a balloontwister’s aliya saga

The mayor of Staten Island and Mrs. Sonnenshein came to ramat Beit Shemesh for a quick visit. It was enough to wake Penina Up. You see, last night was PTA.. Israel Style. Here every parent has a set time when to see the teachers…. Being Akselrud… we were…. amongst the LAST…(don’t ask).. We were scheduled to see Michal’s teachers at 9pm.. Yoni’s at 9:28.. Penina left early in the event of a cancellation so she would be able to move up a few slots… Did not work… Penina got home af around 11:20… The good part was.. its just one night of PTA… not 2 nights like in Staten Island. Penina had to get a neighbor to help with the transalation of one teacher who spoke almost no ENglish. So when Ms. SOnnenshein called.. Penina was taking a nap… when I told her the good news… she sprang out of bed… straightened out the place a bit. well, after a brief tour of the house. Its quiet again. Just me and Tamar as Penina took michal for school supplies or something.

I learned a few things about the burial process here. There are distinct minhagim for burials in jerusalem. At the levaya, the sons / grandsons were told NOT to go to the burial site. I assumed it was because they were kohanim. I found out today, it was because in jerusalem, the direct male decendents do not go because they may have bad malachim that were a result of the meis. And the malachim do not come to the kever .. if the sons / grandsons do not go…. or something. Its also different because there is no duchanim in shiva. I also learned that in Jerusalem the minhag is to only visit the burial site 3 times the first year. after shiva, after 30 days and after the 11 months… so I was told the gravestone goes up very quick. Well, I hope we don’t have to go to many more and we should only learn about simchot.

Have an easy fast…

P.S. by the time you read this…. The fast will be just about over here..

u.d.