Tahini and Talmud

Shanah Tovah U'Metukah!

2009-09-17T08:17:00.001+03:00

It's a small world getting even smaller...

2009-06-18T08:15:00.002+03:00

The last month of Israel went by quickly. I returned from a long Pesach break to find that senioritis had set in. I still attended class, but I was much more focused on what was happening after Pardes. School ended on a Wednesday and I had a flight Sunday afternoon. Just a few short days to pack and say my goodbyes shortened even further by the holidays of Shavuot and Shabbat. I wasn't too hung up on saying goodbye since I have lots of experience with using the many technologies of keeping in touch- Skype, G-chat, Facebook not to mention regular old emails and phone calls- notice the lack of slow paper mail options.

After Israel I met my parents and sister in Italy where we went on a fabulous cruise vacation in the Mediterranean (Thanks mom!) We stopped at several Greek islands, Turkey, Egypt and back to Italy. It was really a great reunion. As we traveled to the different ports we checked out the local shopping (family tradition) I was a bit disappointed by what I saw. Each locale had the same trinkets and souvenirs, most of which were not even made in the places we visited. I felt a little nostalgic for a time when the world must have been just a tad bigger. I imagine that traveling to an exotic place would be marked by having some unique trinket displayed in your home as proof of your worldliness. Instead I found myself checking the prices on items made in Thailand.

I suppose I'm not ready to weigh in on the issue of our shrinking world, but clearly its a complicated matter.

Wheels on the Bus

2009-03-31T00:31:00.002+03:00

I had a couple of truly Israeli bus experiences today.

It started with a simple observation in the central bus station of Jerusalem. At 8 o'clock on Monday morning there were a surprising number of soldiers waiting around for transportation. They use the buses to get to their bases, but it seems strange to me that they don't all sleep where they work. Also, the sight of teen soldiers everywhere just makes it feel more like Israel.

Once I had boarded the bus I had an Israeli bus driver experience. A car in the middle lane was too close to the median, blocking our bus drivers ability to enter the left hand turn lane. After repeated honking (which of course couldn't fix a thing) the light turned green and everyone moved forward. Lucky for our bus driver that we didn't make the light, because this allowed him to pull up next to the little car, open up the door and starting yelling across to the incompetent driver. Just for good measure, he edged up a few feet and started to yell at the incompetent driver in front of our offending automobile operator.

On my way home from Ramat Gan (a suburb of Tel Aviv) I hopped up the stairs of an empty bus, chose a seat a few rows back, and settled down with my book. We soon entered the religious neighborhood of B'nai Barak and as we progressed in our route, we picked up more and more Haredim. These are the Jews with the black hats and curly peot, fyi. Eventually someone asked me to move to the back of the crowded bus because the front was for men, and it wasn't modest for me to be sitting among them. Having read an article about a woman who was assaulted for trying to keep her place at the front of a Jerusalem bus, I made only a feeble attempt to keep my place. Someone assured me there were still seats at the back of the bus, so I headed back while mumbling something about motion sickness. It turned out that there were no seats at the back of the bus and several people, including myself had to sit on the floor of the bus for the remainder of the trip back to Jerusalem. Needless to say, I wasn't too happy. Two parts of this situation confounded me. 1. A Haredi couple was sitting in front of me on the bus, and when I was asked to move, the wife was also asked to move and she complied. 2. There is a bus from B'nai Barak to Jerusalem every 20 minutes, why in the world does the bus driver allow more passengers than seats?

Does peacing out mean we don't support Israel?

2009-01-08T19:26:00.004+02:00

Today we had a lunch discussion spurned from a student remark about "peacing out" if things got too bad as well as an article about students coming to Israel during their break to show their support for Israel.

