Winter Sky Already, Will it be a Rainy One?

Last winter was dry, dangerously dry. Besides a record-breaking major snow storm, there was hardly any precipitation at all. Here we are a week from Rosh Hashannah, eeks! and the sky is showing dark clouds. Will G-d bless us with rain?

Framed! A Great Photographic Challenge

For this week's 52Frames photographic challenge, there was the composition theme "framed." The shot I submitted wasn't planned in any way. I just noticed the interesting scene in the bus mirror and shot it.

My other idea wasn't planned either. It was a cropped picture I took at a wedding last week.

It's a very different type of "framed." I asked for advice from people from the group, and two out of three went for the mirror, while one voted for the wedding photo.  What do you think? Please comment your opinion, thanks.

"When you enter..." Havel Havelim...

This week's Havel Havelim is hosted by Esser Agaroth. As always, he had done a wonderful job bringing all sorts of blog posts for us to read. Please visit, comment and share, thanks.

Next week I'll be hosting, and then there probably won't be an edition until after Yom Kippur and then after Succot. If you'd like to host one, please let us know on our facebook page.

Remember you don't have to be a blogger to read, enjoy and share Havel Havelim!

"Suburban Life" in Jerusalem's Old City Walls

Over forty years ago, when I was pregnant with our first child we were living in Jerusalem's Old City, in Maon Betar. There were very few Jewish families in the Old City. We were the first Jewish American, young, newly wed olim chadashim, new immigrants.

At that time, there weren't proper sidewalks. There was mud, well packed after centuries of pounding by feet and wagons. In many places, Israel had begun to dig them up and lay modern sewers, water pipes etc. Neither the British Mandate, nor Jordan which had illegally occupied it for 19 years had done any work on it. We could barely get around. Planks of wood were at our door, and Arab workers were underneath. There was no way I would stay there once I gave birth. I had alwys expected to walk around wheeling my babies through parks etc.  So we moved to Bayit Vegan where we had bought an apartment.

A couple of weeks ago, when I ascended to Har HaBayit, the Temple Mount we visited a couple of Jewish homes in the Hebron Quarter. In one of them I saw this.

How wonderful that now there are young Jewish families there, and the kids do all the things I couldn't imagine doing there in my time, baby carriages, bicycles... just like in the suburbs....

The Ambiance of a "Street-side Cafe"

I rarely eat on the sidewalk when there's an option to eat inside, but sometimes, eating inside costs extra. I budgeted the big ns10 for a salad, so I sat down with this view.

and

and this

Real Rosh Hashannah New Year's Cards!

Decades ago, tables like this one were all over the streets of Jerusalem:

RonAlmog, The Four Species Market

This holiday card business is a lot easier as a seasonal Holiday business than selling etrogim and the rest of the "four species." Just pack them up and sell again next year.

Decades ago, when I first came to Israel, before the science fiction idea of "email" and internet, there weren't even phones in every Israeli home. Cards just like these were mailed, and the mailmen brought them to every building. The boxes bulged with New Years greetings.

This woman is stationed on King George Street, not far from the "old Hamashbir." She's near where Carvel used to be and, yes, across from where Richie's Pizza was. Hmmm... now how can I describe it in today's terms? In the plaza under the steps to Lev Yerushalayim, sort of across from Hahistadrut Street.

The card designs are in the classic style, so why not buy some, give to friends and they can use them to decorate their succah or just enjoy. She also has calendars.

There are Mitzvah-Favors I'll Gladly Do, and There's Chutzpah

As most of you know, I work in Yafiz, Sha'ar Binyamin, which is a "clothing for the entire family" store in a shopping center, "strip mall," just north of Jerusalem, patronized by Jews and Arabs. There are certain types of favors I love to do for my neighbors, but on rare occasions people ask the chutzpadik.

I've picked up emergency medicine, returned lost/forgotten wallets and other valuables. That sort of thing I do gladly. But I'm not going to use my limited time-off to shop for books for someone and then be stuck carrying them back home. I don't have a car. I tremp aka hitchhike. The only shopping I do is for my own family, certainly not strangers who call and ask me to get for children I don't know. I'm also never going to buy something for someone when the same product is available in a local Shiloh store.

