Arabesque

Here’s a story for you folks playing at home.

I was taking a bus home on Saturday night from Givat Ze’ev (a settlement near Jlem). The bus weaves in and out of the settlement. At some point a couple of arab boys got on the bus. Just as the bus was about the re-enter the settlement it was stopped at the gate and the guard stepped on. He looked at each person on the bus and then stopped in front of the arab boys. He then got into a discussion with them (I wasn’t really listening) but it was evident that he didn’t want them coming into the yishuv. After about 10 minutes of tooing and froing the bus driver got involved and it was settled that the arabs could stay on the bus as long as the guard would stay on the bus with them until it leaves the yishuv, which was roughly 1 minute, as it circles the roundabout at the entrance to the yishuv picked up one passenger and then left to return to Jlem.

Disgraceful.

The thing is, if you asked the shomer he may say you can’t trust them, they may be terrorists.

The other thing is, if you asked the arab boys they may say that they’re terrorists b/c of Israeli oppression.

Sounds kinda cyclic to me.

p.s. 10 points if you get the pic.

p.p.s. I'm going to Beit Lechem today

Rosh HaShanah

Sorry y'all for the delay in postage but it turns out the new year took a freaking long time to pass and apart from that I have essays and final exams n shite like that atm as well. Yeah, I know, basically my life sux.

But not as much as other people's. And that will be the topic of today's post.

So I was in a Yishuv, that shall not be named, for chag.

Lets just say that almost nobody there does the following things:

1) owns/watches tv

2) reads novels

3) reads newspapers

4) listens to anything other than Eviatar Banai or Miami boys choir

5) goes to university

6) uses contraception

But it could be any yishuv you say? Yeh well, I guess you'll never know then.

Anyways so while I was there I went out to lunch with a ladyfriend of mine. We went to a she-friend of mine who is married to a rabbinical student and is quite pregnant. And very much fulfills the above criteria for settlement resident.

As I was saying, we went there for lunch. Indeed there were 10 people at the festive meal. 5 boys and 5 girls. Of these there were 3 couples. Every single married woman at the table was within a year of her wedding and with child. There were 2 singles of each gender. How convenient.

Now the hostess is quite smart and funny and generally awesome. But not at the table. In fact none of the female participators of the meal said a single thing throughout the entire 4 courses. All they did was clear dishes and replace them with the next course. While the boys sat at the table.

In the kitchen however it was a different story. These young women were funny and smart and insightful. They even had opinions and personalities.

Once or twice I made the mistake of speaking when I had not been spoken to. The entire table went silent and stared until I'd finished speaking and then continued with the conversation. They discussed what I'd said but pretended that I hadn't said it. But rather a voice from the heavens gave that opinion and it was now up to the rabbinical students to interpret it.

Essentially this bothers me because women are people too. When you don't think or don't express yourself, when your options are limited financially, socially, religiously, educationally and by children, it's difficult to live up to your full potential. It's hard to life up to your full humanhood.

Obviously there were other experiences of my new years celebration but that lunch definitely made the strongest impact on me.

Accordingly, I have a bracha for us all. May we all merit and strive to our full potential and contribute to the best of our abilities to making things better. Yay!