The Du"ch from Yerusalem: Milchama Ba'ir!

So Shabbat was a party, great people, great food, no pressure. Met an IDF officer who said we are likely in for another war very soon; maybe we'll do Syria this time. Met a family of recent olim and hung out with a bunch of college kids. Joined the war. They are playing haredim versus homo'im. I am on both sides and neither, so it's double the danger, double the fun. The yassams are beating people with sticks and the water cannons are back in action: parade season is here. Wow, there wasn't this much commotion in Tel Aviv and their parade was much more ritzini.

I got to climb to the top of an unfinished apartment building, run around the city like a parkour course, and watch the water cannons blast through fourth story windows and dump broken glass on sleeping babies. Doodle, I finally saw your tapuach signs. This country is awesome.

I got to be mekayem the pasuk of "ki mitziyon tetzei torah" for real when I was asked a halakhic question at work and asked a rabbi in yerusalem on shabbat and returned to home with the answer.

Learned to play poker.

The news spent most of its time on Retzuat Aza, every so often they'd say "Surya", and twice an hour they'd cut to Jerusalem and the haredi riots. Just the riots, mind you, never the violent police response. Israeli news is so simple. The female news anchor is gorgeous, but a poor reporter. Then again, I guess that's all you need. Out.

Vandalism or Art?

Some guy smashed my front door in Friday night, wanted to impress his girlfriend. Probably was drunk. My friends chased him out. But it got me thinking about the effect of the physical barriers in our lives on our level of psychological closedness. Don't we feel uneasy when we go to sleep without a door separating us from the street?

Think about how it's OK to share a house with 10 other guys and not close our bedroom doors, but it's not OK to share our personal space with strangers. Without the door, the living area becomes wide open. So you could look at it as losing privacy or as building an extension that incorporates the outside into the inside and provides a whole new perspective: Imagine a world without borders.