Pesach in the Holy Land June 16

Randi finally found a store in Har Nof that was set up like an American supermarket for Pesach. There were lots of American products that were Kosher for Passover, even for those who eat kitniyos. As most of you know, kitniyos are legumes that Ashkenazic Jews are prohibited from eating on Pesach. In America, since most Jews are of Ashkenazic descent, most Kosher for Pesach items are free of kitniyos. Here, since there is a huge population of Sephardic Jews, many products are Kosher for Pesach only for people who eat kitniyos. So basically if you're Sephardic you can eat almost anything except for actual bread. There's Kosher L'pesach rice, popcorn, and peanut butter to name just a few. For the rest of us it's a bit tricky to find the items we can eat.

During the week before Pesach we had the pleasure of a visit from an old high school friend of mine and former Highland Park neighbor, Meryl Frank. Though clearly her main claim to fame is having gone to high school with me, she also happens to be the mayor of Highland Park. Meryl was on a mission which included 60 mayors from around the world. (No, she did not bring all 60 of them to our house, though that would have been fun!) We had the pleasure of meeting two of the mayors from Tanzania when we dropped Meryl off at her hotel. They were charming gentlemen who referred to me as "Mr. Michael" when introduced to Randi.

Our seder was exceptionally nice. We joined with our friends and neighbors the Sladowskys. There were lots of Divrei Torah and phenomenal singing. Since we only had one seder I guess we found it necessary to compensate so our seder lasted until 4:30 AM! Once again it was quite easy to adjust to only having one day of Yom Tov. It seems like the most natural thing. Our chol hamoed consisted of mostly day trips; to Jerusalem and local parks. Etana and Elisheva went on a trip to Gush Katif in Gaza. They had an amazing time with the thousands of others who made the trek for what may be the last time...for now. On the eighth day of Pesach, which doesn't really exist here, we went to Jerusalem to visit some chutznik friends who were observing their final Yom Tov day. One of the families we visited was that of Etana's friend Avigail Slanger. More about Avigail later...

In the 3 weeks following Pesach there are a succession of four significant days here. The first is Yom Hashoa, Holocaust memorial day, and it's taken quite seriously. In the morning they sound an air raid siren throughout the country and people just stop what they are doing for a minute or two. I happen to have been driving on the Begin highway at the time the siren sounded. I didn't actually hear the siren but I suddenly noticed people pulling their cars over, getting out, and standing at the side of the road looking off in the distance. Not immediately realizing what was going on, my first thought was that they were looking at a nuclear mushroom cloud, but then I quickly remembered what happened to my brother last year and realized that people were stopping for the siren. (Last year on Yom Hashoa my brother, unaware that it was Yom Hashoa, drove merrily along during the siren, weaving through all the stopped cars. Only later did someone inform him what had been going on.)

Next comes Yom Hazikoron, Memorial Day. Unlike in the US, this is a very serious and solemn day as most people have been directly affected by a war or act of terror. (This contrast was made evident when a close friend of ours called from the US at the end of May and wished Randi a "HAPPY Memorial Day".) Again sirens are sounded in the evening and in the morning. I was in shul about to begin Maariv when the first siren sounded. Even though it was already relatively quiet, the silence that ensued during the siren was nearly palpable. I can't describe how the sounding of these sirens pierces the soul. Ironically, I believe it's the feeling I'm supposed to have when I hear the shofar for the first time during the month of Elul. I'm hoping that the feelings I had on Yom Hazikoron will help enhance my Elul experience this year.

Then, just as under the wedding chupah there is a stark juxtaposition between the memory of the destruction of the Beis Hamikdash and the joyousness of the wedding, so too we go from the solemness of Yom Hazikoron to the exuberance of Yom Ha'atzmaut, independence day. Again, maybe because Israel's existence is so much more recent and tenuous than the US's, this day feels so much more significant than July 4th. The families of our apartment complex, being somewhat of a bungalow colony, had a group celebration. The courtyard was decorated with Israeli flags the kids had made, there was a small ceremony which many of the kids participated in, there were a couple of divrei Torah, and of course hot dogs et al for everyone. Saying Hallel the next morning (in the case of my shul, at the end of davening w/o a bracha) also held great meaning. It truly felt significant to have a set time to praise and thank Hashem for giving us this chance to return to Him in His land. This is something I just never felt on Yom Ha'atzmaut in the US. Our shul had a sumptuous barbeque at a local yeshiva and as Dr. Suess would say we stuffed and stuffed until we had enough!

