The shabbat before yom kippur I went out to betar with my last married nephew and wife to stay in my nieces apartment….she had gone away to tel stone and I ate with my other niece. It was very peaceful in betar…in the am, (there are no ezrat nashim or Shabbat tshuvu drashim in beitar b) I davened on my nieces mirpeset…it faces a mountain and there’s only the security road and and two other roads in view…it was sooo calming..after a while two arabs with donkeys rode by…on their path to their village..
My nieces children are sooo cute…real blondies…her baby looks scandanavian!!
Then back to Jerusalem on motzei shabbos…they were doing kaparot with live chickens on the corner near one of the yeshivot here…
Sunday was erev yom kippur and all banks are closed, all government offices and most stores except for food close down at around 11:00…in other words, the entire country feels the onset of the day of awe…on tueday, after yom kippur, I was reading one of the newspapers, and there was talk of accidents from roller blades and all non-vehicular accidents..so it seems like no one really drives for pleasure on yom kippur like they do on Shabbat..
Actually, Sunday am, I went with my sister to the woman’s mikva in har nof…my first experience ever with an Israeli mikva…they have private mikvaot for women, in the same room that one can take their shower…this I never experienced in the two mikvaot that I used to go to in boro park..
Afterward, I dropped into a friend, as I missed a kiddush she made for her first grandchild on Shabbat…she was very calm, erev yom kippur, as if she had all the time in the world..
Then we came back down to my sisters apartment and I was catching up on computer stuff, while my sister prepared the seudat mafseket…we had changed the clocks back on motzie shabbos, so yom kippur was coming in early…before five…my youngest nephew, the only child of my sister’s that still lives at home, was going to a yeshiva in town for yom kippur, so we had an early seudah at 2:00…I actually went next door to boston to daven mincha with a minyan!! (growing up as child, I remembering wanting to live right next to a shul and a gym, to be able to daven with a minyan when I wanted and to be able to do gymnastics whenever I wanted)…well one out of two isn’t bad!!!
Shul was okay, a little a long and as I mentioned with the rosh hashannah davening, I;m not crazy about the baal tefillah’s voice…but it’s nice because there’s no talking and everyone can just concentrate on their teffilos to hashem.. on yom kippur night my sister and I went to visit my mom after shul…we got her to be a little more alert and she responded a little bit..
The fast ended here a little after 6 pm and after maariv was around 6:35…My brother-in-law said the after the fast meal is also a yom tov meal and he had fleishiks…I don’t remember what I ate,,,but it sure wasn’t chicken…
I went to sleep late that nite, as I had slept on yom kipper afternoon, and the next am I had to get up at seven for work at shalva…however, I set my phone alarm, not realizing that I hadn’t changed the time on my phone, since we had changed the clocks…so I was starting to get ready for work, until around at 6:15, I realized my mistake…so I had only had around 4 hours of sleep that night…but it went fine at shalva…the staff is really wonderful and the children are all so cute!! Most all the therapist are anglo…only 3 out of 9 are Israeli in the maon…many of the teachers and support staff are either children of anglo parents or married to anglo’s so I get a lot of help with the language…B”H…also one of the veteran PT’s is American and she helps me a lot with the terminology…and what we’re supposed to do as far as paperwork…
I had actually wanted to go up to kanfei nesharim, the main shopping drag outside of har nof, but I was tired and helped my sister unpack her yom tov shopping instead and hung out at home.
Wednesday was sharei tzedek and I was with the veteran OT, and I found some new activities to do with kids, that I hadn’t seen before. Thursday was the last day at shalva before the chag and I finished all my initial evals on the kids that are there…however I still have to do 2 or possibly 3 more…
Thursday I had to go up to kanfei nesharim to get a 220 plug for my computer, overlays with Hebrew letters and to take care of banking…I had also called to look at an apartment that is private for myself… so going up to kanfei nesharim, I was early for the bank, during the midday break…I meet my banker outside as he’s leaving for his break, and he gives me a friendly, “hi dina!”..i in turn reply, “hi ayal!” I ask him about checks that I may have received at the bank and he says he didn’t know….i should give him my number and he’ll call me when he returns to bank at three, (meanwhile the bank doesn’t open again till four)…so I make a whole production, putting down my bags and getting out a pen and writing down my cell number for him and he patiently waits, taking my number…why do I tell this story…to relate to you our people of Israel…
- which bank personel
a. call you by your first name
b. remember your name
c. bother with you during non-banking hours
sure enough he called me back during non-bank hours at 3…to give me information and I mentioned to him an additional problem that the bank had meanwhile swallowed my card…I had put the wrong code in a couple of times…he said to come back when the bank opens and he’ll help me with everything…may I also mention that ayal is not a teller, he actually deals with investments…yet he helps me with every and anything that I need!! In english yet!
Only in Israel!
After seeing ayal and having the bank swallow my card I proceeded to the store that sold electronics…the guy there sold me a cord and I asked if he had overlays and he said, no…so I asked for stationary stores and he calmly and kindly explained to me where there are two in the neighborhood. Then I asked if there were any internet café’s in the neighborhood as I had my laptop with me and time to kill before the bank opened…so he is on the phone with someone, then he tells me where to go, that his wife owns this café across the street and there’s free internet access there…
It turned out he was on the phone with his wife asking her if the internet was working there…so I continued with my errands and ended up in the café and his wife was also sweet and helpful…
Then I went back to my ayal and he helped me with all my questions…
Then I walked back to har nof, the long way, through chai taib and went to 11 brand to look at a lovely one bedroom apartment to rent for myself…why was it so lovely? It had a garden with bouginvilla growing in it and a large full bathroom…quite small for the hefty price of 800. and with nothing included….i would really love to rent the apartment but feel that I would be rent poor…I also really love the land lady who subsequently invited me for meals on succot regardless if I take the apartment or not…now on hoshana rabba she also invited my sister and to a shuir in her succah.
The couple that was living in the apartment were also very nice and interesting…and what a small world..first of all the guy was from san Francisco, however much younger than me…and the wife from Australia was an OT!!
t..it goes almost until erev succot...please don't just press reply to reply...cuz sometimes the whole list sees the responses...rather cut and paste my address into a new compose mail....
thanx,
love from the holy land,
dina
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