So there is talk that the separation between women and men is returning.
If you ask me, separation events are strange to me, and I don't feel at home when I have to say goodbye to my wife or my childhood in order to rejoice or pray.
But it's okay, these are the customs of the place.
I completely accept that there are publics for whom it is natural and necessary for the event to happen at all.
you know what?
I separate too.
In the school I've been studying for 20 years, men and women study separately, and I only study with boys.
At first it was strange to me, but after experiencing blended learning I realized that it is true that way.
A study where the most intimate things are talked about cannot be involved, it tilts the discourse in the direction of finding grace and not presenting the naked truth.
I accept that separation is good in some things.
Even in high school math studies it creates wonders.
But, and there is a big and huge but.
Along with the repeal of the ban on holding segregated events, there must come legislation that determines how segregation is permitted: it must be established that in a segregated event, the women will receive the front section, near the stage or the focus of the event, and the men the back.
The same goes for the bus, health insurance and even the synagogue.
The good, padded, respectable seats will be assigned to women.
It's not enough to sing "Eshte Hail" and then shove it in the back of something, behind a curtain, with bamba crumbs and bad acoustics that don't allow you to hear anything.
This is simple hypocrisy.
Most of all I despise people who raise the Creator in their throats, and control others as their goal.
It happens in all cultures, in all religions, there are people of truth and kindness, and there are all kinds of racists and chauvinists who use Halacha to take away all the Tofinim.
Is separation that important to you, man?
Separate yourself, don't alienate the woman.
I wish there would now be a wave of shooting events separately, while noting who got the better share of the fun.
Praying that a movement will arise from below of women who demand the elite seats, or at least equal ones.
Change must not be forced on the religious, but equality within the separation must be demanded.
This is the new agenda.
A religious event with separation in Afula.
Those photographed have no direct connection to the article, photo: Archive/Gil-Eliyahu/Gini
Valentina
When the phone rang and Valentina's roommate's name was on the screen, I knew it wasn't good.
Indeed, the news was not long in coming - Valentina died, in her bed, in her sleep, far from her homeland Ukraine, from her family, from her life, alone in Israel.
This is how the story of this charming woman in my family life, and in the world, ends, and I want to tell you what happened.
A few years ago, Valentina started working in my house as a cleaner on behalf of a cleaning company.
She was great at her job, we loved her, her joie de vivre and her passion for engineering and rearranging things more efficiently and aesthetically than we could have imagined.
And one day she disappeared.
The cleaning company announced that she has decided to resign, and soon they will bring in someone else.
But after a few days I found a note on the computer.
"Valentina", and a phone number.
I called
She said that of all the decent amount I paid the cleaning company, she only received 12 shekels per hour, so she decided to take her fate in her own hands and leave.
Well, of course I want you to come work for us in direct employment.
And from then until last Thursday she worked for us, until the day before her death.
Valentina comes from Ukraine.
She received refugee status and a residence visa and worked hard to send money home, to complete the house she built for herself and her family.
We adopted her into our home, and she adopted us, and arranged and cleaned our house as if it were her own.
There wasn't a day of work when she didn't plant new pots, organize unruly objects in small boxes and put her best into us.
A love developed between us without words, we spoke with the help of a translator on the phone, but mostly we exchanged small and sweet gestures of affection.
During the Corona virus, we paid her wages even when she didn't come for six months, because a family is not abandoned, and after the closings she returned to clean and arrange and light the house with light.
Then she got one of the worst types of cancer, and the war broke out in Ukraine, and from a foreign worker she became a lonely patient in a distant land.
Her sons could not reach her and she could not reach them.
And the news from Ukraine did not help her situation, and she still continued to work, and did not want to hear about the possibility of stopping.
So she came to us, arranged a little, sat a lot on the balcony with the coffee I made for her, and got paid, as if everything was normal.
After she left I would clean the house.
And in the end she died here, alone, after excellent medical care she received from a national insurance company where she was insured, and not a single penny was spared for her, including expensive medications. And we were left with only the knowledge that in a harsh world we were a warm home for one woman, almost unknown, Valentina from Ukraine. And the house has been a mess ever since. Really cool.
The real enemy
Did you also marvel at the amazing archaeological find that was discovered in Lachish, an ivory comb with a Canaanite inscription and a spell against lice?
Stunning.
And what is even more important is the fact that this is the oldest inscription ever found written in the Bible, which was invented by lice-infested Canaanites.
3,700 years ago they already scratched mercilessly, and without any preparations they needed to cast spells to get the smallest of enemies out of the alleys and paths, and they still had the head to invent the Bible.
geniuses
The ivory comb, photo: Dafna Gazit, Israel Antiquities Authority
And the truth is that after all these thousands of years and countless preparations whose effectiveness is questionable, we can say with certainty - the world has changed greatly since the days of the Canaanites, but the war against lice has not.
Although the ivory comb has given way to a dense metal comb, that's pretty much all the change.
People drive in a Tesla and not in a carriage, people live to be 100 and not to 33, there is almost no disease for which there is no cure, and lice continue to live on the children's heads as usual.
Every few days we are forced to take care, and every few days when the campaign seems to be decided, reinforcements arrive from the rear, a new recruit enters the battlefield, lays his eggs, raises his offspring and recaptures newly cleared outposts.
And there is a matter of lack of governance, the disease of Israeli society in all areas.
How much the wedding is a disease can be seen precisely in this issue.
In the USA, and once also in Israel, a boy or girl with lice would be sent home after an inspection at school, and there were no lice. I don't remember a single case of lice at my school in Jerusalem. Who ever heard of lice at all. And today it is forbidden to check, it is forbidden to comment, And just send sweet messages like this - "The louse Nechama is visiting our class again, please pay attention. N", and the result is accordingly. The children are disciplined, and no matter how meticulous the care is done at home - after one day at the educational institution and touching another student's hair, and all from the beginning.
A two-day quarantine should be imposed, where all parents take care of the children, followed by weekly checks, and those with lice go home until they are treated.
And in the meantime, Pfizer should be urged to develop a vaccine for this endless epidemic, and if since the days of the Canaanites cures have already been found for leprosy, smallpox, polio and ulcers, it is time that small animals do not live on our children's brains.
And on the other hand, perhaps these lice, which originate from the days of the Canaanites, prove our connection to the Land of Israel, and the louse that sucks the blood of my daughters is a descendant of the lice that tormented our father Abraham in Haran.
An exciting thought.
Come on, let them stay, for a good legacy let's scratch a little.
avrigilad@gmail.com
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