Avraham: What it Was Like to be in the US, Rather Than Israel

My friend Sharon and I co-sponsored kiddush at shul this Shabbos to welcome our husbands back from their unintentionally-extended stays in the US. Here is what her husband said when he spoke:

------------------------------------------------

 First, I want to acknowledge that Sharon intended this to be a surprise for me and therefore, I don't have any prepared comments to read and say [at this point, he pulled out some papers ;)]

So this is dedicated to me to mark and honor my return from three weeks in the United States, but I dedicate this to honor all of you, who struggled and sacrificed and persevered under very trying circumstances, certainly fraught with major uncertainty if not downright panic and fear- so I salute you and give yourselves a well-deserved round of applause.

As for me, all I had to do was to continuously read the news. I usually don't sleep much more than six hours and am awake and moving at 5:30 am anywhere I am, but in those days, the nights consisted of sleep one hour and wake up and follow the reports for an hour- that's how it turned out for me.

Yes, I was focused, concerned and worried. I invested a large amount of time in hours in order to return. I'll now "briefly" tell you the story of how I managed to do that.

I am experienced in canceled and rescheduled flights and getting to the U.S. this time was no exception- there were both cancelations and reschedulings before I even departed from here.

From the moment that the encounter with Iran started (one night after my arrival for a two week visit), we knew that my Delta and KLM flights were doomed. But it was several days until I decided and actually purchased a one way ticket on El Al, but for a full three weeks later- scheduled to arrive yesterday, 4 July, two hours before sundown.

Then started the attempts to obtain a spot on a "rescue" flight- that occupied a significant amount of time and became my nightly routine from 2am to 4am, which correspond to the primary working hours in Israel- no- don't worry with the math and calculations- I'll tell you: that's 9am to 11am here.

I was not accepted on a "rescue" flight because it was only for El Al passengers whose flights had been canceled and mine was for three weeks from then. They would not interested in and did not accept that my Delta/KLM flights had been canceled.

I asked my medical administrator [Avraham is a general practice MD] to write a strongly worded letter stating that I was essential medical personnel for a vital national interest. National Maccabi personnel and human resourced got involved. I established personal contacts and interactions with Ministry of Health officials. I was even given a unique voucher number from the Prime Minister's office and told that I could use it for any airline, but El Al refused to hear of it.

Eventually, my request for early repatriation based on medical need was rejected by El Al.

In despair, I gave up but one morning, I decided to give it one last two and a half hour on hold wait until I found a representative who was sympathetic to my story and agreed to advance my flight, so here I am.

Two and a half hours on hold every time- can you imagine how many times after that I had that tune אל על הכי בבית בעולם ringing in my ears? [at this point, everyone at kiddush sang along to the El Al theme song because we have ALL been on hold with them at some point or other....]

So what was it like to be there in the U.S. during this Iran War? Not palpably different than other times- people did express more concern and worry, but life continued. The three synagogues that I attended all addressed the current events as central parts of sermons and speeches and recitations of Psalms. We who live here were referred to there as "our Israeli brethren." One rabbi insisted on hugging me because I was an "Eretz Yisrael Jew."

A number of times, I thought and articulated to those close to me that I was fascinated and maybe even confounded by my earnest and eager desire and attempt to enter a war zone. Why?? Who would want to do that? And why?

And here is what I realized: in my thoughts then and there, I connected consciously to something that usually lives under the surface, and that is that I have a dedication and a mission and a purpose: to be here in time of need, and... to serve- family and others.

Way to Avoid the Pop-Ups When This Blog Comes to Your Email

 Sorry, gang, that Blogspot changed their email delivery system a few months ago and now everyone gets this blog via follow.it with its pop-up ads. An easy way to avoid this is to bookmark my blog and then just use the email notification as a tip that something new has been written and go to the blog. Voila--no pop-up ads! No "click here" notifications. Just "We Made Aliyah" ;)

Aaaaand—he’s home!!!

 B”H after an extra week in the US and lots (and lots and lots) of time with our kids and cousins in NY, Shalom Shachne made it home last night! 

We were hoping he’d get to visit Barbara, his stepmother, in  FL, and my mother in Boston with the extra time, but the travel agent told him he had to stay in NY, since if he was offered an El Al flight and wasn’t there to take it, he’d be at the bottom of the list for the future (and since the original estimate of his arrival home was July 7, we weren’t taking any chances).

Airport was Covid-esque in terms of small crowds (and great parking spots)

Beyond thankful that he is back!!!

After Twelve Days....

