Chanukah around the corner
There are a bunch of small random stores here that stock a little bit of everything: school supplies, art supplies, small hardware and tools, toys, cleaning supplies, etc. And the interesting thing is how they change with the season to provide just what you need at that time. And the stuff is always overflowing onto the sidewalks on a variety of movable displays, boxes, and racks. When we first moved here it was all beach supplies, then it shifted to succot decorations, then as the rainy season started it became umbrellas, and now its a combination of umbrellas with Chanukah decorations.
And when you walk into a random store such as this – to be clear, not because you purposefully drove over to the one “Jewish” store in town but rather because you just needed to get another spiral notebook and a volleyball for your kids, and then out of the blue you’re confronted with a wall of 10 shekel menorahs that you weren’t expecting – you just stare and think, “yeah, this is my country.”
Then the next day you drive to Netanya for class and park behind this car:
which says, “There is none other than Him alone” or “There is nothing else except Him alone,” and this is the third car in the past two weeks you’ve seen with the same sticker, and you remember the fading memory of how back home everything is probably all-christmas-all-the-time…
…and you walk into the local mall to pickup some (kosher) sushi for your kids for dinner and you pass a trendy clothing store, again with clothes overflowing on racks out into the hallway, and the shirt on the end says:
which is a mildly feminist spoof on one of the morning blessings that men are supposed to say,
you just stop and think, “wow, what a culture.”
….and the sufganiyot are now formally in full swing!
