Moadim L'Simcha (Article #24) 10/19/2006

Happy birthday to Aliza! Aliza was born 11 years ago on Simchat Torah (Simchas Torah back then); we left for the hospital in the middle of the fifth evening Hakafa. It had been our family custom to make her a party in the Succah on Shabbat Chol Hamoed each year since her birthday was Yom Tov.

Although we did have a party for her, we were also able to celebrate her birthday during the week since it no longer falls out on Simchat Torah for us. As expected, the Shemini Atzeret/Simchat Torah day was a dramatic indicator that we really were in Israel and were holding only one day of Yom Tov.

There were many others.

We lained Megillat Kohelet on the first day of sukkot (since Shabbat Shemini Atzeret was no longer sukkot for us but a separate chag). We only used Lulavim and Etrogim on Chol Hamoed (since we only have one day of Chag). We did not eat or make Kiddush in the sukkah at all on Shemini Atzeret.

But most disconcertingly, the laining on Chol Hamoed and the Tefillot of Musaf for Chol Hamoed are totally different. On Sunday (our first day of Chol Hamoed) I was in shul and they repeated the same laining for all four aliyot (in Chutz La’aretz the laining is comprised of several different days’ readings – in Israel it is a single day’s reading repeated over and over).

I came very close to stopping the laining to correct them, but stopped myself when I realized that nobody else seemed bothered by the apparent error. I have found myself doing that a lot now. I check twice before I come to a conclusion, since there are so many differences in the minhagim (customs) here.

Similarly, I had to take a pen out and make notes for myself in my machzorim, since they all have the musaf davening for chutz laaretz (which like laining is the readings from two different days) and I am no longer a “chutznick”.

Boy was the entire Sukkot hot. I understand that it snowed in Chicago. We were sweating like crazy on Yom Tov and throughout Chol Hamoed. Even with windows for ventilation, the heat in our Sukkah was simply overwhelming at times.

We invited our first guests for the Sukkot seudot (meals) which was a treat for us. We had been going out for one meal practically every week, so it was nice to have people join us in our home for once.

We also had the entire week for Chol Hamoed activities. While that may seem great, we weren’t prepared for it; there is an extra day, there was no Shabbat Chol Hamoed at all (although you had that too) and not having a van really inconvenienced us.

There are many families here that cannot afford cars, so we have to count our blessings that we have even a small car, but we cannot wait to get a van that fits our entire family so that we can have the freedom to do as we please as a family. Until then, we are either at the mercy of the train schedule (only one train per hour) or must hire private taxi/vans to go places as a family.

On Sunday we took the train to Yerushalayim and walked to Ein Yael. This is an open site (partially reconstructed) of a farm from the period of Roman rule in Israel. We met my brother and his family there and the kids all enjoyed a full day of activities and crafts as well as learning about life in that era. They built instruments, learned about weaving and mosaics and had a fun time.

For lunch (I just love this), my brother and I drove over to the local Pizza Hut (Mehadrin Hashgacha) and picked up a few pies. We brought them back to Ein Yael where we had a large family meal in the Ein Yael sukkah. Of course, it goes without saying that every attraction has a sukkah – just like in America (not!).

Realizing that we would be davening for rain later in the week and were also very tired from a full day on Sunday, we decided that Monday would be an “off day” spent relaxing and building storage for bikes and stuff (and our sukkah – when deconstructed). Goldie took the kids for lunch to a local coffee bar and Chaim and I spent the bulk of the day building a shed that we had brought with us from America. It was so hot and sunny that I ended up with a moderate sunburn by the end of the day.

As do many other municipalities in Israel, Beit Shemesh (our home) sponsors a series of events and activities over the Sukkot week. A highlight of the Beit Shemesh events is the free concerts provided in one of the parks over two nights. We decided to go the first night and see what it was.

Apparently, we went on the more “wild” night. There were several thousand people in attendance and the concerts were spirited (we especially enjoyed Lenny Solomon and Shlock Rock – Lenny lives down the road from us in Nofei Aviv). There were food booths set up, and fun kids activities as well as a lot of vendors selling toys/lights for the kids to play with. Although it was very loud, our kids seemed to enjoy it. (The night we missed included performances by Ohad and Chaim Dovid)

On Tuesday, refreshed and ready to go, we headed to a Kite Festival held in a Yishuv called Pnei Kedem. We had made reservations to go by bus and it was a good thing that we did. When we arrived (around 11:30) we had to wait about 15 minutes to get in. I understand that many people waited hours to get in, with some even turning back (Ruby and Beth Blumenthal had arranged to meet us there and turned around after they realized the line to get in was five kilometers long).

Pnei Kedem is essentially a bunch of caravan trailers dropped onto the top of a mountain in the middle of nowhere. I mean it. They are 20 minutes south of Efrat and the one lane road to go there winds around the various mountains before arriving in Pnei Kedem. These people are real pioneers. They have very few amenities and are really dedicated to living in the Yishuv.

The entire time we were there, the PA system was announcing that the proceeds of the day’s events were being used to pay for the construction of a Mikva, a gan for the kids and a permanent shul building. They also regularly invited the guests to consider making Pnei Kedem their home, with cheap real estate available.