Starting from well before Pesach one would see little scavengers roaming around collecting all flammable material that was not bolted down. This, of course, was in preparation for Lag B'omer or as I've dubbed it, National Pyromania Day. As Lag B'omer approached it seemed that every corner had the makings of a pre-bonfire. The wood scavenging reaches a frenzy that actually borders on the criminal. Let's just say that I wouldn't leave an antique dresser outside my house for a moment unguarded during this time! As the sun sets on the eve of Lag B'Omer the fires begin to blaze. Confirming my observation, there actually is a bonfire on every corner and sometimes in the middle of the street. Being overprotective Americans we kept our kids at distance from these fires burning all over, but there are little kids everywhere making their own personal size bonfires. So the fires don't go to waste people bring out their hot dogs and marshmallows to make a meal of it.

Shortly after Pesach we paid our outstanding balance and received the keys to our house! We finally had the Z'chus (merit) of owning property in Eretz Yisroel. (Us and Bank Leumi that is.) So what does one do with a brand new house in Israel? What else, you destroy it! You see, most modern houses in the US are made of wood and sheetrock. So the tool of choice for making slight alterations is the utility knife; precise, surgical, elegant. Here, most houses are made of concrete, making the sledge hammer the tool to use; obviously not quite as elegant! We needed to install a burglar alarm. (For insurance purposes it's either that or "serugim" (bars) and as much as we find an alarm distasteful, bars were out of the question.) The alarm installation wasn't so bad, they just had to gouge out some furrows for the wiring. But then came the air conditioning. These guys were bashing holes everywhere. It was a little disconcerting, but in the end the "geves" (sheetrock) guy covered everything up very nicely.

We moved in last Tuesday after a very hectic week of tightly scheduled appointments; kitchen, shayesh, plumbing, electric, cleaning, exterminating, and carpeting. Everything came together, the house is beautiful and we're so happy to be here. Even before we unpacked many of our boxes Raanan had already assembled our new porch swing. At first many of our neighbors were curious that we put the swing in our front yard. However, the swing has quickly become a neighborhood attraction. Of course anyone who has passed by our house on Edgemount Rd. knows that our porch swing was well used. We look forward to hosting many of our friends and family here in the years to come.

As I write this Randi is preparing for her first trip to the US. She's going back for Elisheva's high school graduation which will be Sunday in Brooklyn. She's also planning to spend a lot of time in one of the places she misses the most...TARGET. Of course besides Target she's also looking forward to spending time in Shop Rite. No, seriously, she's excited about seeing our friends in Edison/Highland Park and family and friends in Brooklyn and elsewhere. And a really big treat will be going to Bed, Bath and Beyond. Oops there I go again.

During her visit Randi will see, for the first time, the fruits of a project she worked on very diligently over the past few weeks. Randi was the shadchan (matchmaker) between our nephew, Yitzy Brownstein, and one of Etana's closest friends, Avigail Slanger, who became engaged last week. Unlike in more modern circles where the matchmaker just introduces a couple and they take it from there, Randi's role was more like that of the high-powered executive who brings together two multi-national corporations in the M&A process. She was on call 24 hours a day constantly manning the phones to handle the often delicate negotiations involved in putting together this transcontinental, multifaceted deal. Yitzy, Inc. and Avigail, LTD. make a really nice couple and we're sure that will have a very happy and profitable life together.

Actually, Yitzy and Avigail have a bit of a history together. When Etana first met Avigail several years ago in camp she came home the first day saying that she had met a girl who looked like a female version of Yitzy. Avigail spent many Shabbatot in our house over the years and on a couple of occasions, gasp, Yitzy was there as well. And in 2001 our family, with Avigail, and Yitzy's family went to Great Adventure during Pesach. The group picture we took included Avigail. At the time Randi's mom was a little annoyed that this really nice picture of all of her grandchildren had an "extra" person in it! (Check that and other pictures on our web site at http://www.lipkinfamily.com.)

I'll end with a cute "only in Israel" story. For the past few years the members of our shul here have been davening in the basement of the shul building as the main part of the building remained an incomplete skeleton pending the receipt of sufficient funds to finish it. This past month building commenced and we will hopefully be davening in the new shul by Rosh Hashana. (This is deja vu of our last move to Edgemount Rd. in Edison.) During mincha prayers I had been noticing a lot of jack hammering. I know I said that there is a build and destroy cycle that occurs with buildings here, but this seemed excessive. I noticed that the workers were removing part of the mechitza that surrounds the balcony. With a couple of slight variations the story I heard was basically that the original contractor who built the mechitza was a French chareidi gentleman. Apparently he felt that the mechitza wasn't high enough so decided to add about a foot or so on his own!