I think it's important to patronize local businesses. If there's a store in my community I get what I can there. Since I do work in Yafiz, which is next to Rami Levy, I shop in those stores more than I did before working there. It's convenient. And for me the stores in Sha'ar Binyamin should be patronized before going to Jerusalem, Ariel or other places.

A Kvetch, Trying to Make Exercise Fun

Yes, I'm a kvetch, sorry.

As I wrote yesterday, the pool is now closed. It was so much fun going three or four times a week for an exercise session in the pool. No I don't "swim." I love to dance, my true calling, and I have my based on dance routines for the water. And of course I can chat with friends while exercising there in the pool which is conveniently across the street from my house.

But without the pool being full and open, I'm stuck.

Sometimes I just went for a 15 minute session. It's worth it when you pay season membership and live close-by.

But now it's closed.

Last night I took my earphones and "device" and took a short walk. I didn't want to wait until it wasn't a pool day. I wanted that transition to be immediate. But it's not quite the same to walk around with earphones when the sun isn't high in the sky. It's hard to force myself out even for just one circuit. I can't do it when the sun is too strong or when it's raining. And walking doesn't do the same for my body as the stretches, twists and turns in the pool, sigh...

Sorry for kvetching so publicly...

Last Day of Pool Season, Sigh...

Short but wonderful, that's our pool season here in Shiloh. The season lasts barely three months. Each year we, the regulars, hope for a longer one, but so for that's it.

main swimming pool

toddlers wading pool

Just three months... That's never long enough.

There are two unbeatable things about the pool, besides the convenient location near my house.

• enjoyable healthy exercise
• a chance to meet and talk with friends

This means that summer is over for sure, even if it keeps being hot, we won't have that wonderful summer relief of being able to jump in the pool for a while. This year I never got to the pool during evening hours. I did all of my swimming in the morning before 9:30.

HH in Aliyah Land, Bulldozer Ahead!

Yes, Tzivia of Adventures in Aliyah Land is this week's Havel Havelim host. Check out the posts, comment and share, please. There's a great variety of posts, so you're bound to find a few you'll like.

Havel Havelim is the weekly international Jewish blog carnival, which is a fun name for an internet magazine that floats from blog to blog.

We coordinate on our facebook page. Next host is Esser Agaroth. Send your links in before Shabbat.

REMEMBER: YOU DON'T HAVE TO BE A BLOGGER TO LOVE AND READ HAVEL HAVELIM!!

Speaking to ESRA, Netanya

A few months ago I was invited to speak to a lovely group of people about blogging. It was the ESRA group in Netanya.

I was joined by Paula, A Soldier's Mother, Brian of London, Israeallycool, and Stephen Levitt of the Jewish Press. The evening was MC'ed by Yori Yanover of The Jewish Independent.

To tell you the truth, I love to talk to people probably more than I love to write, so I did have a great time there. I don't know if it brought my blogs more readers or encouraged anyone to blog. I'd love to know.

Is Blogging Becoming a Drag?

All of a sudden tonight when I finally sat down to blog on my blogs, something that is pretty routine, totally different posts on both this blog and Shiloh Musings usually flow from my head to the keyboard like lightning, I felt empty.

It didn't take long to write for Shiloh Musings, but all I could think of writing here was to rant that I'm suffering "bloggers block." So that's what I'm doing.

Most days I write so easily and effortlessly. I really felt scared not being able to come out with anything. Well, maybe a daily routine like mine is a bit crazy. I'm always afraid that if I stop writing daily, I'd lose readers.

Blogging should be fun. It's not like I get paid for it. So, if I really have nothing to say and other things to do...

Sorry for wasting your time. I'll be back when I have something to say that makes more sense, ok?

Distorted, but Lovely

What do you think?

And do you know where it is?

PS that's why I always must have a camera handy.

