An Open Letter to My Dear Brother

Neal,

I just wanted to express how sorry I am that Mommy forgot to bring her gift to you. You don't know how sorry I am about this. Since this weeks parsha discusses Bal Tashchis, I feel that it is my duty to make sure that your gift is well taken care of.

And thank you!

Back to School!

Well, Monday was a special day in the Bauer household for two reasons.

1. It was Rosh Chodesh Elul
2. We changed our meal schedule to now have fleishigs for lunch
3. The boys went back to school

(And yes, this was the best picture I got of them, and if you were on Nachal Arugot on Monday morning, I was the guy trying to photograph my children)

Now don't ask me which was my favorite among those, as it's a difficult choice :o), however, we were supposed to have a "going back to school" party but we were to wiped out from vacation to have it.

Maybe after Succos?!

Am I now a real oleh?

My mother has just been here for the past week. It was great while she was out here. She got to spend some time with her grandchildren. I got to catch up on some family goings ons in person. The kind of stuff you can't really get through on the phone. We also got to take some trips with the children.

All in all it was a great visit.

So this past motzei shabbos I drove her to the airport, and we got to talk for a bit, saying our good byes.

Now, I'm not that emotional of a person. Particularly when it comes to goodbyes (be it b/c I'm a guy, or I'm just cold hearted) I don't get worked up. I have no problems with the good byes in the airport.

So I was a bit surprised when I had a bit of a strange feeling as I was walking out of the airport. It was one of here is my home. I'm escorting my mother out of my home as she goes back to hers. And this is my home. Be it Ben Gurion airport, or the winding river like roads of Ramat Beit Shemesh. I'm home. I go to Ben Gurion to pick people up or escort them home. I don't go there anymore to say goodbye to Eretz Yisroel.

I'm finally home.

Betsy

Someone just reminded me about my old car - Betsy.

Ahh how I miss her.

She was great, got me all the way through Yeshiva to my wedding. Though she was anything but graceful.

She had what would be politley called character! She had a sagging roof that I had to staple up so it wouldn't take my yameka off when I had to turn my head.

She had things sticking out of the headrest that my wife still complains about her injury in my car on one of our dates (I think it barely broke her skin).

She even had tzoraas.

Not to mention at some point the passanger door had issues opening.

So it came as a huge surprise when one morning my parents got woken up when the police came to the door at around 7am asking if we were missing a car.

My mother saw my fathers car, saw hers, and replied, not that I'm aware of, have you found one?

So he said that they found an 88 Celebrity idling in front of the nearby school and was wondering if we wanted it back.

Figuring it still did get me to yeshiva my father and I drove over there (all of 3 blocks away) to pick it up. It was kind of surreal, as it was way to early in the morning for us, and the police even agreed with us in our perplexedness as to why would someone steal the car.

In the end the only damage was an ashtray filled with change (about $4), and part of the ignition broken off.

On the bright side, it did add an extra bit of character, as the police officer showed me how to "hotwire" my car with the screwdriver the theives left me (whoo hoo new screwdriver!), as they broke the part of the ignition the key goes into.

(After a bit, I got better at it and was able to start it without the screwdriver).

Tiyul: Beit Shmesh Stalactite Cave

Our first real tiyul with Bubbie was to the Beit Shemesh Stalactite Cave. After the drive up the hill we were all ready for a break, and found a nice picnic table for lunch (as an aside, one of the great things about this country, is you can go about every 100 meters and find another picnic area).

On to the caves!

We park the car, and go up to the booth to get a ticket, and we see we have to descend a mountain to get to the cave. Sarah said wow this is pretty nice, is this it? I had to sadly tell her no, this was just the beginning, oh, and don't forget, we still have to walk back up!

We were a little wary at first, as the last time we went on a tiyul in a cave, it was pitch black, and I had two little children who were practically petrified going through. B"H this one went alright. After going in, paying and getting ready to enter, they told us that the tour is only in Hebrew. So we're thinking fine, lets go with out a tour guide. What do we need one for anyway, there's a path right? there's some light? We'll be fine!

Unfortunately, they didn't see things the same way we did, and we were forced to go though with the guide.

On the plus side, the movie at the beginning had English subtitles! So Sarah read them to the kids (who I think really do understand now, but are just playing with us). Mind you, I did have to chase after RM as he thought it would be fun to run in front of the video (I mean why wouldn't it be fun to have your father chase you all over the tiny theater).

Then we start to go in, though with a small warning of "Don't touch the rocks". That's like telling my children "Don't breathe", or "Don't sneak into the nosh cabinet at 6 in the morning" I mean c'mon!

So pretty much the rest of the tour was the guide telling us how all the rocks look like snow white or Santa Clause, me running after RM wondering where he went. Telling the children not to touch the rocks, Sarah being bored b/c she didn't understand the guide (lay off of her, she just got here, she'll pick up the Hebrew soon enough, relax!).

So if you want to know, yes we did have a good time, it was fun and we'll probably go again, once we all work on our Hebrew a bit!

More to come

Since my mother arrived in Israel last week, I've been very busy. In particular, this week has been very busy, with us tiyuling around, and then as soon as I get home, hitting the keyboard for work.

The short list is we've been to Beit Shemesh (I know, I know, it's just 10 minutes away, but we went to he Stalactite cave), Shalavim, and the Yerushalayim.

Later this week we're up for Yavne, Tel-Aviv, and who knows what else.

We'll see what we can pack in with out the adults passing out.

I'll fill you all in (and with pictures!) when I have a few more minutes to breath!

Goldsmith the Silversmith

I had to get one of our candle sticks fixed, as it was wounded in the move. Looking for a way to get it repaired (before my mother came), I saw an ad for Goldsmithe the Silversmith. I figured with a cute name like that how could I go wrong?!

As I dropped it off, I was shmoozing with him for a little bit. He's an older man, who made aliyah with his wife not that long ago. He told me that he was a silversmith in the old country, had retired, and moved here. I asked him what he's doing if he's retired. So you know what he told me? It was a response that you'd only find here.

He said that he needs to keep his skills in shape, b/c when Mashiach comes, and the Bais Hamikdash is brought back, we're going to be geting all of the gold & silver keilim (utensils). Since some people say that they were hidden in the ground, they are going to be needing a real good cleaning when they come back up. And who better to give them a good shine and a touch up than an experienced & qualified silversmith.

I just get amazed by the people around here all the time.