Odds and Ends (Article# 84) 5/22/2008

Last Friday morning, Goldie and I went on our semi regular double date for breakfast with Donny and Tzippy Lieberman. They last appeared in these pages almost two years ago, having made Aliyah on our flight and moved to Ramat Beit Shemesh Aleph. A few months ago, Goldie got a call from Tzippy inviting us to join them for Friday breakfast at a local café. That invitation turned into a regular outing, whenever both Donny and I are in town (he travels much more than I do for work purposes).

A couple of weeks ago we were driving into Yerushalayim for a breakfast on Ben Yehuda with his parents who had been in for Pesach and were due to return to the USA the following week. I was telling them about our chol hamoed trip with my in laws to Sderot and how great it felt to help support the people there and provide them with income.

Donny and Tzippy had never been to Sderot, and we agreed that the next Friday outing (upon Donny’s return from overseas) would be breakfast and shopping in Sderot. On Tuesday there was a rocket that landed in Ashkelon and with reports of other rockets in the area, Goldie and Tzippy both expressed their concern about heading there at this time and the initial plans were cancelled.

On Friday morning, we were ready to head to Modiin when we all decided to just go to Sderot and let H-shem take care of the details. On our way there, when Donny mentioned that seven rockets had fallen in Sderot the day before, Goldie began to get apprehensive.

Driving through Sderot is difficult. There are concrete bunkers every few blocks, bus stops have been converted to bomb shelters and the construction of the ganim (preschool) is clearly different than the rest of the country in the way they are reinforced. When you think that Sderot is less than an hour’s drive from our home, it is also somewhat unsettling.

We found a café and enjoyed a nice quiet breakfast (although Donny visibly jumped at any loud noise that occurred) and then started to browse the shops for some shopping. The first store keeper mentioned how crazy the day before had been, asked us where we were from and then effusively gushed his thanks to us for coming to his store, saying that we were his first customers of the day. The entire morning was like that and we really took pride in being there and helping support the people without their having to take a handout.

My sister called to wish me Shabbat Shalom while we were there and after her initial shock that we were actually in Sderot asked me to look for a certain store in Sderot. It turns out that her boss, wanting to help support the merchants of Sderot asked her to start buying office supplies from a store there and she wanted to see if we could find it (we did). Goldie mentioned that our Yeshiva’s maintenance head also started buying all of our disposables from a vendor in Sderot as well, for the same reason.

As we begin to enter the doldrum days of the summer, where very little happens, I thought I would write about some of the odds and ends that didn’t merit a special article in and of themselves, but definitely are a part of our Israel experience.

Let’s talk little league. Having coached little league in the USA for seven years (out of the eight years Chaim played in the league), I have become used to the 5 Towns version of the season. Just after Purim the season starts, it runs through June and if you were lucky enough to have no rain outs, you end up with two weeks of playoffs. Most teams play ten or eleven games in a season and it is essentially a spring event.

This year I was drafted (by Goldie) to resume coaching (or maybe I should say co-coaching). Since the weather by us is so nice year round, the season began some time after sukkot and will end in the middle of June. That’s right, the season runs for something like eight months! Since Friday is the only free day we have, it becomes an incredible inconvenience. Additionally, with a game each week (after the first month of practices), we play something like twenty five to thirty games a year, which is a lot when the team is mostly second and third graders.

For the little league coach (and/or parent), the rainy season becomes very important. I think we had three rainouts this year, and it was like getting paroled from a prison sentence. This week they sent an email that there was going to be little league on Lag B’omer, and I know that all the coaches collectively groaned. It just never ends.

On the positive note, the length of the season gives us an opportunity to work on the kids skills a lot and help them develop. We get to know the strengths and weaknesses of each player and the team jells a lot better since they have been together for so long. Also, even though Mordechai was officially not in the league (he was a few months too young to sign up), he came to practices and the kids saw that he was a good player and agreed with us (the coaches) when we snuck him into the lineup on the days we were shorthanded. So he had a chance to play as well (don’t tell the commish).

Another thing – Shabbat meals out. It seems like there isn’t a Shabbat that goes by where we do not either have company or are company for at least one meal. With thousands of students and tourists visiting the country for a week to a year, there are a lot of people to visit with. Another factor is the fact that the community is constantly growing and changing as new people move in, and we all are trying to get to know one another. We do a lot less going out during the week than we did, but our Shabbatot are much more active.

One thing I did get this week was some feedback. I get a few emails each month from someone commenting on an article I wrote or point I made. Most of the emails are critical; people who agree with me have no need to tell me so, but the detractors want to make their point in return.

This person was concerned that I was giving Chareidim a bad rap and that most of you might get the wrong impression about them from my articles. So, I wanted to reiterate two points.

The first is that the chareidim I write about are a small segment of the chareidi community. Most of them are not violent, nor do they participate in the rock throwing or harassing that does, unfortunately happen. They don’t do anything to stop it, and I personally believe that deep in their hearts they truly support these people – but the real crazies are definitely only a minority. They are just more visible because of their actions.

Secondly, when I embarked upon this weekly journey with you, the goal was to write a diary of sorts and try to have you feel as if you were standing next to me as events unfolded. It is a very personal description of things that happen to me and my family, here in Bet Shemesh. In Bet Shemesh (as in some other places as well), there is a very vocal minority group of chareidim that have an affect upon our lives. As such, I write about it. I am sure that if I lived in Ranaana, Efrat or Chashmonaim, I would write a lot less about chareidim and a lot more about concerns specific to those areas.