Category Archives: Life in israel
Rosh Hashanah is Just Around the Corner…
Last year was one of the most amazing seasons in Israel I can remember for pomegranates. Can’t wait for the new ones on the way….
Shabbos Police in Jerusalem: They have everything under control…
Who are the Shabbos police anyway? They definitely have a laid back approach. Several weeks ago our upstairs neighbors were having a loud and obnoxious party on a Friday night and I had to walk down to the local station to complain because knocking on the neighbor’s door didn’t help. The cops came, entered their [...]
Live And Turning it Up a Notch
This was an article I wrote on the release of Shlomo Katz‘s album Live From Melbourne, which the post decided to put in their pay section. So here it is in pieces… Part 1 Part 2 Part 3 Part 4
A Zest for Redemption: Tisha B’Av @ the Wall 2011
“Daddy,” a little boy said as I was passing by him and his father. “Is the Temple buried under ground?” It was truly amazing to hear. As an adult I understand the destruction in a very complex way. In fact it’s not unreasonable to say I don’t understand it at all but I still seem [...]
Honor System Recycling
I’ve lived in Israel 13 years and have been recycling for much of that time putting plastic bottles in the bottle cages and paper in the round metal canisters around the city. When it came to other materials like glass and aluminum I’ve always felt like I could be doing more but there hasn’t really been an [...]
Suspicious Object Tales: Stopped in Our Tracks
It was 7:15 in the evening when we were stopped. I was on my bike and couldn’t go anywhere. The prime minister had just spoken to a joint sessions of Congress in Washington. Waiting…… and then BOOM!!!! The object was detonated. And then we were on our merry way….
Suspicious Object Tales: No Lapse
“…and those are our specials,” said Orit, our waitress at one of the local Sushi restaurants we were trying out for the first time. When she finished I looked at CB (my wife) amazed. “Wow, are you a Mossad agent?” I asked Orit. I mean how could she remember all those options in such detail [...]
Suspicious Object Tales: Munchy Madness
I had just locked up my bike in Naachlaot and headed across the street to the shuk on a recent Friday when the police cordoned it off due to a suspicious object at one of the bus stops. Friday is a busy day at the shuk since the Sabbath is approaching. There are many natives [...]
Blast from the Past
(Jerusalem) Today was a strange day. A bomb went off at a bus stop where innocent people stood and waited for their next ride, drank a soda, or simply passed by from one point to the next. Tens of others could have been there at that moment but weren’t. Thousands turned their attention inward to [...]
Tripping over your presence
Its generally understood that if I am in one place I can’t possibly be in another. Some stories of the Baal Shem Tov -Rabbi Yisroel (Israel) ben Eliezer (רבי ישראל בן אליעזר August 27, 1698 (18 Elul) – May 22, 1760), turn this concept up-side-down but that’s another discussion. Simply put: I’m in Israel, I can’t be [...]