Category: religiousness
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I ate the carob.
Remember going to Jewish day school in the States? Remember Tu B’Shvat back then? You were kinda like, wtf is this? But we get to draw trees and make tissue paper flowers, ok. We sing happy birthday to nature and best of all, we get to take home a lil plastic baggie of dried fruit.…
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The state of Purim costumes in Israel: Sexy-blurry edition.
Ah, Purim. It’s quickly approaching. Its various timings fall out on March 7-9 this year. And as it’s one of Israel’s favorite holidays – kids’ or not – the toy stores have been gearing up around Jerusalem and Beit Shemesh, and the advertisements have been sent in the mail. The brightly colored pages of ‘Purim’…
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Thanks for keeping it classy, Beit Shemesh ladies.
Since I’ve been ranting about the Beit Shemesh tolerance vs extremists issue, it’s only fair I follow up with a ray of hope in the form of Queen, or, well, 250 of them… with a Beit Shemesh women’s dance flash mob. On Friday, Jan 6th, 2012, a group of 250 women from Bet Shemesh decided…
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Protesting violence and extremism in Beit Shemesh.
The House of Sun has been pretty dark lately. And by pretty dark, I mean as dark as a ten-layer burqa on a Jewish woman. I haven’t written about it here, but you can learn more about the abuse of 8-year-old dati leumi Na’ama Margolies, signs ordering women how to modestly walk the streets, and…
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Universe.
So I don’t believe in ‘a religious God’ or whatever, I’m only human and can only grasp so much, but for me, it’s safe to think that the Universe and its Ways are what guide the world with the Force of… whatever it is keeping us all moving. But this, what I’m about to describe,…
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On the first night of Chanukah…
We accomplished the complete package (ok, sorta): Chanukiyah, fried ktzitzot, sufganiyot, dreidel and a townie Chanukah celebration at the local schools, complete with minors marching with lit torches. I guess we can just go ahead and wrap this holiday up now. (Confession: I feel like Cultural Israel takes this holiday SO INCREDIBLY SERIOUSLY and the…
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Joshua’s messing with us.
“And the sun stood still, and the moon stayed, until the people had avenged themselves upon their enemies.” I remember learning it in 4th grade and it seriously always stuck with me. It was a ‘holy shit, dude’ moment back then, and it remained so for many years. Until one day, walking somewhere in Israel,…
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Sukkot: Shake well.
Cute video tribute to Sukkot, a completely underrated holiday outside of Israel… Also, chocolate milk in Israel is pretty awesome, too. Not a big fan of all the Glee-tastic music videos that come out around the Jewish holidays. This though, made me smile. Good job, Yosef.
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Religious views: Lazy.
I’m in a new place. It’s a place I’ve heard about, but never dwelled within. A place in time. I’ve known it’s been creeping up, have been expecting its tap on the shoulder… and here it is, plunked down and landed at my feet. Not enough is spoken about this place. I wish more people…
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The fish, the shark and Passover.
When Gilad Shalit was 11, he wrote a short story called “When the Shark and the Fish First Met.” Though it seems this was originally published and spread around in 2008, I only came across it now via Facebook shares. It resonates with me because I did a lot of short story writing when I was…
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Do Israeli kids ever learn the fire safety lesson?
The answer, sadly, is no. There is an unhealthy Israeli-Jewish obsession with fire in the springtime. It starts today – with Biyur Chametz, the burning of chametz, which is done on erev Pessach. Soon will be Yom Haatzmaut – the national barbecue bonanza, and after that, Lag B’omer, which pretty much celebrates bonfires the way it’s done here.…