Last shabbat during my granny´s 84th birthday lunch my tooth broke. Today, I went to a dentist to ask him to fix it. He said there was nothing elsto be done - the tooth broke so badly that it had to be pulled out. He first cut it into four pieces and then spend close to an hour taking it - very gently - piece by piece out. He said that the tooth (more specifically the hole that remained) would possibly ruin my life for some time now so I am using the last minutes before the anestesia stops working to write a post (I am exeggerating as always:-)
The three pieces of good news this week are that my yeshiva friend Tovah got engaged, my friends Ruven and Hana from Jerusalem have a new baby boy, who was born on Shmini Atzeret (a Jewish holiday) and who was circumcised two Shabbatot ago and called Usher. Moreover, Lex Friedman and his wife Lauren have a new baby girl called Anya. Mazal tov to all. :-) In fact - there are two other new babies that were born in my home community in the last 14 days too - so that makes five pieces of good news.
In my house, there are also a couple of new members of the household, even though they are not nearly as exciting as the newborn babies :-( - anticipating the visit of my friend Seth later this year in December, I started to buy my meaty dishes (dishes for meat dishes:-) on Sunday.
Believe it or not, yesterday I spent a pleasant evening chatting with Michael Pomeranz, the famous Jerusalem bookseller, who stopped in Prague on his way from Los Angeles back to Israel. We have agreed to meet in Prague last spring during one of my shopping visits in his shop. Last night we went for dinner together and I enjoyed being with an Israeli friend again a lot.
Other than that, I continue to teach with all its excitements and downsides :-) I keep collecting interesting quotes of the kids. The best one I have heard recently is today´s Xenie´s comment on my decent dress code in the school on which I demonstrated the way orthodox women dress in her class. We discussed the question of tzniut (modesty) when Xenie with all possible honesty and sincerity said - "well, you should dress a bit less decent. In case you dont I doubt you will ever get married."
Tuesday, October 24, 2006
Wednesday, October 18, 2006
Christmas update
Yesterday, I went to buy a couple of things to a drugstore close to my work. As I entered, my ears were hit by Christmas carols. For a little while, I wasn´t sure I wasn´t dreaming. But alas! (:-) yes here they were, right in front of me, floating above shampoos and sanitary towels. Obviously, according to the management of the shop, we have to be reminded 2 and a half month in advance that Christmas is coming. When I paid for my shopping, I looked into the tired face of the cashier, expressed my deepest condolences for the music and told her I was sorry she had to listen to it already now. She sighed and said: "Thanks. I am so gald you are saying that. Can you imagine that I will have to be listening to it till the middle of January? Three months!"
As if everybody agreed to mess up the calendar on this particular day, I came back home later in the evening and discovered a brand new Christmas catalogue of a hardware store close to my home in my letter box. Has everybody gone nuts?
Even though I do not celebrate Christmas, I do like the holiday atmosphere in the air a lot. I enjoy it even more when I realize I do not have to rush to shops to buy presents and loads of food as the others do and can enjoy just the nice part of the holidays: the lights in the streets, candles and holiday concerts. Carols are one of my favorite parts of the holiday. Holiday special offers are not bad either. However, as we say: "kol davar be-ito" - everything has its time. The same way I would not enjoy fried cheese (that I love) for breakfast, I do not want to listen to carols in fall. The book of Ecclesiastes says: "A season is set for everything, a time for every experience under heaven." Jews and Christians share this part of the Scripture. Every now and than we should remind ourselves of it.
Sunday, October 08, 2006
Terror in Prague?
14 days ago, the Czech secret service said they had received concrete information that leads them to susspicion that Prague should be the next target of an islamist terrorist attack.
It was the weekend of Rosh ha-Shana (Jewish new year) and they said that Jewish buildings are the most probable target. Consequently, we spent the holidays being guarded not only by the usual Jewish community guards, but also by the (armed) Czech police. In addition, Prague was full of policemen and soldiers that guarded mainly the city center and its most important buildings. I took the thread seriously, but I have to admit I was not really alarmed. When I lived in Israel, I was very often informed about security alerts by the Jewish agency through the yeshiva. In the Jewish world, we are used to constant possibility of an attack. In Jerusalem, you are checked by the security even when you go to the pharmacy to buy vitamin C tablets. I teach in a school, in which even the first graders are used to an armed guard that watches over them during the day.
On Friday, prominent Czech newspaper Mlada Fronta Dnes revealed that the target of the Rosh ha-Shana attack should have been the Jerusalem synagogue in Prague. In the article they also described the details of the planned attack. The information was also published in some other world´s newspapers and within minutes made the world´s headlines. My Masorti community joins the Jerusalemska synagogue minyan (the community that prays there) every Shabbat for the Saturday morning service. I know the synagogue and its people very well. On Lejl Sukot (the beginning of the holidays of Tabernacles) i.e. in the evening after the news had been released, my community held a joined meal in the Sukah (a shed we eat and sometimes sleep in during the festival) in the yard of the Jerusalem synagogue for our minyan and the Jerusalem synagogue community as we had been planning since the beginning of the week. The news naturally made people weary, however on Friday evening both of the minyanim (communities) came to the synagogue as usual. All the people that signed up for the dinner during the week were there together with several other guests and visitors. The sad truth is terror became a part of our lives. But I firmly believe we have to face it by not giving in to it. One of the main aims of the terrorists is to make us fear them. Once we give up our lives we will start to make them feel they are winning.
