Tuesday, December 26, 2006

Belated Hanukkah Photos

Sorry for the delay; we walked around Jerusalem in the evening right before we left for the airport and took some photos of some Hanukkah menorahs.




This last photo is just outside the synagogue at the Ben Gurion airport near Tel Aviv; it's a table filled with Hanukkah menorahs lit by airport staff and travelers who couldn't light candles at home.

Saturday, December 16, 2006

Where Are the Potato Pancakes?

OK, it's Hanukkah and time to eat delicious greasy potato pancakes! Unfortunately, they are not for sale in Israel. They are not sold frozen at the grocery stores and they are not available fresh at the restaurants. They are not here, Sam I Am. Even though you can get potato pancakes any time of the day, any day of the week at the International House of Pancakes, you can't find them in Israel during Hanukkah. That is bizarre. Don't tell me to cook them myself, either; I hate getting burned by potato pancake grease.

Thursday, December 14, 2006

Invite and Order

We were at a medical clinic the other day and a man shouted to his wife in English, who was talking to the receptionist, "Tell them the doctor invited it!" Invited it?

I chuckled because I understood his error! In Hebrew, the verb that means "to invite" and "to order" is the same word so the guy simply picked the wrong English word to translate the Hebrew word in his head.

DayQuil Surplus

Before we left, we went to Costco and bought large boxes of NyQuil and DayQuil because they are my favorite cold/crud medicine. Jen isn't feeling well so she just asked for DayQuil and looking at the box, I realized that we've been pretty healthy. In the past nearly six months, I've only had to take one serving of DayQuil and one of NyQuil. Jen has been totally healthy this entire time and never needed anything from the fine Quil family of products until today. Poor Jen - a party on Sunday and a flight home on Monday! Will she get better before she spends two weeks at home in bed? Stay tuned!

Mincha?

When we were last at the zoo, I was impressed when an announcement went out across the loud speakers that mincha (afternoon prayer service) would be held in a few minutes. That was very cool.

In other places around the city, a male will often find himself asked to join a prayer minyan to help make the quorum of ten.

Yesterday, I was downtown shopping and I saw a shirt I wanted to buy at a store and it wasn't until I had already grabbed one, I realized that the store was filled with men who were davening mincha. Several invited me in but I had to tell them that I'd already davened and so I really wasn't someone they wanted in their minyan (because all I could do would be to answer "amen" to their prayers and it's better to have a fresh mincha-free person be part of the minyan). I noticed that men were coming into the shop to pray from many of the surrounding shops. It was very awesome - all these shopkeepers going to join in a mincha minyan in another's store.

I felt a tad uncomfortable standing there, saying "amen" as I waited until mincha was over but within a few seconds one of the guys took my money and passed it down the line to the owner, and then my change was passed back. I would've waited, really - mincha from start to finish takes less than ten minutes and they were already into it by the time I arrived. Oh well.