aliyah 3

This week, I’ll introduce you to other blogs. The past summer, I was looking for some blogs about aliyah, and I found a few that have been really helpful:

  1. “Aliyah by Accident,” by Gila Rose – http://aliyahbyaccident.blogspot.com/ . This is the first one I saw. She is hilarious and even got a 2011 blogger award thing.
  2. “Aliyah on Purpose,” by Susan Leibtag – http://aliyahonpurpose.blogspot.com/ . This blog is by Gila Rose’s mother – it’s playing on the words. Very cute.
  3. “Oys and Joys,” by Eliana – http://oysandjoys.blogspot.co.il/ . This is my favorite one. Here’s an especially funny post from Tuesday, May 14, 2013:

“…I will not let you go” (Pharoah’s song)

Bring a lot of white shirts.  People like to ask for advice for their own upcoming aliyah and I mention this because there is something to celebrate or commemorate or mark in some way that requires your children wearing a white shirt almost every week.  Last week all the activity was around Jerusalem day and tomorrow is Shavuot (Feast of Weeks) so A had to wear a white shirt and festive clothes to Gan [school for small kids] today.  Yesterday as we were walking in, one of her friends made mention to me that she needed to bring a basket to Gan the next day.  I gave him a quizzical look.  “Ema shel Ariella” (translation: “Ariella’s mom”–kids here call you as the mother of your child’s name) he went on, “you can’t forget the basket.”  See poor little A[riella] probably misses out on some of the goings on in her Gan because they require either a knowledge of how things worked in previous years or a commitment to reading e-mail from the teacher.  Now even those of you who are reading in your primary language probably only scan.  Reading it in Hebrew things can get lost.  The parents don’t think to mention these details because what kind of person doesn’t know for instance that you are meant to bring a basket to gan the day before Shavuot?  So it falls on the kids to bring me up to speed so to speak.  I can imagine those little kids “Chaval (oh what a pity), this week she didn’t bring the red flower…”

So there you have it! One last thing is the “Joy of Aliyah” videos, but bli neder (without a vow) I’ll post that next week. Have fun reading the blogs!

I’ll close with a riddle: This week’s parsha is Vayetzei, and in it is the sulam Yaakov (the ladder of Jacob). There is a sculpture of it somewhere in Israel. What neighborhood in Israel is famous for this painting? Put your guesses in the comments and in next week’s post, I’ll say who got it right and enclose a picture. Good luck and have fun!