 Please Gd, this is over. Yesterday, a cease fire with Iran was announced to start at seven in the morning. Starting at 5:13 a.m., we got five pre-warnings that missiles were on the way. B''H they skipped over our section of the country, but unfortunately, four people were killed in Be'er Sheva.....

Best armchair quarterback analysis I heard was that Trump announced the cease fire on his own. Worked for Israel because we've accomplished what was necessary there. Worked for Iran because they were looking for a face-saving way out. If the cease fire sticks, Trump gets to play hero and maybe even get that Nobel Peace Prize he seems to want. If not, he's got an excuse to further pound Iran. While I have no idea if any of that is true, it makes sense to me.

Penina and I went out for dinner to celebrate (poor Menashe had already gone back to Jerusalem. #IOweYouDinner!). This is what the mall looked like at 8 PM on Tuesday evening:

And the big "welcome" sign at the entrance was directions to the nearest safe room in the mall:

HomeFront Command lifted most restrictions right around when we went out.  Crazy hard to find a place that was open, as the previous guidelines had only allowed restaurants to be open for delivery or take out and every non-essential business was not allowed to be open (hence the empty mall since only the restaurants and SuperPharm were open). After trying our top four restaurants, we joined the crowds at the burger joint, which seemed to be the only place open for dine-in.

Came home fully prepared and excited to hopefully have a good night's sleep. At 1:30 I heard Percy barking. Tried to ignore him. Thought about how he'd perhaps gotten spoiled being taken upstairs in the middle of the last 12 nights (for warnings/azakot) and maybe he was now expecting to sleep in someone's bed? Finally decided I'd rather sleep than take a sleep-training stand and brought him up to my bed, where he stood on the edge of my bed and barked. Oh noooo. That must mean.....Yup, his doggie friend Theo, who lives on the next block and (literally) walks himself over for playdates a few times a week, was outside our door. Thankfully Theo's family was still awake and someone came to get him shortly after. And after that? A blissful night's sleep.....

I think this was the war we all thought we would have after October 7: brutal but short, as opposed to brutal-but-628-days-long. Praying that Hamas, seeing what happened to Iran (their main supplier of weapons, training, intelligence, etc etc) will free the remaining hostages.

Schools started up again today and no restrictions of movement/business openings. I have never been so happy to see traffic in the mercaz before!! With tremendous thanks to Hashem, I am making dinner for a number of miluim families tonight, who still have the stress and challenge of their husband/father being out at war. 

Still no update on when my dear husband will be coming home. Our-friend-the-doctor is still stuck in the US, so it's not looking so great for either of them to come back before Shabbos. 

Next up: cleaning up the mamad which got WAY too much use over the past 12 days. Thank you, Hashem, for protecting us. May we never need to use it as anything but a guest room again!

(I feel like I could make a fun (for lack of a better word) "find the" game: Can you find Tums? Rescue Remedy? Sefer Tehilim? The "Go Bag" with medicines, our lock box with cash and all our important papers? Shoes for the three of us because if the house gets destroyed and you need to leave the mamad, you need to be able to walk through the wreckage? Dog food and leash? Snacks and more snacks? Flashlights and battery-operated lights in case the power went out? Satellite phone? Oy. Never mind. I'm getting stressed even thinking about what's in there!)

Update on the Rest of the Family

 It's really weird to have all of our immediate family members who are in Israel in our house and the sum total is....three: Penina, Menashe and me. (Well, four if we're including Percy, but he's not a big traveler)

Shalom Shachne left two weeks ago to go visit his mother and brothers in Los Angeles and then go to NY to visit our kids there. And there he remains. There are something like 100,000 Israelis who are out of the country and trying to come back now. First spots are filled with humanitarian needs (although even our friend who is an MD did not get on a flight yet), soldiers returning for reserve duty and unaccompanied minors (geesh--get those kids home NOW!). El Al keeps sending him emails like, "Sorry, today's not your day, buddy". 

Ilana was on a school trip to Poland when things heated up with Iran. She was supposed to come back home for a few days, pack her stuff and then head to NY to work in a summer camp. When it became clear that she was not going to be able to come home, Penina played travel agent and switched her tickets around to get her to New York without coming home. Except Ilana only had her Israeli passport with her, since she had flown directly from school and we keep her US passport here (it is not necessary to send me messages about always traveling with both passport #WeKnowThatNow). So she missed the last day of the trip and spent the day at the US Embassy in Warsaw getting an emergency passport (thankfully. It was unclear if they would even see her that day, but she was persistent when they tried to send her away).

Just to add to the fun, Israel is now saying that anyone who leaves the country cannot return until 30 days or more have passed. While I understand the reasoning, I hope that changes by the time my next tickets to the US roll around in a month....

