Its my house warming party tonight. It means a lot to me. Its more my finally landing party, and also 18 days before my operation it is my way of saying, Hi, who ever is responsible for whats going on, probably G-d Almighty himself, look that`s how I am. Happy, with many friends,able to work to study to progress, capable to throw a wild party, (as wild as a geek like me can be), surly if I can do this I can fully recover, right?
(I do realise its more proving to myself. Not to no one else).
Its also about finding my place, in a practical way - new flat where I want to live, and also in an inner way. being happier with who I am, accepting my flaws, celebrating what I am proud of.
יום חמישי, מאי 31, 2007
יום ראשון, מאי 27, 2007
from Haaretz regarding UK Acedemic boycott
I usually try not to read Haaretz - I would read its litrature and culture supplement, I will flick through it on the internet. Its far from my views. Not tghis morning though...
Battle for Britain
By Haaretz Editorial
Britain has become in recent years the battlefield in Israel's fight for its existence as a Jewish state.
The number of British organizations calling for the boycott of Israel, their public campaigns, and their constant comparisons between Israel and the apartheid regime of South Africa have made the battle for British public opinion particularly significant.
On Wednesday, representatives of the new British University and College Union (UCU) will be meeting in Bournemouth. On the agenda is another proposal to boycott Israel's academic institutions. These proposals have become as regular and as predictable as Qassam attacks on Sderot. The fact that studies at the Sapir Academic College in Sderot are not taking place because of the constant rocket fire from Gaza, even though the college is not in occupied territory and Gaza is no longer occupied, apparently does not bother British academia. The fact that Hamas, which controls the Palestinian Authority, does not recognize even pre-1967 Israel, and commits acts of terror against civilians, does not matter either. These nuances did not stop one boycott initiator from saying last week that justice in the Palestinian-Israeli conflict is entirely on one side.
In the face of boycott proposals by Britain's National Union of Journalists, by a group of British doctors and a group of architects, and in the wake of the Anglican Church's decision to divest from companies cooperating with Israel, even the Israeli left - which opposes the occupation and has been working against it for years - has no choice but to fight back. Taking off the gloves in this debate involves knowingly foregoing the kudos that British academia lavishes on all who are willing to express anti-Israel stands. The UCU has even had the termerity to proclaim that Israeli lecturers who disown the policies of the Israeli government will not be boycotted. It is British academics who should lose sleep over this McCarthyistic demand. Academic freedom means first of all an open exchange of opinions, without coercion, and not shutting people's mouths. Moreover, the British boycott is directed at Israel's academic institutions that in any case are a bastion of opposition to the occupation.
On the 40th anniversary of the Six-Day War, British academia should look realistically at peace efforts in the Middle East: Over the past decade, Israel has elected governments that have expressed the desire of a majority of Israelis for a bilateral solution of two states for two peoples and a withdrawal from most of the settlements. The withdrawal from Gaza was to have been the first stage. The victory of Hamas, which refuses to recognize Israel, cut off the process.
The anti-Zionist winds blowing in Europe, mainly in academia and in Britain, strengthen the position that the very birth of the Jewish state was a mistake. The European hard left regards the Law of Return as the root of all evil; however, without acknowledging the Jewish character of the State of Israel, there is not even a basis for dialogue. British academia is in fact demanding that Israel democratically cease to exist as a Zionist entity, and that it be swallowed up in the non-democratic region in order to pander to the latest trend
Battle for Britain
By Haaretz Editorial
Britain has become in recent years the battlefield in Israel's fight for its existence as a Jewish state.
The number of British organizations calling for the boycott of Israel, their public campaigns, and their constant comparisons between Israel and the apartheid regime of South Africa have made the battle for British public opinion particularly significant.
On Wednesday, representatives of the new British University and College Union (UCU) will be meeting in Bournemouth. On the agenda is another proposal to boycott Israel's academic institutions. These proposals have become as regular and as predictable as Qassam attacks on Sderot. The fact that studies at the Sapir Academic College in Sderot are not taking place because of the constant rocket fire from Gaza, even though the college is not in occupied territory and Gaza is no longer occupied, apparently does not bother British academia. The fact that Hamas, which controls the Palestinian Authority, does not recognize even pre-1967 Israel, and commits acts of terror against civilians, does not matter either. These nuances did not stop one boycott initiator from saying last week that justice in the Palestinian-Israeli conflict is entirely on one side.
