Last Purim we received for Mishloach Manot a bottle of liquor that was not quite to our taste. It sat in the closet for the entire year. So when Purim came around this year, we thought that it would be the perfect thing to regift to someone else – after all, someone might like it, [...]

View Israel on Google Maps. Then look at the embedded version of the same page below.
View Larger Map
(Here is a screenshot in case the embedded version doesn’t work).
Something missing? If you don’t see it, try zooming in on the map, and comparing Israel with Jordan, Egypt, Lebanon or even Syria. Looks like Nike and Google [...]

I haven’t been so good with posting this year – Thank God, life has been busy and happy. Perhaps the coming year will bring some change.

In the meantime, feel free to check out a new Torah-related blog that I have started: Shteig Shtark. And have a healthy and successful new year.

I was just in the embassy in Tel Aviv today to register our new daughter, Gila (it is much nicer there than in Jerusalem, by the way). As instructed, I copied down the city and country of her birth onto the Report of Birth Abroad form. Since she was born in Shaarei Tzedek hospital, this [...]

Banks in Israel are pretty annoying. And that is if you are lucky. Coming from the US (where I used to enjoy such luxuries as being able to deposit my money into an interest free checking account where the bank can use it to earn money for itself, and not be charged for the privilege), [...]

Check out this article in the Jerusalem Post on proposed tax-cuts that would be put in place over the next 7 years. To sum it up:

Monthly Salary (NIS)
2008 tax rate
2015 tax rate
Current US Rate

0-4,390
10%
10%
10-15%

4,390-7,810
16%
10%
15%

7,810-11,720
26%
17%
15-25%

11,720-16,840
33%
25%
25%

16,840-36,760
35%
30%
25-28%

36,760+
48%
42%
28-35%

Yay! While this will still leave Israel tax rates higher than US rates, it makes up most of the difference, and in [...]

A few minutes ago I saw in my stats (yeah, I can be a little bit obsessive about those sometimes) that someone tried to use the contact form to send me an email (around 8pm, Israel time). After not receiving any email, I checked my blog setup and discovered that the contact form was not [...]

So far, I have been outed (ie: identified by someone who I know in real life as being connected with this blog) by new friends and neighbors at a pretty fast pace. Each Shabbat (which is the only time when you have any real interactions with people beyond those who live on your street and [...]

Check out this 6 minute short-movie of the Pesach story.