Endings, and new Beginnings

As Chanuka comes to an end...Today I will take part for the third time in the amazing Shorashim taglit trip for Asperger's participants!

And in the morning, I will briefly begin transitioning into my new role as Coordinator for the Southern Region of La'ad, a Jewish Agency for Israel volunteer-based project clarifying rights and benefits to Holocaust survivors throughout the Negev.

As for the beautiful eighth night of Chanuka, I caught Mom, Amy and her boys on Skype. What a treat it was to see/hear Jake (above) continuing Dad's tradition of playing piano concerts for me on Skype. Jake nailed "Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star!" Beforehand, I lit candles

with my roommates (yes, of course, the maize and blue Michigan chanukia is mine--let's GO BLUE and win the Sugar Bowl!).

Off to bed, but I'll quickly relate a nice lesson I heard at Masa's office Chanuka celebration: unlike many gifts, the gift of light involves giving something (as the shamash candle gives light to the other candles) that remains with the giver. May we all spread light and joy and enjoy the priceless moments together on the holidays.

Much love from Beer Sheva,

אריק/Eric

P.S. Can't resist throwing in this ESPN review of the Mavericks' unforgettable 2011.

Changing the World

Hey guys,

This semester's going great. The highlights are the interesting law class and the fantastic Entrepreneurship seminar I'm attending this week (class started Sunday, and the final exam is already tomorrow morning!). I came to the realization yesterday that not only can entrepreneurs change the world, but also...what is more Zionist than creating jobs in Israel while serving a need of the Israeli public? Thoughts to be cooked soon--stay tuned...

Dear Dad,

Yesterday I had a comforting realization: while listening to a stunningly beautiful Fred Hersch performance from his album "Thelonious," I was saddened to think that you would never be able to hear the immense depth of his playing again. But then I realized that every song I listen to, you're there listening along with me...

I've put a lot of time into learning my favorite of your compositions, R.S.V.P.--the last piano lesson you gave me. I can feel the debut performance coming soon!

Last Thursday night I joined the student association's spectacular moonlit hike in the Chavarim "River" (water only flows there during flash floods) near Sde Boker. At the end of the hike, our tour guide wrapped up his explanation of the locale, then led us ahead for a silent walk (the silence lasted several minutes). A couple classmates started to hum "The Sound of Silence" by Simon and Garfunkel. Sublime... I looked up to the full moon; it ducked in and out of an oval-shaped cloud formation. The "Moonbeams" (the name of a Bill Evans album) that beamed through in an undescribably beautiful manner left me with no doubt that you were looking down on me.

The moon and I had a rough stretch for awhile. The doctors said you had about two good months left on this Earth shortly before Purim and its full moon. I stopped with good friend Josh on a Purim night walk through Jerusalem, looked up, and realized your "moons" on Earth were numbered. As it turned out, the doctor was overly optimistic, and G-d only gave you one more moon with us.

For some time, I couldn't look up at the moon without getting choked up. Now, eight moons later, I miss you and love you more than ever, but I also feel you with me as I do what I can every day to earn my Master's in Gerontology and then aim to change the world of elder care in Israel!

--

In honor of my alma mater Michigan finally beating ohio again for the first time since I rushed the field in 2003, here's the amazing ohio pregame video, a fantastic set of pictures depicting a Day in the Life at Michigan, and an amazingly goofy MGoBlog post detailing the ohio win in the style of Star Wars.

Here's a YouTube find for the ages: Ask Me No Questions - Stevie Ray Vaughan & Albert King from their In Session album. That driving beat was my anthem for the 2003 Chicago Marathon. I sang it to myself on loop for 3 hours and 43 minutes. Not gonna lie--it did get a bit old around mile 18, but the videos from that recording will never get old.

My Biology of Aging professor mentioned Jeanne Calment, a French woman who nearly reached age 122 1/2. Her Wikipedia page shockingly claims that she smoked until age 117 and ate nearly a kilogram of chocolate a week. Unreal!

