Migrating Millers

A Word on the Tree of Life Shooting

2018-10-28T13:04:00.000+02:00

I don't want this to sound like "I told you so" because that's not my intention. But to all those people who have expressed concern to me over the last 4.5 years about my decision to move to Israel because of how dangerous it is to live here, I unfortunately now have proof to what I've been saying all along. Here in Israel we know who our enemy is. We know where they live, they state their hate-filled agendas for all the world to hear, and we take common-sense gun laws seriously as well as security checkpoints in basically every place where large groups of people gather (airport, malls, train stations etc.) In Pittsburgh, antisemitism doesn't often rear its head, but I've always feared that something like this would come out of nowhere. Someone once hit my brother while walking down a city street in Squirrel Hill. He didn't know the man. The man just saw a Jew, said some derogatory comment, and hit him and left the scene. A random act of violence. Pittsburgh is truly at its core a city of love and brotherhood. But this leads to a false sense of security that something like this can't happen here. Not on our streets. Not in peaceful Squirrel Hill. Guess what, it can and it has. People need to wake up. People need to engage in CIVIL DISCOURSE, instead of the hate-filled separation we've been experiencing. We should be able to speak to each other about topics we don't agree on without devolving into idiots shouting our opinions and not listening to those of others; without deciding that if someone disagrees with you they are "stupid" or not worth listening to.
I don't really have the energy to sum up my thoughts enough for a proper sign-off, so I'm just going to say this: go out today and spread love into the world. Truly listen to others and let them know you value their opinion. Act the same way on the Internet as you would in real life. And start doing things to help bring change to this crazy world we live in.

My Enchroma Experience

2015-10-13T17:36:00.000+03:00

Following my highly successful GoFundMe campaign, thanks to the incredibly generous contributions from friends and family, I received a pair of Enchroma glasses in the middle of August. Here’s a summary of my experience:

When I first got the glasses I went with Rivkah, the kids, and several of my close friends to a park near my house. The park has many different play items, all with varied and bright colors. With great anticipation and excitement I put on the glasses and looked around. At first there didn’t seem to be much of a difference. I continued to walk around and look around and I slowly started to see some changes. I noticed a bright, light-purple pole which previously had looked more like a sky-blue. I noticed that the grass looked a bit greener. All in all though things looked pretty much unchanged.

I’ve been wearing the glasses now for 2 months and I think my eyes took some time to learn what they were seeing. The first thing that really blew my mind was when I looked at a traffic light and, to my shock, saw that it was a very deep green; probably close to grass color. Previously the green traffic lights have looked like a pale green, almost white. Then, maybe a week or two later I was walking my kids to school and noticed some stunning purple flowers on a tree. Without the glasses they were still purple, but definitely not stunning. I stopped and stared at them for a full minute.

Overall, greens look sharper. Purples are vibrant, there are a couple more colors which stand out, but overall the world is unchanged. To get a bit technical, there are three different types of lenses to choose from and I opted for the Cx-25 medium sunglass lens instead of the Cx-14 standard sunglasses. I had hoped that they would work indoors at least slightly, but they sadly don’t. If I had the chance to exchange them for the full sunglass lenses I most likely would. I don’t know if that would make the experience better for me, but if given the choice between these lenses and nothing, I’d probably get them again.

Well, that’s my review. Not as exciting as I thought they’d be, but definitely cool and better than nothing. I don’t think I’d buy them again at a $650 price tag, but if you’ve got the money and you are colorblind, I’d recommend trying them out. They’re fully refundable within 30 days, even for customized lenses. So it’s definitely worth a shot.

Hope this review helps anyone who is colorblind and looking into these.

Please Help Bring Color to My Life

2015-06-02T17:48:00.000+03:00

I have been colorblind all my life. I've heard all the jokes, been asked countless times what color things are, and changed my career path goals a few times based on my colorblindness. Growing up I couldn't even dream of being an Air Force pilot because I knew my colorblindness wouldn't even allow me to try. In college I dropped out my graphic design degree program because the colorblindness was too high a barrier to climb. Even today, working on the computer all day, I have moments all day long when I struggle to determine what colors I am seeing on the screen. It may not impact me in a severe way anymore, but I'm reminded on a daily basis by little things throughout the day that I have an impediment, and that I just don't see colors they way others do.

I recently discovered that there is now a company called Enchroma which sells glasses specifically to correct colorblindness, and the type of colorblindness I have is the ideal candidate for these glasses. When I watched their promotional video, and then some videos that people made when they used these glasses for the first time, video 1 video 2 , I cried. I cried because for the first time in my life I had hope that maybe there is a way for me to see the world the way everyone else sees it.

I started a campaign on GoFundMe to help me raise money for these glasses. You can find the campaign and contribute here.

