I spoke to Nomi Teplow the other night and it gave me a little twinge in my heart when I realized it was Sunday night and the women’s choir was assembling in her living room.  And I wasn’t there…  The past two years I stopped going to choir practice when life got a little […]

  My friend and neighbor, Lenny, is back at work this week after taking off for the week-long Passover holiday.  Lenny is the creator, owner, manager and chief baker for his bakery, here in Karnei Shomron, and Passover, with its strict and inherent prohibitions against eating leavened bread, gives him a forced vacation!  But during […]

  The rains started last week. It was a long dry spell—too long– and when the meteorologists started predicting a storm, it was all people could talk about. The anticipation in the air was almost celebratory… as if an important guest was coming to town, or a popular sporting event was about to begin. The […]

July 2011   I just came home from being abroad for six days. The trip was my mother’s idea and it was an incredible one! My mother, my two sisters, Judy and Batya, and my brother-in-law  Richie, live in America, all in the New York area, and my husband and I live in Israel. It’s […]

I think I’ll put in my last load of laundry tomorrow so I can take in any clothing hanging out on the line to dry, before Thursday night when the fires will be set. I make a reminder for myself to close all the windows of the house tightly in order to try and prevent […]

July 2010   Today is Tisha B’Av, a fast day which falls on the ninth day of the month of Av in the Hebrew calendar. It started last night after our final evening meal, which was relatively quiet and somber, reflecting the mood of the 25 hour period we were about to enter. Our Shabbat […]

July 2009   School is out and my house reflects the fact that there are now more kids at home full time. So does my kitchen. I came home yesterday to find watermelon rinds and empty sacks of flour splayed on the counter tops and both kitchen sinks overflowing with dishes. Literally. But I comfort […]

I’m still on a high from last night. When I got home, it was really late, but I was so charged by what I had experienced, that I needed to unwind. I spent some time talking with my daughter before going upstairs, and read a few pages of my book before turning out the light. […]

Coming of age. Rites of passage. This brings to mind images of a boy in a loincloth, holding a sword in one hand and a sack of grain in the other, going off into the woods to kill his first bear. Or someone breaking out a bottle of bubbling champagne and drinking to a young […]

February 2012 He’s our car mechanic.  His garage is conveniently located in the Industrial Area right outside Karnei Shomron.  But Shalom is also my neighbor, his house on the block parallel to mine.  Shalom is an interesting personality.  When you go to drop off your car, you may get an earful of male chauvinism, with […]