Here's the NYT behind the scenes piece on Gilad.

As I always do, I'm using music to get through a stretch of papers and exams. Here is a great WSJ article on pump up songs and the Shostakovich mentioned in the article.

My aforementioned friend Joshua Basofin on Israel's Carmel Forest's independent (we hope) rebirth.

A very powerful story about my freshman year quarterback (Brian Griese)'s initiative in supporting grieving children in Denver.

The wikipedia page of an incredible Holocaust survivor whom I met here in Beer Sheva, who as an entrepreneur built the Negev's classical music scene.

The Red Hot Chili Peppers will make their Israel debut next September 10. This country isn't terribly successful at advance planning, but we obviously are pretty good at booking foreign bands way in advance.

This son of two lesbians makes his case as eloquently as I could imagine.

--

Off to practice R.S.V.P. a bit, then wrap up the reading and prep for the exam! Love,

אריק/Eric

P.S. My late night practice session just coincided with that of Yossi, a ridiculously talented pianist who's studying Bio-tech Engineering. He was just knocked out by R.S.V.P. (especially the chord voicings you wrote for me at the end of the piece)! He even started quoting the opening line and improvised something beautiful from it...back to the reading...

Back to school

Southern public schools (including Beer Sheva's) remained closed today, but tomorrow everyone will please G-d be going back to school.

Today was the first day of the 5772 school year for my Gerontology Master's program at Ben-Gurion University. Dad always was so excited to ask what I was studying, so here goes for my last semester:

• Legal Aspects for Older Adults and the Ill
• Biology of Aging
• Intro to Sociology (a better-late-than-never prerequisite).

As for the last credits to wrap up the degree, I'm debating between:

• Environmental and Occupational Health (a Master's in Public Health course), and
• Entrepeneurship and Leadership: Global Business Expansion (Master's in Business Administration).

I'm leaning towards the latter--it doesn't hurt that it's taught in English. I also feel an itch to try something different (the Public Health course reminded me today of my Epidemiology class quite a bit).

Just as I became a true local during my three years in Jerusalem and was able to offer directions to lost folks, it's really nice that I can do the same having studied in Beer Sheva for three semesters already.

Here's a picture with my great new apartment-mates (from left): Tariku from Petach Tikva, Ayalon the kibbutznik, and Ben from Gadera. These guys are great and chill. Ayalon has some work experience as a cook, which you can discern from his delicious creations (I'm taking notes).

He joked that it's been boring having a whole day go by without a siren going off. As for what to do in the event of a rocket or mortar attack, here are the

Home Front Command's instructions.

Back to work. Much love,

אריק/Eric

National Pastimes

Here's a long overdue new year's greeting for my first post of the Hebrew year תשע"ב - 5772. My girlfriend taught me this acronym of the Hebrew letters of the year:

תהא שנה עם בריאות, ברכה, ביטחון ובשורות טובות!

May it be a year of health, blessings, security, and only good news!

I decided to move to Beer Sheva to avoid the long commutes to Ben-Gurion University from Jerusalem for my last semester. Here's my new home. I left behind my incredible friends and spectacular capital city, all of which I came to know so well during 3+ years mostly living in the Baka neighborhood. The heavenly scent of those jasmine flowers was all over the air leading up to my move.

This last month I was preoccupied by my beloved Texas Rangers on their run as close to a World Series title as you can possibly get without hoisting that trophy. October baseball in Israel means many late nights, and several replays of games missed during Shabbat and חגים/chagim/holidays (three this time around). It also means being awake in the middle of the night and hearing the Muslim call to prayer echoing across town at about 4 am. It meant a couple nights enjoying the game with fellow Far North Dallas natives, and teaching my Israeli girlfriend baseball (Game 6 of the World Series was her unusually dramatic Baseball 101 course).

