Michael Jordan - Shooting Guard

Magic Johnson - Point Guard

Larry Bird - Small Forward

Lebron James - Forward

Wilt Chamberlain - Center

Team chemistry would either make or break them, but these are the best of the bests. 

I was just reminiscing over the first real concert I ever attended and found the actual event on Youtube! They have a few videos actually. It's obviously difficult to capture the true power of being there. 

I'm pretty sure it's the best rock concert I've ever been to. 

What I always find amazing is that Gene Simmons has never been high, drunk or smoked in his life. (I guess fire breathing doesn't count).

Gene Simmons is a stand up guy (in some respects). Born in Haifa, he was a big supporter of GW Bush and sent a televised message of support to an Israeli soldier wounded in the recent Lebanon War calling him "his hero".

If I were to cast actors in a movie of the purim story I would have:

Achashverosh : Marlon Brando

Mordechai: James Stewart / Humphrey Bogart

Esther: Natalie Portman

Haman: Al Pacino

Charvona: Morgan Freeman

Today I attended the Bar Ilan ESCape "Family Day BBQ" as it was family day in Israel. 

Why?

Clearly I have lots and lots of free time. 

I did have fun though.

I don't have time to write a long description of the event as I am extremely busy, and most of what I would write would be extremely uninteresting, but I wanted to share with you the most important thing I learned today: Egg fights are downright hilarious.

I don't know why, but eggs flying through the air and eventually cracking on something or someone is extremely funny to me.

My suggestion for Bar Ilan ESCape's next event: A giant egg fight.

Imagine 50, 100, or 200 people lining up in a giant battlefield, with some stationed on tops of roofs, hurling giant eggs at each other; the thrill of seeing hundreds of eggs whirling through the air towards you at one time; the feeling of eggs cracking against your body. 

I checked on Youtube to see if anyone has ever constructed an egg fight as the one described and could not find any. I think such an event, on a large enough scale, could become a great viral video too.

If anyone wants to organize such an egg fight you can definitely count me in.

I don't usually remember my dreams. Truthfully, when I try to recall dreams I've had in my entire life I can recall only three. One must have been some 14 years ago after playing Wolfenstein 3-D for several hours I had a dream that I was the hero in the computer game. It was quite frightening.

My second and third dream were the same and happened last week and last night, respectively (obviously).

Being the internet savvy guy that I am, I quickly googled my dream today to see if anyone offers any interpretation of it, and scary enough they do! I am not much of a dreamer so I was surprised how many dream websites there are, but I guess it makes sense. I still find it crazy that people have had the same dreams as me with only slight variations. That gemara interpreting different symbols in dreams makes a lot more sense now.

My dream was scary, but the interpretations of the dream make me not want to go to sleep again lest I have the same dream. The interpretations all were so relevant to me too. I am really just freaked out by the whole thing.

Maybe I just need more sleep. Or less....

Shabbat was absolutely terrific. I stayed at my cousins, the Reidlers, in Jerusalem and it is always great to see them. Shabbat day I ate with S. Stern and 5 other guys I went to Gush with Shana Aleph including three that I haven’t seen since (about 5 years). It was really exciting to see them and catch up. (For those I went to Gush with… It was Leron, Chananel, Rafi, Hershkovitz, and Stern. I also saw Ettinger at Shul, and Zarbiv for the 3rd meal.)

It is remarkable how many people from Shana Aleph are in Israel now. There were about 70 people in Shana Aleph (including South Africans, Australians and Brits), and at least 10 (15%) have stayed in Israel since. Then there are also bunch that are here now either for a year or moved here – without counting individual people I guesstimate it’s about another 10 making it about 30% of my Shana Aleph class is in Israel this year. Gush should be very proud of their success in instilling a love of Eretz Yisroel in their students. While in Yeshiva I remember reading one of their brochures claiming a high percentage of their students make Aliyah and I didn’t believe it, but judging from my year, it was most likely true. (Keeping in mind that more people make Aliyah later in life and some people from my year still haven’t finished college yet.)
------------------------------
Saturday night a friend of mine in Givat Shmuel organized a very nice and well-attended dinner in Bnei Brak to launch a regular shiur/dinner club thing once a week. (Which I will most likely never attend as I am generally at work…)

At the dinner there was a shiur given by a very articulate and captivating English Charedi rabbi, who unfortunately chose the forum to deliver a Charedi style message.

