Hello everyone! I have yet another blog post for you today about two very important Jewish holidays that I took part in, Yom Kippur and Sukkot. My experiences started when Yom Kippur happened, and it was my first year of doing it because I just finished my Bar Mitzvah a few weeks before. Yom Kippur is a holiday where everyone fasts for 1 whole day and stay disconnected from all electronic devices. Even though this might sound easy, it was a little bit hard because it was my first year ever doing it. We started the day off, as usual, doing homework and having fun activities, but then we went to the cemetery with our family to visit our deceased Saba, which is the Hebrew word for “Grandpa”. Savta, my grandmother, cries a lot when we go there and you can’t blame her for it. Saba was really awesome and he died 6 years ago, so Savta has been alone for a while. After we went there, we went back home for an hour before the rest of our family came over to where we were staying and began to do fun stuff together. At 6:21, the grand fast began!
As I mentioned before, fasting for a long period of time can be hard for newcomers, but I was ok for the most part. It wasn’t that hard to go for a day without food, but the water was a completely different story. I constantly drink water in order to stay hydrated, so about 30 minutes into the fast I was dehydrated and would remain that way until the end. We were also disconnected from electricity, so we played a really fun card game called UNO. UNO is a very fun card game where you try to get rid of all your cards and for some strange reason, I either always got first place or last place. I was never second or third, but first or fourth. It was very fun for all of us and the first day passed by fine. The next day, I woke up at 3:00 on because I was so exhausted from last night and from when my family and I took a walk down the road to analyze the activity going on. We didn’t do much the second day because I woke up so late, but at the end of the fast at 7:19 pm, I finally had a really big meal that tasted so good.
The next day, my cousins, Ella, and I went to an escape room, which is a room where you have a certain time limit to solve the puzzle and escape the room. The room was serial killer themed, so it added an extra layer of spice to the room! Aside from Ella and I, my cousins Ariele and Imri (who was was with us in Africa) joined us and we began the quest to escape. We made it out of the room half an hour after the time limit, but we still did it! Anyways, after that, we had Sukkot, which is a Jewish holiday that’s about how when the Jews left Egypt and lived in tiny huts for 40 years. We went to my uncle’s house and we had a big party there. It was very fun and we watched a movie called Non-Stop, starring Liam Neeson as an Air Martial trying to capture a murderer on an airplane. Overall, it’s been very fun here in Israel and I am having an awesome time!
Chapter 3 of “The Legendary Sandwich: A Trixie and Bruno Tail”:
Chapter 3
Trixie and Bruno woke up early in the morning, an unusual feat, in order to find the sandwich which Ofer had hidden well. Well, Bruno awoke early and slapped Trixie to get her awake. After they woke up they quickly ran upstairs, also highly unusual, to find Ofer and the kids waiting for them.
“Good morning, Trixie and Bruno. I hate to crush your expectations, but the Legendary Sandwich is too fatty to be eaten” Ofer said. Trixie and Bruno started to cry but Ofer quickly said, “But I have a game for you that, if you solve by sundown, you can get The Legendary Sandwich.” Trixie and Bruno suddenly became interested. “You see, I have hidden the sandwich somewhere in the city of Boulder. Ella has created five clues that will help you determine the location of the sandwich, but the clues must be collected in the correct order to reveal where the sandwich is.” Trixie and Bruno looked so lost and sad at hearing this challenge that Ofer said, “Don’t worry, you’re not flying blind here. I’ve instructed Asher to create a map of Boulder revealing where the five clues are, in order. The map doesn’t show the location of the sandwich and does not reveal the EXACT location of the clues. The clues are in the area that they are indicated on the map, but you have to find them yourselves. The clues are numbered one to five and are the yellow squares on the map. If you find all five clues before sundown and collect The Legendary Sandwich, then you will get to eat it. But if you don’t, then no sandwich for you.”
Trixie and Bruno looked very nervous, but then looked determined to obtain their prize. “You will not be given hints and your time to find the sandwich starts… NOW!” Ofer said as Asher handed the map to Bruno.
“Good luck. You’ll need it” he said with a smile as the pets looked at the map. Meanwhile, Pierre had slept on the fence all night and carefully listened to the rules of the game.
“I’m going to need help to get that sandwich from those pigs, and I know just the dog to help…” Pierre ran a few blocks down the street to where a bulldog named Boris lived. Boris was a very mean bulldog who had many grudges against Trixie. One time, she had eaten a gigantic steak in front of him and Boris couldn’t do anything about it. He had been plotting revenge ever since.
As Boris was chewing on a bone, Pierre jumped from over the fence right in front of him. Boris growled but Pierre said, “Don’t worry Boris. I won’t harm you. I’m here to help you get revenge on Trixie and a really BIG meal.”
“Talk, cat!” Boris snarled. Boris was actually interested since everyone knew about his grudge against Trixie.
“I have just heard that Trixie and her dumb brother Bruno are going on a quest for one of those new Legendary Sandwiches. The sandwich contains all the food any pet could want. Their owner has hidden it somewhere in Boulder and there are five clues that will help the pets find out where it is. We need to get to the sandwich first and fast. Our reward will be the tastiest treat we’ve had in our lives and revenge on Trixie and Bruno. Do we have a deal, Boris?”
“Yeah, cat. I guess we do” Boris replied with an evil grin on his face.
“Great” Pierre said. “We’ll start at once. They’re searching for the first clue now.” As the new duo left the backyard, another shady creature had already heard about the Legendary Sandwich. His name was Racoon Raphael. He was a neighborhood-famous bandit who stole food and valuables from peoples’ homes. Recently, Racoon Raphael wanted to get his paws on a Legendary Sandwich, but couldn’t find one. Now that he had found out that there was one hidden in town he would follow the pair with the greater lead, either Bruno and Trixie or Pierre and Boris, to victory without being discovered. That’s what Racoon Raphael did, he followed people and snatched their valuables when they least expected it.
“Finally, a chance at a Legendary Sandwich,” he said to himself. “Five animals after five clues and a sandwich rich enough to feed all five of us, but I will claim it all for myself. Bun to bun. There is no way two dogs and two cats can take down a neighborhood-famous bandit!” Then, Raphael raced off to find Trixie and Bruno.
Here, Ella is playing the pool set my dad and his friends used to play back in the 70’s when they were kids. Isn’t it so tinny?
In the Sukkot my cousins built, which is a replica of the man-made hut that the Jews built during there fleeing from Egypt, but with added decorations. It is also in my uncle’s backyard and not somewhere in the desert…
The family having a good time!!! 🙂
Me dabbing with my friend, Noam, much too Ella’s displeasure. 🙂 We got falafel together with his family and it was very fun.
My cousins’ new 2-month old puppy, Chloe! She is very small and fluffy at the moment, but her breed grows fast so she will be a giant. She is very friendly and gives many love bites(Troy got an EXTRA special gift from her).
At Saba’s grave. It’s tradition to place a rock on the gravestone, so we placed a rock from the top of Mount Kilimanjaro on it! I hope he’s resting in peace.
loved the book!