November 2013

Yes, it's been a while.

This trip will be known as our change of life trip. We are doing something new and frankly a bit - no a lot - daunting. We are in Israel for 3 months. Never having done something like this doesn't prepare you. There are a lot of firsts: First time being away for an extended period of time. First time being in such a TINY flat. (Actually it's not my first time. My first flat in Jerusalem back in 1970 was 1/4 the size.) But it's quite an adjustment  for us since our home in Chicago is about 10 times bigger. First time figuring out how to manage without a fully equipped kitchen with every gadget and appliance imaginable.First time sharing a closet and dresser. First time maintaining regular office hours, 8 hours away from the office. First time using a Magic Jack, which is possibly the best invention of the last decade. First time in close to 40 years experimenting in  living here again. I'm not unaware of the irony of entering Israel on my brand new Israeli passport for the first time in nearly 40 years.

So where does the change of life idea come in? Without question we are at a crossroads. This trip will figure prominently in how we organize our lives in the future. We have been talking about spending part of the year here and part of the year in Chicago. The idea was eventually to work up to 8 months here and 4 there. On a practical level it makes more sense to do 6 and 6, mostly for tax reasons. This is the test drive.

We've been here a week. I think we're getting over the shock of how small this apt is. As former boaters we are used to tight spaces and utilizing storage space to the max. It's amazing how much stuff you can fit into limited closet/cupboard space when done properly. But we brought 6 suitcases (+ 2 carry-ons), which is a lot of stuff. We had to pack both summer and winter wardrobes. It's been in the low 80's since we arrived on October 31; eventually we will get seasonable weather which is cold and damp. The damp can be just damp, which is bad enough, or rain, which the country desperately needs, or snow, which is a 3-ring circus. The landlord has been kind enough to let us put our suitcases in the basement storage room. My carry-on is serving as a nightstand. It fits perfectly between the bed and the wall, to give you an idea of how narrow the space is. One of the suitcases is for our granddaughter Dori who made aliya in August and is coming to visit us for a few days. I'm not sure where we will store her. (That was a JOKE, people. Lighten up.)

We've spent a great deal of time provisioning the apt. I brought a few household items that I knew were a lot cheaper in Chicago and after all we did have 6 suitcases. What we didn't have was an inventory of the apt. When we got here we made a list, a fairly long list, of things we needed to buy. Example: there's no storage space in the bathroom so we needed containers for our bathroom things. There's no book case or extra table in the living/dining/kitchen/den so we needed containers for our computers, papers and files. That sort of thing. Plus more dishes. I certainly didn't want to spend a lot of money on things we're just using for 3 months so we bought cheap plastic. It's adequate for the purpose, and we need places to put our stuff so it's not all over the place.

Between trips to various shops we've been busy sampling the cultural cornucopia of Jerusalem. So far:

We attended a performance of the 14th International Festival of the Oud (a stringed instrument that looks like an overweight mandoline which figures prominently in Greek and Mideastern music). It was fantastic. The ensemble included 3 guitar players, 2 drummers, 1 EWI player, 1 sitar and 1 oud. The music was a synthesis of desert and Mississippi Delta. Amazing. The EWI (electronic wind instrument) is something new for us. It's long and flat and sounds variously like a flute, clarinet, sax and trombone.

We went to a lecture on the Hospitalliers who morphed into the Knights of Malta. The subject is one that fascinates me. Unfortunately the lecturer was way past his sell by date and I have to give his presentation a C-. I'll see what Amazon has on the subject.

On the other hand, the following day we went to a lecture that was supposed to be about Rav Soleveichik. Besides the subject, what motivated us to go was the lecturer, Artie Fischer, who had been our high holidays cantor for several years. It turned out that the newspaper printed the wrong topic, and in fact the subject was Shimshon Raphael Hirsch. While I have nothing against that venerable rabbi, I would not have gone out of my way to hear a lecture about him. We were very pleasantly surprised by how much we enjoyed the presentation. This was the first in what will be an on-going series covering the rabbi's first published book "The 19 Letters". We barely got to the first letter because the time was taken up with background and context. Rabbi Fischer was excellent. It's a shame he didn't give the talk about the Knights.