פםח שמח תש”ע, Happy Passover 5770

I want to wish you all a Happy Pesach, might you all re-live our exodus from Egypt and celebrate our freedom in a meaningful day. Enjoy from the family (physically and in heart) and let the children know how important this night has been for our people throughout the generations.
Enjoy a video that was almost in its entirety produced by the kids.


What will make this Pesach my Festival of Freedom?
Read from my post last year here.

Today, 4 years ago

2006

From Blogger Pictures

 2007

From Blogger Pictures

2008

From Blogger Pictures

 2009

 

 2010 - Today

From Blogger Pictures

Happy Birthday Ilan. We love you.

Stay tuned for a supper Pesach production coming very soon.

My Child’s prayer

So many emotions and so difficult to write them all.

Last month we had Batya’s mesivat sidur (Prayer book party), where 1st graders from her School Shivtei Israel officially receive their first sidur (prayer book) from which they can now actually read and pray.

The mesiva was beautiful. 120 excited children and 240 proud parents. I’m so thankful to G’d for the opportunity to be celebrating this great accomplishment in my daughters life and to see it happening all in the land of Israel, the place to which all Jews face when praying.

There were many songs with choreography, speeches, official giving of the prayer book and Hamalach Hagoel, the blessing Jacob gave to Joseph's children Menashe & Ephraim (Genesis 48:16) with all the children below a gigantic Talit held by all the fathers.

Batya was so excited for the entire month or more as they were practicing for the event. During the event she was very happy it all came out so well and felt a very strong connection to his prayer book.

That same Friday we went in the afternoon to Jerusalem’s old city before we spent Shabbat in Maale Adumim and Batya brought the new prayer book with her and prayed by the western wall with much intention and straight from her huge heart directly to the ears of G’d.

For the hardcore family and friends who would like to see all pictures you can access it by clicking below.

Mesivat Sidur Batya 5770

For the rest here are some highlights:

From Mesivat Sidur Batya 5770

Receiving her Sidur from Rab David Lau.

From Mesivat Sidur Batya 5770

Hamalach Hagoel prayer under giant Talit

From Mesivat Sidur Batya 5770

From Mesivat Sidur Batya 5770

From Mesivat Sidur Batya 5770

Batya and her teacher.

From Mesivat Sidur Batya 5770

From Mesivat Sidur Batya 5770

From Mesivat Sidur Batya 5770

Also, below some videos for those of you still hanging in there :)

Chodesh tov to all.

From Toyota to Alan Parsons Project

You might ask yourself, Toyota? Alan Parsons Project? What?

About a month ago I received a call from Toyota that apparently I’m the lucky winner of a free repair of one of their recent car recalls. For most of the Toyota car owners this is a disadvantage, as for Toyota… well, they are in real tzores (read also trouble), but for me it actually turn out to be the beginning of some good luck.

As I turned my car in they told me it would take about 30 minutes and not more, but I should have known better after a year and a half in Israel. As I return from half an hour in the supermarket I was told that the car was almost ready (it was actually ready 20 minutes after that), as I was waiting in their rather comfortable waiting room I took a newspaper and started to read though the headlines. I then found an advertisement for many concerts among them one for Alan Parsons Project for which I kind of wanted to buy tickets but never got to it. The advertisement said that they were giving away 50 (or 100?) double tickets to see them, so I had nothing to loose and sent my text message to be part of the drawing (you know where this is going?).

I’m not sure if (a) not a lot of Israelis know about Alan Parsons project, or (b) among the people who actually read the Friday paper (Yediot Acharonot) who knows how many actually stopped to read the advertisement and (c) if they read it, who knows how many actually sent their text message, or (d) I’m a lucky guy or (e) all of the above, but a couple of weeks after that day I received a call from the ticket box office company saying that I won a pair of tickets. Of course at first I had no clue what they were talking about, but then I remembered.