This semester I've spent a lot of time struggling with my feelings about Israel. Here are some of the issues influencing me:

1) Sunday School Zionism. I'm convinced that values education at a young age is the most effective form of indoctrination. What do I mean by this? As much as I would like to use my critical thinking skills to make a totally rational connection to the state of Israel, I find it impossible. My connection is based on an emotional response that I recognize every time I hear something on the news about Israel. Whether its an internal flinch or a pulling on my heart strings, I know I'm wrapped up with this place. Sunday School and summers at camp laid the groundwork for all future interactions with Israel.

2) The Holocaust. I've had the good fortune to visit Yad V'Shem a few times this year and each time I'm blown away. This museum is truly amazing. When I was there last January we got to the end and our tour guide made a statement about the last exhibit showing our generations intermingled with the generations of victims. This past summer I was touched by the exit onto a view of Jerusalem Hills. A few months ago it was a video of a woman describing her feeling of utter desperation at finding herself pregnant a few months after the war and her marriage and then being so happy and grateful for her child once he was born. Having grandparents who were apart of this narrative always highlighted the need of a Jewish state for me.

3) Democratic Jewish State. My Social Justice class has brought up a lot of issues that seem particularly difficult for this special country. A few of the organizations I've heard from recently have cited Israel's desire for a Jewish majority as a stumbling block for its democratic ideals. In particular, victims of human trafficking and refugees have issues because as non-Jews they can't become citizens of Israel. At best they can become permanent residents which has all of its own problems. Is it possible to be Democratic and Jewish or does Jewish have to trump Democratic in serious issues, just to ensure the continuance of the state?

4) America and specifically, California. Growing up in as fine a country as America has me spoiled. I never felt antisemitism, I have always had plenty of opportunities for expressing my Jewish identity and I can separate my religion from my secular existence if I want to. Every time someone asks me if I want to make aliyah (usually cab drivers) I want to scoff at them. How could I possibly move here when I have it sooo great back home?

The teacher who ran the lunch session started out by saying that all of our decisions in life reflect our values, whether we make them consciously or subconsciously. He encouraged us to think about the implications of this in terms of the current war (which is scary, and bad for lots of people, but thankfully has not affected the day to day life in Jerusalem for us students) and our decisions to remain in Israel or go home (which no one is considering doing at this point, but might consider doing if we felt our safety was in danger) I'd like to think that if the time came to make this decision I would know what to do, but I imagine that in reality it would be quite a difficult decision to make.

*Thank you for all of you who have expressed concern to my mother at home, I know she appreciates all of the support.

Like a Fiddler on the Roof

2008-12-08T20:38:00.002+02:00

Pardes decided to have a three day Israel seminar. This decision was based on feedback from former students who thought it was silly to be in Israel for a year and come away knowing little more about the country itself than when they arrived.

Our opening speaker talked about early Zionism and Israel as the Jewish homeland. Some of his points were quite interesting.

The first thing I noted was when he made a statement about why different peoples make aliyah. He referred to their decisions in terms of a push to make aliyah and a pull. The images of Zionist youth and hippy kibbutznikim are conjured up for me in the pull category. The push category are immigrants from Former Soviet Union, Ethiopia, South Africa and many of the residents I encountered this summer at the absorption center. Here is a paragraph from an article that I wrote for the Jewish Community News, I ended up revising the article and leaving this paragraph out (I was afraid the cynicism wouldn't be well received for my first article):

During my two month stay I met young adults from all over the world who had just made Aliyah. These new Israelis have a totally different story than their tourist friends. They often attend a 5 month intensive Hebrew Ulpan and then attempt to support themselves by finding jobs. Their support networks consist of other new and usually English speaking olim (immigrants) and beginning their new lives is often a less than glamorous process. They find that with their minimal Hebrew skills their degrees from home are almost useless and they take jobs anywhere they can get. What surprised me the most about my interactions with new olim was that they didn’t fulfill my stereotype of the typical Zionist immigrant. These people were my 20 something friends from home, confused about the next step in life and looking for some answers. Why not come to to find yourself? After all, Aliyah is only a semi-permanent commitment these days.

The last sentence was about how many of these people told me they were in Israel until they could move to the next place, or even back home. The feeling was definitely that Israel was a semi-long term commitment, but not a forever.

