March 1, 2015
since the statistics on this site has been out of commission for the past month or so i have no idea of who is reading this, and my entries have become increasingly brief. if there are those of you out there who do read this, please let me know - gut22@post.tau.ac.il. I like the privacy of this site but am beginning not to like the total isolation.
As we saw off Sara and Bibi today, who told us that he's representing all Jews, even those who don't realize it, I got my fifteenth phone call from Yair Lapid's office asking me if I'm going to vote for them, and am still waiting for the phone to ring from the BAyit Hazioni. Kachlon says he's representing the mizrachim, Meretz seems to be representing a small group of intellectuals and everyone else is representing others... Maybe Bougi himself will call tell me that he is interested in representing me... I'm not all that interested in being courted, but I really hate it when someone does something that they tell me is good for me even though I don't want it. That's Bibi.
Apropos, my hairdresser cut off all my hair despite my protests, despite the fact that my brother was on Skype witnessing the destruction...i was just beginning to like the way I look... March 2, 2015 I still don't like the way I look. And when i listen to the Netanyahu speech and its consequences I hate it more and more. I don't think he's wrong about Iran but I don't think we should not be going head-to-head with Obama. March 3, 2015 it was a great speech. not practical, not specific, but beautifully put together and wonderfully presented. The dangers that Bibi doesn't address and that are immediate threats are the imminent war with Gaza, the threats of Isis on the northern border, and the implosion of Israeli society with the consistent avoidance of domestic problems. Let me not underestimate the old saw, "It's the occupation, stupid." We've learned to become a violent unfeeling society. March 4, 2015 One of the Jewish protagonists with whom I most identify is Yachne Dvoshe. She's the one in the Yiddish Purim song who goes crazy all day trying to make hamantaschen and then winds up with 2-3 half raw, half burnt ones. Mine turned out great, with a ganache filling, but the stress, the stress.
Here's a little gift for Purim from Itzik Manger
translated from the Yiddish by Karen Alkalay-Gut
King Ahashuerus after the Assassination Attempt
The king stands in his longjohns
He breathes deeply: what delight
Oh, what would've happened, for example,
He would now be lying
His Esther might have gone
Vashti would have come instead
He shudders. Haman is right,
And don’t think, Jews,
He sits himself down at his desk
March 5, 2015 Purim - even some of the instructors in hydrotherapy were wearing costumes. Everyone is celebrating. Maybe it is good for us = maybe it is good to forget the difference between Haman and Mordechai. Maybe it will make us understand the 'other.'
By the open window and thinks
How the summer night is filled
With so many bright stars
To live in the earth
To drink wine and whore around
And swagger with a sword.
if that crazy young man
had managed to kill him
- what would have been then?
Nine cubits deep in the ground
And he wouldn’t see the stars
Or even hear the birds.
For a year in healing grief.
Or not? - Perhaps she’d begin
Some other love game right away.
“Your kitten comes, my man!
What’s my canary doing
And who’s playing my piano? "
One should really finish it off.
Maybe tomorrow, no – right now
He’ll send off the letter.
That’s this is just a Purim-play.
He slowly closes the window:
The air becomes damp and cool.
And breathes deeply and hard,
He spits into the inkpad
And signs the decree.
