A New Israeli Adventure

Recently, Irma and I decided that we needed to make few changes or "adjustments" in our lives. Although we love our first home in Efrat we realized we need to move on. The people have been incredibly friendly, helpful and welcoming. From day one, people have been coming to us to offer help, hospitality and friendship.

While there are a few native Israeli families in the neighborhood, most of our neighbors have come from either the United States or Great Britain. Also, we all share approximately the same level of religious beliefs and practice – not always so everywhere in Israel.

The neighbors have treated us almost like family. In some ways we are almost like an older aunt and uncle couple to some of these people. The little kids like Bandit and Irma's adopted cat Kiki. Irma occasionally brings treats – candy, squirt guns, or toy cars for the little guys.

We've shared engagement parties, weddings, sheva brachas, circumcisions and other simchas (joyous events). We've also attended a couple of funerals of older parents or relatives. We fit in and we belong.

I've been going to all three prayer services every day. In addition, I joined an English speaking kollel (bible study group).

So what happened? Well, a few incidents happened that were not all that serious (an illness, a neighbor raising chickens - removed by the health department). However, we sometimes take these things has messages from above. (We believe that G-d talks to all of us - we just need to listen). In this case, we've realized that while we are happy here, we may not be accomplishing what we should be.

In our previous lives, in Denver and Boca Raton, we actively contributed to the community. This town, Efrat, seems to be well organized and in good order. (I really don't like that description but can't think of anything better at this time). Irma did some searching and found the town, Karmiel, in the northern part of the country.

Karmiel is a city of approximately the 50,000 people. It is super clean and has beautiful parks and spectacular mountain views. Most of the people there are secular. We feel that we can be of help to a religious community or synagogue in town. In fact, we believe that that's why we are in Israel in the first place.

Our new home is an older building that is being totally renovated. We will have a two story apartment with new kitchen cabinets and bathroom fixtures. Our second floor will have a large bedroom, a large closet, a bathroom and spaces for office and sitting areas. The first floor has a kitchen, a large bathroom, a living – dining area and a safe room. Some of you may not know what a safe room is. A safe room in Israel is a special room with steel panels in the walls and ceiling. It also has steel panels to close over the windows, and special filtered ventilation. Remember, we are in Israel and Karmiel is not far from the border of Lebanon.

We received a tremendous amount of help from a woman named Sylvia, who volunteers with Nefesh B'Nefesh to help those interested in Karmiel. Sylvia spent many hours helping Irma find various apartments until Irma found "the one." Thank you, Sylvia.

Irma and I look forward to our new adventure. We do not intend to waste away from boredom. We're both thankful to HaShem for bringing us to Israel and the giving us these opportunities.

Over the coming months I'll be writing more from Karmiel. Meanwhile I have added pictures including scenic pictures and pictures of our uncompleted apartment.

Be well y'all,
Mel

Our First Anniversary

Irma, Bandit and I have been living in Israel for one year, now. People ask us how we feel about the change. Well, I can only speak for myself, but Irma pretty much agrees, although she might use different words. (You’d have to ask Bandit directly, but she acts happy.)


My feelings are related to the teaching of a Rabbi of antiquity, Rabbi Jacob, who said:
“better is one hour of blissfulness of spirit in the World to Come than the whole life of this world."

I feel that, although I had a good life prior to moving to Israel, the year I’ve spent here, because of the increased spirituality of the land and the people, is better than the world we left behind. In fact, there is such a high level of spirituality attached to the land, that three of the world’s major religions started here.

That’s not to say we don’t have good feelings about what and whom we left behind. On the contrary, we do. We left behind some very special people, friends and relatives in Colorado, Florida and Michigan. We are grateful for the love and help and friendship that we experienced, and that we continue to experience with them.

But, as I might have said about sixty years ago, “enough of the mushy stuff.” What else is there about living in Israel?

For one thing, Israel is a very modern, technically advanced country. That means it has modern cars, busses, trains, highways and planes. Israel also has cell phones and computers and modern medicine. In fact, Israel is the world’s leader in cell phone and computer and medical technologies. So, we have all of today’s modern goodies.

On the other side, Israel’s history goes back farther than that of probably any other country in the world. Our connection with this land goes back about 4000 years. Our fathers, Abraham, Isaac and Jacob were walking the hills and valleys just outside my window 4000 years ago. They are buried about 25 miles south of here.