The speaker used Fiddler on the Roof as his hook for discussing Judaism as both a religion and a nationality. He argued that before the French Revolution, Judaism could only be a religion, and if a member of the community did something to get themselves cut off, they could be effectively excluded from the rest of the Jewish world. This conformity to tradition was revolutionized with the rise of Nationalism in the late 18th century. Jews could pledge allegiance to their countries and effectively assimilate into the culture.

So once we have a paradigm for nationalism, a natural progression of Zionism can occur. A longing for a homeland where Jews can be safe and secure as well as religious or secular and also be the same as everyone else.
At this point I raised my hand to comment on American Judaism and how growing up I always enjoyed being unique. In fact, only once I was surrounded by Judaism in New Jersey and Israel did I feel less compelled to be observant.
He noted my point, but brought up the many other countries where this is not the case.

He ended his talk by saying that Zionism is one of a multitude of answers for how can modern Jews connect to their Jewish identity.

This I can whole-heartedly agree with, while still considering that it might not be a defining factor of my personal Jewish identity.

*As a side note, we watched a documentary today about an Israeli mother who contacts the mother of the girl who executed a suicide bombing that her daughter was killed in. The Palestinian mother kept saying that Jews aren't Israeli, they are Russian, Ethiopian, Romanian etc. Judaism as both a religion and a nationality is something that is unique to us, and therefore makes it difficult to explain to others.

Shabbat Protocols

2008-11-12T22:03:00.002+02:00

Shabbat is kind of a big deal in Jerusalem, and specifically in the Pardes community. Every week in the halls between classes you can hear people organizing meals and making plans for which service to attend. The options for services in Jerusalem are quite diverse so I take turns checking them out. One week I went to a shul where everyone was standing, using different prayer books and singing Carlebach tunes at the top of their lungs. Another week I attended services at the Reform synagogue near my house where I was grateful to be back in mixed seating. I've seen an orthodox shul with women leading Kabbalat Shabbat and a renewel service with guitars, drums and spontaneous dancing.

Each week after services you can see people walking to their Shabbat meal. Within the Pardes circle there are some protocols that I'm still trying to decipher:

1. Invitations. There are several issues in this category. Is it rude to invite two out of three roommates from a particular house? Must you invite significant others when creating your guest list? Can you extend an invite while at Pardes (and therfore likely within earshot of someone who isn't on your guest list and doesn't have a place to go)? When should you start inviting people- if you plan too far ahead your meal might gain enough steam via word of mouth that you'll be hosting half the community, and if you plan too late your intended guests might already have a place to go.

2. Kashrut. As most of these meals read: all of these meals are potluck style, Kashrut is always an issue. Anyone who clearly doesn't have a kosher kitchen gets assigned Challah, wine, store bought salads etc. Anyone who can cook is assigned side dishes or dessert. The host of course makes the main dish which also depends on whether the meal is meat or dairy. Since levels of Kashrut observance differ, it seems to me that there is a pretty strict don't ask, don't tell policy and only the strictest observers take precautions.

3. Start time. Timing is tricky. Many people set a start time of "a half hour after shul" thus providing time to arrive at the hosts house, and allowing the host some last minute prep time. As I mentioned before however, the service options are many in Jerusalem creating a staggered entrance. (This could all be resolved easily if people used their cell phones, but Shabbat observance is another point of protocol)

Once I get all of this stuff down pat, I might have to venture outside of Jerusalem for a Shabbat!

Music to My Ears

2008-09-19T12:13:00.002+03:00

Last night 20 Pardesians attended the Jerusalem Symphony.

It was utter insanity.

Typically, the concert hall is a very formal place where decorum is extremely important. As expected, in Israel, it is not.

