Tel-Aviv and Jerusalem: A Tale of Two Cities

I got up early Friday morning, attended the local Chabad morning prayers, and took bus 75 to the central bus station in Jerusalem.

I hurried to find my way. I’d been here many times before, and the Friday morning hustle was nothing new to me. I encountered a few beggars on the way. Jerusalem is host to an array of both needy people and those pretending to be poor and spending their time benefiting from the locals’ generosity.

There’s a wide range of stores, pharmacies, cafes, restaurants, and even a place to donate blood at the central bus station. At this particular time of the year, it’s teaming with tourists from all over the world. Many are Christian pilgrims who’ve come to Israel for Christmas. Some continue on a tour of the Middle East, while others prefer to stay in Israel and remain shielded from the perils of our neighbors to the East.

On Election Night...

I'm staying up late here in J-town (when I was living in Tel-Aviv, I called it "Telli," so now I'm living in "J-town"), and for some odd reason, I'm not as focused on the parsha (Chayei Sarah), the elections, the array of problems on my hands (life is great mind you!), or anything "important" for that matter.

Yes, I've become very involved with Torah-study lately, I've had people promise to pay me for a variety of translation jobs and not come up with the funds in a timely manner, I'm a pretty hard-core Republican, and yet all this seems rather banal compared to something I just read:

Fatalistic childhood

As kids, everything is so fatalistic. Remember it when your parents first moved cities? You thought you'd never find such good friends you used to have anywhere else in the world. Then you went through an army of new cities, friends, lovers and life became a joke.

Except it didn't.

When I'm thinking about things I really appreciate, such as a learning a new language, dancing Tango, improvising, writing decent prose, becoming a half-researcher, raising an avocado plant to bear fruit, finding a partner for life, raising a child .... life's so fucking short. It's almost like you have 1 or 2 shots at it.

 

This comes to you straight out of Lev's cookingpan. Now, even though I don't know Lev well, I do know that he's an extremely thoughtful, intelligent guy, so I while I've never reposted anything of this nature here before, I have now! (just thinking of what Chris Rock would say to a white guy uttering this phrase makes me smile)

As far as Chayei Sarah, if I stay awake any longer, chances are I'll post on the parsha as well/ The elections? Well, Moshe Feiglin's facebook post says it best. I don't remember its exact contents, but he basically made the point that lots of Jews and Israelis in particular seem to think that America is electing Israel's next P.M./Presiden/supreme leader whereas this isn't the case. Israel should (and I believe it will) decide for itself. So in short, Feiglin, '13!

On My Stay in Chicago and On Coming Home to Israel

My stay here, in Chicago, was an eventful one. Lots of things happened: some positive and some negative, but overall, I enjoyed my stay here. The worst thing to happen was my grandma's passing. My mom is still having a very difficult time adjusting to the new reality of not having her mother by her side. She (grandma) was sick for a very long time, but we all got used to her being there for us whether she was sick or not. It was definitely a very difficult experience.

The best thing that took place while I was here was having an opportunity to see all my friends, especially an old buddy of mine whom we reconnected with after a 3-year hiatus. We spent several days hanging out in a variety of cafes around Chicago and Skokie, doing some studying (I loaned a few books from the library), watching movies, and playing b-ball and tennis. I ran a bit, but not as much as I was running in Israel and definitely not as much as I hoped to run while here.


As a side-note, I'm probably going to move back to blogger unless something drastic happens, and I figure out how to use Wordpress. Honestly speaking, it's been a big hastle for me. I'm pondering watching the presidential debates tonight, but the NY-Detroid game sounds awfully enticing as well. What a decision: presidential debates vs. ALCS!

Job-wise, I'm hoping to start covering Israeli current events and daily life in Israel for "Reklama," a local Russian language newspaper. I'll be placing my articles here as well. I'm also looking into writing for the JPost blog. We'll see how that goes.

I feel a little guilty that I ended up not voting in the American elections. I'm a big Romney fan and hope he gets elected, but I just wasn't able to print up all the documents for the absantee ballot. It was harder than I expected, and I ended up passing on the whole thing altogether. Hopefully, Illinois will eventually become more balanced and my vote will make a difference in future elections.