In the face of boycott proposals by Britain's National Union of Journalists, by a group of British doctors and a group of architects, and in the wake of the Anglican Church's decision to divest from companies cooperating with Israel, even the Israeli left - which opposes the occupation and has been working against it for years - has no choice but to fight back. Taking off the gloves in this debate involves knowingly foregoing the kudos that British academia lavishes on all who are willing to express anti-Israel stands. The UCU has even had the termerity to proclaim that Israeli lecturers who disown the policies of the Israeli government will not be boycotted. It is British academics who should lose sleep over this McCarthyistic demand. Academic freedom means first of all an open exchange of opinions, without coercion, and not shutting people's mouths. Moreover, the British boycott is directed at Israel's academic institutions that in any case are a bastion of opposition to the occupation.
On the 40th anniversary of the Six-Day War, British academia should look realistically at peace efforts in the Middle East: Over the past decade, Israel has elected governments that have expressed the desire of a majority of Israelis for a bilateral solution of two states for two peoples and a withdrawal from most of the settlements. The withdrawal from Gaza was to have been the first stage. The victory of Hamas, which refuses to recognize Israel, cut off the process.
The anti-Zionist winds blowing in Europe, mainly in academia and in Britain, strengthen the position that the very birth of the Jewish state was a mistake. The European hard left regards the Law of Return as the root of all evil; however, without acknowledging the Jewish character of the State of Israel, there is not even a basis for dialogue. British academia is in fact demanding that Israel democratically cease to exist as a Zionist entity, and that it be swallowed up in the non-democratic region in order to pander to the latest trend
יום שלישי, מאי 22, 2007
I am famous!
I am kinda cleb, in some parts of the world at least.
the beautiful girls there are my ex-chanichot, not professional models.
Thanks to H, for being a great guest and a feeder.
the beautiful girls there are my ex-chanichot, not professional models.
Thanks to H, for being a great guest and a feeder.
The strike is over.
The only bit I like about it is the fact I ad no university on Sfirat Haomer - from Pesach till Shavuot.
I read this morning that we will have shorter breaks, and the semester will run till the end of June - mid July, we might study on Fridays as well.
It not good for me.
My operation is on the 3 week of June, by the time I will PG recover the semester will be over.
Any magic powder anywhere?
The only bit I like about it is the fact I ad no university on Sfirat Haomer - from Pesach till Shavuot.
I read this morning that we will have shorter breaks, and the semester will run till the end of June - mid July, we might study on Fridays as well.
It not good for me.
My operation is on the 3 week of June, by the time I will PG recover the semester will be over.
Any magic powder anywhere?
Shavuot is i the air. I picked up my friend Emily from the airport at 2:30am, I am tired but excited. Feels good to be in Israel for Shavuot, the whole country is preparing it self. Cool cheeses on the shelves, street parties, it nice. Just slightly more atmosphere from what you usually get in your kosher deli.
There is a war in the air too. Sderot is being bombed, Houses dimolished, a women was killed from a direct missle. The army is bombing back in Gaza. How can we fully celebrate the Holiday in Jerusalem when Sderot is bleeding?
There is a war in the air too. Sderot is being bombed, Houses dimolished, a women was killed from a direct missle. The army is bombing back in Gaza. How can we fully celebrate the Holiday in Jerusalem when Sderot is bleeding?
יום ראשון, מאי 20, 2007
המאורר לא ידע את סדר הדברים
האם עליו לדאוג לתמונות המתעופפות בחדר
או למתן את להביו הפולחים בזכרוני
סדר הדברים רצה לרמוז לו לחדול אך כמוני
פלחי מחשבה עולים בו ומערבלים מילים עד שאיני
יכולה לזכור שורשים התמונות
ממונות על תיעוד חלקת הבשר
ניצני נשיות מוקדמת
מתפרשים בדיעבד
בעיה אמרו לי
אולי נדמה לך שכואב
אולי גידולים אותם יש לעקור חושבת על שיעור
חקלאות בקיץ
87 חיילים נעדרים
אמירת תהילים וזיעה
יום שישי, מאי 18, 2007
About the Greenberg Method, and my dear friend Rivka
We were flat mates for a while, and became good friends.Rivka has amazing abilities like healing my right shoulder and doing wonders to others, now the whole world knows about it. very proud of her.
