Sukkot is Coming!

But before we talk about sukkot, how about my fridge? Well, it's HERE! At last!
The fridge was to be delivered between noon and 4 PM yesterday, so naturally they showed up at 9:30 AM while I was at my cousins' house. I had to hop on my bike and fly down the hill to receive them. After they finished delivery, the mover holds out his hand.
"One hundred fifty shekels."
"I thought I paid at the store."
We called up the store. No, as a matter of fact, I didn't pay at the store. It just shows up on my receipt to warn me that I'll have to pay these guys.
"Do you take visa?"
"No, cash or check. Welcome to Israel."
But I couldn't find my checkbook. We worked out an arrangement. They have one more fridge to deliver in Pisgat Ze'ev. I will ride my bike up to the mall, take out money from the ATM, then meet them there. Unfortunately, the house they were delivering too was the highest altitude in Pisgat Ze'ev, and mine is the lowest. Pisgat Ze'ev means literally, "Wolf Mountain," and the whole town is built on a pretty steep slope. But I made it! And I was able to hand him 150 sweat-drenched shekels, and be on my way.

The fridge is absolutely enormous. I don't know what I'm going to do with all that space.
On the way back, I picked up arbah minim for sukkot. Sukkot is the festival after Yom Kippur, during which Jews from all over the land of Israel would bring sacrifices to the temple in Jerusalem. While staying in Jerusalem, people would build little huts (called sukkot) out of branches and palm fronds and live in them. The festival is clearly described in the Torah, and there are many detailed mitzvot to fulfill, one of them being the taking of the arbah minim (four species) as shown in the picture below. They are brought together and shaken in the sukkah and during morning prayers.


The lemon looking thing is called an etrog. In America, you order them weeks before hand, wait for them to be delivered from Israel, and hope that they are still kosher and nothing was damaged in transport. In Israel, you can pick them up at the grocery store.


In America kids sell lemonade. Here they sell the arbah minim in front of the grocery store.

I bought my etrog, brought it home, and noticed it didn't have a pitom on it (a tiny twig that sticks off the bottom.) This renders it unkosher. Turns out I had bought a Yemenite etrog. I did some research, and it turns out that the pitom actually falls off the Yemenite etrog during growth, which does not render it unkosher. But then I called a local rav, and he told me that Ashkenazim (Jews of eastern European descent) do not necesarrily hold by Yemenite etrogim (there are conflicting rabinnic opinions,) so I should try to get one that was under supervision of the Jerusalem Rabbanut (rabinnic council.) I went back to the store, they had the type I was loking for, the prices were the same, so we exchanged them. No problem.\n\n\nI told Rafi the story and he was a bit upset, being militantly Sephardi (of middle eastern descent) himself.

"Everybody knows that the etrogim from Yemen are the best!" I could have argued the point, but I get sort of sick of these little hangups everybody has. My etrog is kosher. End of story.

The lemon looking thing is called an etrog. In America, you order them weeks before hand, wait for them to be delivered from Israel, and hope that they are still kosher and nothing was damaged in transport. In Israel, you can pick them up at the grocery store.

In America kids sell lemonade. Here they sell the arbah minim
in front of the grocery store.
I bought my etrog, brought it home, and noticed it didn't have a pitom on it (a tiny twig that sticks off the bottom.) This renders it unkosher. Turns out I had bought a Yemenite etrog. I did some research, and it turns out that the pitom actually falls off the Yemenite etrog during growth, which does not render it unkosher. But then I called a local rav, and he told me that Ashkenazim (Jews of eastern European descent) do not necesarrily hold by Yemenite etrogim (there are conflicting rabinnic opinions,) so I should try to get one that was under supervision of the Jerusalem Rabbanut (rabinnic council.) I went back to the store, they had the type I was loking for, the prices were the same, so we exchanged them. No problem.
I told Rafi the story and he was a bit upset, being militantly Sephardi (of middle eastern descent) himself.
"Everybody knows that the etrogim from Yemen are the best!"
I could have argued the point, but I get sort of sick of these little hangups everybody has. My etrog is kosher. End of story.

The holiday lasts a full week, so I'm looking forward to being invited over to other peoples' sukkot. Fortunately, Israel set the clock back by an hour last week, and America doesn't set the clock back for another month, so until October 29th, I finish work at 9PM instead of 10PM. That means I'll still be off work early enough to visit other people's Sukkot.