Morning Beauty, Different Camera, Different Feel

Over the years I've taken lots of these morning pictures while waiting for a ride or bus. This week was the first time I shot with my new Canon IXUS 145, and the view looks very different.

My new camera had double the pixels and double the zoom potential the old one (Canon 620) has. The foreground seems darker and more intense while the distance looks dreamier, more like an Impressionist painting.

Here are a couple of other pictures taken in the same general direction, from the same spot in the morning from a  year or so ago.

Reflecting a Bit on My First Aliyah li'Har HaBayit, Ascending The Temple Mount

So far I haven't gotten any pictures of myself on Har HaBayit, but I do have this one of us waiting for permission to enter, taken by Yehuda Glick, a well-known Har HaBayit activist.

photo by Yehuda Glick

Most of us photographed here are from Shiloh, which was the Jewish National and Religious Capital and resting place (location) of the Mishkan, Tabernacle for 369 years. That's before Jerusalem was declared the Capital of the Jewish Kingdom of King David. Rachel Sela of Shiloh leads groups of women, in Hebrew, on the Temple Mount. She kept us fascinated with her explanations of the Holiness and history of the site and how to behave and where it is permitted to go. Afterwards we celebrated with a festive meal in the "Hebron Quarter" which is a section of what is inaccurately known as the "Moslem Quarter." This is where many Jews from Hebron had lived. Please contact me if you'd like to join her.

Nowadays women are as active in the movement to bring more Jewish life and ritual to the Temple Mount as men. But it wasn't always so.

My husband was drafted  by Menachem Ben-Yashar, of Massuot Yitzchak, to the very small ranks of Jews who defied the authorities to go up on the Temple Mount a short time after our aliyah, move, to Israel, September, 1970.  Yes, exactly forty-four 44 years ago.

In those days, there were only men among the activists. Menachem came to speak to my husband about it, not to speak to both of us. It just wasn't a "woman's issue." Actually, it never occurred to me that I, too, should go up. They'd frequently end up being beaten and dragged by the police and even getting stitched up in the Emergency Ward. Obviously, that wasn't my "thing."

my husband's blog banner

Over the decades, things changed, and women did get involved, but I didn't. It wasn't because I disagreed with the rights of Jews to ascend the Temple Mount to pray; I firmly believed and believe that we should be there. A very small portion of the area is of such holiness that we shouldn't enter. And I also believe that it would be better that we do enter and build the Third Temple than allow the Muslim Arabs and Christian tourists to defile it.

Christian tourists enter freely, while we wait.

There's lots of space and rubble, even close to the Holy of Holies where the Muslims built their "Dome of the Rock."

Most of what is today the Temple Mount is the Herodian Extension, which doesn't have the highest level of holiness. What surprised me was how small our restricted area actually is.

I only began thinking seriously about my own aliyah l'Har HaBayit in recent years. My life has been full of other things and politically with other battles. About a year ago, Rachel and I spoke about it, and she was so shocked that I hadn't yet gone up. For younger women, raised in a more feminist time, when women do and learn many of the things men do, it's considered natural for women to ascend to Judaism's holiest spot. I felt rather silly trying to explain why it had taken me so many decades to do what felt so natural once I got up there.

One of the topics she mentioned as we walked around was the holiness of the Kotel, the Western Wall. As readers of my blogs know, I can't relate to the worship of the place and the custom to leave what I call "letters to Santa Claus."

Glimpse of the Kotel while walking up to the Temple Mount

Rachel pointed out that the "Western Wall" which Chazal, our Sages, refer to is not that Herodian built  outer wall, but the western wall of the Temple Courtyard.

Today that holy wall no longer remains. The holiness of the popular Kotel is the same as for any Jerusalem synagogue. And when praying there, we must turn slightly to the left to face the Kodesh Kodeshim, Holy of Holies.

Two final points to finish this post:

• I am very glad that I finally ascended The Temple Mount. It felt right and good to do so.
• But I'm outraged with every fiber of my body and soul that it is forbidden for Jews to pray there by the State of Israel!

