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| A photo from Richard Greene - where is it? |
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| Lover Cave - Ein Gedi photo taken recently by Richard Greene |
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| Sunset looking from Masada eastwards to the Dead Sea - by Richard Greene |
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| Our Synagogue |
You are invited to join services at our Synagogue any time see details
Cantor - Boaz Pnini |
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Israel Ramble letters
April 20 2012
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 Dear friend,
It is always encouraging getting these kind of letters from readers. So I am publishing it here with Richard's permission. The photos on the left are also Richard Greene's photos taken recently.
Shabbat Shalom, Boaz Pnini, Bridges 2 Israel
Dear Boaz,
I am in Israel now with Jacob, Beth, and Lila (who will be bat mitzvah next May). We spent a few days in the Galilee, then to Jerusalem, and tomorrow we will climb Masada at sunrise. It's wonderful reading your "rambles" while we're here--so heartfelt and personal. It's a beautiful and amazing country; we can see why you love it so much.
Please keep on writing!
Best,
Richard
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| How Hebrew words come into being |
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Eliezer ben Yehuda
the person who revived the Hebrew language
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In Israel we have what is called "The Academy for Language", they create new Hebrew words. They have an email list of all the people in Israel, so when they come up with a new Hebrew word, lets say..Tabetet for TV in Hebrew, they email us the new word and from then on we only use the new word.
Of caurse that is preposterous, that is not how Hebrew words come into being, maybe some technical, medical, computer words do, but I do not know about that. The real spoken launguage is like a wild animal, it is not tamed, you cannot control it and it breeds all kind of words you wish sometimes it did not.
The last innovation I heard lately was "soog shel" which is a direct translation of the English-izm "kind of". The new Hebrew slang is brewing in the army and the youth. Few years ago standing by the carousel at Ben Gurion airport next to me, 2 young people carried a conversation, one of them wore uniform, and they talked about a 3rd person describing how he is "sarut" , which literarily means "scratched" expect I have never heard that word before, it was a neologism. (sarut means someone who has a psychological weirdness in some way, aren't we all? but it comes with the endearment that it is ok, that is his scratch, like a record scratch, and we accept him and even like him, scratch included) Language is a wild thing, not always easily put into a scholarly neatly folded cabinet.
On a different flight to Israel I was sitting on the isle seat and next to me 2 young Israeli women were jabbering in their youth lingo, and every second sentence one of them will say "Hazui, hazui", (hallucinated, hallucinated) which was a new word for me, meaning something like "It is so incredible, you cannot imagine that even if you try" . Hebrew is a condensed language, one word can impart a whole idea.
The sad part of this phenomenon is that the younger generation, who is generating a whole bunch of new vocabular creatures, is also forgetting the beautiful language of the prophets. I was stumped watching an interview with high school students, non of them recognized the word evus, which is a common biblical word meaning a trough. They barely new any biblical words which for us were obvious.
There is a new word which I coined, but have not yet enter the main stream, maybe because I have never told anyone or used it yet.. The word is l'hitmalmel, which means to correspond through email. and it has in it the Hebrew milah, which means a word, the english mail, and the mutual structure in Hebrew that we use also for the verb correspond for example. Please use it at your own risk. There is a Hebrew word that was coined for that purpose, maybe by the academy for launguage, l'da-el, but no one is using it, people simply say "to send a mail".
Please feel free
l'hitmalmel with me..
Boaz Pnini
Bridges 2 Israel
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| Israelis love Iranians - A virus of peace is spreading |
The original youtube now has 722,052 hits. If it can get to 7,000,000,000, then we will have peace on earth. It is good to dream sometimes. Everything good start with a dream. Israel did.
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| Holocaust Memorial Day in Israel |
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| Israel flag at half mast on the Holocaust memorial day |
There are 200 holocaust survivors living in Israel. I was moved by a story told at the ceremony at Yad Vashem this Wednesday night by Moni Moshonov. Here it is in a free translation.
This letter was written by Aaron Liverant to his children Bertha and Simon on March 4 1943. The letter was tossed from a transport train number 51 traveling from Drancy to the concentration camp of Maidanek where Aaron found his death.
Dear Bertha,
It is already the 4th day. I am now at one of the train's cars, we are probably going to Germany. I am also sure that we are going to work. We are approximately 700 people, 23 cars, In every car 2 gendarmes. It is a commercial car but orderly with benches and heater, of course German cars, of course without cells.
They put in a bucket. Imagine to yourself what an impression that does. Not everyone can use it. One needs to be strong in any situation. I hope my child you will get the letters. If you can, keep them as a memory.
Dear Bertha, I am attaching here 2 lottery tickets, I do not have a newspaper. I believe I will be able to write a letter to aunt Paula. I hope my child that you will know how to behave as a free human even though you are left without your parents, do not forget that you have to survive and not to forget to be Jewish and also a human.
Pass these words to Simon; Stay free people and look with open eyes at everything. Do not be influenced by first impression. Know that it is impossible to open a person in order to look inside into his secret thoughts, even if he has serious countenance, or if he is laughing, or if he is handsome. I am not referring to a specific thing only, but to every live thing around you, for everything you are observing.
The false thoughts as well as the honest thoughts often become obscured and you need to observe how a person behave in your presence. Not in one day you can see the lies or the truth of the person.
You understand my intention is in your best interest. Remember these ideas forever my dear child. I imagine this will be my last letter because we are approaching Paris. If I can, I will write again.
Bertchie dear, guard your health. Do not drink cold drinks when you sweat and then I will be able to see again healthy children. Pass on all I write to Simon as well. Tell him to study and be a good student because he is talented.
I conclude my letter. Many kisses. I am traveling with the confidence that you will grow up and will be a good, healthy and wise child.
Your dad, hoping to see you soon.
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Peace - philosophically speaking
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If we look at the conflict in the middle east as a disease then we say lets apply the ointment of peace to cure it, then we are only dealing with symptoms, the manifestations of the disease. If we can make the peace a cause rather than a solution to a problem then, that will be something completely different. That will mean that we are looking for ways to create it in ourselves, in our world, not as an answer to a problem but as something unto itself, as something we would like to create and give expression to, not as a remedy to war but as an expression of something we love, peace. It is rather like light, when we light a candle, darkness will not come in.
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Lake kineret corner
The kineret is still rising half a centimeter a day. It is almost a meter above the max of last year. now it is 164 centimeter above the red line.
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