Having read this week's parshah (Torah portion) about the tragic slander spoken by the Spies about the Land of Israel, I felt compelled to post about how much I LOVE living here. As in L-O-V-E. Having made aliyah from the States, where we lived in a four-floor house with two cars (now that I've falsely conjured up images of luxury, let me just date the cars as '88 and '92; as for the house...no comment!) I will be the first to say that life here is not as easy as it is in America. But what you get here in terms of emotional and spiritual fulfilment is unmatched anywhere else in the world.

Maybe it's my quirky personality but I just love meeting the colorful characters that freely inhabit Eretz Yisrael. They're fellow Jews and they are just the best. No one says it like it is like an Israeli, and my shopping experience on Wednesday really left me laughing. This is one of those "Only in Israel" stories. I went over to the produce guy to ask him to choose a watermelon for me. While I was at it, I asked if he could sell me just a half (Y'know how you have this huge watermelon that you've paid for so all of a sudden it's watermelon sorbet, watermelon quiche, watermelon cookies, and watermelon smoothies for, like, a week!). So the guy kind of looks down at the floor and mumbles, "Weeeeell, we really don't sell halves except...Except to pregnant women. So...."

It took me a small moment to realize that he was trying to ask if I was expecting in order to determine whether he could sell me a half a watermelon. I was way too flustered to ask what the watermelon-pregnancy connection is when Produce proceeded to add that he had a horrifying experience the other day. A woman asked for half-a-watermelon; he refused not noticing that she was expecting (!) but immediately afterward he happened to, er, make the connection, and he apologized profusely and immediately ran to get her a juicy half.

Something about the produce man being next-to-know after my mother and the OB/GYN is just too funny to me. It almost tops overhearing the saleswoman in the clothing store telling a customer, "You're way too heavy for that skirt!" But it's the same "say it like it is" that compels the bus driver to wish you an easy birth, a random woman on the bus telling you your baby isn't wrapped up properly, and the cleaning lady who calls you the Morroccan equivalent of "sweetie" which is actually "Mammy"!

It's very real, it's very heimish (homey), and I love every minute. Thank You, Hashem, (G-d), for the gift of living in this wonderful Land.

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