The glasses are $520 before taxes and shipping. After all is said and done they will probably cost close to $650. I'm calling on all of you who have joked along with me at my colorblindness all these years to help me with my quest to see colors normally for the first time in my life. I really appreciate it!

We're All One Big Family

2015-05-28T21:42:00.004+03:00

Early on Monday morning this week a fire broke out in an apartment not far from my home in Givat Shmuel. In the course of a few hours a family with 4 young children lost their home and everything in it. Clothing, appliances, pictures, toys... you name it, they lost it. Thankfully they all survived and are recovering from their injuries in a hospital.

The thing that blew me away is that the community has banded together and gotten collections for a new apartment for them (along with furniture), clothing, toys, and other basic needs.

The thing that really blew me away happened outside of the community. I sent an email to all of my coworkers asking for clothing and toy donations. Someone immediately came to me with a pair of shorts (don't worry, they weren't the ones he wore to work) and the next day I got emails from several coworkers that they have some things they'll bring in for the collection. One person even told me that they are organizing a collection on their Moshav! A few hours later someone came to my desk, opened their wallet and peeled off five 200 shekel bills for the collection! These people don't even know the family! I don't even know the family!!!

This was all the stuff I collected from work, plus 1000 shekels

One thing I've learned about this beautiful country and it's amazing citizens is that we all live in celebration and tragedy together. We may yell, scream and fight amongst ourselves, but it's just because we love each other like brothers and sisters do.

We're Moving

2015-04-22T20:56:00.001+03:00

No, not back to America. Sorry to disappoint some of you. We aren't going far actually. Not nearly as far as our last move.

When we moved to Givat Shmuel we agreed to give it a year to see if we liked it and we'd reevaluate towards the end of the year and start looking elsewhere if we weren't happy. We couldn't have found a better city. In the last 10 months we've made an incredible number of incredible friends. Our kids have found their place in the school system and made friends of their own. Rivkah and I have both found jobs which we love, and which love us back.

So 10 months in, we've made our decision. We are going to stick around here for a while. And we've found a home to suit us for a long time to come. It's a four bedroom home with room for a guest room, our library, and plenty of space for us to host guests from here and abroad for visits, parties, game nights and everything in between.

We've found our home. We hope you will come and visit. Our doors are ever open to you.

The Reflection Before The Party

2015-04-21T18:45:00.001+03:00

Thursday is Independence Day. You can feel it in the air already that everyone is preparing to have a great day of fun. Some are going to the beach. Some are traveling to family and friends. Pretty much everyone is going to have a barbecue. But first...first we will have a day of solemn reflection.

Tomorrow is Memorial Day. When I lived in the United States, Memorial Day usually was a time to reflect on my grandfather who passed away from cancer which came as a result of radiation poisoning in the Navy. I would think of the men and women who served and fell in battle in Iraq and Afghanistan while serving our nation.

On Thursday the state of Israel will turn 67 years old. However there are 67 people who will not be taking part in the celebration. These are the 67 soldiers who fell in battle while protecting me and my family as rockets fell from the skies and air raid sirens wailed at all times of day and night. This year I will be remembering those young soldiers who fought to protect MY life. The lives of my family members. Of my friends here in the land of Israel.

I didn't know any of these people personally, but I'm not kidding myself. A friend of mine was in Gaza last summer and the soldier next to him was critically wounded. Move a few feet over and a friend of mine could have lost his life.

In her blog post earlier today, my friend Romi wrote about her experience moving to Israel during the Intifada in 2001. She felt, as I do, that it wasn't even a question. Yes our enemies are right here, in our faces. Yes things can get hot and scary and dangerous. But who am I to sit on the sidelines and watch? I believe with all my heart that Israel has a right to continue to exist as a Jewish state. What better way to make that statement than to raise my children as Jews who keep, respect, and understand Torah values, here in the Jewish state of Israel?

On Thursday I can party. Tomorrow, I'll remember and honor those who made the ultimate sacrifice for my freedom.

May HaShem console all those who are mourning the loss of family and friends. I simply cannot imagine the pain.

As the Siren Sounds

2015-04-16T11:39:00.002+03:00

I walk into a room at work with the intent of finding out the progress of a project from one of my developers. I barely have the words out of my mouth when everyone in the room stands and closes their eyes.

In the distance, the siren winds up.

The siren blares.

It keeps going, loud and clear. 10 seconds...20...30...

60 seconds later the siren winds down.

The siren ends.

I wipe my eyes.

The conversation continues.

---

When I moved to Israel last summer, I was very quickly introduced to the sirens. I was in the parking lot at the grocery store. I didn't know what I was hearing. Someone shouted at me to run for cover. It was followed by a distant explosion. Over the course of the next month I was treated to many more such experiences...

At home in the middle of the day, we'd scoop the kids up and head to the stairwell to wait for the last explosion.

In the park, we threw the kids into the stroller and ran for the nearest building, seeking cover with other trembling parents and other scared and crying children.

