Friday Morning walking up and down Yaffo street on the way to the shuk. we saw this add.
I am not sure if this is real or just a prank, I am not sure what this guy is looking for. We only know that he is single, religious, age of 27, and he is looking for a women up to the age of 35. Here are my questions:
1. What is the minimum age?
2. Should the interested woman be religious as well, or are we slightly progressive here?
3. Is he tall? Short?
4. Does he work? Study?
5. What makes him tick?
You can`t just walk around and hung these kinds of adds.

Details my friend, details.
But the big mistery is:

6. What happenned to his mother/aunt/good neighbour? they should be looking out for him, not?

On Friday I was a bit low. Low energy, low levels of optimism, Low.
Luckily D was in Jerusalem, part of his goodbye tour. We decided to visit the Shuk - Machne Yehuda market, and slowly slowly the shocking colours of the peppers, the oranage sharon fruit, the purple olives, the husky voices, the scents the by passers and D`s out put on life brought me back.
Long live the olives and cheese.

Menachem Begin

Today marks 15 years since the death of Menachem Begin. When we reflect back we see a simple, honest man, who never looked for personal glory, wasn`t in the politics for the money or the rating. He was there because of a deep sense of responsibility. The generation that fled the Holocaust understood the existence of the State of Israel in a different context, and he felt it was his own responsibility ring Israel to piece.

He was a family friend , you can see him and his wife Aliza in the old photo`s. I still have a book of his - it has a hand written dedication to him by the author. Stories about him were told, and we learned to appreciate the great leader because of the simple man he was, because of his excellent Hebrew.
His last request was a simple one: to buried in Mt olives, next to his wife, next to OLI HAGARDOM in the ancient Jewish cemetery. Not in Mt. Herztel with the other prime minsters.

Click on the title to read more.

Suffolk summer 2006

Yesterday I drove to Beer Sheva (130 KM), today to Herzelya(80km). Its a lot. almost 500 km in two days. No wonder that in the last 4 month I drove more than 8000 km.
Its not good for the environment. I usually take the bus to university, unless I am offering someone a lift, but still its a lot.
I feel its part of being Jewish, I have to obey, to work and keep the land. I don't really work the land, I work in a office,sort of. So I really should keep the land, so I recycle, I try to use less energy, but I just feel I am not doing enough.
shame

Finished my papers. I just have to polish them and make sure there are NO spelling mistakes. Whats the chance?

So, how are your papers doing?

Thank you for asking. I have finished two papers, one of them is about Charles Boudlier and Uri Zvi Greenberg which I enjoyed writing. the other was reflecting on my own work - not very impressive. the tird paper I should start writing is dedicated to Sonnets. A genre I don't particularity like.
So its only another one to go!

Tim Hardin

I feel there is something of his music echoing within me.
I felt this way with some others: Paul Simon, Gavriel Balahasan, Nina Simone, maybe few more. I keep listening to him in a loop, trying and failing to understand his magic.

READING IS THE ENEMY OF WRITING

I spent Shabbat at my sister`s. She lives in a Yishuv - sort of a suburb, with no downtown though, somewhere on the green line. Its a mixed Yishuv -religious, non religious, people on the left and people on the right. You get the idea. Nice life, people with nice salaries, a voulnteering community, caring, gossiping, the usual.

My nephews go to Bnei Akiva - the Religious Zionist Youth Movement we went to when we were at their age. So they had this leaflet they brought home from Bnei Akiva. Few words of Torah few announcements and three jokes.
The jokes were not funny which is fine with me, I don't get most of the jokes, and only few special people can make me laugh.

The point is the three jokes were themed about:
1. People with mental health issues
2. People with over weight issues
3. Animals

Is including these jokes considered as best practice of Education for the year of 5767? I think NOT.
I find this problematic, and standing against the raison de etre of youth movements. I say this with a lot of pain. I thought the world, and its youth movements had became a better place. You see, in my days kids cruelty was spontaneous, not institutionalized.

Jerusalem Book Fair

If you click on the title you will get the programme!
It looks quite intersting. Shimon Adaf who is a briilant poet will talk about Fantasy books, cool. Arii De Loca in discussion with Achinoam Nini. It`s very Itallian this year.

(I wish I knew how to properly link,Is there anyone out there who can show me how???)

Happiness and Friends - very kitsch, be aware.

I am very proud of my friends. Sometimes we just take them for granted. We tell them how much we appriciate them at thier birthday or after they helped us with our stuck car (thanks A!)
But really. I feel g-d had blessed me with the friends I have. Its not because what they give me, Its about how much I am inspired by them.
I see one of my friends going through a rough time. I see her struggling, I see her confused, and I see she is not giving up. She is demanding more from life. She is taking control back and growing.
I see another one, I was deeply and so wrongly in love with. I see the decisions he made, the price he had to pay for it. I see how he is going from one succses to another, and I know how hard it is.
And I learn from them. Not from these two only, and not just from the support they give thier other friends or me when in need. I learn from the daily proof that life can and shold be better.

They say that this time of the year is harsh and cruel. The bitter end of the winter, the anticipation for sunny promising days that`s not always fullfiled.
And I say - Adar is around the corner - or the weekend, Purim is not far away, its a month we are told to be happy. How can one be told to be happy? surely it should come from an inner feeling, that one has to acquire.
Butyesbutnobutyes, we CAN be told, sometimes its a state of mind. Its looking around and finding a reason to be happy. Just get out from your moody blues and...
When I look around for reasons or reminders for happiness I see my friends, they give me a very good reason to be happy!