Things we found to be awry:

People in jeans
People shouting out to the conductor that they could not hear in the middle of his speech
People singing along to the music
People clapping between movements of the same piece
People's cell phones ringing during the mandolin solo

Israelis wear jeans to weddings, so its not surprising that the concert hall was not as formal as in America.
The entire evening was very interactive. The concert began with HaTikvah, the Israeli national anthem which was immediately followed by a clarinet solo of Yerushalim Shel Zahav. As the soloist moved from the back of the hall up onto the stage, the audience decided to quietly sing the words. Up in the balcony we were totally clueless as to why this would be appropriate when we have all come to listen to an instrumental concert but Ma la'asot?
During the first half of the concert there were obviously some novice audience members who kept clapping between the movements- they learned of their mistake during the intermission and did not repeat it during the second half.
But really the mother of all faux pas was when the cell phones were all making noise at the beginning of the concert and the conductor clearly stated "Turn of your cell phones" in English and then a nokia cell phone ring went off during the first mandolin solo. There was a collective tsk while that person, I'm sure, wished they were melting into their seat.

Despite the distractions it was a beautiful concert and we all enjoyed ourselves. Yay for free student connections!

Business Transactions B'Aretz

2008-08-30T21:16:00.002+03:00

Anytime one interacts with the locals while living abroad there are bound to be some interesting differences. Here are some observations on my recent interactions:

1. Taxi Cabs. Due to an unfamiliarity with the city as well as some important appointments, I have taken taxis more here than any other city I've visited. Not only are there hidden fees (it costs extra for suitcases, more than 2 passengers, night rates, a pre-ordered taxi etc) which are not factored in to the price until one has arrived at their destination, but the taxi drivers don't know where they are going. On multiple occasions I've had to give taxi drivers directions, or watched them pass the appropriate turn off and just asked them to pull over.

2. Shuk. The open air market should be the 8th wonder of the world. I can go to a vendor and purchase a pound of cucumbers and a pound of tomatoes for under a dollar. Two stalls over I can buy fresh pita for a quarter each and just around the corner a dollar will buy me a pound of the tastiest summer fruits you can imagine. Now all I have to do is swing by the cheese booth and sample some salty bulgarian goat cheese before I finish my visit at the best bakery in Jerusalem. 8 blocks of grocery paradise...

3. Apartments. The housing market in Jerusalem is totally screwy. I arrived in Jerusalem two months ago and have been searching for an apartment since then. The English housing websites post only vacation rentals during the summer and pre-holiday periods (which create a revenue of 3 times the usual asking price for the owner) while the Israeli housing websites post rentals the week before there is an opening (meaning you have to act fast so you can beat out the competition) and the rental agents charge an entire months rent for their services. Needless to say, it has not been fun. My roommate Andy and I opted for a combination of options A and B-finally signing a lease 1 week after seeing the ad and less than a week before we were to become homeless Jerusalem couch surfers.

4. Movers. A few hours after we signed the lease we decided to get to work with the furnishings for our apartment by heading to a local yard sale. En route we found some broken down desks, shelves and a working refrigerator (thats right, unfurnished apartments= no refrigerator or oven). We asked the man who appeared to be throwing them away what the deal was and he offered them to us. Noting that we had no way to transport these things he offered to help us move them in his tow trailer for 300 shekel, which we promptly accepted (no haggling on our part) Once we had unloaded the furniture at the doorstep of the apartment, our mover immediately tried to cheat us by arguing about the agreed upon price. We stood our ground so as not to be taken for stupid Americans and eventually he left, and we lost our new friend.

5. Banks. Realizing that Israelis pay their rent in post dated checks a few times a year, we needed to get working on our bank accounts. We headed to the local branch of the national bank (Bank Leumi) where we were told by Daniela Mezuman to come back the next day. We got a good chuckle out of that because Mezuman is the word for cash in Hebrew. Upon our return we set up checking accounts that will allow us to take care of all our financial activities in Israel. The best part of the interaction was the minimum balance for our account. There was none- an Israeli phenomenon I'll have to explain on another day.

Troublesome Temple

2008-08-10T01:29:00.004+03:00

I don't like the Kotel.