People from various civilizations have tried to conquer, murder or convert our people during all of our history; Arameans, Amalikites, Egyptians, Greeks, Syrians, Babylonians, Persians, Romans and who knows who else. Then, when our survivors were scattered throughout the world by the conquerers, people in our host countries did the same; in England, France, Russia, Poland, Spain, Hungary, Germany and others, up to the present day.

The land that was ours went from one conquerer to another over the centuries. For many years it was held by the Turkish empire. About 100 years ago, a group of Jews bought a piece of barren land (around what is now Tel Aviv). Shortly after that, Great Britain took over the land that is now Israel and the Arab countries, after the Turkish empire lost a war. The land was split up into various countries, and eventually, with a UN vote, the modern state of Israel was founded. The country of Jordan was formed for the “Palestinians.”

OK, “what else?” Let’s start with some of the commonly held ideas that some of the world has about Israel. You need to be aware that much of the world gets their ideas about Israel and everything else from political and media sources that are controlled by big, very big, MONEY.

The world is being told false stories about Israel using terms like slavery and apartheid. Israel is being accused of all sorts of crimes against humanity. Most of those lies start with the UN Human Rights Council, which is made up mainly of representatives of Arab countries. In fact, just a few years back Kadaffi (or Quadafi or however they spell it today) was HEAD of the UN human rights organization.

Now, here is something you probably didn’t know. There have recently been a couple of major discoveries of natural gas just of Israel’s coastline. There is enough natural gas to make Israel, not only self sufficient, but also a major exporter of natural gas.

In addition to natural gas, Israel has the world’s second largest reserves of oil shale, putting it about even with Saudi Arabia in oil reserves. Nobody thought much about oil shale because it was always to expensive and dirty to extract the oil. However, new Israeli technology makes it environmentally clean and price competitive with regular oil wells.

It’s funny how nobody cared about Israel ten years ago, but now that it could be a world class energy producer, everyone wants to destroy us. That’s not really true; people have wanted to destroy Israel from day 1. It probably has something to do with introducing One G-d and morality to the world.

Major historic events are happening all over the world today; earthquakes, floods, sun spot activity, global magnetic shifts, revolutions, anarchy and everything else. Many believe that everything just happens as one long string of coincidences. Some of us believe that the Creator of the world, Blessed be He, plays a major role in all of this.

Irma and I are here in Israel because the Creator gave this land to Abraham and the Jewish people and He continues to control the destiny of the world. We also know that many of our friends feel the same way.

Enjoy the links and pictures below.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zHStBGk_D8Y  Israel Innovation

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NjfFpFW9OdA&feature=related  Hatikva

Be well, Y’all
Mel

A Neighborhood View

Our Neighborhood Strip Mall

A View From Our Neighborhood

Another View of Our 'hood

A Street View In Jerusalem - Building a Light Rail System

A Back Street in Jerusalem - It's an Old City

Parking in Jerusalem? Forget It

The First Wedding We Attended - Very Special

A View Across the Valley From Efrat

Our Flag Flies over Masada

Irma on a Camel - Trip to a Bedouin Village

Two Happy New Immigrants, Just off the Plane - 3/16/2010

A View of Irma's Gardening Talent - In Memory of Dorothy

It's Started

(NOTE: This is a copy of the recent post on my political blog, http://ephratbreeze.blog.com/. I only add it here because it is that important.)

Last week I mentioned a meeting that our peaceful, democratically inclined neighbors held in Khartoum, Sudan. My exact words were:


“Certain intelligence sources report that the above “heroic act” was the first result from a secret Iranian funded meeting of Muslim Brotherhood heads in Khartoum, Sudan last week. According to these sources, Hamas, an offshoot of the brotherhood, is to launch a series of these attacks to ignite a third intifada. Brotherhood leaders attended from Egypt, Syria, Tunisia, Jordan and Great Britain.”

Today’s news headlines in Israel include the following:

• A woman was killed, 30 injured, in bomb blast at central Jerusalem 74 bus stop opposite Binyanei Haooma Wednesday afternoon.
• Hamas keeps up pressure. Fired five mortar shells into southern Ashkelon after Jerusalem bombing
• Second Grad missile from Gaza explodes in Beersheba earlier Wednesday
• Seven more mortar rounds against Eshkol and Shear Hanegev
• Beersheba schools and university ordered closed after Grad injured 5 people, damaged property
• Two more exploded in Ashkelon and south of Ashdod Tuesday night, several mortar rounds
• Palestinian barrage from the Gaza Strip has been non-stop for 11 days

Now just what is it that Hillary and Zippy are telling us about the peaceful muslim brotherhood that we’re supposed to believe?

