Weekend Hospitality

Winter weather is supposed to visit us this weekend. Chilly (single digits celsius, high 30's fahrenheit)., with rain, sleet, thunder and lightning. I love "big" weather, and this weekend should be lots of fun. There are few things better than sitting in a warm house, watching the rain fall in sheets, lit by lightning bolts and reverberating with thunder! BTW: an equivalent experience is watching a major snow storm. Nature (God's Angel) is powerful and great! We have a mixed house this weekend, with three young ladies from MMY (via our calling cards) and two yeshiva boys that we got from Anywhere in Israel. To make things even more interesting, we got invited out for dinner! What wonderful friends. We told then that our crowd would be 12 people and they didn't blink! I offered to bring something, but they turned me down! I love our community and our friends. I have never lived or heard about a place that has this kind of compassion and support. Through g...

I just saw this headline:  " EU Worried over Bibi's peace plans ".  The article continues a theme that has been played out over and over again during our last election and over the past few years.  To whit:  The Right is Opposed to Peace, or The Right is Against the Peace Plan. First, what sane person is against peace?  Everyone (and I mean Everyone) wants to live without fear of war, death or terrorism aimed at their selves, their family or their friends.  Peace is the absence of war.  So why would anyone be against peace? Secondly, the real issue is peace at what cost?  I'm sure my readers remember this old saw:  A man asks a woman if she will sleep with him for 10 million dollars.  She thinks about it and says yes.  Then the man asks if she will sleep with him for 20 dollars.  Of course not, says the woman.  What do you think I am, a prostitute?  Miss, says the man.  We already determined that, now we are just discussing the price. Israel has given and given and gi...

Ah winter.  This has been one of the driest winters on record here in Israel.  We only get rain during the winter months, from October through March.  In any other month, its one sunny day after another.  This winter has been particularly dry and that is very problematic, coming after three other dry winters.  Our water sources are at an all-time low and water rationing may be around the corner. So we are very happy that this weekend is supposed to be wet and stormy.  It means that we will all have to stay inside and eat warm comfort food!  I am so looking forward to the weekend. As a change of pace, we have four young men staying with us.  I have no idea where they came from, but they got our card (from one of their female friends) and gave us a call.  Also as a change of pace, we are eating out tonight. My son Asaf (he of the chronic kidney disease) turned 18 this week and we will definitely  be celebrating this weekend.  Our dinner hosts have a daughter who was born on that say day ...

Good news, the National Transplant Committee approved our donor!  My wife was convinced that the committee would find a way to say no, but they came through!  We got the call from the hospital this afternoon. There are still a number of important steps to complete before the transplant.  The next hurdle is a full medical workup at the hospital for my son and the donor.  We have been told that the workup will take two days assuming they don't find anything wrong with either of them.  (Other than the obvious).  Once the tests have been done, the transplant can take place anytime within 6 months.  Together with the donor and the doctors, we will try and pick a time that works for everyone. We are trying to schedule the testing appointments within the next few weeks.  Stay tuned for more updates and thank you for your prayers and positive thoughts, Elliot and Leiah

This is a short post.  There is no update.  We went before the National Transplant committee almost three weeks ago.  They promised an answer in two weeks and we still have not heard anything. I'm a bit surprised.  There is no question that my son will need a transplant.  The only question is who is going to be the donor.  If the committee was going to say no, then they should have said it already.  One way or the other, we would need to start looking for another donor.  If they were going to ok that donor, then why delay? I don't have any answer and I don't expect to ever receive one.  My hope is that there is no health impact from the delay.  So far, things are stable and seems to be no problem with a short delay.  Time will tell.

So I missed friday last week.  As a result, I didn't get a chance to cook.  bummer. The good news is that my family is perfectly capable of cooking very good food.  Ok, its not as complicated as I would make, but that's not necessarily a bad thing.  Since we knew I would be away, my wife organized the kids and a menu. To make matters more interesting, seven (7) girls from Los Angeles called up on Sunday and asked to stay for Shabbat.  How could we say no?  All seven of the girls attended a Beis Yaacov high school in L.A. and were now spread across a number of different schools in Jerusalem.  One young lady was only visiting Israel, but she was definitely part of the group. My wife likes to eat meat, but she is willing to eat dairy meals.  I'm sort of a purist.  I like to cook meat.  My dairy repertoire is pretty weak, mostly because I never practice.  So this weekend, we had grill for dinner and dairy for lunch.  I can handle it as a change of pace, but I'm not ready to...

Last friday, I had the pleasure of attending Eurekamp .  That's Eureka Camp.  It was a gathering of "interesting" people, most of whom were involved in hi-tech.  I was rather surprised by the number of entrepreneurs in attendance.  International business was there also, with reps from IBM and Microsoft. The main concept was to generate ideas.  Eurekamp is one of Yossi Vardi's projects.  The man continues to impress me with his commitment.  The market sucks and companies are failing right and left.  Venture Capital has dried up for new start-ups.  Yossi has also stopped his spray and pray approach, where he would invest $100,000 20 to 30 times a year for anyone who was "a good person" (by his definitions).  Yet, even with all of this, the Yossi still supports creativity and the general hi-tech community. How many times have you had a chance to hang out with similar minded people, without an agenda.  We attended Eurekamp for the fun, for the chance to rechar...

We have a full house this weekend but no guests.  That is to say, all six of my boys are home and my parents are visiting with us.  We could not get our act in gear and hence we have no additional guests for meals.  Of course, tomorrow morning, we are hosting a big kiddush for Inbal Noy G. who was born early last shabbat morning. No news on the kidney front.  The hospital told us that they will contact us once they hear anything.  Given that next Tuesday is election day, we may have a slight delay.  I hope to have good news to report towards the end of next week. This shabbat, I can't make spicy foods.  They don't agree with my parents. Hence, its a heimishe shabbat. Shabbat Parshat Beshalach Dinner - 10 Goulash Soup Pargiot stew with wine Beef and pepper stir fry Rice Green Salad Lunch - 10 Gefilte Fish Corned Beef Meat Roll Cucumber salad Cabbage stir fry Green Salad