Liora was not really interested in going to see him so I called my friend Dani (as seen at Paul in Tel Aviv blog post) who kindly shared with me the pair of free tickets. It was great sharing another good concert with you Dani. By the way thanks also to my friend Sebastian wherever you are (Philly?) for introducing me to this great band several years ago.

The concert was very good, even though the first half needed a little salt and pepper, for the second half as they say here “hichnisu lahem et ha-pilpel” and it turned180 degrees , the Heichal Hatarbut in Tel Aviv stood up to dance. They were actually very good, and you can’t beat the price. By the end he actually presented the bassist that turned out to be Israeli (Guy Erez). The lead singer was pretty good as well (although he needs to work on his dancing skills) PJ Olsson (to be honest I never heard of him before the concert).

Thank you Yediot Hachronot for the tickets, next one is Jethro Tull in Caesarea if (e) is also the right answer (I already sent my text message).

Even though the prohibition of Video and photograph was strictly enforced by Alan himself and his staff below are some pics and a video from others (today every cell phone is a camera).

Picture credits to Oren Amram and his music forum who managed to sneak in some photographs. Video bellow from Amit.

If you are interested in reading more about concert experiences in Israel you can take a look at:

The historical Paul McCartney in Tel-Aviv concert

The Woodstock Revival in Jerusalem

A Night at the Party – Mashina Unplugged !

D’s Salve a la Reina en Mexico (even though it was not in Israel)

I’m looking forward to A couple of good things coming up in 5770 even thought they have not confirmed.

Until the next concert…

Shabbat Shalom.

Purim is not over until the fat king sings…

Last week on Friday was supposed to be the Ad-lo-yada (till-you-won’t know) which is a annual carnival done in our city of Modiin celebrating Purim, however it was cancelled because of rain so a week after Purim the street carnival took place and we once again took out our customs to celebrate.

Below some pictures of kids having fun at the event.

By the way, did you notice the new picture on top of the blog? Beautiful isn’t it. It’s a panoramic shot I took of our city, Modiin. Also notice the “Next family visit” countdown has been set, Pa y Ma we are looking forward to your visit.

Have a Shavua Tov, Great week.

Happy Purim 5770 & more

As it’s already common I will start with apologies to my loyal readers for not being able to blog recently, things have been veeeery busy, but I’m back.

Purim Sameach to all!

To remember some good old times last year you can check out Happy Purim 5769

We all had a very happy holiday. Especially the kids that celebrated for the entire week with many activities at school. For the reading of Megilat Esther (isn’t it amazing you can get a summary of the story on wikipedia? If the Purim story would have happened during the internet era I’m sure they would have ordered to write the book online:) )on Saturday night the kids dressed up and were very excited, afterwards there was a magicians show. On Sunday afternoon we had our Seudah (Meal) as part of a joint effort with 3 other families with kids, it was lots of fun. That same night Liora and I went to a party from Liora’s work and to be honest we felt a little more in the middle east than what we would have liked (if you know what I mean).

Below some pictures from Purim:

In the spirit of sharing some photos, below some photos of another Tiyul (excursion) I did with Rajel and the kids to Givat Hatitora here in Modiin. Enjoy some of the great views we were able to enjoy from our beautiful land.

 

Beautiful, isn’t it?

Last year we also visited Givat Hatitora but back in February 2009 it was very cold. Take a look here.

And since I’m sure you are still hungry for pictures, below some pictures from a Shabbat we spent with our friends at Maale Alumim (remember my Praying Towards the West blog post?):

Still a lot to talk to you about and pictures to share, hopefully soon I will share. Soon too, learn how I used my marketing background to win a couple of concert tickets and of course a brief report of the concert :)

And closing with a photo worth for a Sabra Album mention:

From Sabra Album

Taken in Jerusalem’s old city a table with Tefilin to wear that reads “Tefillin, Just do it”, talk about strong branding :)

Shabbat Shalom.