More flowers, had to!

Newspapers update

Haartez is still going down the hill, the Shabbat supplement is slightly better, but even their Culture and Literature supplement was not that good. I usually like the life style part - but the article about children enjoying non kosher food just turned me off food for few minutes.
However Makor Rishon was excellent - very interesting discussion about gender roles, Halacha and a very good culture section.
Te JC is doing very well. Got into tears reading the IVF diary.
the rebranding of Haair seems to do wonders to that local paper. A great face lift, no doubt.

Very Addictive!

I loved this game - the Bubble Shooter - just click on the title.
Just remember I warned you. I promised myself not to play till I finish my papers, I am good with keeping it.

Shabbat Flowers

I met with my friend S tonight, as I pointed out in the past most of my friends are: S, A, J or M, so I met with the lovely S and we chatted about life, marriage relationships etc. all those heart warming subjects, yeup.
And then she said something really clever about the no-Dignity of Dating, which I thought was intersting, that almost any otherfield of single people`s life is dignified, but dating, about how one acts, what he tells, about we are sharing with complete strangers. But something sounded very familiar. The Dignity of Dating... dignity of dating....It sounds like a title of a book a Chief Rabbi I admire would have written.
Actually I think he, or any other serious rabbi, should write about this sensetive subject, some kind of a Guide for the Single Preplexed. Ethics of Dating, Truth vs. Kindness, What to say, what not and so on. There is so much to write about, with all the hardships one goes through, some good advice and inspiring ideas can always help.
It made me think a lot, which is always a good thing. Thank You S.

שני שירי בדידות

פשוט שלא לרצות בי
הסיבות
ידועות
ארון
מבולגן
יונים
מטרידות
ספרים
רופאי
שיניים
בור
**************************************

ובשרי
בבחינת זר לא יקרב
שקמטי נמלאו פנים
ובשרי מתרפה
ונאסף אל מחבואו
ואני לאן אאסף
שבית הורי התרוקן
וביתי שלי חלל
על כן אני דבקה
במור ולבונה קנמון
וקרם פנים
מכון כושר ותואר שני
על כן אני דבקה

Shabbat Flowers

A very wise woman once told me I should always have fresh flowers at home, no she wasn't in the flower business. Its an advice I keep passing on.
She is right, they do do something to me. Not only make me happier, more than that, I think they make my senses sharper.
On Friday I did my food shopping and in the corner of the eye so the flower stand. Took few bunches home.
This shabbat felt different. Might be the flowers. Might be the Ten Commandments, might be Yitro.

Uri Zvi Greenberg- in Hebrew

זהו הבית השני מתוך הפואמה "עם אלי הנפח"

כמו אשה היודעה כי רבו עלי קסמיה
ילעג לי אלי: ברח אם רק תוכל!
ולברוח לא אוכל.

כי בברחי ממנו בחמה נואשת
ובנדר בפי כגחלת לוחשת:
"לא אוסיף עוד ראותו"

אני שב אליו שנית
ודופק על דלתיו,
כאוהב המיוסר.

כאילו אגרת אהבים לי כתב.

GoodGifts

As you know I am a proud addict. If you have a birthday, anniversary, engagement or a shabbat meal coming around, why not using GoodGifts? From my expirience, it never failed.
I would like to strat this in Israel, anyone around to help?
Shabbat Shalom

The magic of Washing Machines

So what`s the deal with washing machines?
The more I think about it the less it makes sense.
How come putting dirty pices of cloths together, with some soap while they are running around them selves in a metal wheel gets all the grease, mud, soup bits and strawberry signs out?

Very proud of my country today. Anew law was ruled: Its prohibited to charge an entrance fee to enter parks or Ganim Ziburim.
Interesting thing: the MKs that started the ball were from Hadash party from extreme left and Shas - sefardi-orthodox party. They all found the idea of charging a person to enter a public green space violating so many rights.
I say: well done!

Wrote two pages yesterday, hope to write few more today. Its getting better. Thank G-d.

Still Procrastinating

Didnt write a thing - no acdemic papers just two poems, one is good the other quite bad.
What should I do to get seriuos and start writing??? Its all in my head now, I read the articles. I read Uri Zvi Greenberg`s poems. Now I need to find this magical technique to transfer it all to the computer.
Help!

So I am on Skype pretending to read an article. I get a phone call from a person I don't know. I ignore the call. I should never talk with strangers, right?
So he tries to chat. He is from Romania.
On one had, its kinda cool. On the other hand its quite scary. I know what you think - She has a blog, her life is in the open, therefore chatting with a guy from Romania makes sense, virtual community yada yada yada.

I am not sure. It doesnt mean I am not sure about blogging,it means I am not sure my life is really in the open,oe should be so.I am not sure I would like to chat with any random person on earth, or from Romania.

(Nothing against Romnia, or Romnian, Some of my best friends and step father etc)

Saw this on my friend`s H Facebook wall.
I like.
knock knock!
Who's there?
Lettuce!
Lettuce Who?
Lettuce In, it's cold out here!!

My frogs reunited

In this photo you can see some of my frogs I had. A year ago I auctioned them in the loving memory of my father.
So if you are lucky enough to have one of them in your house or office, please update us all about how its doing.