Typical Hospital Photos

The new season of Israeli Extreme Makeover has begun.  

Tonight we are watching the renovation of the apartment of Assael and Avital Lubotzky.  Assael was injured in Lebanon, and the expectation was that he would never walk.  Assael decided otherwise, and with much effort and Siyata Dishmaya, he walks with crutches, and is now finishing his studies in med school in order to help others.

At the beginning of the program, after screening photos of Assael in hospital unconscious and close-ups of his destroyed leg


, we saw photos of his recovery -

Assael in physiotherapy, Assael trying to walk, and, of course, Assael wearing tefillin in his hospital bed.

Just a typical photo of  a typical recovering Israeli soldier.

For those who are interested, Assael wrote a book about his recovery - מן המדבר והלבנון - to inspire other soldiers who are recovering from injuries, and, of course, their families.

"Need Anything?"

There is a facebook page called "צריכים משו?" (sic).  On it, people post all sorts of offers of things they are giving away, as well as interesting queries and requests, such as ideas for names for their new baby. There are offers of furniture beign given away, requests for a ba'al koreh for Shabbat, and questions such as how to open a corked bottle of wine without a  corkscrew.  
The group is not "religious," anyone and everyone can (and should) join.  

Today I received a post which I have to share:

‎צריכים משו???

שלום עליכם!ב״ה זכיתי ללוות חתן ואנו בדרכנו לכותל..אז שמות לברכה בשמחה:)

In English: Today I have the privilege of accompanying a Hattan and now we are on our way to the Kotel.   Please send names of people who need tefillot / berachot.

Even The Traffic Signs Are Jewish

DD2 is (finally) learning for her drivers' theory test.  I am very grateful that my children do not feel that a driver's license is their birthright right, but rather they recognize the awesome responsibility a driver has on their shoulders.    I imagine that having been one car behind a jeep that was hit by a drunk driver last summer helped drive that point home...

Yesterday, in the course of reading the theory book, she came across the Intersection warning sign:

At the bottom of the page of the official theory book, there is a note pointing out that the junction is shown by an X, and not a cross, because this is a Jewish country.

There are things we take for granted, but we can feel so much better if we appreciate the thought that goes into them.   

Each picture speaks a thousand words

http://www.virtualjerusalem.com/culture.php?Itemid=11598

Soup, anyone?

The yishuvim in Yehuda and the Shomron take a lot of flak.  Literally.  The people there are targets for terrorists, with no walls to keep out the murderers from Shechem, Jenin etc.   There have been carjackings, as well as shooting as cars and lethal "stone-throwing", with "stones" large enough to crack bullet-proof bus windows.  In the name of "human rights," neighbours and relatives of the butchers who massacred the Fogel family are still allowed into Itamar to pick olives (and thereby allowed to check out the yishuv, as their cousins had done in preparation).   And world pressure, even within-Israel pressure, always blames the "settlers" for the fact that the Arab world is determined to destroy the Jewish State.  As if the PLO was created after the yishuv movement.  As if the Jewish presence hurt the Arabs in the area.  Perhaps they resent having better health , jobs and a 20-year increase in life expectancy?)

Being high in the mountains is what makes the Jewish presence there so important from a security standpoint. But it also makes it harder to live there.  Walking to shul is harder.   200 metres to a friend's house is always uphill, as is the way home.   The winter winds are strong.  And when it snows...

In my 27 winters here, there was never this much snow south of the Hermon.   Over two feet in Gush Etzion, 3 feet, almost a metre, in Har Beracha.  The roads were closed , leaving hundreds of  families under a "natural" siege.  Army half-tracks (and even helicopters) took out those who lives were at risk.   Power was for days.   Water mains burst,  so that, by the fourth day, those who were stuck at home had to melt snow to drink.

But as soon as the roads to the worst-hit yishuvim were partially cleared and passable, people came from other yishuvim with portable gas cookers, and served hot soup to those who could finally get out of their homes to wait out the electric and water repairs.  

A nation of care-, er, hair-givers.....

May we, as a nation, always be on the giving end.  May the recipients have complete, speedy recoveries...

http://www.israelhayom.com/site/newsletter_article.php?id=13253&r=1

The Daily Crossword

It started with my son taking the Egged bus to and from Yerushalaim everyday in grade 7.   

A neighbour told me that she sees him solving a crossword puzzle with the bus driver on the way home.  

Then he started to bring the crossword puzzle home with im , to show me what they had solved, and maybe even see if I can fill in any gaps.

Sinec then, I am addicted.  I must have my fix of Yisrael haYom - Hebrew version - crossword puzzles every day.  When someone comes home with the paper,w e all grab pens and write on top of each other - a real family sport.  

I am learnign a bit of Hebrew vocabulary, but I also know a lot of the answers  because every puzzle, in this regular, ordinary, not-religious newspaper, has questions that are part of the lifeblood of Torah Jews.

And i don't mean the simple ones like  "gadol baTorah" is "rav."  Today there were two clues that were "one of the Trei Assar neviim"; "Yishamel's mother"; "one of the ten plagues"; "month in the Hebrew calendar". Yesterday there was "the Rmabam " (answer : "haNesher haGadol"), "parshan" of the Tanach (Rashi), son fof Avinoam ("Barak")  There are often clues such as "Talmudic scholar" or "Mishnaic scholar", "date in the Omer", "father of David Hamelech"

While Jews in golus have to specifically look for Jewish content games to show that Torah isn't just in the shul or school, BH here Torah is just a part of EVERYTHING, even the silly things like a free newspaper's crossword puzzle; and in way this shows that every citizen is  "expected" to know some basic Torah facts and personalities.

Hillel's partner, anyone?