After Six Nights of This....

 I'm tired. Much/most/all of the country is tired....

Various posts from my Whatsapp status over the past few days (always a good way to keep track of what's going on with me, for those who know me in real life/have my Whatsapp number). Also good to do it this way because I'm too darn tired to write a whole thing at the moment:

From the night before last:

"Okay, I showered (quickly), took melatonin and ready for lights out. Please Gd: peace, safety and a normal night's sleep"

6:29 am: "I just woke up. We didn't have to go back into the mamad again! Thank you, Hashem!  

I feel so much better from a semi-normal night's sleep ("Iran only sent a volley of intercontinental ballistic missiles to try to kill my entire nation once last night! Wow, I can't believe how refreshing it is that it was only once!"). (PS other parts of the country did have more azakot)"

So I went for a run around the safest part of the city I could think of #FlashbacksToTheBeginningOfTheWar. My Status description says, "Wow, thank you, Hashem, since I know I did not run either this fast or this far. I appreciate the Love Tap". (fun fact: the only other time my run tracker has not been accurate is when I walk around Logan Airport waiting for my flight back here. While I'm dragging my carry-on along trying to get my steps in, I always notice (and appreciate) that the km get racked up in a way that is clearly not accurate (but IS appreciated). I assume it has something to do with electrical interference/GPS usage from all the planes there and, well, doesn't that make sense re. why my run tracker wouldn't be accurate at the moment [PS I always fly at night from here and never put my tracker on, so don't know if it's every airport, but I wouldn't be too surprised]).

It was a nice run and good to be out, even if I did feel a might creaky. Then, when I was coming home:

(Penina gets extra points for always doing her part to make sure I know danger is on the way)

And just a last few memes before I try to go take a nap before work:

What time is it? Who am I? Why did I wake up? Did I even sleep? Did we win already?

Who are we? The Israelis
What do we want? Sleep!
And what will we do? Wait for the azazka

'Night all!

A Day In Our Lives, During These Crazy Times....

Everyone woke up late due to the late-night azakot last night. I was exercising in my room (running outside would be folly) when I suddenly realized it was 9:20 and Percy usually goes for a walk at 8. I took him from the mamad, where he was with Penina and Menashe (they had given up moving back after the second siren and decided to stay there the rest of the night. I figured that the azaka was going to wake me wherever I was, so I might as well be comfortable in my own bed).

Heartfelt davening. 

I had told the Yeshiva that I would not be coming in person (as a nurse, I could technically have gone #CovidFlashbacks, but, again : FOLLY!), but would do clinic virtually if students needed me. Most were scheduled to fly out tonight, but that will not be happening since the airport is closed for the foreseeable future.

Penina, Menashe and I went grocery shopping. Limit of two cartons of eggs and two milks per person (and most stores were running low on milk). We got lots of goodies to tide us over: "If we have to live through war, we're not going to be concerned about the grocery budget. Buy whatever you want". 

The woman who organizes gluten-free meals for soldiers thought she had both a need and a driver, so I made 5 meals of GF falafel with quiona-brown rice pilaf, salad, GF pita and homemade GF cookies (from the freezer). 

Then, time to leave for work (private duty RN with an incredible Holocaust survivor who lives about ten minutes away). I called my mother as I started driving and thus missed FOURTEEN calls/Whatsapps/Facetimes from Penina and Menashe trying to make sure I knew that an "early warning stay near a safe space" had been announced. I did not know. Eek. When I finally saw that Penina was calling me on time 14, I was almost to work, thankfully. I walked in about three minutes before the siren went off and was able to help "my lovely lady" get to the mamad.

mamad hand-holding chain between me, her and her husband

I had ended up bringing the meals with me, as the coordinator was having trouble contacting the volunteer driver (which, if he is in the Army, is understandable). When I was ready to leave work, she told me she wasn't able to find anyone and that the meals were going far away so I couldn't bring them myself (honestly, I would only have gone within my city limits). As I was driving home (after updating Penina and Menashe that I was leaving and would put my phone where I could see incoming alerts), I thought to call the two miluim families I often cook for and explain that I had fresh GF meals that couldn't be frozen and would they like? I had been concerned that I might not be able to cook for these two families this week, so it was great that they both said 'yes' and, although not how I had planned it, I was glad their families could get a meal they didn't need to prepare.

Tonight we were supposed to attend a wedding at the same winery Penina and Menashe got married in. All in-person gatherings were canceled, however ;( . SO moved by the incredible letter the families sent out earlier today, which read, in part:

"Tonight was meant to be a joyful celebration of N. and G's wedding....Unfortunately, we are unable to hold the event as originally planned.

