Celebrating ten years of an awesome marriage today

Happy Hanukka!

I have too much to say…

I have so much to say about the cease fire that I’ll probably never get around to it. But I can say that we’re hoping that this will last and that we’ll try to get back no normal life again.

Our trust is not in human armies nor in temporary cease fires, but in the God of Israel who never sleeps nor slumbers.

Calming down

No, the situation or the war is not calming down. But we are. It was a bit scary and nervous yesterday, since it’s the first time we experienced it, but today we are a bit calmer. Tomorrow I go back to work.

The kids are sleeping in their regular beds tonight, and so will we. Yesterday I stayed up until around 7 in the morning, and after the kids had gotten their breakfast, and my wife got up, I went to sleep for 2 hours.

We will keep going with our regular life here, but being a bit more on the alert. (Ok, not really regular – I’m off the university studies for a while, since my teacher was drafted).

The way I see it, and explained it to the kids (and to myself): If you are in the street, and there’s a siren, and you do nothing – you are still more likely to be hit by a car than by a rocket. We run downstairs two floors, just in case. Not because we think there will be a rocket. Just as you put on seatbelts without thinking there will be a car crash.

Thanks for all the positive answers and feedbacks we’ve been receiving. We appreciate it. As you might have noticed I have stopped twittering (it’s not on the right side anymore), and will instead keep my small updates on Facebook, for a limited number of friends who know me personally.

And that’s all I have to say right now. Our life will go on as usual right now. Just a bit more on the alert. Shorter showers, just in case. Change clothes one part of the body at a time. Make sure we always know where to go if something happens.

God is with us.

Staying awake tonight

I’m staying awake tonight. We won’t be able to do this every night. But tomorrow is Shabbat and we won’t go to our congregation (imagine 200 people at one place
that has 1.5 minute to evacuate when the sirens go off).

You probably hear a lot about “15 seconds” in the media. But that’s in areas close to Gaza. Here in Jerusalem we have 90 seconds.

Anyway, as I was saying. First our 5 year old daughter said she was scared. We offered her to sleep in the couch, so we’ll be close to her when she falls asleep. Then our 7-year old daughter didn’t want to be alone in her room. So we took out her matress and let her sleep on the living room floor.

The boys went to sleep in their room. But after a while the 8 year old got up and asked for a bucket because it feels as if he’ll have to throw up. We fixed that, and moved out our sleeping 2-year old son to sleep in the other couch.

My wife sat in the living room with the three kids while I sat with the 8-year old in his room. Just being in the same room while he fell asleep.

Once he was asleep I moved out to the living room. My wife went to bed and fell asleep. I’m sitting here alone now with 3 sleeping kids at 01:40 at night. The 7-year old is still awake and can’t fall asleep. The 2-year old boy woke up and didn’t understand why we moved him. Now he can’t fall asleep either.

I’ll stay awake until morning. I don’t want to risk that we miss an alarm because we’re all asleep. Again, this solution won’t work in the longterm, but it’s good now. The kids feel calmer and safer knowing that someone is up. I’ll catch up on sleep tomorrow during the day. And if the drowsiness become unbearable, I can always do the dishes.

If it’s this hard and unbearable for me, after just one alarm, then what is it like in Sderot and Beer Sheva? Or even worse – Gaza. We Israelis at least have a sophisticated alarm system and the most awesome army in the world. The poor Gazans are used as hostages/human shields by their oppressive Hamas rulers. I can’t imagine what that must be like.

Free Gaza – from Hamas!

Sirenes

About two hours ago I had to leave everything and run with my wife and kids to the bombshelter.

I’ve never been through this before. I never thought I would be this scared. The kids old enough to understand are shivering of fear. Besides reading Psalms with them I have no comfort to offer other than hugs.

I thought I knew what the people in South go through every day. I didn’t.

Two of the kids sleeping in the living room tonight. Too afraid to sleep in their room. We had the shortest and strangest kiddush for shabbat ever. And not much was eaten. I hope the war is over soon so we dare to eat, sleep, shower and live a normal life again.