The stress buster
Natasha Reid was desperate to treat her crippling panic attacks without drugs. But neither hypnotherapy nor cognitive behavioural therapy did any good. Finally, she stumbled upon the Grinberg method ...
Tuesday May 8, 2007
The Guardian
My first appointment with a Grinberg method practitioner was a revelation: I had barely got my shoes and socks off before Rivka Halbershtat started reading my feet and promptly recounted my entire physical and emotional history.
I was looking for a way to handle crippling panic attacks without taking anti-depressants, and found a remedy that seemed both baffling and commonsense. I had tried hypnotherapy, which was farcical - the hypnotherapist tried to link all my problems to potty training - and cognitive behavioural therapy, which helped me to analyse my fears and see them as irrational, but the breathing exercises to prevent hyperventilation were impossible in social situations. How could I inhale and exhale for counts of four throughout, say, a job interview?
A friend suggested the Grinberg method, calling it "a kind of a physical therapy for psychological problems". It is quietly gaining ground in complementary therapy circles, and in Berlin - where I live, and where alternative health practices are taken very seriously indeed - it is a rising trend. Most "qualified" practitioners are concentrated in Israel and continental Europe, although next year a new school will open in Los Angeles, and presumably decimate the pedicure industry (sanded down soles of feet make them hard to read).
A wave of Britons are training at European schools this year, while Victoria Oldham already runs a booked-out clinic in London's Triyoga Studios. People will travel great distances to see a particular practitioner - coming to Berlin from as far afield as Israel, Spain and Denmark. The method was developed by the Israeli reflexologist Avi Grinberg in the 1980s. Working as a paramedic and later as a nurse, Grinberg was frustrated by the care provided for patients with chronic health problems, and spent years exploring alternatives from Feldenkrais - which teaches "awareness through movement" - to martial arts and trying techniques such as deep tissue massage and acupressure. The method evolved, and continues to evolve, from this mishmash of references.
What I found startling about Halbershtat's foot diagnosis was how swiftly she got to the point, articulating things that I couldn't. The idea is that, if you stand on your feet all day, your emotional and physical history will show up as scars and marks on your feet.
Her questions invariably hit the mark, and I found myself in tears when she nailed the age I'd been when my family moved countries and I first started to experience anxiety. At this point, my inner sceptic was in revolt - wasn't this like "cold reading" when a fake psychic asks leading questions to extract information? I sent a friend, who is an even greater sceptic than I, off for a foot reading and he also ended up completely bowled over and a little shaken.
Halbershtat was also able to map which parts of my body suffered pain or tension: the shoulders, chest and neck mainly, but also my lower back. I was mystified, and asked how she could tell. "Well, you have a lot of thick skin on the balls of your feet," she said, "which corresponds to your chest area. That indicates a feeling of heaviness and pressure which shouldn't be there."
The next stage was "body work". Halber-shtat went straight to two painful points on my shoulders and pressed deep into them, then told me to tense and exaggerate what I was doing. A clenched muscle in my shoulder connected to one in my neck, tightening my throat while another pulled up my diaphragm and my lower belly and so on, all the way to my toes, which started twitching.
My breathing became shallow, and I panicked and felt sick. I'd thrown my entire posture out of sync, constricted my lungs and my throat. So it hadn't been just psychosomatic after all - rather a mixture of physical and emotional reactions. The treatment also helped me see how every single bodily ache and pain I'd whinged about for years knitted together - all self-inflicted it seemed.
Halbershtat told me I had to recognise exactly what I was doing and then stop myself: I had to learn this physically, not mentally. Trying to suppress the panic was making it worse. She worked on my neck and shoulders then left me to lie quietly for 10 minutes. After, I got up and walked home, feeling strangely normal for the first time in months.