But as our history has shown time and again, the Jewish spirit is not easily shaken. N. and G. are resolute in their commitment--not only to each other, but to building a life rooted in faith, resilience and love. They have chosen to proceed with a small, intimate chuppah in a private home in the Old City of Jerusalem, a place deeply meaningful to them both and steeped in the eternal legacy of our people.

They will not allow the ayatollahs of Iran--or any enemy of Am Yisrael--to define their future. With Hashem's help, they will begin their life together with the same courage and devotion that have always carried the Jewish people forward, even in the most uncertain times"

Watched the wedding virtually (the bride carried a Mashiach-welcoming tambourine. Chills). It was so beautiful to see our people's resilience!

I slept from 10-midnight when a pre-warning woke us up. Back to the mamad. To wait and wait. Best case scenario: Israel knocked everything down outside of the country. At the moment, it's  unclear. 

Praying for peace. Praying for safety. 

Iran

It's Saturday night and I'm writing this from our mamad. Shalom Shachne is in Los Angeles, visiting his Mom and brothers, and Ilana is on a school trip to Poland. 

Thursday night, after Israel carried out targeted attacks on Iran's nuclear facilities and leaders (feel free to PM me if you need any convincing that reducing Iran's nuclear capabilities is anything but a huge chesed to the world), Israel sent out an alert to everyone's phones. It was a different alert sound than normal; while I jump from the regular tone, this one made me jump practically out of my skin, partially because I had no idea what the tone meant, but it clearly was nothing good given how it sounded and the fact they it was sent at three in the morning. I grabbed Percy and headed to the mamad. It took quite a while to figure it out, but it was basically a warning by the country that it had done these attacks and Iran might respond ASAP.

In my opinion, the best comment out of the many rawther-snarky memes and videos that came out after this: "This warning could have been an email"

Thursday evening, before anything started, Penina and Menashe had said that if things started getting sticky with Iran they would come for Shabbos, but late in the afternoon on Friday, after Penina's online classes ended at two. They have no mamad in their apartment and no miklat  (communal shelter) in either their building or their neighborhood (the recommended safe spaces are underground parking garages).  After they had to twice sprint to a nearby hotel and hang out with the rest of the neighborhood in the underground stairwells Thursday night, I was lamenting that they hadn't come earlier. Now, who knew if travel was safe? All buses had been canceled. 

And then the news that 100 drones had been sent towards Israel and prepare to batten down the hatches when they arrived, around 11 Friday morning. Two different friends had invited me to come stay with them over Shabbos so it wouldn't be here alone with Percy. I had planned to stay home until late in the afternoon and then head over to Julie's house (closer than Michal's). With news of 100 drones, however, I decided to head over as soon as I could get myself together: I changed into Shabbat clothes that were comfortable enough to sleep in, packed six liters of water (which had been sold out in the mercaz that morning, so, basically, I was bringing the ultimate hostess gift), 3 dozen cookies out of the eight dozen chesed cookies I had made Thursday evening, most of which had not been delivered yet, 1/2 a watermelon, Percy and his travel house.....Basically, by the time I was done packing I could barely get down the stairs! Thankfully, Aliza (the flower girl at Penina and Menashe's wedding) came to help me get to their house. Gd bless the 12 year-olds!!!

It was very calming to be with others and even more calming that Israel was able to shoot down the drones. Then: decision time. Should I just stay there until Shabbat was over? Go home and hope to be able to come back in the afternoon? B''H the decision became clear (go home and stay there) once Penina and Menashe were able to book a taxi here. I was expecting price gouging (and would have been fine to pay it), but the price was only about $10 over normal (don't worry, we gave the guy a healthy tip).

It was such a relief knowing that they would have a mamad available and that we were together. We cooked more (I had planned to go to Michal's for Friday night so hadn't made anything for dinner) and I made another 8 dozen chocolate chip cookies for a group of soldiers that had ended up in our city and without food for Shabbat. Someone from our neighborhood who took over the cookies (and lots of other things from lots of other people) sent this video. Never tell a Jewish mother (or father!) that people might be hungry, and especially not over Shabbos!

https://youtube.com/shorts/9ev3-5BpNQI?si=W6Qw4af18yb5CLTE

Friday night, just as we were finishing lighting Shabbos candles, the first siren happened. And then the whole night was this.....

https://youtube.com/shorts/9ev3-5BpNQI?si=25X5nw3tTlE1Unc7

HUGE thanks to the Rabinowitz family for the interlinear tehilim they gave Penina as a bat mitzvah gift a decade ago. While we've had a number of sirens on Shabbat/Holidays (when we don't use phones), this was the first all-nighter we've had when we got the giant reminder that IT'S ALL HASHEM. For the first time ever, I finished the entire Sefer Tehilim in one day, and got tremendous comfort from it. 