In the middle of the night, we woke the kids up and again ran to the stairwell, hoping the kids would go back to sleep nicely once the coast was clear.

So now, even though I was totally prepared for the coming siren, it still caught me off guard. This was the first time I just stood and listened. Today the siren was sounded to remember the victims of the Holocaust. Right now there is a survivor speaking to my coworkers about his experiences. The reason I cried was not out of sadness. While the siren was blaring I found myself smiling. I was thinking about how lucky I am to live in a country that is so vibrant, thriving, successful; a country which is so small and yet is recognized as a global leader in innovation, technology, ethics, military. Israel is tiny. Her population is a drop in the bucket compared to so many other countries. And yet she is so large. In the words of Teddy Roosevelt, "speak softly, and carry a big stick." Well, I can't honestly say I've ever heard an Israeli speak softly, but Israel carries a big stick.

Next week is Israeli Independence Day. So much has happened in the last 67 years and it is amazing to look back and see how far this country has come. Today, we remember those who fell at the hands of Hitler and the Nazi's, but next week we will celebrate those men, women and children who escaped his evil, came to Israel, and laid the foundation for the country I live in today. As the song from Chitty Chitty Bang Bang goes, "Up from the ashes grow the roses of success." This is quite literal. From the ashes of Nazi Europe, to the successful and thriving country we have today.

For now, the sound of the siren still reminds us of fear. I hope to be blessed enough to see a day when our enemies tremble at the sound of the sirens, as we walk in peace and harmony.

Never forget.

A Bittersweet Wedding, A New Chapter Begins

2015-01-31T20:56:00.002+02:00

"It takes a village to raise a child"

This resonates with me, not in the sense that everyone in my "village" helped to raise me, but that I can point to many people along the way in my life who have contributed to who I am today. Besides for my parents who played an obvious leading role, there are many other "parents" of mine who I've looked to time and time again for guidance and love. Some came and went, and some have been there for as long as I can remember.

One of the constants in my life was Stella Frankl. Many of you who have read my blog know that Stella's battle with cancer affected me deeply, and when she passed away last year it was devastating. I felt like I had lost a mother of mine. She was a constant symbol in my life of peace, tranquility, a successful Olah to Israel, and so many more things. I distinctly remember unsuccessfully trying to keep my emotions in check at work on the day she passed away and of breaking down at my desk at the end of the day and just letting the tears flow freely.

Over the past year, as I've watched Yarden, Max, Miriam, Rivka, and Yedidya pick up the pieces, I've tried to do so myself. It's not been an easy task, especially with making Aliyah this year. When Rivkah and I came to Israel on vacation in 2012 while Stella was in remission. I had the opportunity to spend some time talking to her one-on-one and I told her that we were serious about making Aliyah in the near future and she told me that she'd be there to meet our flight. I was so excited to be able to share my Aliyah experience with someone who had inspired me so much and was one of the main role models I had for doing it. That conversation was one of our last talks and it's something that sticks with me to this day.

It has been especially exciting to see Yarden picking up the pieces and meeting his now new wife Gilly, who went through a similar experience as Yarden's, and I had the privilege of attending their wedding in Bat Ayin on Thursday night. It was actually the second time I had been to one of Yarden's weddings (I was in attendance when he and Stella got re-married after her conversion). I have to be honest that the celebratory mood did not come easily for me. During the dancing I fluctuated between extreme happiness (how couldn't I? Yarden looked so ecstatic) and stepping outside to let out some tears. I even called my father back in the States and we talked for a while about the good old days in Potomac.

Despite the tough emotions that I was facing, I think I've hit a turning point though. I still miss Stella every day, just like everyone else she touched and affected during her lifetime. But during the wedding I could feel her presence there, and I could feel her approval. I felt like Yarden and Gilly were including her in the celebration. I didn't feel like she was being packaged up and put into a dusty box on the shelf. Yarden has left no doubt in anyones minds that Stella wasn't just a phase in his life, a chapter that he's left behind. And on Thursday, as he started a new chapter with Gilly, Stella was there along with all of us, helping us write the first few sentences and putting her stamp of approval on the page.

I hope that Yarden and Gilly share many great years together. It's truly amazing that they found each other and their love and joy was abundantly clear.

My 2015 Reading Goal

2015-01-26T19:00:00.000+02:00

I've always been a reader. When I was in elementary school we had an annual 600 minute reading challenge and whoever logged the full 10 hours got a free ticket to 6 Flags. I regularly doubled up the goal with 20 hours. I've Harry Potter books 4-7 within 48 hours of obtaining a copy (some withing 24 hours).

When I got married, and more-so when Yaeli was born, I stopped finding the time to read. It was very difficult for me and weighed on my mind constantly. If I found time to read I would get a few pages in and then fall asleep. I was reading at a rate of about 1 book every month or two, if that.