Dear Dad, you said at the beginning of this season that you believed Texas would take a step back before it could take a step forward. In the end you were slightly off--while we only won one World Series game last year, this year we won three. You lived to see this great team win its first six games, and they made an epic run to Game 7. Mom saw our boys pound Detroit 15-5 in Game 6 of the ALCS (finally a Dallas team beat Detroit in the playoffs after the Lions pummeled our Cowboys in '91 and the Red Wings owned the Stars like a million times). Aron and his Dad caught Holland's gem in Game 4 of the World Series, Standing Up for You as part of the Stand Up To Cancer campaign.

But the St. Louis Cardinals managed to shorten my life with their timeliest of hitting, pitching and defense (I'll shortly be returning that top-shelf bottle of champagne I purchased in hopes of a toast 32 years in the waiting). Hats off and special congrats to my friend from way back at a USY convention and then a taglit trip 3 years ago, Kenny from StL, who deserved a celebration while recovering from surgeries. Another big advantage of living in Beer Sheva, which sports a relatively minimal community of Americans, is that baseball is way off the radar here. So while I don't have the support of fellow Texans whose gut was decked by the Cards, I can just avoid the whole topic pretty darn easily here.

While the Cardinals were merely doing their job of giving everything they had to earn the title, Hamas, Islamic Jihad, and all the gang in Gaza are literally trying to shorten my life by launching rockets all over the south. After I finished watching the replay of Game 7 on Saturday night, I heard that a father of four in Ashkelon had been killed by a terrorist rocket. That'll put a sports loss in perspective pretty quickly.

And a mere five days after my move to my new home in Beer Sheva, I just received my official "Welcome to Beer Sheva" from the likes of Islamic Jihad (I was in town for two of their rockets in one day back in March). When the siren was sounded here, I joined a friendly group of students in the shelter. The procedure is to wait for ten minutes after the sounding of the siren before heading back up. I bonded with Nir over Dallas sports (I informed him of the ugly Cowboys loss last night; he gave me "much respect" for the Mavs. Thank G-d he's also oblivious to baseball). He laughed off the sprint to the shelter and with the typical Israeli dark sense of humor said "נתראה במקלט/nitra'eh ba'miklat/see you in the shelter!" Yediot Acharonot newspaper is reporting that the rocket was intercepted by the Iron Dome system. Folks all over Israel question the extremely expensive system's worth, but it may have just saved my apartment from being blown up. I'd say that's worth it!

So while America's national pastime is baseball, and Israel's national pastime is celebrating שמחות/s'machot/joyous celebrations (I celebrated friend Ben (on the left)'s wedding last night in Jerusalem), the Palestinian Islamic terrorist national pastime is killing Jews. Gilad Shalit has been freed...Israel celebrated the restoration of a family; 1027 Palestinian prisoners, collectively responsible for the deaths of 600 Israelis and for wounding thousands, have been/will be freed...the resounding Palestinian response was a call for more terror and taking more Israelis hostage (here the "moderate" Abu Mazen applauded Hamas for kidnapping Shalit). Now, simply for the sake of killing Jews, the Gaza terrorist organizations have decided to send another several-days-long round of rockets across Israel's south. That's just what they do. Thank G-d they're usually unsuccessful, but may that father of four's memory be a blessing (and may the Ashdod school that was directly hit Saturday be repaired quickly). And the irony here is I'm joined in the campus bomb shelters by many Arab students. You may remember that some victims of Hezbollah terror rockets in 2006 included Arab Israelis.

I'll just go back to living and celebrating life, writing papers, and heading back to class tomorrow (assuming the rocket situation doesn't escalate). In St. Louis, a rain delay pushed the games back, putting the ball back into the Cards' ace Carpenter's hand for Game 7. In Beer Sheva, class was cancelled yesterday at the university, and yesterday and today at the city's schools. So we'll stay tuned (the university sends out text messages for "rocket days").