The "body work" seems intuitive to me, although Vered Manasse, a teacher at Berlin's Grinberg Method School, calls it "systematic ... we spend a minimum of three years learning many different techniques, and we can draw on all of them as the situation demands". The word "touch" is preferred to "massage", because, as Manasse points out, "Massage has a very specific intention - it's about relaxing the muscles - and we have many other intentions".
Through "touch", practitioners are also encouraging clients to focus on a body part, and understand that they are not using a certain muscle, or have knotted it up. After treatment you can end up feeling almost bruised - it can be excruciating - but that means that you remain aware of that precise part of your body.
Since I began my "process" my sessions have followed the same format. Halbershtat has found spots on my body - like my forehead or mid back - which are so tense that a particularly deep "touch" will leave me writhing in agony. Most clients present physical complaints. Oldham says: "We usually see people with symptoms which they don't recognise as stress: back pain, IBS, migraines."
Serious physical and mental illnesses are beyond the method, although practitioners often work with patients who are in recovery. Grinberg practitioners also recommend the method for those who are caught in a pattern of behaviour that exasperates them - it seems you can do Grinberg for pretty much anything that ails you: writer's block, poor concentration, relationship problems. Just don't call it a cure. "We aren't healers," says Manasse. "This is not a substitute for conventional medicine. We teach - you learn how to pay attention to your body, and to let it tell you what is best. Your body knows how to create a panic attack, and a practitioner helps you to understand how it does that, and therefore to stop it."
That's the crux of the Grinberg method: the responsibility lies with the client, not the practitioner, to make a change. One process - which could take anything from 10 appointments to two years, depending on how much the client wants to explore - is supposed to set you up for life.
After only a few sessions I was able to go to the cinema without bolting out in a surge of claustrophobia, because I had learned that if I don't constrict my diaphragm I won't feel like I am about to faint or vomit. I know exactly how to stop myself doing it, too, and how to breathe easily.
Progress is a mixture of "Eureka!" moments and a slow, concentrated effort to break down habits that have built up over years, like calluses, but after six months of weekly sessions, the attacks have definitely become less severe.
· grinbergmethod.com; triyoga.co.uk
The stress buster
Natasha Reid was desperate to treat her crippling panic attacks without drugs. But neither hypnotherapy nor cognitive behavioural therapy did any good. Finally, she stumbled upon the Grinberg method ...
Tuesday May 8, 2007
The Guardian
My first appointment with a Grinberg method practitioner was a revelation: I had barely got my shoes and socks off before Rivka Halbershtat started reading my feet and promptly recounted my entire physical and emotional history.
I was looking for a way to handle crippling panic attacks without taking anti-depressants, and found a remedy that seemed both baffling and commonsense. I had tried hypnotherapy, which was farcical - the hypnotherapist tried to link all my problems to potty training - and cognitive behavioural therapy, which helped me to analyse my fears and see them as irrational, but the breathing exercises to prevent hyperventilation were impossible in social situations. How could I inhale and exhale for counts of four throughout, say, a job interview?
A friend suggested the Grinberg method, calling it "a kind of a physical therapy for psychological problems". It is quietly gaining ground in complementary therapy circles, and in Berlin - where I live, and where alternative health practices are taken very seriously indeed - it is a rising trend. Most "qualified" practitioners are concentrated in Israel and continental Europe, although next year a new school will open in Los Angeles, and presumably decimate the pedicure industry (sanded down soles of feet make them hard to read).
A wave of Britons are training at European schools this year, while Victoria Oldham already runs a booked-out clinic in London's Triyoga Studios. People will travel great distances to see a particular practitioner - coming to Berlin from as far afield as Israel, Spain and Denmark. The method was developed by the Israeli reflexologist Avi Grinberg in the 1980s. Working as a paramedic and later as a nurse, Grinberg was frustrated by the care provided for patients with chronic health problems, and spent years exploring alternatives from Feldenkrais - which teaches "awareness through movement" - to martial arts and trying techniques such as deep tissue massage and acupressure. The method evolved, and continues to evolve, from this mishmash of references.