I found Goodreads.com around April last year and signed up for the reading challenge to push myself to finish 20 books in 2014. It came down to the final week of the year but I completed my goal. I couldn't have felt better. I decided that since I only started tracking my progress in late April, I could probably fit more books in for this year.

So, for 2015 I've set myself a goal of 30 books. It's a modest pace of 2.5 books per month. I think I should be able to hit that goal, and in fact I've already finished 3 and January isn't over yet. I do have some very long books on my list so I'm not getting too cocky about my progress.

What I really love, though, is that having this challenge is pushing me to put my phone away on the bus and instead of wasting my time on FaceBook for 40 minutes (twice a day), I'm spending that time reading a book. I've finally become happy and comfortable with the amount of time I have to read and I'm really looking forward to not just reaching my goal but of hopefully overshooting it.

The Importance of Every Encounter

2015-01-11T15:38:00.002+02:00

In case you haven't heard of the app called Timehop, It's a nifty little app that looks back at your history on connected social mediums (FaceBook, Twitter, Instagram...) and every day it shows you your posts from that day in history. For me it's usually pictures of my kids, tales about sporting events, or something to do with Rivkah. Nothing that's ever really made me stop and think.

Today, my brother Matty posted this picture:

At a glance, this is just a reminder that a year ago he was in Israel for the first time and experiencing what the country had to offer. However, if you know Matty, you know that this is the night he met his now-wife Zoe, in a chance encounter.

When I saw this post I couldn't help but think about how often we meet new people, or even interact with people we are familiar with, and just have no clue what kind of impact we will have on the other person. If we could each look a year ahead at our Timehops and see what has happened in the year to come, how might we approach our everyday interactions with other people? Will the passenger I cut in front of to get onto a bus end up being a coworker some day? In Matty's case, will the person he had a chance encounter with in a bar thousands of miles away from home end up being his wife? What if he'd said something that wasn't so nice? How different could his year and his life have been?

Matty was given a rare blessing to be reminded a year later of a chance encounter from the past. Hopefully it can remind all of us to think twice when we talk to others and to think about what your actions now might effect down the line.

A Secret Whispered, A Dream Realized

2015-01-01T15:03:00.000+02:00

One year ago, on a freezing cold New Years Eve in Downtown Pittsburgh, Rivkah and I were spending the evening taking in the new year with two of our best friends. We went to several shows, including a great performance from River City Brass, our first trip to the Arcade Comedy Theater, a browse through Amazing Books, and drinks at the Fairmont Hotel. We even got to see Marc-Andre Fleury, who did NOT seem to appreciate that I recognized him (and maybe chased him a little to wish him a happy New Year).

At around 11:50, as the countdown ticked closer to midnight, and the thermometer ticked closer to zero Fahrenheit, I turned to Rivkah and we had the following whispered conversation:

Me: Should we tell them?
Rivkah: Maybe. We haven't even really decided 100% yet.
Me: I think it's the right time. It feels like the right time.
Rivkah: Ok, let's tell them.

We turned back to our friends, and told them something we hadn't told to another human being. Not even our parents. We told them that we were planning to make aliyah in 2014. We aren't exactly sure when, maybe September or October, maybe earlier, but one way or another by the end of 2014 we would hopefully be living in the holy land of Israel.

We celebrated, brought in the new year together, and the next day I opened up a profile with Nefesh B'Nefesh. The rest, as they say, is history. On July first, six months later to the day, we landed in Israel and became full blown citizens of this wonderful country. We've had our ups and downs, and we haven't yet transferred our drivers licenses so there's still plenty of bureaucracy left ahead of us, but now, one year later and six months after landing, I feel like we made the best decision of our lives.

Shana Tovah. I wish all of you a successful year and you should be able to achieve the goals you set for yourself.

Eating Out With Coworkers...a First!

2014-12-31T11:26:00.001+02:00

Last night, for the first time ever, I went out to eat with coworkers. At a restaurant! My entire QA team went out for a night of team bonding. I spent the whole night basking in the glow of the experience. Allow me to explain a little. Having worked my entire professional career in Pittsburgh, the only kosher restaurant available was a pizza shop. In theory I could have gone there if we had really wanted to, but as you probably don't know I don't any flour products so pizza is out. As frustrating as this was for me, it was actually equally frustrating to my coworkers who just didn't understand why I couldn't just come out with them to a non-kosher place, or why I couldn't just get some pizza once in a while. Experiences like this were one of the driving factors for me to want to pick up and move to Israel. Having to use all of my vacation days on the Jewish holidays and not getting to socialize with coworkers outside of work (besides for the times when we invited them for shabbos meals) always left me feeling like an outsider.

