Loving Life in Israel: Surprise Treats

I could go on for hours, or days, about the wonderful things that happen in our Yishuv daily.

In a crisis, they happen hourly. During our acute crisis, and during Shiva, AM dubbed a particularly delightful habit of certain Yishuv members as Random Acts of Carbohydrates.

Hey, we are Jews, if someone is in trouble, pain, sick, healthy, happy...feed them!  The sweeter, the better.

There is one family in particular that has not given up on us in this practice.

Every once and a while before a Shabbat or Chag, someone from the family will show up with baked good or treats.  Before Chag, we got a lovely popcorn filled vase with candy "flowers." (Once it was real flowers!  My hips were particularly thankful.)

The Trips always ask me why.  How do you explain chesed on this level?  I tell them that we are so lucky that they like us and do nice things for us.

But in my heart, it fills a bit of the emptiness that misses the Shabbat flowers or Yom Tov present Trip'n Daddy would sometimes give.

You know who you are.  I want you to know that your kindness knows no bounds and does wonders for our family's moral.

Thank you.

Loving Life in Israel: Raining Hope

Rain in Israel is a completely different experience than rain in New York, and probably anywhere else in the world.We pray for it, hope for it, predict it, speculate about it, celebrate it, and count every drop. There is a very specific rainy season here and deviations from it are rare.

One deviation comes with a special segulah: Rain in the month of Iyyar is supposed to be a segulah for good health. The explanation behind this belief is that the letters of Iyyar stand for:

Alef: Ani (I)
Yud, Yud: Hashem
Resh: Refoecha (is your healer)

You can read more about it here.

When it does rain in Iyyar you might see people running outside with their mouths open, trying to catch a bit of the magic.

Last year, we caught some Iyyar rain and rubbed it on Trip'n Daddy's dry lips.

(We generally hold a "You never know - it can't hurt" perspective when it comes to Segulahs)

So when reports of that rare Iyyar rain started to fill up my Facebook feed this morning, I smiled.

Because even though it didn't work for us, Iyyar rain is still special, still magical, still celebrated.

Because in Israel, every drop of rain equals a drop of hope.

Loving Living in Israel #1

This is a new series that I am starting to record those "Only in Israel" moments that remind me, usually out of the blue, why I love living in Israel.

Driving around the Yishuv today I noticed a whole bunch of these harbingers of Purim welcoming the joyful spirit of Adar into our little town.

At the Yishuv Doar (Post Office)

On the Door to the Mazkirut (Office)