I will address his main point later, but I first wanted to address a minor point that I think many of you will find interesting. He stated that after Yom Kippur the BBC, a blatantly anti-Semitic media source, regularly says, “trading volume was slow today because of the Jews celebrating Yom Kippur. The Rabbi views this an anti-Semitic attack on the Jews, implying that such a small group of Jews could actually control the trading volume of the world’s largest stock exchanges.

I don’t understand how anyone can see this as anti-Semitic. It is a well documented and statistically proven truth. The BBC, in this case, is not being anti-Semitic, they are stating a fact. Just like Vanity Fair recently listing 52 out of the 100 most influential people as Jews, or Forbes listing a large portion of Jewish Billionaries or the Nobel Prize being given to a disproportionate amount of Jews. The BBC doesn’t say, “trading volume was down today because of the cursed Jews!” Would you prefer if the BBC said “Trading volume was down for some unknown reason, even though we really know…” Why should we be embarrassed that we are an important group in the world of Finance?
------------------------
His main message, without the pathos, was that if you look at history, secular intellectuals have been able to rationalize anything including acquitting Nazi killers due to their misunderstanding that they were actually committing genocide while they thought they were defending their country. Because of this, we should ignore their thinking and only follow in the way of the “Torah”.

What he failed to address, and understand, and this was clear from speaking with him after as well, is that Torah is interpreted by people as well. Different poskim come to different conclusions based to a large part on their personality, behavior, and environment (this has been studied extensively). While a secular scholar looks through his sources, which likely include some Jewish sources, and weighs each according to his own accord, Jewish scholars look at Gemara, poskim, Tanach and other Jewish sources, and weigh them according to their own thinking too. Many people in our history have done a lot of terrible crazy things in the name of "Torah." (Note: This is not a criticism of halacha.)

His speech is a very Charedi and unhealthy message because he is saying that you should remove your own thoughts and follow your rabbi blindly. A rabbi’s advice should be considered strongly, but one rabbi’s opinion of what the hashkafa one should follow should not be the end of an individual’s thought process. It is important to seek the advice of several rabbi's as well as outside sources.

The Gemara says, if I remember correctly, that anyone that says there is no knowledge outside of Torah is stupid. (I can’t remember the phraseology exactly, but I am definite that that sentiment is there.) To say that secular thinkers don’t have anything to add is foolish. We need less people saying “follow the Torah” or “follow the Rabbis” and more people saying become an educated person. We need to learn to weigh the knowledge of the world appropriately in order to live and promote a proper way of life. Obviously everything needs to be done lishma and under the rubric of Torah, but it is foolish to say that secular sources have nothing to add to the conversation.

I cannot believe this country does not celebrate New Years! X-mas I understand. But c'mon, New Years?!

I have been complaining about this for days to friends, coworkers, taxi drivers, random people on the street - basically anyone who has the time to listen to me whine. The most common answer is that "we have Rosh Hashana!"

Let's be serious people are these holidays in any way similar? On New Years we have champaign, on R"H we have fish head. On New Years we listen to Prince and party like its 1999, on R"H we listen to the Chazzan sing about who died this last year.

Don't get me wrong, I think R"H is excellent and the irreligious are unfourtanate that they don't have it for many reasons. But I don't think we should have to get rid of December 31st new years. If R"H is our calendar year end, then New Years is our fiscal year end and we should celebrate.

The more times we have set aside to reflect on our lives the better. Some mussar seforim recommend doing a cheshbon hanefesh every night, others weekly. Most of us I believe don't do it enough.

New Years is a great time to reflect on your accomplishments of this year, as well as set realistic goals for the coming year. I realized that the goals I listed previously are too much for me, and I have to cut them down. It's a very upsetting thing to do, but better to accomplish a few than fail in all, IMO (in my opinion).