Now I'm here in Israel. Most of my coworkers don't actually keep kosher, but there is an abundance of kosher restaurant choices which they are all totally fine with going to. Last night we went to Jems Beer Factory and let me tell you, it was niiice. Since the company was paying (thanks MyHeritage!!!) we got beers, appetizers, our meals and desserts all around. The camaraderie was high and the food was great. We played a game at the end where everyone had submitted two facts about themselves which nobody knew, and tried to guess which fact belonged to which person. All in all, it was such a wonderful evening and I'm really looking forward to doing something like this again. Here's a fun panorama I took (which is why I'm not in it) because I wanted to immortalize this moment. I live in a Jewish state. I don't have to take a day off of work for Rosh Hashana and I can go out and be a part of my team when food is involved.

I'm looking forward to many more occasions to celebrate and bond without feeling like a complete outsider.

Photographs and Citizens

2014-11-18T13:30:00.000+02:00

In light of today's terror attacks in Jerusalem, a few thoughts have been occupying some of my headspace and I decided to share them here.

1. Photographs of the dead:
I was involved in a debate today regarding whether or not it was appropriate to share scene-of-the-crime photographs of those murdered in the attack in order to raise awareness of the "realness" of the issue and open the eyes of the people who read headlines that make the aggressors sound like victims. I believe that to do this is very much not ok and is extremely disrespectful to the victims and their families to use the photos as such a prop. An argument I heard was that the "other side" uses this tactic very successfully and maybe it's about time we show some pictures too and garner sympathy to our plight. Excuse me if I'm wrong but to me that's like saying "Hey, that guy who robbed a bank was never caught and stole a million dollars, therefore a good way to make a million dollars is to rob a bank". It's wrong, and the victims deserve better.

2. Citizenship status of the terrorists:
I'm not exactly sure what is to be gained by pointing out that the terrorist today were full blown citizens of Israel. It's not news to me that there are Arabs who are citizens of this country, and that they have every right afforded to the Jewish citizens. Knowing that the terrorists today were citizens doesn't make me more worried about a terror attack because these ones are living among us. To me, that's old news and if I'm more vigilant tomorrow than I am today, it's because an attack happened, not because it happened at the hands of an Arab citizen.

A Little Bit More About My Job

2014-11-16T22:21:00.002+02:00

So, I work in software testing, which means that I work very closely with programmers to help find areas that have issues and tidy up weak areas in the code before it gets release to the main site where our users interact with the site (that's a teeny tiny nutshell of what I do).

I've been working in this field now since February of 2010 and have progressed through several different companies, growing my resume and my skill set. My last place of employment in Pittsburgh taught me a lot of what I know today. However I wasn't really all that happy there due to some issues I had with the company at a fundamental level. When I realized I wanted to leave my job and look for something else my wife and I decided that it was time to stop postponing our desire to make aliyah and so we moved here in the summer. I had not started a job search at all before we came here, although NBN got me in touch with several people in my field and I spoke to many of them while weighing my options of where to move and how to approach searching for a job in the field.

Thankfully I only ended up going on interviews at two companies before landing my job. The first one would've probably been an OK fit for a year or two, but the long term potential wasn't really there and it was not the type of project I would've really thrived in. I was considering broadening my search to include other fields outside of my expertise.

Then, on a whim, I posted on a FaceBook group that I was looking for a job in QA and would love a referral if anyone knew of any companies with openings. Within a few minutes I got a reply from someone in the group that their company was hiring for QA, and to send her my resume. I sent it to her almost immediately and within an hour I had an interview scheduled for the very next day. The first interview went extremely well and first thing the next morning I sent an email thanking them for having me in and letting them know that I was definitely interested in pursuing this job further. They called me again almost immediately after sending that email and asked me to come back that same day to meet with HR. I came back in and had another great meeting and when I left they told me that they were 99% sure they were going to hire but that the CEO meets with all potential new hires before they bring anyone on board. However, he was on vacation until the following week so I'd have to wait.

Needless to say, that meeting went very well as well and I began working there less than two weeks after my initial interview and under three months from my aliyah date.

I've now been with the company for almost three months and they have not only told me that they really think I was an excellent hire, but they've promoted me to be a team leader and have given me a lot of confidence and compliments.

No Car? No Problem!

2014-10-21T08:55:00.000+03:00

Before I get started I want to point out that Migrating Millers is celebrating two milestones today. On 21 October, 2012 this post went up as the inaugural post of the blog. Now, on Migrating Millers second birthday I this current post is the 100th post on the blog. Double milestone!

Ok, now for today's post:

Back in the states I owned two cars. In fact, they were both paid off completely when we made aliyah. Xavier, my 1997 Honda Civic EX was our first car and it rode like a champion. That little bugger got over 30 miles to the gallon on the highway, sometimes as much as 36 (that's about 13 to 15 kilometers per liter for all you metric folks). My favorite thing about it though was the moon roof. Man I loved that thing.