Photography Challenges, The Ginger Project 52Frames

I'm really enjoying being part of 52frames, the weekly photo challenge. We challenge ourselves, not each other. The latest theme or challenge as I call it was the Ginger Project. As usual, there were lots of interpretations.  Here's mine:

Her name is Jean, named for her ginger hair. I used my new Canon IXUS 145, which has 8 optical zoom (and 4 digital.) I was surprised at how close up Jeanie looked. I was so happy with my first attempt, I didn't shoot any more of her.

It's a pretty simple camera. With a more sophisticated one I could have focused on her face and the bars would have been blurrier.

KCC Elul, Frugal and Rich

Frugal and Kosher is the host of this month's Kosher Cooking Carnival. Check it out. Read, comment and share, thanks.

The Kosher Cooking Carnival can include all sorts of posts about kosher food and kosher cooking. KCC appears on or around Rosh Chodesh, the beginning of the Jewish Month. We coordinate and plan on our Facebook site. I'll be hosting it next month's edition which will appear either before or after Rosh Hashannah, which is not only the first day of the Jewish year, but the first of the month of Tishrei. Please send in links to shilohmuse at gmail dot com, thanks.

Thanks again to Ester of Frugal and Kosher for hosting!

I Love My Job, But...

Honestly, I really do love my simple saleswoman job.

• I love the interaction with people. 
• I love being creative in dressing the manikins.
• I love meeting all sorts of old friends, former students and people I'd worked with at all sorts of other jobs. 
• I love helping people.
• I love the flexibility I've been given in requesting convenient shifts.
• I love not having to take work home with me. I sign in; I sign out. That's it!
• I love being physically active.
• I love the various challenges I face.
• I love working part-time and really can't do more than I'm doing.

The one thing I don't like is the low salary. I've tried to find another job, but not a single one of my queries to job offers has ever been replied to.

So, I guess this is the job for me.

Unbelievably Easy and Pretty Healthy Candy-like Dessert

I wanted something to serve for dessert on Shabbat since we were having guests. Considering that the guests, my husband and I all try to avoid cakes, I wanted to serve something else. I didn't have melon or watermelon; they seem to be going out of season. Rami Levy didn't have any.

So when I went down to get a package from the mail on Thursday night I went into our local store and bought a large (they didn't have small) bag of coconut and date spread. I decided to make fruit candies. There were only three ingredients:

• date spread
• shredded coconut 
• sunflower seeds, which I had just bought to use in a salad, but didn't 

Sorry, but I can't give exact measurements. I poured a lot of the coconut into a bowl, added the sunflower seeds and date spread and then mixed. You may have to add either more coconut or more date spread until it gets to a consistency like "play dough," easy to shape. 

Then I placed it on some "baking paper."

Then with the help of the paper, very easily rolled it in to a "log."

Then I sliced it, wrapped it again in the paper, put it in a bag and then into the freezer.

On Shabbat I served it to my husband and guests. For some strange reason, they all insisted that it was necessary to sample a few pieces before giving their opinions. And... they all loved it! Yes, even my husband ate more than one piece and he usually doesn't go for fruit.

For variations, you can roll into balls and then roll that in more coconut, ground nuts or even sprinkles... Also, instead of sunflower seeds, you can use any ground nuts.

Enjoy!

Expensive Zip-Lock Bags? Not for Me!

My 1970 aliyah to Israel predates zip-locked bags. When we first made aliyah, cheap giveaway plastic bags were rare. Now there's talk of joining the "no free bag" world, but I wouldn't invest in zip-locks. Over the years I've gotten some and hoarded them until they cracked. I've also tried washing them out.

In all honesty, I do not like zip-lock bags!

Every year before Passover I buy myself these:

They are simple food bags, in two sizes, that are very inexpensive. Considering that there are two hundred in each package and I don't don't use them daily, I have an enormous stock in my closet. After last Passover, instead of keeping them out, I put the new only used on Passover packages in the Passover closet.