Weekend Hospitality

I'm pleased as a peach to be able to announce the engagement of my oldest son Rafi to Avital. The couple has managed to observe the first of the our wedding rules: "Get married when you are an age that begins with a 2". They will both be over 20 at the wedding! Avital and Rafi have known each other since her family moved next door 15 years ago. Both families have since moved, but we still live only one block away. As our families have grown and matured over the years, so too has our relationship grown. We look forward to this marriage cementing the bonds that we have nurtured. (Can you believe that language! I feel like a preacher!) We are very proud and excited to welcome a female into our very male oriented family. Elliot and Leiah

I spent the week in Europe. Two days in England and two in Hungary. England is beautiful, with LOTS of green and rolling hills. I am a fan of Gordon Ramsey's Kitchen Nightmares, and he did five seasons of restaurants in England. Now the scenes I saw make more sense. Hungary, specifically Budapest, was very eastern european. The people were polite, the service excellent, but it felt like a depressed blue collar town. Our hosts were kind enough to get very nice kosher hungarian meals for us. The meat was fatty and rich, and the noodles and sauces were savory! This weekend, my wife is going to be working around the yishuv, so she will be away for all three meals. Our good friend Steve is coming over to help fill out the table tonight. I made some different foods this week. Our soup tonight is Kobanos and Potato soup. Kobanos are a kind of dried sausage that is very common in Israel. It is similar to dried salami and is not very spicy. We are having braised pargiot with ce...

This is a Shabbat of transition. An old friend passed away. I'm going on a trip to Europe. Many of our friends are leaving for the summer. My army son finishes his first six months as a soldier. Our transplant recipient has passed the initial rejection risk phase. My high school children being summer vacation, and we prepare for the Summer Book project! There is change in the air, and we hope that the changes are for the best. This Shabbat, we will be hosting Asaf's donor and her family for lunch. We began this journey as neighbors. Not close, but familiar, as part of the large extended Hashmonaem anglo community. Together over the past 9 months, we have experienced many ups and downs. From the initial testing to the long drawn out detailed testing and finally to the transplant itself. The path was long and the results are absolutely amazing! Now that the excitement has passed, we hope to build on our shared experiences to maintain and enhance the relationship. She ...

B"DE = Baruch Dayan Emet, Blessed is the truthful judge. This is the traditional jewish response to hearing that someone has passed away. My friend Clark Evenchick passed away last night. He suffered for a number of years from ALS. His passing is both a loss and a blessing. We will miss his wit and his powerful presence. On the other hand, ALS is a terrible disease for both the patient and their family. As the body becomes less responsive, the family and caregivers need to spend more and more time providing physical and mental support. Clark's passing frees both himself and his family from this disease. Clark built our house. At one time, he ran a construction company. Clark was not only an honest contractor, but also a joy to work with. At a time when most houses took up to two years from ground breaking to residence, Clark built our house in 7 months. Whenever there was a problem, we were more than comfortable telling him to find his own solution. I believe that...

A friend pointed me at this video. I love the concept of flying, but I'm pretty sure my stomach would disagree rather seriously. Here is a wonderful cockpick view of the US Navy Blue Angels flying in formation.

Its summer, its hot, and its quiet. In many Mediterranean countries, the summer time schedule is to get up early, work until it gets hot, go to sleep and wake up again for the cooler evening hours. I completely agree, except that I think we should live underground in caves where it is cool all the time... No interesting news this week. My son Asaf continues his recovery. It is amazing to watch him slowly recover from the tension and pressure of kidney failure. He smiles a lot more often. Now if only I could get him to stop playing computer games and to start thinking about the future. This shabbat, we were invited out to dinner and will be having a smallish lunch (10 people). We have a regular kiddush at our house after services in the morning. Since we start very early, the kiddush is around 8:30am. Tomorrow, we will be celebrating the upcoming wedding of our friends Rafi and Ester. Lunch is with E and J and the one daughter who is still single and living at home. Have a sa...

The holidays are over, the students are leaving or gone, and its doggone hot out there! I am not a summer person. I appreciate the beautiful sunlight, but I prefer the temperature around 24 (75F) and cloudy. Oh well, given the weather in Israel, I will see that climate around October. Our army son is back for the weekend. We are so happy to see him. The last time he got out was to spend Shabbat with my second son in the hospital. The army has been very reasonable, but its still got its own rules and schedules. We are no longer my son's first priority, and that is as it should be. On the kidney front, Asaf continues to improve. His creatinine value was 1.33 yesterday! Much better than last time. The doctors continue to adjust his levels of Prograf. So far so good... We have no guests this weekend! What a disaster! We will just have to make do and try not to fall asleep during meals. Shabbat Parshat BHaAlotecha Dinner - 10 Oriental Potato Soup (no kolrabi! Asaf is bette...