They had planned on having about two thousand visitors that day; the police later told us that over seven thousand had tried to get in. Accordingly, the supplies and refreshments were very quickly depleted and it took quite some time for them to be replenished since the only road into town was literally crammed with people trying to get in.

While waiting in line for pizza, the guy who was running the pizza stand recognized me. Jon Blumofe had been a year ahead of me in elementary school and his pizza store (located in Neve Daniel outside of Efrat) was supplying the pizza. When I asked him where he lived, he pointed to the caravan right behind the pizza stand and said, “this is my house right here.”

He had moved to Pnei Kedem the year before. Apparently, his previous home in Kiryat Arba was a little too boring for him and he wanted to be in on the ground level of a new and (hopefully) growing yishuv. We saw a lot of people we knew there and I am sure that they went a long way toward raising the funds they needed.

Even with all the overcrowding and having to wait 90 minutes for pizza, we really enjoyed the day there (OK – maybe not the 10 minutes we spent looking for Mordechai who had wandered off to the top of the mountain to watch the kites being flown), especially bumping into familiar faces from America. We might skip next year only because we have done it already and they need to refine some of their event planning – but we still had fun.

We decided to give the kids a taste of Yerushalayim on Wednesday, making a visit to the Kotel (for Goldie and the little kids who had not been there in several weeks) as well as other “tourist” attractions there. We had not considered the fact that there would actually be tourists in these locations; the crowds were unbelievable.

Due to the overwhelming amounts of people and traffic (as well as security concerns), we could not be dropped off by our taxi anywhere near the Kotel, so we needed to walk about fifteen minutes to get in. With the heat, this was not a great idea with little kids.

After the Kotel, we realized that no taxis were being let into the old city so we decided to walk to Ben Yehuda to catch some lunch in Café Rimon’s very large sukkah. The kids had never seen Ben Yehuda, so this was a new experience for them. They didn’t really enjoy the shops, but they got a kick out of the different people who were there.

After lunch, we strolled up Rechov Yaffa to the Machane Yehuda indoor/outdoor market. Our kids had never seen anything like it and were totally fascinated by the entire place. We bought items from several different vendors and the kids really seemed to enjoy interacting with them as well as watching them interact with the crowd. They were also impressed with the quality and size of the produce on display there (especially the pomegranates, mangos and grapes) as well as the low prices.

By Thursday morning we were kind of tired again, so Chaim and I did some more work on the shed (it still isn’t finished, but we completed enough of it to allow us to put away some stuff and keep it out of the rain).

In the afternoon we took a train to the Malcha mall to go shopping. This was our first major shopping trip since our Aliyah and we tried to walk by every store so that we could get the lay of the land.

After picking up various items and finishing our tour of the mall, we decided to take a dinner break and head home. This meal was one of the highlights of my week. Not because the food was so great (it was ok) or the outstanding service (like any mall food court there is no waiter service). This was a big deal to me because we were able to go to the mall food court, buy the dinner of our choice (since we all wanted something different from each other we ordered from 3 different restaurants) AND TAKE OUR FOOD TO THE MALL’S SUKKAH WHERE WE COULD ENJOY OUR DINNER.

Where else can you do that? Roosevelt Field? Paramus? Old Orchard? NO – only in Israel can an orthodox Jew walk into the mall and not only find that he can eat at practically every restaurant in the food court, but that the owners of the mall had considerately provided a large enough sukkah for fifty people or more.

Simchat Torah was fun. Since everything is squeezed into one day, the davening runs a bit long, but we are done in one day – so we do have a benefit from it. Our shul has a ton of kids and is really very children friendly. This year, they bought tons of candy for the kids and they give different treats out for each hakafa.

Individual parents also get involved. Our ladies section is a balcony, and many of the women brought big bags of candies, lollipops and taffies and would randomly toss them down upon the crowd throughout the hakafot.

Many of the kids, knowing what was coming, had come prepared with plastic bags to store their goodies. I don’t know how much of the candy they had caught they were actually allowed to eat, but I am sure that the local dentists all walked home happy.

As I mentioned earlier, in every prior year of her life, Aliza’s birthday was on Simchat Torah. This year, with her birthday on Isru Chag she was not expecting any kind of celebration during the Yom Tov.

Aliza’s classmate and classroom buddy, Elisheva Aftel had her birthday on Hoshanna Rabba. Her mother Alisa called Goldie during Chol Hamoed and arranged to host a surprise birthday party for both girls in their home on Simchat Torah. So we did have the opportunity (at least for this year) to extend our annual sukkot birthday party.

Looking back, I don’t think we really enjoyed the Yom Tov to the fullest extent. We are still living a very hectic and scrambled life. We love it here, there is no question about it. As I keep repeating, adjusting to our new life takes a lot of energy and time.

I think we entered into Yom Tov all wound up and with the Yom Tov only being one day, we never really had the chance to unwind and enjoy ourselves as much as we could have. As we acclimate to our new environment, I think that will change and I am really looking forward to Channuka and Pesach.