In Israel for Dani's Bar-Mitzvah

Don't Forget

Check the Saar family site every once in a while for updates.

posted by jsaar @ 12:19 AM 0 comments

Back Home

At this point I don't even know if anyone is still reading this, but I owe this blog still a few final posts. Let me try to recap briefly the last few days at the Dead-Sea.

Thursday morning - chol hamo'ed Succoth, we took a few buses early in the morning, the buses took us to Masadah, we davened Shacharit/Hallel/Mussaf at the top of Masadah, Gadi read the Torah beautifully and the experience overall was unbelievable. We all remarked how otherwordly the event was, praying while a strong desert wind was blowing, surrounded by an unbelievable view. On the one side the Dead-Sea with Jordan behind it, on the other just a desert as far as the eye can see. And all of us with our "talitot" and "arba minim" in our hands. A wonderful moment.






After climbing down we were met by a wonderful brunch and finally the buses back to the hotel.

In the late afternoon we took buses again to a wonderful place called "Erets Bereishit". We were met by a number of people dressed in what can only be termed "biblical" garb, a band playing "Mizrahi" music and hors-d'oeuvres. The children had a number of creative activities to occupy them. One set of dancing, and then we entered what can only be called a "biblical" living space (+ succah in this case) for a sumptuous meal. A few more sets of dances, wonderful speeches, hilarious songs, a somewhat surreal speech by Dani in honour of his best friend Gadi (let's just say you had to be there), a guy doing fire-stunts, more food, more dances......we ended up getting back to the hotel at 1.00 am, exhausted but having just enjoyed ourselves thoroughly.


We spent Friday at the pool and in the Dead-Sea. Some of us even got "muddy".

Motsae Shabat and Sunday morning were major social moments for adults and kids, and finally on Sunday night we flew back home.



I will continue to post the huge quantity of pictures we have on the other site, so I suggets you check there regularly.

PS: I had to finish with another restaurant review, of course. On Sunday night, before going to the airport, we dined in Hertzliya, at the Marina, at a restaurant called Bistro 56. Dani and I once again had one of these delectable steaks covered with goose-liver, you get the idea. Pretty much everything on the menu looked wonderful, but this is NOT a place for little children (Arielle had one of her allergic reactions to her desert, we had some "fun" as you can imagine, but all ended well and we made it to the airport on time).

posted by jsaar @ 4:44 PM 1 comments

Not So Dead Sea

Looks like the final post with tons of pictures of our last days here and all that transpired will be posted after our arrival back home. I can only promise that it will be worth it.

posted by jsaar @ 10:14 PM 0 comments

Dead-Sea Post

We are having a wonderful time. We are here to celebrate Dani's best friend's Bar-Mitzvah, Gadi. This morning we davened שחרית at the top of Masada. It was wonderful. After climbing down we had a wonderful brunch. I will post pictures as soon as possible but I am running out of power on the laptop at the moment so it'll be for later.

posted by jsaar @ 2:05 PM 0 comments

סוכות

In the area we are residing in, at the moment, there are almost no Israelis. In shul I was surrounded by my old friend and accountant from the States, an old classmate from Antwerp, people we knew from London...you name it: a real קיבוץ גלויות. We truly enjoyed our meals surrounded by family and friends, but our little Arielle was not well. After יום טוב we took her to the doctor (see picture below). Turns out she has a tonsil infection.


In the evening we also got our "official" pictures of the weekend event in Tel Aviv. While there are WAAAYYYY too many pictures to post here or on our sites at the moment, I am just leaving you with a few "teasers". When time permits I will update the picture site with some of these gems.

On Wednesday we are moving our "base of operations" to the Dead-Sea for the remainder of our stay in Israel (meaning till Sunday).

posted by jsaar @ 12:16 AM 1 comments

Comic

Since a picture is worth a thousand words, I figured I'd describe our Monday morning in a somewhat different format (click to see a bigger version).


