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The Path to the Rova
Oct. 23rd, 2011 03:17 pmI dreamt there was a huge bonfire and party in High Park (which is in Toronto, but here was in Jerusalem) for all the immigrants. Special honour was paid to the immigrants from China, who in my dream were some kids from my Grade 5 class,Xiao and Kelly, who are definitely not Jewish or Israeli. I was wearing my wedding dress, but it was silver and very faintly glowing, as if magic, and tiny stars on silver thread were strewn on it.
At one point, I went running with some others, teenagers I think, into a long stone alley lined with dark trees, which lead to the Old City. The flagstones were warped and worn in unexpected places, as in real life. The firelight had faded and it was now very black, but I was proud that I had travelled this path so many times my feet knew exactly where to step. I came at last to a giant iron gate.
In other news, my test on hilkhoth Shabath came back with the additional comment of "fine" (previously when my teacher had read only part of it, it was only "seems fine") The owner of the cats at last sent an email saying she relinquishes claim on them, although in addition she's taking back some money she gave us to go towards their upkeep - I guess that's not so surprising given her previous behaviour pattern. At any rate we now own two monstrously obese creatures who coldly walk on our faces at night; not sure what we really gained from this whole nightmarish transaction.
In a discussion about modesty, M. said, "Some people would call me not modest because you can see that my arms are attached to my torso." She was referring to a trend among some hasidic women to wear a heavy black poncho (always, also during summer). I remember that when I first came to Israel, this was really a fringe trend and was frowned upon by many hareidim. Now their official organisation, the Eidah Hareidit, has finally endorsed the ponchos as necessary for true modesty, and is already at work rewriting the past: posters have been put up saying that this is exactly what our ancestors and the righteous wore. You'd think that anybody with a memory longer than 3 years and/or who is capable of reading any Jewish legal text at all would be shocked by how blatant the lie is, and yet few seem to be batting an eyelid. When will people realise that they are Reformim? How can they get away with using words like "traditional"? Why do even secular people buy into their Orwellian campaign of rewriting history?
At one point, I went running with some others, teenagers I think, into a long stone alley lined with dark trees, which lead to the Old City. The flagstones were warped and worn in unexpected places, as in real life. The firelight had faded and it was now very black, but I was proud that I had travelled this path so many times my feet knew exactly where to step. I came at last to a giant iron gate.
In other news, my test on hilkhoth Shabath came back with the additional comment of "fine" (previously when my teacher had read only part of it, it was only "seems fine") The owner of the cats at last sent an email saying she relinquishes claim on them, although in addition she's taking back some money she gave us to go towards their upkeep - I guess that's not so surprising given her previous behaviour pattern. At any rate we now own two monstrously obese creatures who coldly walk on our faces at night; not sure what we really gained from this whole nightmarish transaction.
In a discussion about modesty, M. said, "Some people would call me not modest because you can see that my arms are attached to my torso." She was referring to a trend among some hasidic women to wear a heavy black poncho (always, also during summer). I remember that when I first came to Israel, this was really a fringe trend and was frowned upon by many hareidim. Now their official organisation, the Eidah Hareidit, has finally endorsed the ponchos as necessary for true modesty, and is already at work rewriting the past: posters have been put up saying that this is exactly what our ancestors and the righteous wore. You'd think that anybody with a memory longer than 3 years and/or who is capable of reading any Jewish legal text at all would be shocked by how blatant the lie is, and yet few seem to be batting an eyelid. When will people realise that they are Reformim? How can they get away with using words like "traditional"? Why do even secular people buy into their Orwellian campaign of rewriting history?