New Years really is a new year for finances as well as taxes are based on it and most companies close their books on December 31. I HIGHLY recommend everyone take the time to review their finances and set their short term and long term goals. Last year I did this and started using Yodlee as my personal financial dashboard and it has really simplified my finances. (It's a program that links to all of your bank accounts and loans so you can see your net worth calculated and keep track of it. It also lays out the information in helpful graphs.)

I hope you find it helpful.

May next year be twice as good as this one.

This has been the hardest week since my first week in Israel. It has become clear to me that my coworkers don't really care if I have a life outside of the office and would prefer that I sleep there (as long as I would pay rent). If they had chained me to the desk I would not have known as I rarely left my chair. This has been one week but I feel like I have aged a full year.

This has been extremely depressing to me as this move was supposed to be a lifestyle change. I have done this all before and I counted down the seconds that I could leave my last prison swearing to never return to that lifestyle - where I have little to no control over my life.

When I was recruited here I was definitely told my lifestyle would be different which really upsets me. I realize now that I am the same monkey working like a dog.

I do not want to get into more detail about my depressing week (as it only depresses me more), but I am seriously questioning one of my major life goals.

As you all know, I consider myself to be very low maintenance (or as some of you put it "cheap"). I have no problem living on the bare minimum as long as that allows me to have more time. Basically one of my goals is to make enough money so that I can comfortably support a family on interest.

I can't say I am close to the goal yet, but in this profession it would most likely be do able when I am still youngish (obviously later years there is higher salary). The question is, is it worth trading your best years (your 20/30's) for later years. I use to think yes, because it's a few years verse who knows how long, but I am starting to think otherwise.

I am thinking more and more the 9-5 derech is just a better way to live.

I am now exhausted and am heading to sleep.

(Oh yeah, and we don't get off for New Years or Xmas...)

Oh and sorry this blog has been such a drag lately and unfunny. Hopefully life will be better soon and I'll be humurous again... I for one hope so.

Thank y'all for the birthday wishes. They are much appreciated.

I'm 24 now. But I'm happy to say that I still have the same maturity as I did in High School. People always told me "when you grow up you'll understand", but yet, I still do not understand any of it. Heck, I don't even remember what I was supposed to understand anymore. So maybe I have not reached that maturity level yet, but boy am I waiting. (I stayed up past 12 AM just to see if at midnight I would gain this wisdom, but I did not. I then stayed up another 7 hours just in case my wisdom was still on Eastern Standard Time.)

So how did I spend my birthday you ask?

6 words: Heroes of Might and Magic IV

I used to be addicted to an earlier version of this game and would play it for hours on end during high school with Dave. I haden't kept up with the game since Yeshiva, but my roomate had it so I decided to start playing again (this was Wednesday night). (I'll try and explain my obsession with video games in the future.)

I decided on my birthday I should do what I enjoy and why not. Sure I had more productive things to be doing today, but on one day I can be a glutton and indulge myself in whatever simple pleasures I enjoy - such as video games. I find that I get the most enjoyment out of things I can do for (nearly) free such as computer games, reading, and music. Some of the best days I can think of were days I took the whole day just reading a great book from beginning to end. (I highly recommend this if you have never done it before. The first time I did this I think I read "Death of a Salesman".)

So although this was a mellow birthday and some of you are probably reading this and thinking, "wow, that is so sad...", an 6-7 hour game (short mainly because of Shabbat) of Heroes was really what I wanted to do. (People are also probably thinking that the title of this post was somehow related to that sentiment but really I chose it because when I thought of a title the first thing that popped into my mind was Janis Joplin's song.)

Well now that I am once again addicted to the game, it may be hard to weed myself off. I think I will do it cold turkey like I ended my heroine addiction. Although that didn't go so well, but that is for another time.


