Meorav

Yalla, let's go, we're already late for the brit mila.

one pass

We're doing a quiet shabbat this week, just challah, some chamin and an early night.

one pass

I spent the whole morning at Misrad Hapnim, and I still don't have the teudat zehut.

one pass

Everyone here says everything will happen acharei hachagim. I used to find it frustrating, but honestly, after a few years you start saying it yourself.

one pass

On Friday morning I went down to the shuk for the usual run. The guy at the bourekas stall remembered me, gave me an extra one, and told me to say shabbat shalom to the kids.

one pass

The arnona bill came in twice this month, so I rang the iriya. After forty minutes on hold they told me, beseder, it's a mistake, just ignore the second one.

one pass

When I started ulpan, the morah told us not to worry about the grammar yet. Just listen, she said, and the words will come. She was right about most of it, although I still mix up my verb patterns when I'm tired. These days I can argue with the makolet guy about the price of cottage cheese, which feels like real progress.

sentence by sentence

Our shul does a kiddush after davening every shabbat, and it has become the real centre of the week. You hear about every simcha, every new oleh, and who is looking for a chavruta. The gabbai keeps a list of who is bringing what, and somehow there is always too much kugel. If you are new to the neighbourhood, honestly, just turn up, nobody will let you stand on your own for long.

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Last chol hamoed we did a tiyul up in the Galil with the whole mishpacha. We stopped for shakshuka at a little place near the Kinneret, then walked along the Jordan for an hour. My father-in-law kept telling everyone it was nothing compared to the old days, before the road was paved. By the time we got back to Yerushalayim it was nearly midnight, and the kids were fast asleep in the back.

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When we made aliyah, the first few months were a blur of paperwork. There was the misrad haklita, the kupat cholim, Bituach Leumi, and a bank that wanted three copies of everything. Our neighbour, a sabra who had seen it all before, sat us down with a cup of coffee and said, savlanut, it all gets done eventually. She was right. By our first Pesach in the country we had a lease, a car, and a teudat oleh that was already falling apart from use. Looking back now, the bureaucracy is not what I remember. What I remember is the people who helped, without being asked, and the way the whole street seemed to come out for Yom Haatzmaut.

sentence by sentence