Evidently today was some kind of holiday in Iran and and it was quiet during the day. My friend Sharon and her adult son walked over for lunch (they are up the stairs and over one building so they said they felt safe that they could either get back home or get to us if a siren started). Her husband is also away in the US and we had planned "Feminocentric Shabbos Lunch" with a single mom who lives nearby, but not 90 seconds-to-get-to-shelter nearby, so we weren't surprised that she didn't show up (we set lunch to start at 12-12:15 so assumed they weren't coming as soon as it was 12:15).

And so the day passed. And here we are again, in the mamad with huge booms overhead.

Before signing off, I'd like to share a beautiful prayer that my dear friend Kelly wrote while texting with me:

Praying for peace. Praying for safety. 

 

Omer Shem Tov in Boston (!)

 

photo by Sheila :)

With thanks to Cousin Loren and Morah Sheila who tipped me off, I have enjoyed reading about Omer Shem Tov's recent trip to Boston. Combined Jewish Philanthropies paid for him and his parents to come to Boston. He was met by day school students at the airport, spoke at a synagogue, toured Gillette stadium and threw out the first pitch at Fenway Park on Monday night, at Jewish Heritage Night. 

The Boston Herald had a write-up and this photo, of Omer surrounded on the pitcher's mound by Jewish Red Sox staff members:

I had been wondering how hard it was for an Israeli (aka "someone with zero baseball background") to learn to throw a pitch. The Herald reports that he practiced a few times in Israel but wasn't nervous because, "after all the things I've been through" there are very few things "that can affect me". 

As we learn more about the horrific conditions of his captivity (CBS News, reporting on his visit, writes that he was fed "one biscuit a day with salty water"), I'm glad he was able to get some extra support and love from Boston. 

Here is a video of Omer describing some of his captivity:

https://youtu.be/pok1RqlduVI?si=9zGICG8CCK1vDsO8

Eurovision 2025

Some interesting background that I wanted to share:

Israel's contestant this year, 24 year-old Yuval Rafael, is a survivor of the Nova massacre. I saw a video that overlaid her singing at Eurovision with a recording of her phone call to her father on October 7. Chilling. He likely saved her life by telling her to hang up and pretend to be dead (like most of the people around her). For eight hours she lay covered in corpses.....And survived.

And she's no long-term professional: her first on-stage performance was only six months ago.

Eurovision was held in Basel, Switzerland this year. Site of the 1901 Fifth Zionist Congress and Theodor Herzl's famous speech. Yuval recreated Herzl's historic balcony photo:

And the set she sang on during the contest was made to resemble a giant chandelier and balcony. Basically, it was a Herzl homage ;)

And what's this last photo??

It's not my photo, but shows the Eurovision results on the left and the Home front Command incoming missile alerts on the right. As YnetNews said, "Coinciding with Saturday's announcement of the winner, air raid sirens sounded across Israel amid missile fire from Yemen". (Our area, thankfully, was out of the zone)

PS: Israel came in second place, and won the popular vote! 

Yom HaZikaron 2025

 Today is Yom HaZikaron, Memorial Day. 

"Tzfira" siren last night and one again this morning. These sirens start the same as a run-to-a-bomb-shelter azaka, but the tone of a tzfira is steady, whereas the "danger sound" goes up and down. And how sad that the official recommendations say something like, "in the event of a rocket attack at the same time as the tzfira, the sound will change to rising and falling". 

The numbers are so hard to fathom.....

316 people added since last Memorial Day and 18 in our little city alone. Our city is soliciting public input for which design to use in the planned memorial for the 18 fallen war heroes, and how sad that the main comment on the three designs is, "which one could accommodate more names if needed, Gd forbid?"

But 25,417 is very hard to wrap one's head around. 

Even 18 is very hard. 

So I want to bring it down to one: 

Our neighbor, Binyamin Airley, who was killed in action in Gaza last November. The Airleys live across the street from us. 

Binyamin's mom, Jen, wrote a beautiful article for Aish HaTorah called "Israel Memorial Day: A Silence that Screams".  So many quotes that I'm thinking of putting in here, but I'll leave it at this, that we have "gratitude for every young man and woman who carried on their shoulders the destiny of our people, even at the cost of their own lives". 