One of the things my Taglit-Birthright Israel staff manual mentions regarding a student's first experience at the Holy Western Wall is that it might not meet their expectations. The first time I visited, 4 summers ago, this was exactly what happened to me. Nobody prepped me for disappointment. This was supposed to be the holiest site in Jerusalem, how could I not be blown away? I approached with my note, something reflective of my hopes and dreams, and I attempted to find a crack, some small crevice where I could insert my innermost wishes into God's Mailbox. Every time I tried, the note fell to the ground. The mailbox was full to the brim. Like a bin outside of the library, desperately waiting to be purged of its contents. I was frustrated and tried to find somewhere higher up. I remember looking up and trying to memorize my exact location so that I could find it again upon returning.

Three and a half years later, I returned as a Madricha for a group of my students. I joined them in their venture to the wall, but this time I didn't expect anything. I was not disappointed, I just felt that familiar frustration: the beggar women who pester you from all sides for Tzedakah while you attempt to have a personal and spiritual moment; the fact that the women's side is a quarter of the length and therefore much more crowded. Not only do you have to be aggressive to touch the stones, but you have to suppress the internal guilt about the masses waiting for their turn. Then when you really think about it, you realize people are praying at the outermost wall of the courtyard which led up to the Beit HaMikdash. It's not even a wall of the Temple, the Arabs built a Mosque over the really important part!!!

Now that I'm living in Jerusalem I have been actively avoiding the Kotel. For the first time in 7 weeks, I visited the Kotel independently of a Birthright Israel tour. My roommate and I decided to check it out since tonight marks the beginning of the fast day called Tisha b'Av. The 9th day of the month of Av is traditionally a collective day of mourning for the Jewish people because it marks many disasters in our history. Both the 1st and 2nd Temples are said to have been destroyed on this day, as well as the expulsion of the Jews from Spain and a few other historical tragedies. Andy and I have been discussing how we as progressive Jews feel about this Jewish holiday. Should we fast? Definitely not. Do we mourn the Temple? Judaism as we practice it would not exist if the Temple were still in tact. And the idea that it won't be rebuilt until the messianic age also doesn't sit so well. At this point, we've decided to head to Pardes for some study sessions, maybe we'll hear something about the holiday that feels relevant to our modern Jewish lives.

Does anyone have a good reason why progressive Jews should observe Tisha b'Av??

Taglit-Birthright Israel 2.0

2008-07-28T09:49:00.002+03:00

A friend of mine got a last minute phone call yesterday.

"We desperately need you to staff our trip which begins tomorrow, what do you think?"

Long story short, he was supposed to go home in three days, do some work and then head to a conference which he partially planned. They offered to change his Israel and domestic flights, plus pay him a stipend and he would only staff half of their trip. He told them to call me.

I'm staffing my second Taglit-Birthright Israel trip of the summer...

Do we need any milk?

2008-07-22T16:30:00.002+03:00

The phone rings.

"Hey, I heard something went down, I just wanted to check and make sure that you are OK."

"Yeah, I'm fine, thanks...have fun in Tel Aviv."

Check jpost, haaretz, cnn.com. Another renegade bulldozer.

A few more phones ring.

"Yeah, we're all fine, take care."

A few outgoing calls are placed.

"Is everyone there OK?" "Good."

Check for updates on jpost and haaretz, the injury toll has risen in the last hour from 2 to 16.

The phone rings.

"Do we need any milk?" "Yeah pick some up on your way home, see you in five."

Get out of town!

2008-07-20T12:40:00.003+03:00

On Thursday I caught a bus to Tel Aviv. I have a friend from camp many summers ago who lives in Herzeliya, which is a 15 minute drive north of Tel Aviv. The first thing I thought in the bus station in Jerusalem was "Geez, I haven't done this in a long time" Traveling, going somewhere new, exploring the sights etc. I feel less like I'm traveling when I plan to stay in one place for the year. For some reason it feels different than when I lived in Spain. I'm not traveling in Israel unless I go somewhere outside of Jerusalem.