"It’s all of our birthdays this summer
One number older, another year younger
I’ll go to your party, you’ll come to mine
We’ve given up cigarettes, we’ve given up wine
We’ve given up caffeine and sworn off desserts
I don’t try to seduce you, we don’t even flirt
We’re too good to be happy, too straight to be sad
So just blow out the candles, Happy Birthday

Stay out of the ocean, stay out of the sun
Stay in perfect shape and be number one
We’ve got brilliant excuses for having no fun
So blow out the candles, Happy Birthday"

Carly Simon

I decided to leave Givat Shmuel this weekend - unfortunately not under the best circumstances. A friend of mine from the sates unfortunately suffered the terrible loss of his one month old first born son and was sitting shiva in Allon Shvut. I normally would most likely not make a 2 hour commute for a shiva call but I know that most of his closer friends are in the U.S. and that anyone that he would appreciate seeing any friendly faces. I figured that once I was travelling that far I may as well stay for shabbos.

So I contacted my good buddy D. Erdfarb who invited me to stay over at his kollel apartment.

Friday morning we had pancakes in my apartment. This is becoming a near weekly ritual and it is becoming one of my favorite points of my week. There is a female friend of the apartment that comes over regularly and she volunteers to make fresh pancakes from scratch. (I do not know if this is a lot of work, but they taste great so I am grateful.) I am very into these simple pleasures so it's really great. All I need to add to this is hot chocolate and I am set. (This week was Cappuccino so it was still pretty good.)

I stayed in the guest bedroom at Erdfarbs with an American mattress and it kept out all the light - it was a terrific sleep. (I made sure to utilize it Shabbos day too.) D. and I were chavrusas together in YU in Rav Willig's shiur. He has a very cute son (that I am now good friends with even though he only calls me "abba's friend") and his wife is expecting soon too. It's great to see friend's families growing so fast.

As I already updated about Gush in the past there is not much to say. Although they do have new fish in the moat around the Yeshiva which is awesome.

Motz"sh I paid the shiva call and it was very painful and sad (as expected). After that I tremped back to Yerushalaim which was great fun, for no other reason than when I am asked: "Where to?", I can answer like the hitchhikers in movies: "As far as you can take me." (And hope they understand that means J'lem...)

I met up with some buddies in J'lem after and we went to Off the Wall Comedy Club which is run by David Kilimnick, the brother of one of my other YU chavrutas. Unfortunately David wasn't performing as I have seen his stuff on Youtube and some of it is hilarious. (My review of the place is below.)

Afterwards I went to tachana, got some dinner, popcorn (15 shek for medium) and deodorant (28 shek for small Axe deoderant!) and headed back to G"S.

Overall it was one of my busier weekends.


---------------
Off the Wall Comedy Club - Review

The first performer, the hostess of the evening was absolutely terrible. Not even in the, "wow she is so bad its funny" way even. It was more of the "oh my god this is unbearably painful does someone have a fun so we can just end this now" kind of terrible. Mid performance she actually asked me "Sir, are you having a goodtime? You don't seem to be laughing." Since I did not want to be a jerk, I merely feigned laughter rather than responding "I am not laughing because there has been no good jokes yet. I have received funnier email forwards than this."

The next guy was an 18-year old who's supposed to be in Yeshiva now but instead is wasting his year doing medicore standup. Some of his stuff was ok, but some of his jokes were just dumb.

The next guy was a guest appearance by I think part owner Jeremy. He reminded me of the type of guys you see in NYC on a random weeknight. He was ok, but I'm not very into his type of delivery. I can imagine a full show by him is probably pretty good.

The last guy, however, was hilarious. His jokes were all very topical and well delivered. I wish I remembered his name so you could see him if you ever visit. It was 8 oclock show on december 16, so you could probably check the website and see who it was. (My favorite jokes were about Aliyah experience, Facebook, and Yeshiva)

The show cost 30 shekel (student 25) , plus a mandatory drink (8-20 shekel). Overall I would recommend giving the place a try. I thought the decor was fairly good, and it had a good atmosphere. I like that the shows are not dirty and there are no curse words, no vulgarity, and no inappropriatness. (Something you will rarely find in NYC.) I think next time I will do more research into who is performing before going though. It was a great idea by Kilimnick and I wish him the best of luck. It is worth visiting just to support the endevour. He also has Hebrew nights. Probably a good place to take a date too.