I don't know who drew this, but it captures the feeling....

Last year, I approached some of you personally to ask you to contribute to "Beit Binyamin", the respite house in Tzfat that the Airleys opened in Binyamin's memory. At Beit Binyamin, soldiers, first responders,  and army families come for a day or a weekend to recharge. 

Last year, we were helping fund a wish. This year, we are helping to fund an up-and-running healing center that has helped hundreds of individuals and families. 

Just some of the groups who have been helped at Beit Binyamin:

--families have come to retreats that give members precious time with each other

-front line soldiers

--wives of reserve soldiers (some of whom have been holding their families together essentially alone since the war started) 

--mothers of critically-wounded soldiers

--lone soldiers (those without family in the country. Many are from the US)

--and those directly affected by the war, like the single mother whose house was hit by a rocket. She came for a few days to Beit Binyamin with her two children while her house was being repaired.

The motto of Beit Binyamin is "Healing the Nation, One Retreat at a Time". Here is a short video explaining more:

If you are able to make a contribution, it would be greatly appreciated. As they Airleys say, they are helping heal those who "gave everything. And now they need you".

Here is the link to donate: https://causematch.com/beitbinyamin25/donate/

Jen says the hardest thing is having to turn people away due to lack of space. They are constantly renting nearby Air B&B space for their retreats, as Beit Binyamin itself has only eight bedrooms. So if you know anyone who wants to donate a building, let me know and I'll put you in touch with Jen directly.

Pesach 2025

 Well, we're almost ready!

The supermarket looks like this:

Chana arrived at 5:45 this morning 🥴 and Percy is blissed-out with having Chana, Penina and Ilana at home.

And then there are the heartrending parts of this season this year. How has it been 514 days that so many of our people have been held hostage? These hostages are seeing their SECOND Pesach in captivity. Pray for them (we will have a list of the hostages at each person's plate during the Seder). 

If you have a moment for some further reading, I was very moved reading the interviews in the latest HaMizrachi magazine. Called "Arba Imahot: The Stories of Four Mothers of Hostages on the Festival of Freedom", the mothers interviewed are those of released hostages Agam Berger and Romi Gonen, the mother of Daniel Perez, an Israeli Army soldier killed on October 7 whose body is still being held in Gaza, and the mother of soldier Matan Angrest, who is still being held captive (may he be released soon, please Gd).

Shabbat Shalom and Chag Sameach! 

A Week With a LOT of Cooking

I had a rather rare two afternoons off of work this week, and used my time to start getting our house in order for Pesach (did I mention my cleaning lady decided to go back to the Philippines? Baaaaad timing) and cook for chesed. As more (and more) men have been called back to reserve duty, there is a huge need to assist their families. Some of these men have been "in" for more than 400 days......

I reached out to the local contact person for HaOgen for Drafted Families and told her I could make two meals for families. They used to keep a spreadsheet that was accessible by volunteers; the last time I checked, there were 34 families. She told me that, in our city alone, there are now 270 families asking for help from the organization. 

I was so happy to be able to help a woman with 7 year-old twins. She likes to eat healthy, and when I offered her some dinner choices she jumped at tofu with brown rice. She they got that, spring rolls and a fruit salad.

The other family has 9 (!!) kids and ate gluten-free. That was quite a challenge as I really have no idea of what are appropriate quantities for that number of people (and I also thought the mom was telling me that there were only three at home. Gd bless my lousy Hebrew.....She was saying that three people would NOT be home that night. Eek. Good thing I put in my "regular meal" plus a deli platter and baguettes, assuming that I was not understanding something)

And then the woman who organizes meals for families in my little neighborhood asked if I could cook for two families this week as well. While I'm not really friendly with either woman, these are (English-speaking) people who live right me. In for a penny, in for a pound, I decided. I bought a LOT of chopped meat, woke up early before work and rolled over 4 dozen meatballs and made oatmeal-chocolate chip bar cookies. 

everyone got meatballs, rice, fresh vegetables with hummus and cookies

(Lucky for Shalom Shachne and me, we had lots of leftovers from Shabbos so, aside from making a soup and some salads, I didn't cook much for us!)

Then last night, Thursday, I did my usual baking for families with a medical crisis and then looked at the lists going around for what food was needed for soldiers. Having had a big food chesed week already, I did not sign up for anything until Thursday night, in case I was "done". Ended up making a vegan main (there are lots of vegan soldiers. Actually, just  lots  of vegans in general) of quinoa brown rice pilaf with chick peas. Then two trays of oatmeal chocolate chip bars (I think I've got the recipe memorized by now!)