What I found startling about Halbershtat's foot diagnosis was how swiftly she got to the point, articulating things that I couldn't. The idea is that, if you stand on your feet all day, your emotional and physical history will show up as scars and marks on your feet.
Her questions invariably hit the mark, and I found myself in tears when she nailed the age I'd been when my family moved countries and I first started to experience anxiety. At this point, my inner sceptic was in revolt - wasn't this like "cold reading" when a fake psychic asks leading questions to extract information? I sent a friend, who is an even greater sceptic than I, off for a foot reading and he also ended up completely bowled over and a little shaken.
Halbershtat was also able to map which parts of my body suffered pain or tension: the shoulders, chest and neck mainly, but also my lower back. I was mystified, and asked how she could tell. "Well, you have a lot of thick skin on the balls of your feet," she said, "which corresponds to your chest area. That indicates a feeling of heaviness and pressure which shouldn't be there."
The next stage was "body work". Halber-shtat went straight to two painful points on my shoulders and pressed deep into them, then told me to tense and exaggerate what I was doing. A clenched muscle in my shoulder connected to one in my neck, tightening my throat while another pulled up my diaphragm and my lower belly and so on, all the way to my toes, which started twitching.
My breathing became shallow, and I panicked and felt sick. I'd thrown my entire posture out of sync, constricted my lungs and my throat. So it hadn't been just psychosomatic after all - rather a mixture of physical and emotional reactions. The treatment also helped me see how every single bodily ache and pain I'd whinged about for years knitted together - all self-inflicted it seemed.
Halbershtat told me I had to recognise exactly what I was doing and then stop myself: I had to learn this physically, not mentally. Trying to suppress the panic was making it worse. She worked on my neck and shoulders then left me to lie quietly for 10 minutes. After, I got up and walked home, feeling strangely normal for the first time in months.
The "body work" seems intuitive to me, although Vered Manasse, a teacher at Berlin's Grinberg Method School, calls it "systematic ... we spend a minimum of three years learning many different techniques, and we can draw on all of them as the situation demands". The word "touch" is preferred to "massage", because, as Manasse points out, "Massage has a very specific intention - it's about relaxing the muscles - and we have many other intentions".
Through "touch", practitioners are also encouraging clients to focus on a body part, and understand that they are not using a certain muscle, or have knotted it up. After treatment you can end up feeling almost bruised - it can be excruciating - but that means that you remain aware of that precise part of your body.
Since I began my "process" my sessions have followed the same format. Halbershtat has found spots on my body - like my forehead or mid back - which are so tense that a particularly deep "touch" will leave me writhing in agony. Most clients present physical complaints. Oldham says: "We usually see people with symptoms which they don't recognise as stress: back pain, IBS, migraines."
Serious physical and mental illnesses are beyond the method, although practitioners often work with patients who are in recovery. Grinberg practitioners also recommend the method for those who are caught in a pattern of behaviour that exasperates them - it seems you can do Grinberg for pretty much anything that ails you: writer's block, poor concentration, relationship problems. Just don't call it a cure. "We aren't healers," says Manasse. "This is not a substitute for conventional medicine. We teach - you learn how to pay attention to your body, and to let it tell you what is best. Your body knows how to create a panic attack, and a practitioner helps you to understand how it does that, and therefore to stop it."
That's the crux of the Grinberg method: the responsibility lies with the client, not the practitioner, to make a change. One process - which could take anything from 10 appointments to two years, depending on how much the client wants to explore - is supposed to set you up for life.
After only a few sessions I was able to go to the cinema without bolting out in a surge of claustrophobia, because I had learned that if I don't constrict my diaphragm I won't feel like I am about to faint or vomit. I know exactly how to stop myself doing it, too, and how to breathe easily.
Progress is a mixture of "Eureka!" moments and a slow, concentrated effort to break down habits that have built up over years, like calluses, but after six months of weekly sessions, the attacks have definitely become less severe.
· grinbergmethod.com; triyoga.co.uk
יום רביעי, מאי 16, 2007
June 2007 - David Peretz CD at the stores
Remember I told you about my friend David, who is realising hid CD soon? click on thetitle and watch the trailer. its good. and its him
יום רביעי, מאי 09, 2007
Bright Eyes
My friend D did a big Mitzvah yesterday - he introduced the music of Bright Eyes to me. Its unbelievably good. It is a must. Click on the title and discover them too.
