You are here: Home / Archives for 2009

Archives for 2009

Giving birth

April 23, 2009 by

Can you believe it? At my age? But it’s true. My incredibly talented doula has enabled me to give life to a new blog that is devoted to information and experiences related to travel to China, Vietnam, and Cambodia. It can be found here. This is not a replacement for this blog. It is an additional blog. Here at drsavta.com, I will continue to talk about life in Israel, parenting, spirituality, emotional health, and family life.

Meanwhile, here is a picture of last week’s Bar Mitzvah boy, my grandson, Daniel Michelson, juggling torches for the first time– at his Bar Mitzvah party.

Daniel juggling torches

Daniel juggling torches

Filed Under: Uncategorized Tagged With: , , ,

Appreciation

April 21, 2009 by

It’s a lost art, appreciation. People who see something beautiful such as a beautiful house or a palace, may know that it’s beautiful, but they don’t usually appreciate all of the thought and hard work that went into planning it and building it. People who see great performances often don’t appreciate that the performer has spent hours and hours learning, rehearsing, and improving his/her performance. When food is delicious, we often don’t appreciate the wonder of beautiful fruits and vegetables growing from seeds out of the ground in a rainbow of colors and a variety of shapes and sizes. We don’t appreciate the person who peeled and cut and arranged the food. We don’t appreciate the minutes or hours spent mixing, dicing, sauteing, kneading. When the table is set, we don’t appreciate the thought given to settings and colors and table accessories. When we see a garden, we don’t praise the gardener. When someone we love tells us he/she loves us, we hear, but often we don’t really hear. We don’t fully understand or appreciate the importance of ourselves in that person’s life or of their importance in ours. When people die, often survivors then begin to see the kindness, the warmth, the sacrifice of their deceased relative. Then they realize what they have lost.

Sometimes when I wonder what all of the traditions we as Jews observe are about, I remember that there is a large component of appreciation– for the food we eat, for the land we were given. These prayers should serve to sensitize us to the gifts we have been given, whether by G-d, by the people we love, or by those who work to make our lives better.

Filed Under: Ramblings, Relationships, Spirituality Tagged With: ,

TWTSTW*

April 10, 2009 by

This is a post that will need to write itself since I want to write about the seder, but have no idea of where to start. First of all, the logistics: Israeli homes are on average, the size of US elevators so our seder configuration was roughly equivalent to an elevator at Macy’s on the day after Thanksgiving, except that the average age was about 15 months. OK. I exaggerate. The children’s ages: 15, 15, 12,12,12,11,9,7,4,4,3,1.5,1,7 months, 3 months. The fact that the youngest 5 were 3 and under led to a substantial amount of motion and noise. The truth is that all of them were super-adorable. But imagine 5 super-adorable puppies… you get the point. This entailed less barking and a bit less biting, but just as much action.

But all that aside, the family was beautiful. Each and every one of them looked wonderful. We enjoyed reading and chanting and singing together, even when one or more of us were off-key and/or making up our own melody that was similar to but not identical to the ones we are accustomed to singing. There was a feeling of happiness and a real sense of tradition. It all really was worth it. I only pray to enjoy many many more with the ones I love!

*That was the seder that was

Filed Under: Family life, Ramblings, Spirituality Tagged With: ,

Ahhhh

April 8, 2009 by

A sigh of relief. It’s almost done. Can’t wait to see all of the happy smiling faces. It’s worth it. All of it.

Filed Under: Family life, Parenting, Ramblings, Spirituality Tagged With: ,

Pesach Cleaning

April 5, 2009 by

So what else is new? I am happy to report that I am not afflicted with PPCD this year. I actually am pretty calm and relaxed. I may have perfected denial to a new level. However, for those of you suffering, I would like to re-publish this diagnostic material that I wrote about 10 years ago, but somehow remains relevant. The prognosis is good.

***************************************************************
Alert:
New diagnostic category added to DSM-IV-R
PPCD: Pre-Pesach Cleaning Disorder

This is a recently discovered disorder, recognized as a seasonal disorder, usually coming in early spring. It is characterized by obsessive thinking about cleanliness, far out of normal proportions. It is distinguished from Obsessive Compulsive Disorder 300.3 by several symptoms.

1. Obsessive focusing on small particles of food throughout the house to the extent of climbing onto bookshelves and behind toilets to ferret out particles smaller than the eye can see.

2. Compulsive washing of objects that are ostensibly clean (e.g., one patient was found putting her children’s Legos into a sock bag and washing them. This was discovered by a disturbed neighbor who couldn’t figure out what could possibly be banging so loudly and incessantly in the dryer. The patient, when confronted said, “Well, what did you expect– for me to put them in the toy box wet!”)

3. Incessant moving of common objects from their normal places (e.g., dishes, silverware, etc. are wrapped up and/or banished from their normal shelves and drawers.)

4. Talking with friends and acquaintances about topics formerly of no interest (e.g., effectiveness of different oven cleaners, location of most pungent horseradish.)

