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Watching the sun go down into the sea

Yesterday evening after work, my family and I went swimming at our nearest beach. Our nearest beach is Nasholim beach. One of the most amazing beaches in the world, it has everything a sea-lover might wish for. Small and large sea coves to explore, baby fish that you can either chase between the rocks or allow to nibble on your dead skin, a huge collection of sea shells and waves that are often large enough for surfing. You can look for the hidden mermaid's chair to make a sitting wish, catch some fish or sift for ancient archeological treasure. Our favourite bay at Nasholim is just big enough for a tiring swim from to one side to the other and back again. If you'd rather do beach instead of sea - the sand is white and soft and made for lazing. I usually stay in the water as much as possible. Life in Israel can be tense, so it is nice to float aimlessly without any thoughts in the Mediterranean sea. The summer is slowly coming to an end which means that the water is finally coo...
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After the holidays

We enjoy our bagels a lot here in Israel - the diet can wait until after the next holiday!

Me and my fellow English-speaking Israelis belong to this secret Facebook group where we share crazy, awesome and weird stuff about life in Israel.

Some of the posts are really cool and heart-warming but other posts (especially from the newbie immigrants) just make me go from one face-palm to the next.

And no, I am not going to share the group's link with you because:

   a. It is secret ..:)
   b. There are a lot of insider-type-of-stories that will leave non-locals totally baffled.
   Trust me on this, Israel is even baffling to people who were born here.
  c. You can read weird and wonderful stories about life in Israel right here on
      my  blog..:)

However..., I got permission to share this lovely story from Stefan Boroda where he talks about all the trails and triumphs he went through to get his wife's cellphone back after she forgot it on a city bus.

Part of his trails came from the fact that his Hebrew is not very good yet. So this led to one of the Hebrew speakers in the group to make a list of Hebrew words that one should learn as soon as your plane touch the tarmac at Ben-Gurion airport.

And of course the rest of us started all started to give our own opinions and comments just as good Israelis are expected to do. By the way, I will totally share with you my own list of most-know Hebrew words, sayings and expressions in a later blog post.

The heavy importance of today's date however requires me to teach you the ONE most important Hebrew expression of them all:

אחרי החגים

It means "after the holidays", with the holidays being Yom Kippur, Rosh haShana the Jewish New Year, Succot and Simchat haTorah. 
Yom Kippur is a fast day
At Rosh haShana Jews wish for a year filled with as many merits as a pomegranate has seeds.
At Succot Jews sit in little huts and pray with the four species

These holidays come along fast and furious one after another and the entire country comes basically to a standstill.

 And wherever you go, you will hear the words 'after the holidays'.

Only after the after the holidays, will the plumber be able to come and fix the running toilet.

Only after the holidays will the school, kindergartens and after-school activities resume.

Only after the holidays will we start with the diet, the job search or the fitness regime.

You get the picture. It is like an Israeli-Jewish January the first. And with the fact that the holidays carry on for something like an entire month and a half, 'after the holidays' is sometimes code for "ain't not going to happen ever".

So why am I writing about after the holidays at this exact moment in time?

Because today is THE day!

Today, Sunday the 15th of October, 2017 is the first official day after the holidays! For this year. It will most probably be on another date next year. Remember that here in Israel our weekdays start on a Sunday and ends on a Thursday.

Last Thursday we celebrated Simchat haTorah, and then it was the weekend. And seriously who starts a new project over the weekend? So today, about a month after we celebrated the Jewish New Year, can we actually START the new year.

Happy 5778 everyone! 

PS. Do you have any new year's resolutions? Let me know in the comments!

PSS. If you'd like to receive the "Letter from Israel" posts in your email box, subscribe to my mailing list at the top right corner.

I promise that I will never send you spam because I totally loathe it myself. I also won't send you emails every five minutes but one of my new year resolutions is to write a new blog post once a week..:)  Since we ARE after all officially 'after the holidays' now..:)



 

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Location: Zikhron Ya'akov, Israel

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