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.