And of course there was Shachori, our 2007 Honda Fit Sport. We brought her home in a snowstorm and she was our tried and true roadtrip car for a good long while. We put many loving miles into that car, and I even had my only ever accident in it (I sideswiped my dads car when I took him out for a drive right after I brought it home).

All that being said, I LOVE NOT HAVING A CAR ANYMORE! Have you ever thought about the various things you can do during a 45 minute morning commute other than driving? I've gotten hours of homework done that I would've otherwise had to do late at night. I've finished books faster because I can read my kindle quite easily during my trip. I can talk hands-not-free (quietly) and not have to worry about watching the road as well. Not to mention I don't have to pay for gas (twice the price here as in the states), don't have to pay for inspections (as much as $800 once), and don't have to replace busted tires (7 over the last 4 years) or batteries (2 or 3, I can't remember now).

Thankfully I live in a very central area and getting buses to places isn't all that hard. I feel blessed to not own a car anymore, and I hope that some day, if I get a car again, I'll remember and keep in mind how much I love taking the bus.

Cheers!

Three Months In

2014-09-30T23:01:00.000+03:00

I can't believe we've been here for a quarter of a year already! Time has simply been flying by. Wasn't it just June and we were hurriedly selling off many of our belongings and packing up our entire lives into 12 big red duffel bags?

And yet, in many ways it doesn't feel like it was just June. I feel like WAY too much has happened since we arrived here to have fit into just three months. On a day to day basis I really feel like we've just been here forever. We've made some really good friends. Rivkah started Ulpan. Yaeli and Sophie have started school (for the first time ever btw. I started a really great new job. We've both gotten a Rav Kav (the universal bus card here) and gotten a pretty good sense of the public transportation system here and which buses we need to take to get to different places. We've hosted out of town guests. We went to the beach and got horribly sunburned (had to happen at some point.

All the short term goals we set out for ourselves have materialized in front of our eyes. With it being the time of Rosh Hashana and Yom Kippur, I urge all my readers to take a minute and don't make some crazy new years resolution you'll never be able to keep, but rather to pick a specific and attainable goal that you can accomplish within the next 6 months to a year and go out there and make it happen. When you meet HaShem even 10% of the way, he comes out and brings you along the other 90%.

Shana Tova to one and all.

I Landed my Dream Job

2014-09-18T22:17:00.001+03:00

This post is going to get pretty technical so bear with me. I just landed my dream job. Like, if I could have made a list of the top ten things I would look for in a company, this place has twenty out of ten. Commitment to quality, solid infrastructure, continuous integration. You name it. They are doing it the right way. And the best part is that all I keep hearing is that they have so much more to learn and so many more challenges to overcome. In the two weeks that I've been working here, I've rediscovered my passion for software testing; something I'm sad to say I had lost for a while at my last job. I'm learning that there really are companies who are willing to do what it takes to be successful in the short term and in the long run. The innovations that are around me and the challenges I'll be presented with are so exciting and I can't even wait to get a better understanding of the product and all its intricacies.

I feel so blessed to have found this job this quickly. It's been less than three months since we landed at Ben Gurion airport and so many good things have come our way. And G-d has had our backs in everything we have set our minds on doing.

I wish you all a very happy new year. May everyone who reads this remember to follow your dreams and with G-d by your side they will come to fruition.

First Day of My Israeli Career

2014-09-17T11:20:00.001+03:00

(Note: I wrote this down on a notepad while I was waiting to get my laptop on my first day. I just came across it today so I decided to transcribe it for the blog. Technically it was written on Sunday, 7 September, 2014)

Today is my first day at work at MyHeritage. I am quite nervous as it has been quite a while since I started a new job. February 20, 2012 in fact. But I'm also quite excited as this is a great opportunity for my career and the people here are being really nice to me so far. The kitchen is a nice setup too, which is cool. Also, my desk is quite nice. Only downside is that I have to start using Windows again, BLARGH! Oh well, win some and lost some, right? Anyway, I'm headed out in a minute to get my computer and really start working.

Peace!

The Girls Who Cried Siren

2014-08-27T08:51:00.000+03:00

After nearly two months of air raid sirens going off, pretty much everyone I've met is jumping out of their skin every time we hear anything remotely like a siren. A YouTube group called ילדי ריטלין (literally: Ritalin Kids) made a video that captures this perfectly:

We'll all be sitting around talking and a loud motorcycle will drive by on the highway, or the washing machine will hit the spin cycle, or a segment from the My Little Pony intro theme song sounds the the beginning of a siren wailing, and we all pause for a second, realize it's not a siren, allow our heart rates to decelerate, and continue the conversation.

More often than not though, that sound is emanating from the mouths of our children. That slow, high pitched wail, is coming from our innocent little kids who probably don't even realize they are doing it half the time. Children across the country have been "playing siren" over the last two months and have no clue that they are jacking up our blood pressures 4 or 5 times a day.

