Sara from Elon Moreh

Shalom to all!

I started learning this week. Yes, really! With a tiny baby and all! I’m learning Diagnostic Evaluation this year, and next year I’ll learn Remedial Teaching. It’s a course for one day a week, and it’ll give me two new directions within my profession (English teaching).

Anyway, I missed the first 4 meetings, as I was on maternity leave. So on Tuesday I put Yirat into the car and set off. That in itself was a performance – timing nursing etc as well as taking care of all the other children! We finally left with enough baggage for a two week stay in the College! On the way, as is customary around our part of the world, I picked up a carful of hitchhikers. But…traffic jams!! Now this wasn’t at seven o’clock in the morning, but at around nine o’clock. Weren’t people already supposed to be at work? What time does this country start working? The answer: not from eight as we’re led to believe – at least not according to the amount of cars stuck, like me, in the traffic jam! The worst part wasn’t trying to educate the vast numbers of people who weren’t at their workplaces (yet). The worst was…Yirat started to scream her head off! Now, for me, the worst-case scenario in the car is to be stuck in a traffic jam with a screaming baby and no way of calming her down! A long time (an eternity, so it seemed!) later, she finally fell asleep, and my jangled nerves returned to normal.

It seems to me, that if Israelis undergo this torture of endless traffic jams, despite the millions put into pulling up the existing roads, “improving” them, building new roads, pulling THEM up and improving them and so on and so on, it’s no wonder that everything’s crazy here!! I think that everyone should be made to live on a settlement for a certain period of time so that they can see that life can be pastoral and tranquil, and then maybe they’ll see the whole settlement question from a different perspective!

I only have to make this journey once a week – but was I glad to get back to “civilisation” in Elon Moreh!!

Shabbat Shalom

Sara

Shalom to all!!

First – we had a new addition to our family three weeks ago – Miss Yirat Rivka! She’s really cute (of course!!), but naturally things have been hectic since then. My kids did great when I wasn’t home, but as soon as I walked in the door, the household responsibilities shifted slowly back to me. Anyway, I’ve been relishing my maternity leave – my last baby was born at the end of the school year, and nearly my entire maternity holiday was with ALL my kids at home! This time I’m enjoying myself having a quiet house in the mornings. I don’t get everything done that I’d like, but there you go!

I have to say that Elon Moreh is an absolutely amazing place. I’m normally on the Chessed Committee – which takes care of women after birth, families with special needs as the husband is in reserve duty, or someone is G-d forbid ill etc. Now I’ve been on the receiving end of things, and up till now I haven’t had to cook anything as people have been sending food in. It makes such a difference not to have to think about how to feed the hungry army here when the baby is less calm than during the day! I’ve had food arranged to be brought in, and tons of food that has suddenly arrived from neighbours and friends. One thing I’ve noticed is that a lot of people have the same saucepans (pots for you Americans!), so I had to make sure that they were washed and returned before I got mixed up!

A positive side of being in hospital is not knowing what’s going on in this country. Unfortunately things are going from bad to worse, and the scandals of corruption are getting out of hand. You can see that people who have no moral code above them have no way of reining themselves in, and also have no way of making decisions for the People of Israel and the Land of Israel. We have to pray and hope that Hashem will see fit to plant the seed of Torah in their hearts so that our beautiful country will continue to be ours forever. Here in Elon Moreh we feel that we are leading the true camp, and that if we all work together, we will succeed in getting out of this darkness into the genuine light.

I’ll be back soon – typing at the computer is quite compatible with a baby over my knees! If I can figure out how, I’ll post a picture of the baby, and all the rest!

Shalom from Elon Moreh

Sara 

 

I wanted to wish you all a good fast. Even those who are not fasting must surely feel the weight of this Holy day. Just think that this time last year Hashem decided everything single little thing that happened to you up till now. Your income, your expenses, your broken wisdom tooth, chicken pox, the argument with your neighbours – everything. Of course, Hashem also gave us the possibility of deciding how we react and how we accept His will. The main thing is to realise that Hashem only does things for our own good, even if we may not understand that at the time. Therefore, if we can really, really accept the “bad” along with the good as being only “good” for us, and if we can really, really say to Hashem that we comprehend and internalise that His will is actually what we want too, then we’ll reach a much higher level of connection with our Creator, as well as overcoming seeming setbacks.

 May we all merit true repentance this Yom Kippur, and may we also merit building our country on Torah based values!

Sara

It’s hard to believe that soon it will be Winter. I’m still feeling the heat here, although there have been some cooler days and nights. The cycle of the Year never ceases to amaze me. Hashem makes sure that nature takes its course, with no mess-ups. Totally wonderful. Of course, we do see natural disasters such as earthquakes, Tsunamis, drought etc. but that’s normally as a warning to change our ways.

I hope that we’ll merit recognising when we need to change our ways, BEFORE Hashem needs to painfully remind us!!

 

Sara

Shalom to all of you!!

I’m a little but nervous, as this is the first time I’ve written a blog. But here goes…

I hope that this blog will be a springboard for some lively discussion about the situation in Israel. Who knows, maybe we’ll even get to solve some pressing world problems!

I’ll sign in later – just wanted to touch base now.

Sara