Again – this is after only one rocket. How are the people in Sderot and Beer Sheva coping?

My thoughts go to my grandma who sat in the bombshelters of Dresden in 1945.

Shabbat Shalom.

Attacks against Jerusalem…?

I used to think. “They can’t reach that far”. But now they’re reaching Tel Aviv, so apparently they can. I used to think “They won’y bomb their own holy city, with all our Arab inhabitants”. But now they have spread a (false!) rumour that they hit the Knesset in Jerusalem. So apparently they do have the motivation to hit us.

I can’t let fear overcome me. I must be strong and lead if anything happens, for the sake of my kids. But it’s very unpleasant knowing that an alarm could go off anytime.

And I’m still spoiled with living in one of the safest places in Israel right now. I can’t imagine what life must be like for those in Sderot or Beer Sheva.

But I can comfort myself with the fact that we have the most awesome army and the most awesome God in the world. We have an army that will care and protect us as much as they can. I can’t imagine what life must be like for the civilians in Gaza, who are totally neglected by Hamas, and purposely used as human shields.

We’ll get through this. We’ve done it before. Psalm 83 and 91!

“Ofakim is so calm and quiet”

When I served in the army, 2001-2004 I served in the South. Around the same area that’s being shelled right now. I had an office-type job, nothing special about it. But one thing I vividly remember from 2002 or 2003 is talking to young high school students from Ofakim on the bus. I made some joke about Ofakim being a “hole in the middle of nowhere”, and they responded “That’s what’s so great. Nothing ever happens here. That second intifada? Bombs in Jerusalem, Tel Aviv. But here? Nothing. Nothing dangerous ever happens to you when you live in a place like this”.

But as we know, following the disengagement of 2005 and the bloody military coup of Hamas in 2007, their rockets now reach more than just Sderot. They reach Ofakim, Netivot, Kiryat Malachi, Kiryat Gat, Beer Sheva, Ashkelon, Ashdod, and Tel Aviv(?). Over a million people (4 million?) living under fire.

And I’m wondering how those high school students of 2002 are doing today. I hope they are safe.

Latest news – Ofakim has been hit. Again.

http://www.israelnationalnews.com/wap/Item.aspx?type=0&item=162154

Watch this video blog by Paz. 17year old girl from Ashkelon.

Psalm 83!

Psalm 83:1-18 NASB

O God, do not remain quiet;
Do not be silent and, O God, do not be still. For behold, Your enemies make an uproar,
And those who hate You have exalted themselves. They make shrewd plans against Your people,
And conspire together against Your treasured ones. They have said, “Come, and let us wipe them out as a nation,
That the name of Israel be remembered no more.” For they have conspired together with one mind;
Against You they make a covenant: The tents of Edom and the Ishmaelites,
Moab and the Hagrites; Gebal and Ammon and Amalek,
Philistia with the inhabitants of Tyre; Assyria also has joined with them;
They have become a help to the children of Lot. Selah. Deal with them as with Midian,
As with Sisera  and  Jabin at the torrent of Kishon, Who were destroyed at En-dor,
Who became as dung for the ground. Make their nobles like Oreb and Zeeb
And all their princes like Zebah and Zalmunna, Who said, “Let us possess for ourselves
The pastures of God.” O my God, make them like the whirling dust,
Like chaff before the wind. Like fire that burns the forest
And like a flame that sets the mountains on fire, So pursue them with Your tempest
And terrify them with Your storm. Fill their faces with dishonor,
That they may seek Your name, O LORD . Let them be ashamed and dismayed forever,
And let them be humiliated and perish, That they may know that You alone, whose name is the LORD ,
Are the Most High over all the earth.

Gotta change the way I eat…

Saw this yesterday with my wife and it really got me thinking. I’m 25 years behind this guy. If he can, so can I.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pfna7nV7WaM

In other news, today is Hoshana Raba and Shminit Atseret Eve. Tomorrow is like a Shabbat again. But this is the last holiday of the fall holidays. After this, it’s back to normal again.