Woke up this morning to do my Shabbos cooking and felt it was no problem to do a little more: one of the lists going around had only one blank on it: gluten-free cookies. As Henry V says, "Once more: into the breach!". Or, in this case, to the oatmeal-chocolate chip bars but this time with GF oats and GF flour. (PS: in this vein, the organization WheatFree Warriors could use a little financial help. 100% of donations goes to getting GF food soldiers and displaced families with celiac disease)

This post is not to get nice comments from people, it's to encourage ALL OF US to do more to help others and stretch ourselves to make the world a better place. 

Shabbat Shalom. May it be peaceful.

Shabbat (with 13 people plus a dog in the mamad)

As Penina and Menashe were heading up to bed in the guest room/mamad she said something like, "I hope not to, but I'm fairly sure I'll see you all later. Good night!".  

The timing of Friday night's ballistic missile was much more "civilized" (likely the only time I will use that word in relation to the #$^&^! Houthis) and the air raid siren went off at 10:30 pm. In we all trooped, and, boy, we were quite a crowd. Cousin Coby's yeshiva was having their school-wide Shabbaton in our city, so he and three friends were staying on the third floor just for sleeping, with their meals elsewhere (and YAY for Coby for running a blazing fast 10K in the Ashkelon Road Race Friday morning: 44.43!!!). Ilana was staying with three friends from seminary in her room (squeezed in like sardines!) and Philly's own Eitan GS was in the den (and YAY for Eitan who ran 15K in Ashkelon that morning and had an amazing race!!! [So impressed with both of them because it was very cold and pouring rain Friday morning. Eek!]). So we did, indeed, fit 13 people plus a dog in our mamad (Ilana, her friends and I sat with Penina on her bed and everyone else was on/around/standing near Menashe's). Extra points to Coby's friend who, when the siren went off, thought to grab the candy platter off the dining room table where they had been hanging out and playing games. Since everyone had only briefly met upon arrival, this was our "ice breaker" time. Sheesh.....Quite convivial, though! And the rest of Shabbat was "quiet" (that's the code word everyone uses for "missile-free") and wonderful in every way, b''H. 

Sunday morning, I went for a gentle, relaxing, lovely 4K run before work. I pulled a leg muscle in December and I'm still working on my rehab. And it was, indeed, gentle, relaxing and lovely until km 3.5. I was near enough to home that I could see my block and also at the uphill part at the end where I was thinking of just walking the last 1/2 km since it was uphill and I'm trying not to push my body too much. And then I had the very weird experience on CLEARLY hearing the azaka siren, but in the distance. Pulled out my phone: nothing on the app (kind of funny that I pulled out my phone; believe me, you do not need to look at your phone to hear it when the Homefont Command app goes off). Maybe I was wrong and I was hearing an ambulance or something? No, ambulances don't have that kind of sustained WHOOOOOOOOOOO. So maybe it was too far away for me to need to do anything about. Meanwhile I was slogging up the hill. Then I heard the BOOM BOOM of the missile being intercepted and decided that I would *really* rather not be outside during this. The thought of possibly needing to lie down on the sidewalk with my hands over my head for ten minutes while I can SEE my house was just so unpleasant that I ran almost the whole way home (one walking break when my lungs were in total rebellion) and shaved an entire minute off my per kilometer time for that last bit 😂

Turns out that much of the country had an azaka and our city was juuuuust outside the zone that got the alert. For those of you know the area, the moshav where Shalom Shachne goes horseback riding had a siren. The part of our city that is literally across the street from the moshav did not. But people in that part of the city were every more confused than I was because they heard the siren quite loudly. 

my Whatsapp status

Today, I'm taking "before work" off to write this. My body is still recovering from that last 1/2 km!

Aaaaaaand: We're Back

 To incoming missiles from the #$&^%^ Houthis, that is....

They're back to their malevolent schemes between 3-4 in the morning (I'll give them this: they were very punctual this morning 🙄

 

When I had trouble falling back asleep, I used my time well and got a huge head start on Shabbbat cooking and baking for chessed. Except that it was really challenging as I hadn't done my grocery shopping yet.....

three cakes for soldiers and one for the weekly drop off for families with a medical crisis. One for late-night munching by Cousin Coby and his yeshiva buddies who will be staying here

Just to keep things interesting, the @#$%&& Houthis tossed over another one this evening:

I was in a mamad with about 12 other people this evening and the general reaction, despite the news almost-immediately saying the missile was from Yemen and the Houthis, was wondering if that could *really* be true because 7:30 pm "just isn't their time".

b''H both missiles shot down outside of Israel. 

