Wot a Chiz

Do I have the greatest friends in the world, or what?

Here is what just arrived in the mail.

This is a Molesworth reference.

And here are the contents.

This came from Aaron, creator of The Mohamsterdance. We met in August of 1980, and oddly, he looks real old now and I don’t. I had a birthday recently, and he remembered. I don’t tell people my birthday online, because I’m not crazy, but some people already know.

Centrally located, you will see a beautiful Zippo lighter adorned with bowling pins. At first I wondered about this, but then I realized. This is a lighter for a guy who rolls on shabbos.

In the plastic bag, you will see a Blazer Z-Plus butane insert, to turn it into a proper cigar torch. The can is a generous supply of butane.

The brown bottle? Bosco. Signature beverage of Christopher Walken. Who swears he no longer shoots people in the face for drinking Ovaltine.

The white bag…this is unbelievable…chocolate-covered coffee beans from Shkedia, a company which is part of Kibbutz Geva, the kibbutz where I lived in 1984. The plastic container beside the bag contains Shkedia Jordan almonds. Where on earth did he find these? When I was on Kibbutz Geva, I started out in the grapefruit groves and then moved to the almond fields. And on rainy days, I worked at Shkedia. It was like a visit to Willy Wonka. Candy and nuts all over the place, shooting into bags and moving on belts. And the rule was, “Eat all you want, but take nothing home.” I believe that was based on the Mosaic prohibition on muzzling the oxen that tread out the corn. It was a system that worked much better in Shkedia than during my time cleaning poop off dishes in the chicken house.

They said “shkedia” meant “almond tree.”

I added a couple of other things. The weird glass container is full of items I found while working in the fields. Odd little chips of white stone that had clearly been shaped by human hands, plus bits of ancient pottery. The jar? It’s full of Israel. When I got home to Kentucky, I put on the boots I wore in Israel, and I noticed that they were full of Israeli mud. So I scraped it out and put it in this jar. There’s a little Kentucky in there, too.

Thanks, Aaron.

More – Holocaust Remembrance Day

As if there were not enough Israel-related emotional material on my plate today, I just learned that Holocaust Remembrance Day is tomorrow. Saw it at Stand for Israel. I suppose I had been in Israel for a little over a month, the first time I participated in the observance. I heard the sirens go off and stood still by my ladder among the fragrant grapefruit trees.

You might consider the Holocaust victims for a moment as you sit down to your evening meal.

More

This morning while reading How Firm a Foundation, by Rabbi Yechiel Eckstein, I learned some interesting facts concerning Tisha B’Av, the ninth day of the Jewish month of Av. The post about Holocaust Remembrance Day reminded me.

On Tisha B’Av, the following events happened. The first Temple in Jerusalem was razed in 586 B.C.E. The second temple was razed in 70 C.E. In 1942, the first cattle cars loaded with Jews from Warsaw left for Treblinka. I’m sure Jewish commenters can supply other events.

Things to think about at sunset.