Forever an Olah?
We have been in Israel for nearly three years now. I have had a baby in this country and am raising a Hebrew speaker. My older kids use Israeli hand gestures and speak Hebrew slang. We make lasagna using cottage cheese. But do we feel Israeli?
Last week we were waiting at a bus stop. When we had been there for a short while, an Israeli lady sat near us under the shelter. The kids were talking to each other in Hebrew and I was talking to my youngest in (very bad, heavily accented) Hebrew too. After a while she said to me, “How long have you been here?”
Assuming she had picked up on our accents, I answered, “Nearly three years now.”
“No,” she said. “How long have you been here.” As she had stressed the last word, I assumed she meant our yeshuv. “We’ve lived here for nearly two years,” I answered.
“No,” she said again. “How long have you been here.” This time, as well as stressing the last word she pointed downwards to the ground. Finally, I understood. “Oh, sorry. We’ve been at the bus stop for ten minutes!”
The exchange, although a little silly/embarrassing/funny (delete as you see fit) got me thinking about the fact that I may have an ‘olah’ mentality. When will I actually feel so at home that if someone asks me the same question, I will cease to automatically assume they see me as a newcomer.
Sharona B
http://www.judaicamosaica.com/
Saturday, August 1, 2009
Still New After 3 Years?
Monday, April 6, 2009
Pesach's A-Coming
Nearly there…. oven scrubbed, fridge dismantled, defrosted and de-chametzed, house starting to take shape. The pesach cleaning seems to be on schedule and, as fatigue starts to kick in, the end, thankfully appears to be in sight.
I’m looking forward sitting in my clean house without noticing a cobweb, some crumbs, some net curtains that need a clean. It will be nice to be able to sit down without subconsciously making a mental checklist of all those things still left to do.
Whilst my head has been full of the bigger picture it was interesting to find out via an email group posting, the answer to one of pesach’s timeless quandaries.
HOW TO CUT A MATZO IN HALF http://fun.mivzakon .co.il/Video. aspx?http: //www.mivzakon. co.il/DayMailFil es/matza. wmv Obvious when you know how!
Wishing you a happy and kosher pesach.
Sharona B
Thursday, March 26, 2009
Pre Pesach Mayhem!
When you make aliyah there are many changes in your life – some big, some small, some expected, some not.
One of the pleasant surprises for me was the different array of nature I saw on an everyday basis. Now I am not talking about giant cockroaches or tarantulas here, I mean that I look up in at the trees in my garden and see colourful birds that I have never seen before. It occurs to me that perhaps the creatures I admire for being a little exotic and differing from the norm, are probably the Israeli equivalent of pigeons in the UK. However, I have retained an awe of all the different species around me.
This last week however, there was a less welcomed feathered friend on our patch. A stray chicken (yes you read that right!) seems to have taken up residence at the front of our house. I regularly feed a stray cat and from time to time I now hear an annoying, ‘peck, peck, peck’ as this nuisance of a fowl locates the cat food. Annoyingly, the cat is actually afraid of the chicken and allows her to steal her food.
My husband thinks she would make a nice Shabbat meal but I just want rid of her. I have chased her, thrown sticks at her, put emails out over the local network asking if anyone is missing a chicken and finally, changed the location of the cat food to the garden. The chicken does not seem particularly bright and, so far, has not realized what I have done. I am hoping the removal of the food will encourage her to find another foster home.
So, enough of my feathered fiasco... it is time to get cleaning for pesach. Perhaps, before she departs, I should pluck a feather from the chicken to help me search for chametz!
This post goes out to all those currently surrounded by buckets of hot water, bottles of cleaning products and an array of dusters and cloths. There is something quite therapeutic about pre pesach decluttering and cleaning but it is one of those things that you don't really appreciate until all the hard work is over and done with - whilst in the middle of the task you just have a never ending mental checklist of places still in need of a good scrub. Happy cleaning!
