Acharei Mot/ Kedoshim 5778 Meir Sendor There’s a special feeling to Yom HaAtzmaut this year, celebrating seventy years since the founding of the State of Israel. In Pirkei Avot it says “seventy years signifies the venerability of old age (5:27),”…
Family Ties
Parashat Tazria/ Metzora 5778 Meir Sendor Our next-door neighbor was sitting Shivah this week for the passing of her sister, and people in the neighborhood who know the family were coming by for condolence calls and to help make the…
Delicacies New and Old
Pesach 5778 Meir Sendor Among the long-term challenges of olim hadashim is achieving full fluency at speed in conversational Hebrew. We’re progressing, and I teach a few shiurim in Hebrew, but I’ve still got a long way to go, and…
Open Season
Shabbat HaGadol – Parashat Tzav 5778 Meir Sendor We were in Netanya earlier in the week on the way to teach a shiur, and took time to walk along the seacoast promenade on a warm and partly sunny afternoon. (I…
Above and Beyond
Parashat Vayikra 5778 Meir Sendor I’m not about to wade in to the acrimonious debate going on here in Israel over the exemption of Haredi Yeshivah students from enlisting for some form of military or national service. I will say,…
Back to the Garden
Parashat Vayakhel/ Pekudei 5778 Meir Sendor This week we attended the wedding of a young couple in Tzfat. The Kallah is the daughter of a wonderful family we have come to know here, the brilliant artist Yoel Tordjman and his…
Self Renovation in May!
Hide and Seek
Purim–Parashat Ki Tissa 5778 Meir Sendor Israel in general, and Tzfat in particular, are pretty good at doing Purim. In the week before the dress code is haute couture – the other haute. Little children are sent to school in…
Hearts and Flowers
Parashat Tetzaveh 5778 Meir Sendor This is the season in which the lupines flower in Israel, so this week we took the opportunity to visit Givat haTurmosim, Hill of the Lupines in the Elah Valley, on a beautiful spring-like day…
Teamwork
Parashat Mishpatim 5778 Meir Sendor Our olive tree had a branch overhanging our neighbors’ driveway and was dropping olives, making a mess, so we asked our gardener to prune the branch. It’s now the dormant period for the tree and…
