Much to our children’s delight, my wife and I are now full time students. That’s right, just after they go to the bus station, daycare, and Gan, my wife and I are on our way to the Ulpan in Alon Shevut. That is where we spend 4 days a week in 4 hour Hebrew classes. Our kids are amazed that we are not only going to school, but that we even sit and do homework at night. (Sometimes they yell if we are not doing our homework.)

My wife and I had extremely limited Hebrew before making Aliyah. Neither one of us grew up with a day school background. We can get through the Siddur all right, but you can’t really use that knowledge for everyday Hebrew. The Hebrew in a Siddur may be a wonderful way to express ones feelings to G-D, but its not as useful when expressing oneself to a plumber.

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July 14, 2005

“Today is the Tomorrow that We Longed for Yesterday”

The words from one of my favorite songs could not have been more appropriate as we waited to disembark from the Aliyah flight. After years of longing, we were finally about to step off the plane as citizens of Israel. I thought of all the pain of leaving the family and friends we loved. I was anxious about what our new life would be like. At the same time, I felt so proud that we had finally taken this step – that we had done what we talked about so often.

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