"Buying an Apartment on Paper"

 If that statement made your ears hurt, well, I get where you're coming from. It now sounds totally normal to me, though :)

In Israel, there are no "condominiums". You can "buy an apartment" or "rent an apartment", but it's still called an apartment. 

"Buying on paper" means that you are purchasing pre-construction or during construction.

2.5 years ago, we bought an apartment on paper and, two years later it was ready (about 6 months later than their projected date ["due to the war", which doesn't work as a reason since the war had already been going on for several months when we bought....]).

We actually got the keys and had the walkthrough the day my mother died, which makes me get teary and also feels like a good sign (and huge thanks to my dear husband who supported me from afar, did the first walk-through with the company after receiving the keys, and then went to the airport to fly to Boston).

Our new place is about a 20 minute walk (there's a hill) or 3 minute drive from our current one. We will still attend the same shul. It's a fair bit smaller than where we live now, but we're really looking forward to to owning a place in Israel.

Next up: actually moving! Send us strength as we pack and pack and pack some more. Moving at the end of May.

Aaaaand---he's back! (Part 2)

Whew! Shalom Shachne's 10 day trip to visit our kids in NY and then his mother and brothers in California was great and, unlike last time, war did not break out. Yippee!

Things are still kind dicey re. "will war break out again?" but, in our neck of the woods, things are still quiet (sadly, not the north of the country where they've had a bunch of sirens).

I'm still at work on "places I haven't run since the war started" (!)

Still just enjoying life without pre-alerts and sirens. May we never have a need to hear them again!

Memorial Day

 Things have, thankfully, continued to feel more "normal". On Friday, all war-related restrictions were lifted:

This evening, we had the (continuous tone) siren for Yom HaZikaron, Memorial Day. Tomorrow there will be another one....

We are using our time this somber evening to rally support for Beit Binyamin, the respite house in Tzfat started by our neighbors in memory of their son hy''d who was killed in action in November 2023. As time has gone on, the work of Beit Binyamin has become needed even more... There are more wounded soldiers, more wives of reservists who need support, more bereaved parents and young widows, more first responders who have seen things they wish they never had.....Beit Binyamin helps start these people on the road to healing. 

The video at the top of this page shows it better than my words can say:

https://causematch.com/beitbinyamin26/

Thanks for your consideration!

https://causematch.com/beitbinyamin26/goldberg

Things are Feeling More Back to Normal :)

 When Chana was here, I actually left Beit Shemesh for the first time since the war started on February 28! Saturday night we went to the Kotel and ohhh, it was SO GOOD to be back!

(PS no in-person health clinics for me at the moment; I'm doing care management for that company now. Great timing because specifically during the war is when all the schools would have wanted on-site health care and I'm SO glad I didn't have to drive to Jerusalem every day during the war)

In running, I'm doing a series (posted on my Whatsapp status) of "places I haven't been to since the war started" ;)

 Ilana looked at the following on my status yesterday and said, "oh, that reminds me--can I take a car tomorrow to go to the beach?!" Another friend called me laughing because she was at the beach when she saw my post:

And one final thought that really sums it all up (although, with each passing day I'm feeling more comfortable)

Shabbat Shalom and Chodesh Tov! May this new month bring us only peace in the world, especially our tiny corner of it.

Holocaust Memorial Day

A lot of the lead-up to this year's Yom HaShoah, Holocaust Memorial Day, focused on the siren and making sure that as many people as possible knew it was going to happen and that this particular siren was not a "go to a safe room" siren (although Percy was a well-trained boy and trotted right over to the stairs, which made me get a little more weepy than I already was).

I spent my day with my usual Tuesday schedule, which means being a private nurse for a Holocaust survivor. Her family was saved by receiving transit papers from Japanese diplomat Chinue Sugihara. Here is part of her family's visa:

And, finally, something to think about by Rav Yisrael Meir Lau, himself a Holocaust surivor:

 

Guess How Many....

 No, not jelly beans in a jar....

Data was just released showing how many pre-alerts and sirens various parts of the country had during the past war with Iran, starting on February 28. So guess how many we had:

20?

35?

47? (that was my approximate guess)

Surprisingly (at least to me, and I was here for every one of them and yet still underestimated by quite a lot) the answer is 65.

Want to guess the number of "throw-your-coffee-in-the-air" pre-alerts we had?

cartoon by Devorah Leibert

After knowing we had 65 sirens, my guess was about 100-120. 

But the real answer is 227 (!!)

(And we had it easy compared to Kiryat Shmonah in the North--where cousins Gil and Nitzan live--because they had 214 actual SIRENS)

Let's hope the next cartoon stays just a cartoon.....

Pesach During a War

 The best thing about Pesach this year was that, against all odds, Chana was able to come in. It took her three tickets to get a flight that didn't cancel, but she made it! Now, daven that she is able to get back on her flight on Sunday.....

We had a lovely Seder with Menashe's mother, stepfather, brother and grandma Mari (who came for a two month visit before the war started and is still here waiting for a flight back), Yuliette (formerly of Colombia and then Boston. A lot of Spanish was spoken! [Too bad I took French in school]) and the brother of Penina's good friend who is a student at the yeshiva in our neighborhood and had gotten "warred in" (it's like "snowed in" but more dangerous) and couldn't go home for Pesach. We fit 11 people to sleep over in our house, which is definitely a record! Too bad that, after finishing our Seder at 1:30 in the morning we got a siren two hours later. Blurg.

The rest of the holiday was extremely low-key as it was almost impossible to go on any Chol HaMoed trips :( due to the need to stay near a safe space and Jerusalem's Old City and Kotel closed (bad Covid flashbacks). 

We went to a nearby moshav for a coffee tasting workshop that was very interesting, even though I'm not a big coffee drinker.  And that was literally it!

We'll see how long the cease fire, announced on the last day of Pesach, lasts. In the meantime, it was nice to open the metal shutter on the mamad, and go for a run and not feel like I had to stay on the exact path I've been running, where I know where all the safe rooms are. I hadn't been to this part of the street since the war started:

Sorry Menashe missed the photo, but happy post-Pesach!