My Israeli friend disagreed with me when I expressed my jealousy of his fast approaching post army trip to South America. I'm so jealous that he gets to see a new place and try new foods and have crazy stories. He pointed out that I'm traveling in Israel for this whole year. But for some reason it doesn't feel the same to me. I've participated in Taglit-Birthright Israel 3 times now in some capacity and I feel like I've seen the sights. This time around felt even a little like overkill. So when I went to Tel Aviv this weekend and I pulled out my guide book, I realized I had already seen and done the suggestions in the book.

I decided to wander around while I waited for my Israeli friend to finish work. I found an Ethiopian restaurant (there are lots of Ethiopian immigrants in Israel, but Tel Aviv is the only city with any significant Ethiopian culture, ie. good food) and enjoyed myself for two hours. It's pretty difficult to eat a meal for two hours by yourself. I ordered something which turned out to be not what I expected (but definitely still good) and then I watched a large party that was sitting behind me.

Half their table was Ethiopian and the other half a mix of English speakers. The Ethiopian half was definitely the most interesting. I watched what they ordered and how they ate it. It's possible that the reason I like Ethiopian food so much is because you traditionally eat with your hands. There is a special bread that you use to scoop up the bits of meat and vegetables (which are spread out on a plate of the same bread, about the size of a large pizza) and then you just shove it in your mouth. The food is quite tasty, with a lot of different spices and I thoroughly enjoy it. (Apparently I have to give Indian food a second chance, but don't keep your fingers crossed)

After they finished eating they got the waitress to put on a traditional Ethiopian CD and one of the guys started dancing. All of the other patrons in the restaurant were quite entertained and he started to teach the English speakers at his table how to dance Ethiopian style. All I can say is its a lot of shoulder popping. While I watched the dancers I noticed I had a huge smile on my face. As a side note, it's difficult to travel by oneself, I guess something about shared experience and the human condition. But the good time that this group was having radiated itself throughout the restaurant and had everyone enjoying themselves.

After that I walked to the beach where I sat in the sand staring at the almost full moon until my friend picked me up.

It was interesting to spend Shabbat with an Israeli family. It was just a weekend for them. They ate lunch all together on Friday because they were all home. They did their own things on Friday night. His mother lit candles at some point, but when we sat down to eat our pita and hummus, he was surprised when I asked for wine. "But wine doesn't go with hummus!" I questioned him further on his Jewish observance. He doesn't go to synagogue, not even on Yom Kippur. He doesn't even fast, although his family does. I made a comment that he would have to raise his children in Israel, because if not they wouldn't even be Jewish. Many Israelis (the secular kind) take Judaism for granted. They are Jewish because they are Israeli and that is that. They don't understand liberal Judaism and why it has such an important place in the diaspora. I asked if he had enjoyed services when we were at camp and his response was "those weren't services, they were a concert" I think it's interesting that in order for Judaism to be engaging for a vast majority of American Jews it has to stray from tradition, or at least reinvent it.

Going away for the weekend illustrated another point which I'll have to check out as I interact with more Israelis. Throughout the weekend when we would drive somewhere, the Israelis would put their things in the trunk as a safety precaution. This is normal in my opinion, especially when you are traveling in another country. However, at one point on Saturday, we went to the Tel Aviv art museum and when I requested to put my bag in the trunk I was told, "Why? There are no Arabs here." I started a conversation about this.

It appears to me that while there is a lot of ethnic diversity in Israel, these ethnicities are pretty segregated. Ethiopians generally hang out with Ethiopians, Russians definitely with Russians, Filipino with Filipino, Arabs with Arabs and so on. The thing that these ethnic groups have in common is that they are generally poor. The Arabs however, are the only group that aren't recent immigrants. I understand that people are segregated by social class in the US, but it just seems like there is a lot more cross over. I just spent a year working at a university with every imaginable ethnicity you could think of. If you wanted to make friends who were not just like you it was totally possible. And now I understand what Muslim-Jewish dialog is really about. How can you understand the other side if you never interact with them on a personal level? The person selling you your vegetables or driving your cab is not the same as the person you hang out with at the beach or go the movies with. If you can't see them as real people who are very similar to you, then they will always be just "the other."