Hoping for a quiet Shabbat. Especially because we are hosting a record-breaking number of people. While I think our mamad can fit 14 people plus a dog, I'd really rather not find out....

Purim 2025

Purim this year was Thursday night and Friday day, which led to the rather unusual "Purim Meshulash", which doesn't mean a lot to most people, unless you live near a walled city, like: JERUSALEM (of which we are a suburb). As the OU Orthodox Union says: "some of the mitzvos of Purim cannot be fulfilled on Shabbos, and they are observed instead on Friday and Sunday. In such instances, Purim in Yerushalayim spans three days, and that is why it is called Purim Meshulash (the three day Purim)". The next Purim Meshulash won't be for 20 years (!)

We in the burbs (like most people around the world) had the unusual situation of having our Purim seduah meal and ASAP after getting ready for Shabbos. Large numbers of Jerusalemites came to our city on Thursday/Friday and vice versa on Sunday. Ilana came with four friends on Friday morning and then went back to spend Shabbat in Jersualem. (I will just say that it was blissfully boring being here on Sunday and the lack of traffic was fabulous!)

It was lovely to host Menashe's family for the festive meal 

Iosi is in the middle, in the Pink Panther costume. We were a very colorful crowd!

and fun to dress up

Percy as a very tired cowboy with sparkly hat and bandana

This year's Mishloach Manot gift packages were, sadly, very similar to last year:

"A donation has been made in your honor to the Kedma Support for Army Families Initiative. These funds are used to buy gift cards to restaurants that are then given to army wives and kids--thereby supporting both milium families and Israeli small businesses. As an added level of support, your donation will also provide both recreational and therapeutic programs for milium kids"

And a list of current hostages and their names to daven for 

Can't believe that we've just had our second Purim at war (preceded by the second Simchat Torah, Chanukah, Tu B'Shevat, sigh sigh sigh)

Omer Shem Tov is Home!

 b''H, he was released from captivity on Shabbat. In all, six hostages were released that day (Omer, Tal Shocham, Eliya Cohen, Omer Wenkert, Avera Mengitsu and Hisham al-Sayed).

Yet another disgusting handover ceremony by Hamas, with Omer being required to kiss two of his captors on the forehead and "wave to the crowd" before going with the Red Cross (who continue to stun me with their absolute uselessness; two other hostages, Evyatar David and Guy Gilboa-Dalal, were brought in a van and made to watch these six hostages get freed. And then taken back into captivity. The Red Cross [aside from that they have visited NO hostages AT ALL in over 500 days] have been reported to have seen these two hostages and did.....NOTHING.

Omer lost 37 pounds while in captivity, and was kept alone for 450 days in a tunnel. 

https://www.gov.il/en/pages/event-omer-semtov220225

In an interview with the "Meaningful Minute", Shelly Shem Tov said that she began keeping Shabbat exactly a year ago, on Shabbat Mishpatim, and has kept Shabbat ever since. "She claims it's not coincidence he was released on exactly the same Shabbat. She says that just as she kept Shabbat, Shabbat saved them"

May Omer regain his physical- and mental health soon. If the prayers of a nation can help, he's certainly got them.

Omer Shem Tov

I heard Shelly Shem-Tov, mother of hostage Omer, speak a few months ago. Omer has asthma and celiac disease and that strikes so close to my heart (I have asthma and two of our kids have celiac disease. And each time released hostages speak of their entire food rations being one pita bread a day, I think of Omer).

Last week, Shelly spoke about what it's like seeing other hostages being released and reunited with their families:

"I have birth to my Omer by Cesarean section and I didn't feel the contractions. Now I feel like I'm in moments of severe labor. They ask me to breathe deeply to ease the pain. Every moment is an eternity. The hours of a normal birth have turned into weeks. Every Shabbat is harder than the next. When I'm in it, it's an imaginary delivery room. There are other mothers there. They receive their children. The sight of this becomes harder and harder every week. I have no control.

I know that everything is accurate and my Omer will come to me in the right place and at the right time. He is alive....And like during the birth, when they placed him on my chest, this time I will run to him and hug him and cry. I will cry with joy. My child will be born again. I pray to the Creator of the World that it will be this week and I need your help. Dear women, you will help me. You are my midwives. On Shabbat, do an act of strengthening for him. Whoever is able to keep this Shabbat for Omer, I will be so very grateful to them. I know it is very difficult, but just because it is so difficult, Gd will reward us for it and Omer will be guarded and protected."

It was announced yesterday that Omer Shem-Tov is on the list of hostages set for release this Shabbat. Please Gd.

Shabbat Shalom