We are now getting ready for סוכות. The ratio of Americans to Israelis in central Jerusalem has drastically changed overnight. We hardly hear any Hebrew spoken on the streets anymore (ok, I'm exagerrating, so what ?!?). Wishing you all an enjoyable חג.

posted by jsaar @ 3:39 PM 1 comments

Raindrops

Long day today. First we visited an underground secret bullet factory from the days of Palmach/Haganah, next to Rehovot: the Ayalon Institute. A real fascinating story, well worth the visit, how during the days of the British Mandate a group of young scouts were able to produce over 2 million bullets for Sten guns in an underground facility literally under the nose of the British army. The kids enjoyed, as these pictures can attest to.






We then continued to Hashmona'im to visit friends in their brand new residence, and finally to visit my brother Rafi and his family in Modi'in. Saba and Savta came to visit as well. Everyone had a lot of fun, a lot of good food, we watched a video Rafi made of last week's עליה Dani had at the Kotel, the kids played outside...a nice long day with everyone coming home tired. Once again I forgot my camera, so all I have here are lo-rez pics taken with my phone.






Just as we were getting ready to leave, we felt something that is always welcome in this country, but also special since tomorrow is the beginning of סוכות: a few raindrops.

posted by jsaar @ 12:24 PM 2 comments

The Missing Post

Didn't have a chance to update the blog on Friday. Here is a little breakfast moment at the local bakery/coffee shop from last Friday



Working on a new feature for the blog, hope to have it ready during the course of the week. We only have another week to go in Israel, so we are most likely also approaching the end of this particular blog's usefulness. I will continue to update the picture sites (soon we will have the digital versions of the photographer's snaps), but once we depart from here, we'll have to find another good reason to start a blog.

This week, after Yom Tov of Succoth, we will move down to the Dead-Sea to attend Dani's best friend's Bar-Mitzvah. I will post some new entries and pictures of that part of our trip. Continue to check in for the next week, it should be entertaining.

posted by jsaar @ 12:52 AM 0 comments

After The Fast

Seuda Mafseket and our "break fast" were quite a spread, courtesy of Debra. We enjoyed every morsel. I have not spent יום כיפור in Israel since 1981, and never had the opportunity to spend it in Jerusalem before, so this was quite an experience. No cars anywhere but LOTS of Israelis on bikes. Funny sight. I wonder if they ever take the bikes out like that, as a nation, on any other day of the year. If not, this could become quite an event: Eddie Merckx day, or something (ok, ok, make that Lance Armstrong if you want).

After breaking the fast Dani had the opportunity to perform a special מצוה of starting to build the Succah right after the fast.



Tonight I intend to upload a lot more pictures (our tour of the Jerusalem Archeological Park and the kids' visit of Mini Israel among them) and some of the speeches to the sight you can reach from the link to the right of this message, the one entitled "Bar-Mitzvah Pics & Speeches".

posted by jsaar @ 11:06 PM 1 comments

Back in Israel

Got back just in time for the fast, but not in time to post more pics and the promised speeches. Please tune in again sometime after the holiday. I will do my best to keep the site "interesting" for a little while longer. Wishing you all an easy fast and a גמר טוב.

posted by jsaar @ 2:06 PM 0 comments

Pictures Posted

To see the pictures posted on the Saar family website, click the link on the top right of this page (appearing in pink) entitled "Bar Mitzvah pics & speeches". The speeches are not yet in place but will be coming soon.

PS: not all the picture are there yet, but I will be uploading them whenever time permits.

posted by jsaar @ 4:54 PM 0 comments

Digression

In Switzerland at the moment for a very unexpected and unavoidable meeting, but I hear Beth has bronchitis and the kids don't seem to be 100 pct either (incidentally I am running a fever at the moment). So today's post won't be as much fun, but I'll stop writing here or I'll sound like a kvetch (and lose readership as a result - we wouldn't want that to happen now would we).

Scheduled to be back in ירושלים by tomorrow. The rest of the crew might be visiting Mini-Israel today, so I'm hoping they'll take a camera, in which case we'll be able to post some pics here as soon as I get back.

