Good times and frustration

So today we went to Kiftzuba, which is I guess is a local equivalent of Sesame Place or something like that. The kids had a great time, we survived, and the only bad part was forgetting to bring the camera. I even went on a bouncy castle type thing - Gabi gave me instructions on what to do there :-)

Friday we had intended to go to the pool but we weren't sure if it was open so we wound up hiking near here. The road from Beit Shemesh up the hill past Tzur Hadassah is an old Roman Road. On the path we were on (it's to the right if you are coming up the hill - look for the Keren Kayemet sign for Beit HaBad) we saw an old Roman column that had broken and collapsed - there was only one column and we weren't sure what it would have been for - a milepost? At the beginning of the path - quite far from the column - was the Beit HaBad which is some kind of oil press.

The frustration - after we both went months ago and signed Gabi up for first grade, she appears on the class list with only one parent (me). Not only do we have to correct this at the school office (where we were very clear on registering her that she has 2 legal parents), but I have to track down whether this is an issue at the education dept. and the interior ministry where all the kids are registered. Maybe it's related to the social security letter I got about a benefit for single parents. Wish me luck!

The name of the blog

So, I decided to call my blog Yabiah Omer - this is from Psalm 19:2 -
יום ליום יביע אומר, לילה ללילה יחוה דעת
A possible translation: Day after day expresses speech; night to night gives knowledge. (Let me know a better one if you can.)

Those of you in the know will realize that Rabbi Ovadiah Yosef has used this expression as the title for one of his books, but I decided not to let that stop me. I used this title because the word to express, yabiah, is related to the word for bubble, buah.

I'm endlessly fascinated and disturbed by the changes in the meaning of language in this age of facebook, etc. And the bubble quality of language, something that appears and disappears, is so real to me right now. So this line from Psalm 19 really captures it for me. See Psalm 94:4 for a less positive context of this idea of bubble talk.

The bird is a European Bee Eater. I saw two yesterday flying over the playground in old Tzur Hadassah. The photo was taken by Karen Benzian.

Yes, I've started a blog

I decided to start a blog because of what's going on behind my house. Last summer, when there were random terror attacks by tractor, my son was fascinated by the tractor digging behind our house. It was such a strange feeling - something to fear versus something fascinating. Then this summer, as two houses are being constructed to block our view (nah, he's not planning to build, the realtors said 2 years ago - not that I ever believed them), we spent over a week watching several Arab workers laboring every day to build the MaMaD - Makom Mugan Dirati - sealed room, that every Israeli apartment and home is now built with. It was a long and complex process.

Now I'm thinking, these guys are most likely from Husan, the largest Arab town right across the green line from us, about 5 minutes drive. If the Iranians attack us, they'll be just as endangered - do they have such rooms?? (A rhetorical question.) And if the attack is from closer in, then it's probably coming right from Husan, and the attackers will be these guys, or perhaps their neighbors. Isn't this all just a little too weird?

The sealed room is now done - the walls of the house are going up. I'll keep you posted.