My Shavuot in Israel 1982

Nadene Goldfoot
Shavuot this year starts on June 7, on Tuesday (Sivan5)  at sundown, and brings memories of a wonderful experience in Israel.  It happens to be one of the three pilgrim festivals in Judaism and there I was, living right in Safed, Israel.  I didn't have to drive to the synagogue.  We walked as a quaint one was about 15 minutes away.  There I saw costumed men who wore clothes  most all the time of knee britches, long socks, and shtreimels (big black broad-brimmed hats trimmed with velvet or edged in fur) on their heads.

This is a time when the Passover period ends.  People have been counting the Omer for  fifty days.  This commemorates the time when the law was given to Moses on Mt. Sinai.  Kaabbalists and others have observed the eve of Shavuot in study.  The book of Ruth is read in the synagogue and the Ten Commandments.  It mentions the barley and wheat harvests and this is the time of wheat harvesting.  People will have flowers and boughs in their home and synagogue for decoration.  Dairy products are served. 

May 29, 1982 from my book, Letters From Israel. 

Thursday was Shavuot, and Don and Maureen had been invited over for dinner.  I served borsht with sour cream, some delicious cold smoked fish that is better than kippered salmon, salad, cheese blintzes with sour cream and cherry preserves, and for dessert we had cheesecake with cherry topping.  Don was in seventh heaven.  I have to brag that everything tasted so good.  The blintzes came from your cookbook that you had given me.  (This was a letter to my mother, of course.)

The next night we went to their house for Shabbat dinner.  That helps when you have two celebrations back to back to cook for.  The only problem is walking there and back, but the exercise was good for us. 

Thursday night you are supposed to stay up all night and study the Torah.  Don and Maureen conked out and went home, but this 11 year old Moishe came over and studied with us until about 2am.  At midnight we all went outside and said a special prayer, because at midnight the heavens were to open up and your prayer was to go directly up to HaShem (G-d).  Moishe thought the heavens really would open up and was afraid to go out at first.  His father was at the synagogue and really stayed up until 7am.  Anyway, we had lots of fun with Moishe, as he would say, "Stop, I don't understand that," and we would go over some passage.  I think the kid is going to grow up to be a Tzaddick.  He's so smart.  Well, I've had a nice respite from my students, and tomorrow I must be back in the saddle.

Resource: http://www.chabad.org/library/article_cdo/aid/2144/jewish/Shavuot-Calendar-2011.htm
Letters From Israel by Nadene Goldfoot
The Standard Jewish Encyclopedia

Hezbolla and Hamas's Value of Life

Nadene Goldfoot
I just watched a video on my computer this morning by a famous news reporter reporting the 2006 war between Israel and Lebanon. Though Keven explained how media can be used as propaganda, he continues to do exactly that and presented a very one-sided program viewing the Lebanese Hezbollah as innocent victims and Israel as the advanced technically armed army, and therefore the bad guys.

There are some differences. Israel received statehood after waiting 2,000 years for it. We never forgot Jerusalem, and remembering it has been in our prayers ever since. "Next year in Jerusalem" is said every year by our families. Israel was born again May 14, 1948 through the U.N.'s vote. We are a certifiable state.

One of the things we have had to do is to keep an army and be updated in whatever armies use. The difference between the USA and Israel's army is that every man and many women in Israel have to serve. We're a very small group of people. Work just about comes to a halt and no one takes your place when there is a crisis. The population becomes the army.

I was there in 1982 when Israel went into Lebanon and saw this firsthand, being I was living in Safed, which is very close to Lebanon. Suddenly all the men teachers were called into service and I volunteered to cover their classes. It was horrible. It was a traumatic time for all of us, more so for the civilians-turned-soldiers who had to rush to their posts.

We work very hard to protect our citizens from the attacks of terrorists, which continue at this time from Gaza. When you're attacked, you have to try to stop it. I am appalled at the populations who have been taught to hate us, our neighbors in Lebanon and Gaza. They attack us and then cry and scream when we retaliate in defense. Do they think we will just throw stones at them? It's like a teeny dog attacking a huge dog and getting the worst of it. One has to have the sense not to take on an opponent who will obviously win.

So I come to the conclusion that our enemies do not value the life of their compatriots. They use them as pawns in their propaganda fight against us. Getting people to side with them is more important than the lives they say they are working for. All their crying and screaming means that they have succeeded in rousing their people in a hatred for us. They cry for Israel to lift its import and export punishment and return the electricity to them, but they continue to bomb us. We have had to use something as punishment for attacking us, thus the cutting of electricity during certain hours and hurting them economically. What we should have done was just go in and attack them with our army, I suppose, and kill them all. I think that's what they would have done to us, and is what Iran is threatening to do with atomic weapons. They have bombed our station that supplies them with electricity and then they cry about it. These people are showing that their value system is completely different from ours.

We will not be driven into the sea, as our neighbors have threatened to do to us. We are fighting very hard for a "next year in Jerusalem and another year in Jerusalem." We mean to stay, cousins. Since there are millions and millions of Arabs and only about 5 million Jews, I am grateful that the numbers of casualties reflect this difference between countries. If we lost the same numbers as they, it would certainly be lopsided. Kevin, realize the difference in population when you print loss of lives on both sides. Perhaps percentages would be a more accurate number. And remember, we didn't start this war. We don't want it or need it.