As they say in Israel's south these days, שיהיה שקט/sh'yihiyeh shaket/may it be quiet. I've already taken advantage of the convenience of living on campus. I only have about four more

months of this experience--sometimes you just have to take a deep breath, lie down on the grass on campus, and watch the clouds float by. As you can see, I'm a happy man back in the south--Islamic Jihad be damned!

Greetings from the computer lab (which doubles as a bomb shelter). Peace and love unto all y'all,

אריק/Eric

Some more oldies but goodies

As the de-cluttering rampage continues, I also found this from back in '07 when I started to roll out my aliyah plans:

I'm taking the values my parents gave me and using them to become the most complete version of myself that I can. These are values such as the importance of social action, persistence and strength, as well as the importance of education that I will, G-d willing, pass on to my children.

Staying here is turning my back on my true self, not listening to myself. In order to be true to myself, I need to follow my dream.

Reflecting in a sea of paper

In the midst of an intense de-cluttering dash, I ran across my Nefesh B'Nefesh application from back in 2008 before my aliyah.

"I aspire to attain fluency in Hebrew, earn a Master's, then work in Senior Housing Management."

4 main reasons for your interest in making Aliyah:

1. I want to pursue a career serving the older adults who came to Israel with nothing and built the country.

2. I want to set family roots in Israel and raise children who yearn to serve the country in the I.D.F.

3. I will build a special connection to Israeli family and friends, especially once attaining Hebrew fluency.

4. I am truest as a Jew in Israel: surrounded by Jewish learning, scheduled on Jewish time.

Taking one step farther back, I found the notes I took during a coffee date with my dear Rabbi Lopatin in Chicago, right as I was deciding to give aliyah a shot:

I'll be able to say 5 years later, "I followed my values, my conscience, and I acted on it." The only way I'll be happy is to do what's meaningful and follow the dream. Women there will share my values.

Workplaces want me to be a success, so that other people will want to come.

I can invest in Israel by attending an Israeli graduate school, also a wise investment in my development. I will get everyone rooting for me in school.

I'm "Living Lite" here. There are Life or Death issues there. Children talk about those issues there in serious discussions.

I can display my Judaism proudly there.

Talk about some inspirational de-cluttering, and a better use of these words here than in a pile of papers! Going back to my roots and remembering my motivation to...get these last two papers done for spring term! Take care folks,

אריק/Eric

Beer Sheva Bound!

Hey everyone,

Please join me in voting for my friend Ali's dad Mark Brand (of blessed memory) here as a Jewish Federations Jewish Community Hero.

Here's my Michigan friend Rabbi Micah Peltz's profound lessons 10 years later and the inspirational story of the first 9/11 victim, American-Israeli Daniel Levin.

As for me back in the press, this one's off the beaten path: a piece (scroll to page 6) that I wrote for the newsletter of the Jewish Federation of Southern Illinois, Southeast Missouri and Western Kentucky.

Thinking South

"It has become vital for Israel to think south." -David Ben-Gurion

So I'm heading down south to Beer Sheva at the end of next month to spend my last semester in grad school at Ben-Gurion University living on campus. As John Hiatt sings in Drive South, "it's hot down where we're going!" So I'll make sure to take full advantage of the pool and volleyball court across the street. Not to worry, I'll also be across the street from my campus (Health Sciences), and five minutes away from the campus synagogue, not to mention the student union and its opportunities for student involvement (look out, Green Campus initiative). Needless to say, I'm ecstatic to be moving to the city of the Seven Wells (direct translation of Beer Sheva), where Abraham watered his sheep and Moses in exile found a bride. David Ben-Gurion, Israel's first Prime Minister and the namesake of my university, said that "Abraham accomplished a consecration of this land (the Negev) to his people, and our work follows in his footsteps...Such a move won't be easy. But it will bring the satisfaction of creation...Israel is a very special place with special demands on everyone who dwells on its soil." I'll be sure to soak up the holy Jerusalem in the meantime--that holiness is especially palpable during the quickly approaching holidays.

Take care folks,

אריק/Eric