…just too busy to post anything
Here’s why:

7 days until the lift gets sent out
13 days until my company releases a software product that we have been working on for the last year (hint: there are more than 13 days of work left…should be interesting)
28 days until aliyah

[gasping for breath...]

An athlete who is also a decent human being. See the article on how Cal Ripken helped to raise money for the Koby Mandell Foundation.
(Via the Zionist Conspiracy)

“Blessed are we who can laugh at ourselves, for we shall never cease to be amused”
“Though we seem to be sleeping, there is an inner wakefulness that directs the dream and that will eventually startle us back to the truth of who we are” (Rumi, 13th Century Sufi Mystic)
(Discuss…)

We have rented the second floor of a house in Kochav Yaakov.
The interior is around 90 square meters. Kitchen, living room (salon, dining area (pinat ochel), laundry room, porch, three bedrooms. $400 a month (about 30% of what we are paying right now for a slightly smaller 2 bedroom apartment in Brookline).
However, it did take [...]

Chardal posts a story of Rav Avraham Yitzchak haCohen Kook, after being told that in the opinion of some the pioneers in Eretz YIsrael should be related to as sinners who rebel against the word of God, responded with a proof that we are really all brothers (and should treat each other as such).

Dov Gilor has completed his Modern Role Models series in the Jewish Press (view all of the posts). Twenty five articles giving the stories of Jews who have made aliyah recently. All are kind of normal…and inspirational.

A friend emailed me a link to this article from Haaretz: Street Tongue, the Hebrew they Never Taught You. It has a list of lots of common Hebrew slang (at least it is common for Israelis – this is the type of stuff they do not teach you at day school or pre-aliyah ulpan) that [...]

This past week marked the tenth anniversary of the assasination of Yitzchak Rabin (by who?).
Here are two blog posts to put the event in perspective: The Beatification of Yitzchak Rabin by Jonathan Rosenbloom and some commentary by Chardal on the subject.
Remember, he is the one who started this whole mess. He is the one who [...]

(Part I). No sources for this one. This is from a phone conversation I had with a member of our yisuhuv-to-be (with a little bit of my embelishment added in):
“You don’t realize what an amazing thing it is that you are doing. Your family has been in exile for two thousand years and now you [...]

Chayyei Sarah talks about how speaking English helped her with her klitah after she made aliyah.
Personally, my hebrew is good enough to get me around, order shawarma, and speak with most Israelis (except for the ones that talk really really fast). We are in the middle of the process of renting an apartment from [...]