One thing I need to be cognizant of, though, is that this means my kids are probably a lot more affected by the sirens than we even realize. These random siren noises from them several times a day means they are thinking about a siren several times a day. I wish there were something I could do about it but all we can do is hope for the end of this conflict.

In the meantime, we can all try and spend some quality time with our friends and neighbors when the sirens go off for real. #IsraelUnderFire.

שמעת את זה?

I Just Want To Live

2014-08-04T19:15:00.001+03:00

Today is Tisha B'Av. The ninth day of the Hebrew month of Av. As I write this I'm sitting on a stone floor in synagogue, listening to the words of Kinot. I'm already feeling hunger pains and I can't eat for another 11 hours.

Today my emotions are pretty much all over the place. Here are a few:

-Today I am sad: I am starting to internalize and feel the lives lost in this war. I've been trying to keep a mental distance from the war, made possible in part because I don't know anyone personally in Gaza, putting their lives on the line for me. Until yesterday, when my neighbor got called up. He's leaving and his wife will be home alone. I can't stand leaving Rivkah for a night. Who knows when he'll return?

-Today I am questioning: It sure seems like the IDF has been able to go into Gaza and strike a crippling blow to the Hamas tunnel network. But what comes next? If we dismantle Hamas does ISIS move in? Those guys are super intense and make Hamas look like small time crime. Can Gaza be rehabilitated and made into an economic partner? So many questions that only "tomorrow" can answer.

-Today I am happy?: The ground forces are retreating from Gaza. The most dangerous part of the mission was when troops were on the ground in Gaza, at risk of enemy fire, mortars, kidnapping and booby traps. Pulling out signifies that for the moment, our troops will be a little safer. As well, they will be at less of a risk of killing innocent people. I know that every death must weigh heavily on the soldiers. Am Yisrael Chai means the nation of Israel lives. As I said in my previous post, we are a nation that exalts life.

There are many other emotions swirling around in there today as well. But the last major one is this:

-Today I want to live: I've been having a very hard time understanding how someone could want, more than anything else, me dead. What did I ever do to Joe Palestine besides for exist? Does the fact that my mother was Jewish and her mother was Jewish really offend him so much that he wants me to DIE? I'm having even more trouble understanding how this mentality isn't confined to one person, or three people. There are millions of people all over the world who would just love it if I dropped dead. Because I'm Jewish.

Anyway, these are my Tisha B'Av musings. May we never have to mourn this day again as all of my Jewish brothers and sisters return to this beautiful land with the coming of Mashiach speedily.

A Different Kind Of Warfare

2014-08-03T20:23:00.001+03:00

I remember 9/11. I have very clear memories of the day itself and of following the news in the days and weeks to follow. The Washington Post had a "War in Afghanistan" section every day with news coming back from the war front. 9/11 brought the American people together in a unity that had rarely been experienced before. In New York especially, everyone put aside all of their differences and helped out in any way they could.

I feel like Israel has taken that mentality to an entirely new level in this current flare-up with Gaza. The country mourns every lost soldier as if they had lost a sibling or child. The funerals of fallen soldiers are attended by TENS of thousands of people. It seems like the fewer family members a fallen soldier has in Israel, the more people who attend the funeral.

The army has had to ask people to stop visiting wounded soldiers who are recovering in the hospital because they are being bombarded with visitors. Visitors who for the most part don't know the person in the bed in front of them. The army has also had to throw out or re-donate food donations made by the people of Israel because there's just too much. Pretty soon the army's next big expense is going to be buying every soldier in the entire IDF bigger clothing because they're getting fat from pizza, cookies, cakes and sweets.

All of this emphasizes a point to me that is so very hard to miss. Israel loves life. If they had wanted to, Israel could've carpet bombed the entire Gaza Strip and killed every man woman and child, terrorists and terror tunnels included. They probably could've done it in a day or two and then boom, presto, no more terrorist threat right in our own backyard. And yet they didn't. Forget international pressure; Netanyahu has basically said to hell with that. Every soldier who's life was lost in this incursion, lost his life because Israel bends over backwards to protect innocent lives. Israeli's would like nothing more than to see Gaza demilitarized, the Iron Dome decommissioned because we no longer live under the threat of rocket fire, and for the Palestinians to build up and infrastructure and economy that can positively impact the region.

May this region be blessed with many years of peace ahead and may Gazans have a chance to return to their homes and build lives they can be proud of. May Israeli's not have to mourn the loss of another soldier. May the parents and families of the fallen soldiers be comforted among the mourners of Zion.

Am Yisrael Chai!

The Sweet Silence of Shabbos

2014-08-01T10:55:00.001+03:00

A month ago today, I stepped off of an airplane into a country about to go to war. A war being fought in its own borders. A war where rockets are being aimed at the city next door to me.