So far, Chanuka in Israel has been, to say the least, underwhelming. I hoped celebrating Chanukkah in Israel would be like celebrating X-mas in the states. Unfortunately, this has not been the case. There are no blue and white lights ornamenting the streets, no gigantic menorahs that rival the giant tree in Rockafeller Center and no Judah the Macabees giving out presents. (I have not seen these things, although they may exist.)

I actually miss the Xmas atmosphere to a degree. NYC during December is really beautiful and has a great atmosphere of good-fellowship.

I also miss Chanuka presents so have purchased myself some, but nothing too exciting. (Two shirts off Ebay.)

I have been to several Chanukkah parties in town, but I can’t say I particularly enjoyed them that much. I never was very big into large social gatherings for the sake of mingling. Even though I know I really should be mingling in order to meet people, I find most of these cocktail conversations to be “shallow and pedantic”. I generally prefer smaller gatherings where conversations are more focused and developed.

This is a real conversation that I had with a friend at a recent one of these parties:
Me: Hey!
H: Hey!
M: How’s it going?
H: Pretty good, thanks. Yourself?
M: Not bad.
(Pause, me looking at my shoes.)
M: So... I have nothing else to say…
M: I’ll see you later.
H: Sounds good….

It reminds me of the Great Gatsby line: “I like large parties. They’re so intimate. At small parties there isn’t any privacy.” (See, I have retained something from high school.)

I haven't written lately mainly because there just isn't much to say. Life is going on as usual.

Lots of rain here. I feel like Forrest Gump wading through the river. Someone told me there was a water shortage in this country?

Today we had an earthquake. I think I went to the restroom and missed it. Was pretty weak. (Thank God I suppose.)

I have heard from two of my friends in the states recently that they were approached by a company to work in Israel. Clearly the economy in Israel is HOT. Please do not use the excuse of not making aliyah due to lack of job opportunities in Israel. Especially if you have never looked. People in this country are doing well - some VERY well. I reiterate once again, the "poor" that you read about in Israel are generally poor by choice. (Except for the teacher situation - which is the fault of the country's socialistic attitude towards education.)

Once again, do not use the finance excuse anymore as you are like a meragel bashing Eretz Yisroel. You make the Israel economy look bad when you say there are no jobs, and you make yourself look bad by saying things you know nothing about because you haven't looked.

This past shabbos I was in Neve Eliza (sic?) at my cousins. It was a pleasure seeing them as they are the only part of my (extended) family that has made aliyah in the past 20 years. (Excluding my great grandparents that made aliyah to Bnei brak for 6 months and then came back.)

It's always great to see the brave idealistic people living in the areas that are always being spoken about being given away. I was told Gaza was just as beautiful before it was given away. I can't imagine how they could every give away these towns. It is mind boggling. They are really a tight nit community too.

The prices on the houses in these towns are amazingly low. Supposedly the most expensive houses are in the $250,000 range. I can't say they match American homes in terms of size, insulation, etc... But for Israel they are gorgeous. We saw some really nice ones that overlook the border of the tribes of Ephraim and Menashe. I am really considering looking into purchasing one in one of these areas. WHEN there is peace, these properties will be worth at least double. (I guess I should stop valuing houses until I have the money to one first... And I also figure it would be pretty strange living in a giant house alone - although I think it would feel a bit like Al Pacino at the end of Scarface when he's protecting the mansion all by himself. And I could get a huge security system that I could watch all night. And get a huge gun collection. Yeah...