We’re OK here in Efrat, for now.

That last post also mentioned “Hidden Miracles.” They are all around us, if we only open our eyes and look.

Of course, many people prefer to believe that every unexplained happening is a coincidence. These are the same people who deny the possibility of a Divine Creator of the world; it all came together as a result of  “evolution,” “accidents,” “primordial soup,” or whatever. After all, to believe in a Divine Creator might require me to believe in things like good and evil, instead of moral relativism and such.

But I digress. Sunday and Monday of this week were the Jewish holidays of Purim and Shushan Purim (in Jerusalem). Last week Irma went into Jerusalem, shopping with a friend. They agreed to go again this week, today. As a result of losing two normal weekdays, Irma forgot that today was Wednesday. She didn’t get to go to Jerusalem today and ride (like last week) the #74 bus that was involved in the terrorist bombing. Was this another hidden miracle from Purim, or a coincidence? We are grateful to our Creator for blessing us with another miracle.

Meanwhile, friends, as we here in Israel continue to be attacked by are “peace-loving” neighbors, we ask for your prayers; prayers to the Creator of the world, or prayers to the gatekeeper of coincidences. We are confident that He, in His mercy and Wisdom, will sort them out and give credit to both sets of prayers.

Also, thanks to all of you who support ARMDI and MDA, our emergency medical and ambulance services.

Happy Trails, Y’All
Mel

The Village Smithy

Under a spreading chestnut-tree

The village smithy stands;

The smith, a mighty man is he,

With large and sinewy hands;

And the muscles of his brawny arms

Are strong as iron bands.

From The Village Blacksmith, by Henry Wadsworth Longfeller

We residents of Efrat have our very own blacksmith. Actually, Elimelech Feigin is more than a blacksmith; he is a blacksmith artist and craftsman. Elimelech specializes in a form of artistic metalworking that lies somewhere between silversmithing and blacksmithing. His work might be better explained by examples of his artistry, of which this is one:

This beautiful rose started out as a small blank of iron, about 2 inches square, as shown below.

Through a series of steps, shown below, Elimelech turns pieces of iron, steel, copper or aluminum into amazingly beautiful works of art. His gallery/studio is in the basement of his home, just down the block from me. He makes many of the tools he uses andeach hammer or other tool has its own specific use.


Elimelech’s works of art include mezzezahs, menorahs, handrails and many other works of art. His customers come from Israel and other countries, and his works of art decorate homes and synagogues in Israel and around the world. His contact information is on his website: http://metalcombinations.com/.

Elimelich Feigin is another one of those “DearHearts and Gentle People,” who live in my home town (See my blog of that name - 1/21/11). I’m in awe of his talent and I’m very proud to have him as a friend.

His hair is crisp, and black, and long,

His face is like the tan;

His brow is wet with honest sweat,

He earns whate'er he can,

And looks the whole world in the face,

For he owes not any man.

Week in, week out, from morn till night,

You can hear his bellows blow;

You can hear him swing his heavy sledge,

With measured beat and slow,

Like a sexton ringing the village bell,

When the evening sun is low.

And children coming home from school

Look in at the open door;

They love to see the flaming forge,

And bear the bellows roar,

And catch the burning sparks that fly

Like chaff from a threshing-floor.

He goes on Sunday to the church,

And sits among his boys;

He hears the parson pray and preach,

He hears his daughter's voice,

Singing in the village choir,

And it makes his heart rejoice.

It sounds to him like her mother's voice,

Singing in Paradise!

He needs must think of her once more,

How in the grave she lies;

And with his haul, rough hand he wipes

A tear out of his eyes.

Toiling,--rejoicing,--sorrowing,

Onward through life he goes;

Each morning sees some task begin,

Each evening sees it close

Something attempted, something done,

Has earned a night's repose.

Thanks, thanks to thee, my worthy friend,

For the lesson thou hast taught!

Thus at the flaming forge of life

Our fortunes must be wrought;

Thus on its sounding anvil shaped

Each burning deed and thought!

Be well, Y’all,
Mel