This disorder seems to occur in a social context. Frequently groups of women become pre-occupied with cleaning simultaneously.

Presumptive symptoms:
1. Spring time frame.
2. Patient is a woman.
3. Patient reports insomnia.
4. Patient has red hands.
5. Patient has a heavy odor of cleaning substances.
6. Patient does not have time to talk about it.

Treatment:
This disorder has a guarded prognosis. Although patients uniformly recover within several weeks, they tend to relapse around the same time each year.

There are reports of cessation of symptoms if they are taken away for a week to a hotel each year.

Filed Under: Emotional health, Family life, Ramblings Tagged With: ,

Israel and the Arabs

April 3, 2009 by

I was going to post the following even before yesterday’s horrific attack by an Arab on two children in a community adjacent to where my own grandchildren live, killing one and fracturing the skull of the other. But now more than ever, I need to talk about how wrong-headed the advocates for Arab “rights” to the land of Israel are.

In 1978, we visited Israel with our 5 children. We walked through the Arab shuk in the Old City of Jerusalem. We talked to the shopkeepers who were friendly and welcoming. One invited my husband for some coffee and they sat and talked about the things that one would talk about with friends. We went to the city of Hebron, visited the cave of the Patriarchs, walked through the Arab market there, and felt accepted and safe. When we spoke to the Arabs there, they said life was good.

Left alone, the Arabs living in Israel would have become happy, productive members of society. The Arab community and the Jewish community were interacting on the basis of equality and mutual respect. But then Arafat and his minions reared their ugly heads and began to radicalize their population. Suddenly the Arabs in Israel and in Judea and Samaria were being taught to see their goal in life as “driving the Jews into the sea,” as eradicating the Jewish presence from the land of Israel.

Where has this gotten the average Arab? Not very far. The leaders have taken away their incentives to work and be productive. The land they have could be farmed in the same way the land we Jews have is. We export produce throughout the world. They complain that they have nothing. Their leaders have taken the substantial fund granted through the United Nations, the US, and other nations and have built themselves beautiful homes and large bank accounts. In cities where the Arabs have complete autonomy, the roads are pitted, the sidewalks broken, and the garbage lies in the streets. Their leaders have robbed them of self-respect and of hope for the future. No wonder they are willing to go out in a “blaze of glory” by murdering innocent children.

This article, from Haaretz, a fairly left-wing Israeli newspaper shows more clearly than most why our chances for peace with the Arabs in the near future are dim. Wafa Younis is an Israeli Arab.

PA expels founder of Jenin youth orchestra to Israel
By Yoav Stern

Wafa Younis, a musician from northern Israel who founded a youth orchestra in the Jenin refugee camp, was arrested there on Tuesday by Fatah militants and sent back to Israel from the West Bank. Last week the orchestra played for Holocaust survivors and elderly Arabs in Holon, news that ignited passions in Jenin.

On Tuesday, Younis had been meeting with students’ mothers when about four armed men in civilian clothing surrounded her. The militants were led by Zakariya Zubeidi, head of Fatah in the camp, who demanded that Younis go with him in his car to the camp’s police station.

“The police chief, who is familiar with my activities, said he would prefer that I leave because those are the instructions regarding anyone with an Israeli identification card,” Younis told Haaretz Thursday.

“Zubeidi offered a hudna, where we would suspend our activities for a time, and I agreed. I’ll return to Jenin at the right moment because the children are waiting for me, because the community is waiting for me. And if I can’t teach them in their classroom I’ll teach them in the center I founded in A’ara [where she lives].”

Younis’ work in the camp has made her a household name there. After teaching more than a dozen schoolchildren to play the violin, oud, drums and other instruments, she arranged performances in Israel for the orchestra, Strings of Freedom. A year ago it played in A’ara for the families of Ehud Goldwasser and Eldad Regev, Israeli soldiers who were abducted to Lebanon, and of Palestinian prisoners held in Israel.

On Thursday PA officials said they and Fatah were under heavy pressure from Hamas members in the camp as a result.

“On the Internet there are pictures of the children under photos of the Israeli prisoners, and they performed for Holocaust survivors,” one Fatah official said. “Hamas accused us of normalization activities, of identifying with the enemy, so we were forced to expel Younis. The subject is now closed.”

Younis, who was interviewed by Arab and foreign news outlets Thursday, told Haaretz that she would appeal directly to the office of Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas. “I’ll ask him to appoint a genuine commission of inquiry that will hear the children and their parents, too,” she said. “I will wait until the issue is thrashed out because I cannot continue my work with these interruptions.”

Filed Under: Israel, Ramblings Tagged With: ,

So what’s so great about taking an organized tour?