יום שישי, מאי 04, 2007
Thanks to Limmud had a chat with a very important Israeli author this morning. I love discovering the small personal stories behind all of those big names. He hates flying. He is not the only one, surely. he is hust more real to me now. Not just a nice printed name under a book title.
I am studing few of his works at uni, I can ask him now exactly what he meant. (not)
I am studing few of his works at uni, I can ask him now exactly what he meant. (not)
I am doing some piece of work for the Shlichut Training, co-ordinating the get to know the UK track. Last night we had JL, talking about the History of the Jewish Community and Identity. I had with me a copy of the JC with the top 35 influenctial people in the Community. J made a clever point. Last year the JC had the to 50 list -Why are the doing this again?
(Lets put aside the British passion to surveys and making lists), his argument it : The person who was nominated last year as the most important Jew wasn`t the one they hoped to. Which means - After Rabbi Louis Jacobs being declared as the most important Jew the JC had to make another list and put the Chief Rabbi at the top.
Its an interesting argument. not sure how accurate it is, but it does reflect the identity crisis the community is at.
Must admit I was pleased to see the I personally know three people from the list, Six degrees of separation and all of that.
(No, I didn`t count Borat)
(Lets put aside the British passion to surveys and making lists), his argument it : The person who was nominated last year as the most important Jew wasn`t the one they hoped to. Which means - After Rabbi Louis Jacobs being declared as the most important Jew the JC had to make another list and put the Chief Rabbi at the top.
Its an interesting argument. not sure how accurate it is, but it does reflect the identity crisis the community is at.
Must admit I was pleased to see the I personally know three people from the list, Six degrees of separation and all of that.
(No, I didn`t count Borat)
יום שלישי, מאי 01, 2007
Be`er Sheva, The air is dry and warm, light wind comes and calms the sand. Summer in the desert.
I have no Internet connection at my computer at home, I don't blog from work, so now instead of reading/writing about Masculinity I blog, not a wise use of my uni hours, I know.
updates:
1. I am moving on Friday, very excited. not sure how on earth they will get my book case into the lift.
2. Shabbat situation - its getting better. Sometime defining the problem is the path to the solution.
3. Last night did some shopping in the mall here in Be`er Sheva and thought to myself that if I go to malls it better be here not at Jtown, as here down south they need my money is more needed then in the centre of Israel. Not sure I can commit to that but its worth trying.
4. The Israeli blog sphere is all rambling about outing. few weeks ago Gal Uchouvski outed few popluar singers in his column in the Tel Aviv Time Out. I find the discussion about the authenticity of an artist fascinating - should we expect the to be honest? How come we are fine when politicians lie to us, but we are angry when a rock star misleads us when she sings?
5. Olmart should resign, Now. Finally after three years I can openly discuss Israeli politics. go to haaretz.com and read the report about the war in Lebanon.
6. Good things are happening to good people. It makes me happy.
I have no Internet connection at my computer at home, I don't blog from work, so now instead of reading/writing about Masculinity I blog, not a wise use of my uni hours, I know.
updates:
1. I am moving on Friday, very excited. not sure how on earth they will get my book case into the lift.
2. Shabbat situation - its getting better. Sometime defining the problem is the path to the solution.
3. Last night did some shopping in the mall here in Be`er Sheva and thought to myself that if I go to malls it better be here not at Jtown, as here down south they need my money is more needed then in the centre of Israel. Not sure I can commit to that but its worth trying.
4. The Israeli blog sphere is all rambling about outing. few weeks ago Gal Uchouvski outed few popluar singers in his column in the Tel Aviv Time Out. I find the discussion about the authenticity of an artist fascinating - should we expect the to be honest? How come we are fine when politicians lie to us, but we are angry when a rock star misleads us when she sings?
5. Olmart should resign, Now. Finally after three years I can openly discuss Israeli politics. go to haaretz.com and read the report about the war in Lebanon.
6. Good things are happening to good people. It makes me happy.
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