On another note... I am also considering stopping to blog (or stop blogging). Although it doesn't take that much time it takes some time and I have so little of it!
My list of personal goals for the year, in no particular order, continues to grow:
1) Perform my job to excellence.
2) Become an expert on the Israeli economy (and begin understanding Israeli politics to a greater extent)
3) Find a wife.
4) Improve Hebrew skills.
5) Pass the CFA 2 (this is more like a dream now).
6) Finish Baba Kama
7) Improve my knowledge in economics and finance
8) Start/support a non-profit organization of sort
9) Stay in touch with you guys back home

So as you can see, there I have a lot of ambitious goals this year and I am still trying to work on my time management skills. I am not sure how much this blog is really helping me do number 9 as I still find myself calling most of you and your like "oh sorry I haven't read your blog, so whats up..." And what I find really surprising is that my hit counter surpassed 500 unique hits this week. So clearly I am writing to a different audience than I intended a tad. I may continue to blog, but most likely change the format a tad - any suggestions let me know. And if y'all have any help on the above list of goals for this year it would also be much appreciated. (If someone would like to learn baba kama for me that would be very helpful as it is very long. When I made that a goal I thought it was only 2 artscroll books, but its 3!!!)

So I may be making a 10) Helping educate people about life in Israel and the Israeli economy, which will tie in nicely with 2. I will have to see how much time it really takes to write each of these blog posts. I may limit each post to 15 minutes of writing. We shall see.

I went to the Gush this last shabbos and stayed by my good buddy A. Hershkovitz. A. and I called up one of our friends who left me a rather enigmatic voice mail Thursday night saying “Call me back I have really good news!”

Based on my prior experience with these phone calls there were four possibilities what this good news could be:
1) “I’m engaged!” – This is usually what the good news is but this fellow was not dating anyone when I left to Israel about a month ago. (35% chance)
2) “X is engaged” – This could be possible but most of my good friends that get engaged generally call me directly rather than have someone else call me. Also he seemed too cheery for this to be good news about someone else. (20% chance)
3) “You’re engaged!” – This has never happened before, but you never know. I would imagine I would know before him but you never know. I lead a busy life. (10% chance)
4) “I’m moving to Israel” – This was the only other possibility that I thought had some chance of being real. Maybe my example led him to move to the Holy land as well? (35% chance)

Well in the end of the day he was engaged! It’s always good to get good news, especially erev shabbos.

So shabbos began very good and the rest of the shabbos continued in the same nature. It was fun to feel like I was back in Yeshiva again and to see all the new students that are now in the same place I was five years ago. It was amazing to sit back in my makom where I probably sat over 4,000 hours during my year. I started Bava Kama and hopefully I will be able to finish it by the end of the year. Ambitious but do able.

The only negative was that Gush is sooo cold. I thought Jerusalem was cold on Friday, but Gush was even colder. The only plus about Gush during the winter is the awesome fog. I remember one time I couldn’t find my way to the Yeshiva from the dorm because it was so thick. Baruch Hashem Givat Shmuel hasn’t been that cold, but it has been getting chillier.

On shabbos I also ate by Moreh Yaakov, my second grade teacher and chavrusa during Gush. It’s always a pleasure to see him. Throughout shabbos and m”s I saw old Gush friends that I haven’t seen in years. It was terrific.

So today I Baruch Hashem had some time at work and decided to take advantage of the gym in our building. As most of you know, I am not much of a gym person but prefer to get my exercise through bike rides, basketball, swimming, roller blading, and electric scooters. Well anyways, I decided to give it a chance.

It's not as if I have never gone to a gym. While at YU I would frequent the gym about once a month and pretend to know what I was doing. That is what I had planned to do today, but unfourtanetly the personal trainer guy at the gym saw I was completely lost so he took my under his wing and had me do a bunch of stuff and at the end I was ridiculously exhausted. Not only exhausted but nauseos and near sick. After he said "I'll see you tomorrow", and I was like "Maybe next week..."

Tonight was amazing! My company hosted a private party for clients and band members from Kaveret including Gidi Gov played a concert! It was terrific!!

There are only maybe 5 israeli bands I know and maybe 15 israel (rock type) songs that I know, Gidi Gov being about 4 of those songs. It was truly amazing. I sat about 100 feet from the stage. Probably one of the best (non-wedding) concerts I have attended.