March 30, 2009 by

I’m glad you asked that question. Oh… I mean I’m glad *I* asked that question! I have loved traveling from the very first time that I was lucky enough to venture out to see new people and places. My very first trip was to Israel and Europe when I was 19 years old. I was one of about 30 college students who were in an all-inclusive tour. We went all sorts of places I never would have gone– to museums, concerts, and even to the opera. I loved it! I developed, that summer, a love for classical music, Impressionist art, Botticelli paintings, and the sights, smells, and sounds of foreign lands. I enjoyed having a group of friends (for after the first week or so, all of us became friends) to share the experience.

Now, as an adult, I realize that in addition to organized tours providing many more and varied sights and sounds than one would plan for oneself and in addition to providing quick and easy transportation and entrance to all sorts of attractions, that much of the fun comes from sharing the experience with compatible people who not only like traveling, but who kid and joke and enjoy life together.

My daughter was kind enough to send me a link to this article that reminded me of this.

Of course, for me as a systemic therapist, a family systems person, a social worker– forming and nurturing the group experience is one of my most important jobs as a guide. As we travel in China and in Vietnam/Cambodia, we enjoy the group experience as well as the unique experiences of the sights and sounds of the places we travel. We make sure, on our Shai Bar Ilan tours, to take our people to places where they can meet local residents and connect with them as well and so at the end of the trip, we can look back not just on the pictures we took, but on the people we met (both local people and those on the group) and experiences we had that are unforgettable.

And as I prepare for Pesach, I am dreaming of my next trip. Come along with DrSavta to China this summer!!!!

Filed Under: China, Ramblings

I’m shy

March 23, 2009 by

Before you start laughing, like everyone I know does, I need to tell you that it’s true. One on one, with friends, I am not shy. When asked to speak or teach, I have no trouble getting up in front of a large number of people, to speak, to joke, to talk extemporaneously. But put me in a social setting where people are milling around and speaking with each other, I’m hugging the wall. Set me down in a room full of people talking about more or less anything, and I’m silent- taking out my notepad and making grocery lists.

I sometimes think about this, but not often. It’s the way I am and my life is full and happy despite that. But yesterday I was sitting across the table from a woman who I’ve known for a few years and mentioned that virtually no one from my youth has any memory of me. — It’s true. My very best friend from when I was 15-18 years old had no recollection of who I was when I contacted her after a hiatus. My NAME wasn’t even familiar. A co-counselor at a camp I worked at- a woman who I had shared a room with for 8 weeks, had no idea who I was years later. In our family, we have decided that I was invisible in my youth. But the truth is that it didn’t end then. A few years ago, on line, I found a professor who had taught me and my husband when we were taking a masters class in Germany. When I contacted him, he said he remembered MY HUSBAND!

The woman across the table who shared a similar experience, told me that when she was a teen, she participated in a once a week sport practice and each week she had to re-introduce herself. She said she too had been invisible and shared with me that she too was seen as unfriendly and a snob.

The truth is that neither of us is unfriendly nor are we snobs (OK, I am a little bit of a snob; I refuse to waste my time with people who are petty or mean or excessively stupid)- we are just shy. So, if you see me and I smile at you (I do that a lot to look less snobby), come on over and we’ll talk.

Filed Under: Ramblings, Relationships

Believe it or not, another movie review

March 19, 2009 by

My sister is SOOOO going to be moving to Modi’in when she hears that on a regular basis Israeli films have premiere showings here. Last night, the director of a new Israel film (so new, it’s not yet showing up on Hebrew or English Google), came and spoke about film making and showed his film “Ben and Eli.”

His talk was very interesting, talking about how a well made film can encourage us to root for the scoundrel, even for the murderer. He spoke of how it was done and gave us a few examples. Clearly, he did it because it made us aware of our shifting loyalties in the film that he was presenting.

The film stars Lior Ashkenazi who is a well known Israeli actor who is easy on the eyes. It deals with the relationships of fathers and sons– chiefly his relationship with his son, but also his relationship with his father.

Eli, the son, is a mischievous redheaded schoolboy of about 12 years old. Ben is an architect and the city engineer of Herzliya. As the film progresses not only does their near idyllic relationship undergo changes, but so does Eli’s personality as he gains insights and experience in fairness, justice, truth, and human relationships.

All four if us agreed it was an entertaining film that engaged our minds as well as our senses. Four thumbs up.

Filed Under: Israel, Ramblings

Welcome home!

March 17, 2009 by

Tomorrow we will be welcoming two new olim to Israel. These are a couple who we do not yet know, but who will be staying in the apartment that we just finished renovating. Over the past few months, the wife and I have been corresponding and she seems to be a lovely person. In the last couple of weeks, we have finished furnishing the apartment, putting in the linens, the kitchen equipment, cleaning– and finally tomorrow, they will arrive.

I have been thinking about the fact that it is a lot like giving birth… the anticipation, the preparation, and “due date” and the meeting of unknown people who will be a part of your life. Like every new mom, I wish them an easy birth, a worry-free toddlerhood, and a happy life here.

And I am pretty certain that they won’t be getting up in the middle of the night and crying. At least I hope not.

Welcome home!

Filed Under: Israel, Ramblings
« Previous Page
Next Page »