It was eye-opening to spend a few days outside of Jerusalem and with some Israelis. Hopefully I'll continue to see new things and get a clearer picture of what Israel is really like. And maybe if you're lucky I'll even sit down and write about it!

P.s. I took my friend back to the Ethiopian restaurant because he had never tasted Ethiopian food before, and he told me he thought it was the next new trend. He even planned to bring his friends because it was so good and he was sure none of them had ever heard of an Ethiopian restaurant let alone tried the food, despite the large Ethiopian community living in their backyard!

What counts as terrorism?

2008-07-03T12:57:00.002+03:00

Yesterday morning I was minding my own business and enjoying the Jerusalem market place (Machane Yehuda) I met up with a friend around 1pm who promptly asked me if I had heard about the bull dozer. I hadn't heard, but I had seen some commotion off in the distance from one end of the market.

According to this article in the Jerusalem Post there is a debate on whether the driver of a bulldozer, who ran through traffic and into a bus, killing three people and injuring many more is a terrorist or just a regular old murderer. The family of the man and their attorney are arguing that he had no ties with terrorist organizations and that in general he was just your average joe schmo with a criminal record.

Why would the family be so adamant as to their loved one's status? I don't think having a murderer for a son is any less shameful than a terrorist.

Ironically, it is the policy of Israel to bulldoze the homes of suicide bombers from the West Bank. The construction worker, who was an Arab resident of East Jerusalem (not the West Bank) falls into a grey zone. State officials want to crack down on Arab residents of Eastern Jerusalem (who currently have access to all parts of the city) due to this incident as well as the Yeshiva shooting back in March (also carried out by an Arab resident of East Jerusalem), which could make for even more tenuous relations between Arabs and Jews in Jerusalem.

So how do you decide if this 30 year old man is a murderer or a terrorist? Does it matter what his intentions were? He clearly provoked terror in the hearts of Jerusalem residents, not to mention my own mother who began her day frantically checking for messages from me. Was he simply a deranged resident who just happened to be Arab and just happened to crack one day while he was at work? Were his actions influenced or encouraged by past and more traditional terrorist attacks? Would he have suffocated his urge to kill if he had thought about the consequences for his family and the larger Arab community of Jerusalem?

An article from the New York Times seems to be the most comprehensive (many articles contradict each other on some of the details) but it doesn't address whether the man should be considered a murderer or a terrorist. What do you think?

My first piece of wisdom

2008-07-02T10:26:00.002+03:00

Doors that can be locked and unlocked exclusively with a key are dumb.

I'm currently stuck inside my friend's house because I don't own a key to the front door. I'm left with the decision to wake a roommate (who was working at a bar until late last night) or find an alternate escape route.

The most pressing question in my mind however: Does Israel ignore fire safety?

Sometimes we just have to go back to our roots...

2008-06-16T16:58:00.000+03:00

A mother and baby camel are talking one day when the baby camel asks, "Mom, why have I got these huge three toed feet?"

The mother replies, "Well son, when we trek across the desert your toes will help you to stay on top of the soft sand."

"OK," said the son.

A few minutes later the son asks, "Mom, why have I got these great long eyelashes?"

"They are there to keep the sand out of your eyes on the trips through the desert."

"Thanks Mom," replies the son.

After a short while, the son returns and asks, "Mom, why have I got these great big humps on my back?" The mother, now a little impatient with the boy replies, "They are there to help us store water for our long treks across the desert, so we can go without drinking for long periods."

"That`s great Mom, so we have huge feet to stop us sinking, and long eyelashes to keep the sand from our eyes and these humps to store water, but Mom..."

"Yes, son?"

"Why the heck are we in the San Diego zoo?"