Trading Spaces Has Nothing on the Golan Heights Winery

Tuesday and Wednesday of this week were a גיבוש or bonding for the winery. The first day was fun/thought-provoking. Wednesday was filled with special projects. The majority of the employees and managers, along with the Galil Mountain winery, went to an absorption center in Safed. Tzfat has 3 of them and this one is for new immigrants from Ethiopia. They come from desert and openess and spend up to 2 years here. It is a building surrounded by other buildings. THey need to learn a new language and a new culture, starting from indoor plumbing and electricity.

The plan was to convert the empty lot in front of the building into a mini-park. Over the course of 1 day (with a lot of advance prep and a little advance work) we accomplished our mission. We built two traditional huts, some sitting areas, picnic benches, a tabun (fire pit for making bread) and planted a garden. The thought was to give them some greenery and help make their new, urban surroundings a little more familiar.

Our CEO remarked that towards the end a little girl came home from school and asked if all of this (over 100 people working, lots of noise, lots mess). When Anat answered yes the girl's answer was a simple, "תודה רבה".

It was a meaningful way to spend the day. We made a difference that will hopefully ease their transition and inspire them to get involved with the park and maintain it.

Random Thought

I have wondered if hotels in Israel have a Tanach in every room, similar to the Gideon Bible in hotel rooms in the U.S. Ayelet pointed out that Jews, unlike the Gideons, don't proselytize or evangelize.

So maybe hotel rooms here in Israel have a Tanya or Breslov publications instead...

Catching Up With Netanel

With the end of the grape harvest I've started spending more time with Netanel. Not enough, but I'm trying. Now that our schedule's are more regular I am trying to give him more attention. We still need to go bike riding. He needs to learn how to ride without training wheels.

We went to the PTA meeting for Netanel's school. Now we have a good sense of what he does. First of all, last week I brought him to the stop for his bus ride to school. He chose the earlier bus. It's closer to home and sometimes has Dudu as the driver. Dudu puts on movies for the ride. Anyway, seeing him climb onto the bus all by himself and sit down nicely is very strange. He's only 6. When did he get big enough to do that?

Netanel is not in the usual school in Katzrin. We put him into a brand new school that is much more open. We feel that it is better given his inability to sit for long periods. The children learned all the letter in 2 ways: movement - they can make the letters with their bodies (YMCA style) and drawing - they copy their teachers drawing. Here they draw a picture and then find the letter inside. Of course it is all thematically related.

When he was younger Netanel's drawings were mostly scribbles (קשקושים). But hey had meaning. He could explain what was happening in the story, and the same scribbles meant the same thing each time we examined that picture. Ayelet was recently recounting this to someone while Netanel was drawing. "Mommy," he said, "I never did kishkushim." He always knew what he was drawing. Now he just has the motor skills to draw it.

Also, at home Netanel makes a lot of paper airplanes. They have gotten more complicated, involving scissors. He also was cutting a cardboard sword. He was cutting freehand and did a great job. When one sword was lopsided he immediately changed it to a candle for Chanuka.

In seeing Netanel's many many drawings and cuttings I am reminded of his nursery teacher. She was very worried about him. Netanel was clearly very smart and very ADHD. In addition, he showed signs sensory processing difficulties. At the teacher's insistence we had him evaluated. The results confirmed her suspicions. Three years later he is doing just fine. His scribbles are pictures and he can cut out shapes without following a line. If only Morah Lisa could see him now.

For more recent tidbits about Netanel's amazing personality see Ayelet's blog here: http://milkandhoneymomma.blogspot.com/. Scroll a bit.

New Bracha - Cute Netanelism

Netanel is at the age where Shabbat get annoying since there are things we cannot do, like watch movies or ride bikes. He's learned the tirck of Baruch HaMavdil and will say it even on Friday night. He says"ברוך המבדיל בין קדש לאכול" which is pretty close.

Aliya Support from the Torah

Hi all,

This was really meant to go out the week of Parshat Lech Lecha. In the beginning of the Parsha Hashem speaks to Avraham and tells him to get up and go. Hashem tells Avraham to leave his birthplace, his family, his comfort zone. What's more, the order to leave is open-ended; Hashem doesn't give Avraham a destination, just to go to the land Hashem will show him...

And Avraham went. He packed up his household and left. He didn't look back.

I think all Olim and all potential olim can take strength from this. Everyone with a dream of living in Israel can take chizuk from Avraham Avinu that we CAN leave it all behind. We CAN follow Hashem through the unknown and make it to the Promised Land.

And if anyone needs more chizuk they can get in touch with me.