Incidentally, yesterday, while walking on Ben Yehuda, we were interviewed by a BBC TV crew. Something about living or visiting ירושלים during these "uncertain" and "potentially dangerous" times. For all of you who happen to watch the beeb, let me know if you happen to come across our faces out there. Chances are they'll have to edit our footage out. Something about the glare from my follicly challenged forehead making it impossible for people to watch the tube for more than a few seconds at a time.

posted by jsaar @ 3:09 PM 0 comments

At the Kotel

The final part of our Bar-Mitzvah celebration took place this morning. We left failry early for the kotel, secured a table close to the women's quarters and once again Dani read beautifully, got an עליה and after that we enjoyed a festive brunch at the "Cafe HaRovah". The event was much more intimate than שבת.
We then had a wonderful guided tour of the Southern-Wall excavations, together with computer-generated simulation of the Old-City during the days of the בית מקדש.




I am leaving on a quick unexpected trip on Tuesday, and should be back on Wednesday to continue posting here (well, after יום כיפור of course). As soon as the pictures/speeches are online, I will post details here.

posted by jsaar @ 10:54 PM 0 comments

Teaser

As we get ready to go to the Kotel for Dani's "encore" performance there, we decided to leave you with just a smattering of pictures, to tease you a little bit, in preparation for a full-blown deluge of pictures, which will follow soon:




A couple I snapped while the "official" photographer was setting the kids up.

Then a few from Saturday night,



with friends,



friends celebrating their own birthday coincidentally,



and Dani taking care of his sister after a LOT of dancing.



And finally, on Sunday while chillin' by the pool.

posted by jsaar @ 7:37 AM 2 comments

Shabat Shuva - Bar Mitzvah

Too many emotions for words. So much happened in such a short time span. Dani certainly made us proud. His "layning" of his פרשה was exceptional, his דרשה and personal speech he delivered like a seasoned orator and his "layning" during מנחה was once again performed as if he had been doing this his entire life. The meals were sumptuous, the company fantastic, the רוח without equal.

There are way too many pictures to post on this blog. Over the coming few days I will be placing all the pictures and some of the speech texts online, on my own website, and I will provide links to it from this blog. At this moment everyone here is fast asleep. The dancing went on longer than we expected last night, and everyone needs their rest this morning. The hotel was nice enough to let us stay the day, so we will take advantage of the offer to spend some time by the pool and get our strengths back. Tomorrow Dani is giving an "encore" presentation of his "layning" prowess at the Kotel and we will then hold a brunch nearby at the "Cafe HaRova".

A special thanks to Aryeh for preparing Dani so well.

posted by jsaar @ 7:09 AM 4 comments

Getting Ready

Turns out there is a nation-wide bug making the rounds. At least one of our guests was affected and will not be able to join us for shabat.



Early today Dani got to "daven" with his best friend, Gadi, who arrived from London during the night.



Then we all enjoyed a nice hotel breakfast.

And later frenzied last minute preparations started.





Hair needed attention.



Nails needed attention.

And fairly soon family pictures will be taken.

posted by jsaar @ 1:48 PM 1 comments

In Tel-Aviv

One by one everyone shook off what seems to have been a 24 hour virus (how these viruses know that they can only stay 24 hours is beyond me). We are now in Tel-Aviv, and as you can see, some of us even enjoyed ice cream on the boardwalk.



We are making last minute arrangements for our Shabat Bar-Mitzva. The kids are enjoying the hotel thoroughly, and even went for a late night swim.



At this point they are all in bed, and we are looking forward to see our family and friends join us for shabat.

posted by jsaar @ 11:45 PM 0 comments

After a night like the one we just went through, I can't really call it anything else. But why the kids had to suffer from this stomach bug, I don't know. I can accept his revenge for my behviour, but the little ones !?!?!

This morning the kids are slowly sipping on cups of green tea to see whether they can keep anything down. Hopefully they will feel better today, and we'll continue with our original plans of moving the "base of operations" to Tel-Aviv.

More later.

posted by jsaar @ 9:45 AM 0 comments