I am only upset that I didn’t understand all the songs and jokes because of Hebrew. I think my impetus for learning Hebrew has now come – in order to be able to understand jokes. I think I am going to start my education by learning more Israeli songs and reading the lyrics in Hebrew/English. It also would have been nice to have invited someone. I hadn't thought about it until I got there.

I can't say I've attended that many concerts in my life, but I can definitely say this concert was better than most Jewish music concerts I've seen and definitely better than Ted Nugent.

BTW- Gidi Gov reminds me of Dustin Hoffman.

I arrived to Israel on Wednesday Oct. 10th - sorry if I haven't spoken with any of you but I've just been so busy getting things in order.


I spent Wednesday mainly unpacking, sleeping and getting lost in Givat Shmuel. It's amazing, no matter how small the town I still can't seem to figure it out.

The food situation is a bit crazy since its a shmita year. I learned all about the halachot/politics of otzar beit din, badatz, heter mechira... I still have not made up my mind on what to do. Glatt meat will also be an issue... Overall, the first day was pretty low key.

Thursday I woke up at 6 AM which was amazing - I've never been a morning person but I'm considering becoming one. I went to minyan, where I went unnoticed (or at least no one said hello...), which I took as a compliment that I don't look like that much like a tourist.

I went rollerblading through town to learn the area better which was fun. Not too many hills which is great for convenience but terrible for the fun factor. No 190th/Overlook hill anymore. My electric scooter actually would have served me decently here, but it's usually more convenience to cut through grassy areas than go on the streets.

I opened a bank account which took 2 hours (!) but I did it all in Hebrew so I was very proud after. The woman even presumed that I would want all my statements to be sent to me in Hebrew - to which I insisted I really need them to be in English as I have no idea what you have been saying for the last two hours and I have just been nodding yes to everything. (I wish Morah Dafna could see me now...) I was most probably taken for a ride as I will not be getting interest and will actually be paying the bank to use my money, but supposedly this is how it is done in Israel. This is really very depressing and I think says a lot about the state of the economy.

I then went to J'lem which takes an hour :( where I purchased a cell phone finally. Once again I had to make do entirely in Hebrew. Here I felt I was once again taken advantage of as I spent over 600 shekel ($150 - I converted for less than 4:1 yesterday!) for a phone they used in the stone age. Once again, my friends ensured me that this is the way it is done in Israel. The whole thing is a bit ridiculous - I also needed a bank account before being able to buy a cell phone and I couldn't even get international calling as I need an Israeli credit card for that. Crazy crazy country.

I then went to yeshiva and was glad to see a bunch of people I knew. I love that no matter how many years out there are always people still there. It was fun visiting rabbanim as well. Max was in America though - so I will have to catch up with him at a later date.

For shabbos I will be with my cousins (Jay and Daniel) in J'lem who are here studying for the year. Should be excellent.

Few notes:

(Some) of the food here is incredible. I have always heard Burgers bar was good but I was always skeptical - it's just a hamburger... But when I had it in the tachanat hamercazi in J'lem I was blown away - WOW! I can't explain it. I don't know what they feed those cows but boy are they tasty. It may have had to do with the sauces they put on it. I noticed the 3 people ahead of me on line all got chimichuri (?) on their burgers so I followed though. America must get this chimichuri and manufacture it in mass quantities. (I will send a sample via FedEx to whomever would like to taste if you cover charges.)

I also tried to order an ice coffee today from Aroma and ordered something on the menu in Hebrew that I thought meant Iced Coffee but most definitely was not. It was really excellent though.

People have told me the cost of living in Israel is cheaper but I have yet to see this... For some prices on things I have bought...
28 NIS deoderant
9 NIS 4 bars of soap
600 NIS cell phone
100 NIS + per month for phone plan
20 NIS shampoo
16 NIS Iced Coffee (or whatever it was...)

Rent is cheaper but the rooms are not quite American living standards (even Wash. Heights). It feels like Yeshiva.

Well that is enough from me today - there are obviously hundreds of stories and insights from the last few days that I will hopefully share with y'all in the future, but I don't feel like typing them now.

Have a good shabbos!