It was the weekend of Rosh ha-Shana (Jewish new year) and they said that Jewish buildings are the most probable target. Consequently, we spent the holidays being guarded not only by the usual Jewish community guards, but also by the (armed) Czech police. In addition, Prague was full of policemen and soldiers that guarded mainly the city center and its most important buildings. I took the thread seriously, but I have to admit I was not really alarmed. When I lived in Israel, I was very often informed about security alerts by the Jewish agency through the yeshiva. In the Jewish world, we are used to constant possibility of an attack. In Jerusalem, you are checked by the security even when you go to the pharmacy to buy vitamin C tablets. I teach in a school, in which even the first graders are used to an armed guard that watches over them during the day.
On Friday, prominent Czech newspaper Mlada Fronta Dnes revealed that the target of the Rosh ha-Shana attack should have been the Jerusalem synagogue in Prague. In the article they also described the details of the planned attack. The information was also published in some other world´s newspapers and within minutes made the world´s headlines. My Masorti community joins the Jerusalemska synagogue minyan (the community that prays there) every Shabbat for the Saturday morning service. I know the synagogue and its people very well. On Lejl Sukot (the beginning of the holidays of Tabernacles) i.e. in the evening after the news had been released, my community held a joined meal in the Sukah (a shed we eat and sometimes sleep in during the festival) in the yard of the Jerusalem synagogue for our minyan and the Jerusalem synagogue community as we had been planning since the beginning of the week. The news naturally made people weary, however on Friday evening both of the minyanim (communities) came to the synagogue as usual. All the people that signed up for the dinner during the week were there together with several other guests and visitors. The sad truth is terror became a part of our lives. But I firmly believe we have to face it by not giving in to it. One of the main aims of the terrorists is to make us fear them. Once we give up our lives we will start to make them feel they are winning.
Thursday, October 05, 2006
Be happy! You have to...
Well I am still incredibly tired but how much longer can I repeat that, right? Let´s change the topic :-) Sukot is approaching and we Jews have to be in a good mood. It is a mitzvah (commandment) - so I thought I would tell you what made me laugh recently: Check Biff´s question song, which is really funny and Just in time for Rosh ha-Shana, which is a actually off the time of the year now but I still think it is great.
Sunday, October 01, 2006
Kids´ minds
(In memory of my uncle Tomáš Mittelsteiner z´l, a man of great sense of humor, a man that loved life. My uncle Tomáš passed away after a long illness yesterday in the afternoon)
One of the things I enjoy the most when I teach is to see how children think and what questions they ask. Here are just a few from the past days:
- How come God sees everybody and is with every single person all the time when there are so many people in the world?
- Children come to the world when people love each other. Where there any children in Niniveh when the town was so horrible?
- Do animals also have to do tshuva during High holidays?
- Does God judge also the baby that is in my Mumy´s belly?
- How come Pninah was so harsh on Chanah? Wasn´t she Jewish? Jews are not supposed to behave this way!
- How come Elkana had two wives? Isn´t it forbidden?
- Does God wear white?
- Can our cat eat pork? - Yes, she is not Jewish, she can eat whatever she wants. -How come she is not Jewish? - Because only people can be Jewish. - And what if she was born in Israel? - Even if she was born in Israel, she is still not Jewish. If an American Indian was born in Israel, he would not be Jewish either. - This is horrible. I really don´t understand why you should limit being Jewish only to people. That´t cruel.
- I think men go to mikveh less than women because men don´t have a uterus.
One of the things I enjoy the most when I teach is to see how children think and what questions they ask. Here are just a few from the past days:
- How come God sees everybody and is with every single person all the time when there are so many people in the world?
- Children come to the world when people love each other. Where there any children in Niniveh when the town was so horrible?
- Do animals also have to do tshuva during High holidays?
- Does God judge also the baby that is in my Mumy´s belly?
- How come Pninah was so harsh on Chanah? Wasn´t she Jewish? Jews are not supposed to behave this way!
- How come Elkana had two wives? Isn´t it forbidden?
- Does God wear white?
- Can our cat eat pork? - Yes, she is not Jewish, she can eat whatever she wants. -How come she is not Jewish? - Because only people can be Jewish. - And what if she was born in Israel? - Even if she was born in Israel, she is still not Jewish. If an American Indian was born in Israel, he would not be Jewish either. - This is horrible. I really don´t understand why you should limit being Jewish only to people. That´t cruel.
- I think men go to mikveh less than women because men don´t have a uterus.
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