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.

The custom of not learning X-mas eve is one I am really really good at. You know how it is recommended that you pick one mitzvah to devote yourself to? Well this is mine.

Actually I did accidentally learn last night as my computer music was on random and a shiur popped up from R. Schreiber which was excellent. So in truth, I am not even good at nittle nacht. How sad. Maybe next year.

(And yes I do believe the idea of nittle nacht is ridiculous. I can only imagine it began when one chasid was chiding another about not showing up to seder the night before and him coming up with a ridiculous excuse like, "Um, of course I wasn't in seder last night. It was Jesus's birthday, idiot..."

X-mas in Israel was unremarkable - rightfully so. I worked. (I think I did that in the States too.)

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

Israel Unemployment: Lowest in 20 years!

Most of this unemployment is frictional unemployment, which includes: “people quitting jobs, getting fired, moving, just graduating from school, reentering the workforce after having children, and so on.”

Israeli economy will be strong in 2008

“The bank estimates that the dollar will trade at 3.75 NIS by the end of 2008, and that this exchange rate will hold steady for 2009 as well.”

http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-3483257,00.html

Once again, my Ebay shopping for clothes has been a great success.

Some of my latest purchases:

Brooks Brothers Shirt

Ebay: $15

Brooks Brothers: $80

Total Savings: $65 or 80% (including shipping)


Ralph Lauren Shirt

Ebay: $15

Ralph Lauren
Total Savings: $65 or 80% (including shipping)

There are some people I would not recommend this type of shopping to, but for someone like me, that sits in front of the computer a lot - this is truly ideal.

Today I called a friend of mine that I haven't spoken to in several months to see how he was doing. He got married within a year ago and the last time I saw him was probably at his wedding. He is a very intelligent, hard-working, friendly, ben-Torah who I always considered to be one of my more zionistic friends and I always thought he would definitely make Aliyah. Unfortunately, he shocked me today by informing me that his wife and her parents can't live apart - so essentially his Aliyah dream is dead.

Rav Shachter gave a shiur some year ago at Mt. Sinai (I believe it is on Torahweb.org) where he says Aliyah aspirations should not be among the pre-date questions. When I first heard the shiur I agreed with him wholeheartedly, and even advised some friends to follow that advice, but after today I gave it some thought and I think he is wrong. (I know some consider me disrespectful for disagreeing with HaRav but I am confident that he would only encourage me to voice my dissenting opinion.)

The location of where you want to live and raise your family is a vital issue and should clearly be addressed before getting married. Why not get it out of the way at the beginning like genetic testing? Why waste time dating someone that doesn't want to raise their family in the Holy Land, regardless of their reason? Where you raise your family will have a major impact on your progeny and what your legacy in this world will be.

Obviously personality, midot, hashkafa are important, but let's be frank, doesn't a commitment to Eretz Yisroel say a lot about one's devotion to religion? As much as we like to joke about how Bnei Akiva is only focused on Israel at the expense of Torah, doesn't Israel and Torah go hand in hand? Wasn't Bnei Yisroel punished for not returning to Eretz Yisroel during Ezra and Nechemia - regardless of their reason? (And I am sure many used the Torah, family/friends and parnassa cards.)

If Rav Shachter would agree that asking whether a guy or girl is a ben/bat torah is an appropriate question, then asking if someone plans on leaving his homeland, the place he was born, his parents home to live in the land God chose should be just as valid.

(I for one am glad that I am not dating in the U.S. right now so I don't have to ask the silly question: "Do you plan on making Aliyah?" To which the answer is almost always yes, even though most have not given it a bit of real thought yet - but know the correct in vogue answer is a wholehearted yes. )

I am constantly troubled by people that say they want to make Aliyah but then don't. Are these people lying through their teeth? Just don't think before they speak? Live in a fantasy world? On drugs?

If you want to make Aliyah - DO IT!

I am very impressed with my friends the Erdfarbs that recently made Aliyah. He left a very good job at a very prestigious firm because his plan when they got married was to go to Israel within 3 years and that is exactly what they did. I find it very rare that people actually follow through with these declarations. (My joke was always that I have a 10-year plan on making Aliyah - no matter how many years went by it was always a 10-year plan.)

I am reminded of Al Pacino's remarkable speech in Scent of a Woman when he says, "Now I have come to the crossroads in my life. I always knew what the right path was. Without exception, I knew. But I never took it. You know why? Because it's too damn hard. Now here's Charlie; he's come to the crossroads. And he's chosen a path. It's the right path. It's a path made of principle, that leads to character. Let him continue on his journey."

I believe most people do generally know what is right and what is wrong, but they choose the easy path. It is easier to stay in the same place than move to another so that is what they do.

I understand my friends issues, and I wish he never would have gotten into this sort of problem. But now that he is there, I hope anyways that someday him and his wife will be able to realize his dream.

(And yes I realize I have not made Aliyah - but at least I'm giving it a try, tough guy.)

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.