Naturally, there's been ups and downs with this whole ordeal. On the one hand, we take shelter during a siren and camp out for a few minutes (definitely not the full 10). On the other hand, we shake off the siren and life goes on. We buy groceries, cook food, take the kids to the park, and in general just go completely nuts because we're at home with the kids all day and everyone is getting serious cabin fever.

Being home all the time usually also means being completely enslaved to our facebook newsfeeds. The JPost, YNet, Arutz7, Times of Israel, Muqata and other Israeli news outlets have totally dominated our newsfeeds for the last month and that's all we can think or talk about all week. 1 soldier dead, then 2, then 30, 40... A ceasefire breached over and over. Rockets continue to fly and weapons continue to be found in UN schools. It's enough to make your head swim.

But not on Shabbos. When Shabbos begins we get to just turn it all off. No doubt the war will come up in conversation at some point over Shabbos, but any news we are discussing happened before candle lighting. For 25 hours a calm descends upon us.

And then...Havdala...and it all starts back again. Yet another reason to look forward to Shabbos every week.

No No No, I will Not Let Them Go (Explained)

2014-07-22T08:44:00.001+03:00

Sh'mos 9:12 "And The Lord hardened Pharaoh's heart, and he did not listen to them..."

We all know the story. Moshe asked Pharaoh to let the Jewish people leave and he said no. HaShem sent plague after plague and Pharaoh would say "Ok you guys can go" and then HaShem would "harden his heart" and he'd change his mind and accept more punishment on his subjects in the form of another plague. Why? What could possibly make him say no when all logic says he should be saying yes?

I get it now, and here's why:

Yesterday I got a message from my friend Miriam. It said "Help me defend Israel. Go to my pg and see what (name removed) is commenting on my post plz."

The original post was a pro-Israel video talking about how Israel has every right to defend itself from rocket attacks. The VERY FIRST comment was this "I don't agree, a leader does not take his entire country into a war over the killing of one dead teenager. It is a Tragedy on both sides now." The comment section on this post literally exploded.

ONE dead teenager? First of all, it was three. And this war is not about the teens. The teens were the teeny tiny microscopic straw that broke the camels back. After the teens were kidnapped, tons of rockets started falling on Israel from Hamas terrorists in Gaza.

Anyway, we normal people were trying to very calmly educate Miriam's acquaintance about this situation, but she didn't seem to read any of it. Her main points she kept going back to were: I still just can't understand why the country would go to war over slain teenagers; doesn't Israel realize that it's the month of Ramadan (as if that matters whatsoever in this argument); doesn't Israel realize that fighting Hamas might ostracize their allies in Jordan and Turkey.

It was utter nonsense and drivel. And I finally understood how Pharaoh could keep saying "no" while logic screamed "go". Antisemitism makes no sense unless you remember that HaShem rules the world. It's our unfortunate lot in life that occasionally, He hardens the hearts of our enemies and no amount of logic and reason can sway them from their beliefs.

May HaShem quickly thaw the hearts of our enemies and help them to see sense again. Remember, in the end Pharaoh finally did let us go.

Everything I Wanted, I Have

2014-07-20T08:46:00.001+03:00

To pick my family up and move to another country was quite a daunting task. We had to leave behind the life we had built together for close to 5 years of marriage and settle into a new town and make new friends, find new jobs, learn a new language and buy all new furniture and appliances too. The potential risk of failure was high.

But the potential to get everything out of the move that we wanted to was high as well, and I think we've already found everything we wanted to. We furnished the apartment. We're going to be starting Ulpan (hebrew learning school) shortly. We went to IKEA and made our house look like a real home. We even got Rivkah her dream refrigerator with the freezer on bottom.

But most importantly, we found our "crowd". Yesterday was my birthday. We have lived in this country for all of 19 days and our house was teeming with really awesome people all afternoon and into the evening. The talk was loud, the nosh was great, and the place was oozing with friendship and fun. Yaeli and Sophie even had a friend come over for a little while.

We may be in the middle of a war here in this beautiful country, but in under three weeks we already feel like we are finally at home. I encourage anyone reading this to think about a goal or dream that they have today and take the first step into turning it into your reality. "Never give up on a dream just because of the time it will take to accomplish it. The time will pass anyway." - Earl Nightingale

Hockey in the Holy Land

2014-07-16T22:48:00.000+03:00

I left the house tonight hoping to get a great scoop for my blog. Hockey? In Israel?

The best I can give you is that while I was waiting for my ride a group of Israelis came over and grilled me about what the heck all this stuff was. They'd never heard of hockey nor had they seen a hockey stick. It was a very surreal experience.

Other than that, hockey is hockey, hockey players are hockey players, and ice is ice. I had a great time meeting new friends and getting a chance to skate again for the first time in a month and a half. The only disappointment is that someone spent millions of dollars to build a rink in the middle of Israel and only made the ice 2/3 the size of an NHL rink so play is limited to 4 on 4. Besides that, I can't wait to play again.