Some Kiddie Vinaigrettes and a Realization

Shana tova to all. With the chagim behind us we can resume normal life. Almost. The בציר is still going on. We had a break over Rosh HaShana - Yom Kippur. During Chol HaMoed the grapes started coming in again full swing. We will probably wrap up the harvest in another 2-3 weeks. I am working nights this week, but I missed the past two nights to help Ayelet. She got sick on Friday and has spent much time in bed. Baruch Hashem she is on the mend now and i should be able to return to work tonight.

Netanel is getting back into his routine of getting up for school. Odeliya is doing better at gan. She won't let us leave until they go out to the yard. But now we can barely say good-bye because she's off playing. Yitzchak is still adjusting to playing without us. At shul he runs around after the other kids and runs away from me. But at playgroup he cries.

We were at a brit yesterday in our shul. At one point the kids were climbing on the super-structure of the miklat (shelter) stairs. It is basically a big ramp with a platform on top. Inside are the stairs down to the shelter. My little 14 month old managed to climb up to the top and then slide down safely.

There is another new family here in Katzrin. Netanel loves playing with their kids and has learned about Star Wars. He is obsessed. I put on the soundtrack of A New Hope. Odeliya got down from her chair and started dancing.

We got the Aliya Revolution album from Yishai Fleisher and Kuma (http://kumah.org/album/) and are now listening to it all the time. It's great chizuk.

Now for the Realization:

Israel goes to great lengths to avoid killing "innocent" palestinians. We do this at great risk to our soldiers and civilians (see this example: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LuCzHQB1sks). We often wonder why we do this. The rules of war we learn in the Torah are not as "humane." Once an enemy in our land refuses our peace offers we are insructed to wipe them out. I recently heard stories of German brutality during the Holocaust. The senseless killing and the pleasure the Nazis took in doing it. Maybe we are so careful now because of what happened then. We are so determined to be different than our enemies that we will not come close to pointless killing. It is a tough decision, but so is killing children being used as human shields. I hope that in the merit of our morality we will receive peace and tranquility from Hashem. An end to the fighting, an end to the tough decisions of whom to kill or not kill. May this be the year of our redemption.

Shavua Tov,

Yoram

New Year's Resolution: To Blog More?

Nah. Who am I kidding? My resolution for this year is to stop being lazy.

Not that I'm really lazy. I just took two sick days from work int he middle of the busy season because I was too sick to think from pushing myself too hard. But are some things I need to really make myself do. Some of them are "work" related, like calling in the warranty for from broken stuff. But more importantly is to not be lazy with the kids. Too often I come home from work too tired to play with the kids. As Murphy would have it, the days that I have energy they are not in the mood to go out and play. Two things need to change: 1. When they want to play I need to push myself to do something with them, even if it's not exactly what they want, and 2. I need to force them to have fun when they are not in the mood. The few times I made them go out and play it proved to be a success. I need to remember that they are just kids and I know better.

Netanel started first grade yesterday. He is going to a new school. It is religious and more Montessori oriented. Hopefully it will be what he needs. It involves a bus ride. I have a similar ride to school when I was in first grade, and even younger. But this is new for him. So fay things are going well. B'Ezrat Hashem this will continue. We'll see how Netanel and the school develop.

Odeliya moved from a private day care with 6 kids to a public gan with 24. It is a huge jump. The first two days have been tough for her. We'll see how she adjusts. The gananot are amazing, so she should do just fine really soon, but only time will tell.

Yitzchak will also be started daycare. He will be by a neighbor with 5 other babies for 5 mornings a week. This will give Ayelet time to think, relax, work, etc. This will also make teaching Yitzchak English more challenging.

Today, Odeliya was playing. Being home sick I had an opportunity to watch her. I sent her to the bathroom to wash her hands and I quickly heard her making scared noises. I went to her and she said that something was scaring her. We "discovered" a baby lion in the toilet. Anyway, after washing her hands, Odeliya and the baby lion became friends. With a little guidance from me the Mommy lion stopped scaring Odeliya and was invited in for coffee. Everything went well until a scary monster abba lion came and ate the baby lion. Odeliya was seriously sad about this. Eventually, with no interaction from me, the baby lion proved to be alright and the monster lion was sent away. Then Odeliya told me she didn't want to play that game anymore and we did something else.

With an imagination like that Odeliya will never, ever be bored. Wow!

We've been reminding ourselves to encourage the kids' imaginations instead of simply answering their questions. It's tough. Netanel has great questions, and I want to give him an honest answer. But sometimes it's best to let him mull over the possibilities before we discuss the real answer. He is getting much better at reading, which means that he will be able to unleash his imagination on his own to a much further degree by reading more. But Netanel also tends to lock onto the first reality he is given as the ultimate truth, which means that he may actually believe everything he reads. So his reading will provide us with new challenges as well.

Okay, it's late and I need to push myself a little further to get in some more client work and do some cleaning before I go to sleep. I leave you with a promise to try to blog more and send pictures and videos of the cute little monsters.

Shabbat Shalom and Shana Tova,

Yoram