Sharona B
Sunday, August 24, 2008
A Contented Moment
It’s the final few weeks of the summer break; the end is in sight. The kids are a little restless.
After a hot, humid day when no-one felt like going out, we ventured out for pizza. The older kids each bought a friend with and we ordered our food then looked for a table. There were many to choose from but all those free were covered in bits of pizza, spilled drink and, predictably, a selection of ants, wasps and flies. I asked if a table could be cleaned for us and the response was typical customer service, Israeli style; I was given a handful of paper towel to wipe down a table myself!
This week my husband returned from the UK. He came with treats for each of us; chocolate, magazines, teabags. It is lovely to have him back home. I asked him to bring me some colored grout from the UK as I prefer it to the grout I can buy locally here. Unfortunately for him, the grout caused a security alert at Heathrow as El Al could not understand why anyone would want to take home such an item. After much discussion his luggage was finally accepted.
Later in the week I sat outside in the shade of the garden, finishing off a mosaic table. As I used the newly delivered grout and watched the table transform itself as the grout accentuated the design, I had a moment of quiet satisfaction. It occurred to me that this new life of ours really is different to the life we left behind and I felt truly blessed. I am out of the ‘rat race’; I have no rush hour stress, I breathe in clean, hillside air, I am able to work from home around the needs of my kids and I live in a friendly community with good facilities. I sat there, thankful to be in Israel and doing something that gives me a lot of satisfaction.
Sometimes it is important to remind ourselves of the things we are doing right. It goes a long way to counteract our experiences at the other end of the scale. Living in Israel we can have days when people are rude to us, bureaucracy weighs us down and seemingly simple tasks take a ridiculous amount of time and effort. It was nice to have my moment of contentment and I shall hold on to that feeling as I go through a week full of frantic pre school preparations, liaisons with the tax office to get my paperwork ready for some new work I am undertaking in September and continued (and so far unsuccessful) sleep training with the baby.
Sharona B
Monday, August 18, 2008
A Forgotten Anniversary
Last year, on the first anniversary of our aliyah, we held a party. We hung up flags, made a load of food and invited people to drop by throughout the day.
This past Shabbat was our second anniversary. Although I knew it was coming up, I forgot to check exactly when, and completely forgot that this Shabbat had extra significance for us.
Shabbat itself was quite ordinary. Apart from my husband being away, we trundled along as we always do. After shul and lunch, my son went out to play football with a friend and my daughter went to one friend’s house and then to another. I did not see her until Havdallah. I had a nap with the baby and then a friend came round with a little play mate for her. They are very sweet together and after toddling around inside, enjoyed investigating the thrills of the garden; discarded toys from the older kids, a ball to kick, a pile of blossom petals to rustle through with glee. Another couple then popped in and we all had Seudah Shlishit together. It was a nice, restful day.
It was not until the afternoon that I realized it was our anniversary. Perhaps after all we had marked it in the best way possible; with friends, relaxation and food.
The anniversary though, did provoke me to take stock of our progress. We have been here for two years now. If I reflect on where I imagined we might be after this time, it is certainly not where we are. We live in a place I would not initially have considered; we have a child I did not anticipate; we work in unexpected fields, I speak Hebrew less fluently than I would have liked... the list goes on.
For all sorts of reasons our aliyah has not turned out quite like I expected it to. That is not to say that I am in any way disappointed, far from it, it is just strange to have spent so long planning something and for events to overtake us quite so rapidly.
Year one was all about settling in and finding ‘home’. Year two was all about our new little Sabresse and finding the best schools for the older kids. So what will year three hold? I have decided that it would be a good thing to set some goals. There are two goals I have right now that I think I can make some progress on over the coming year.
Goal One: To successfully establish both my and my husband’s new businesses
Goal Two: To improve my Hebrew.
This year, I guess, is the year of establishing ourselves; digging in a little, laying stronger foundations. I wonder how we will all fare over the next two years. Only time will tell.
Sharona B
