Ops & Blogs | The Times of Israel » Avi Rockoff

The Philosophy of Toasted Oats

Avi Rockoff — Sun, 05 May 2013 05:04:57 +0000

One way I’m trying to improve my Hebrew is to read the backs of breakfast cereal boxes. This has helped me pick up some new words, along with some insights into the Israeli psyche. Crunchim is (are?) made of whole-grain wheat and oats in the shape of small cylinders that look like Cheerios with high [...]

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No Airport for You!

Avi Rockoff — Tue, 30 Apr 2013 15:24:55 +0000

As our flight neared its destination, a stern voice came over the loudspeaker. “Government regulations require that no one be out of their seat for 30 minutes before we land at Ben Gurion,” she said. “If everyone does not return to their seat at once, we will not be able to land.” That Israelis ignore [...]

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A mistaken case of identity

Avi Rockoff — Tue, 02 Apr 2013 11:05:41 +0000

What is an Israeli? “He is making a mistake.” The speaker was my friend from Ramat Gan, who visits Boston from time to time. He was referring to an acquaintance who lives here. “He and his wife are both Israeli,” he said. “They go back to Israel once or twice a year, they do what [...]

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The minyan must go on

Avi Rockoff — Thu, 14 Feb 2013 08:40:32 +0000

We had a blizzard in Boston this weekend. Two feet of snow, howling winds. The works. The day before the storm, Sid turned to me at shacharit and said, “I was watching the weather on TV, and the crawl underneath said, ‘Temple Shalva will be closed.’ Will we be canceling our minyanim?” He was joking. [...]

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How do you want to be remembered?

Avi Rockoff — Mon, 04 Feb 2013 05:58:41 +0000

Time was running out. The 52 minutes Mel had allotted for the story of my life were almost up. He looked at the clock, turned to me, and asked one last question: “How do you want to be remembered?” “I have no idea,” I said. “And if I did, I wouldn’t tell you.” A pretty [...]

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One people (sort of)

Avi Rockoff — Thu, 17 Jan 2013 16:48:34 +0000

“We’re from an old Sephardi family in Bucharest,” Orna said, which surprised me a little since her last name is Holczman. “There were two Sephardi synagogues of course,” she said. “A big one and small one. We had nothing to do with the Ashkenazim. To us they were lower class.” “Considering your last name,” I [...]

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An amazing insight

Avi Rockoff — Thu, 03 Jan 2013 14:47:57 +0000

I haven’t seen Ben in a few years. Now in late middle-age, he looks happy and prosperous. With a wife twenty years younger, he thinks he’ll be working for a while. Remarkably, business has been good, even during the financial downturn. “I do commercial real estate.” Ben says, “I buy and sell buildings, malls, the [...]

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A Hanukkah tale: the search for God at the barbershop

Avi Rockoff — Mon, 10 Dec 2012 13:12:05 +0000

“This one’s for you, Rabbi.” Vinnie insists on calling me “Rabbi.” He has to be the world’s only barber with a piano in his shop. Now in his late 60’s, Vinnie’s been taking lessons for the past couple of years, and for a beginner of his age he’s pretty good. He sits down to play [...]

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Mikvah etiquette

Avi Rockoff — Thu, 04 Oct 2012 15:00:53 +0000

I visit the mikvah twice a year: Erev Rosh Hashana and Erev Yom Kippur. Because I usually can’t make it till the afternoon, I go to the mikvah in a hassidishe shtiebel the next town over. They don’t provide towels, but they’re open all day. This year, as I opened the door to leave the [...]

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Billy’s toe: A holiday memory

Avi Rockoff — Sun, 23 Sep 2012 05:30:56 +0000

When my father took a Long Island pulpit in 1953, he found a few things that came with the job. One of them was Hyman. Outside of shul, Hyman was a dentist. As a youth early in the last century, he had evidently been a choirboy in some New York synagogue who yearned to be [...]

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Bureaucratic nonsense

Avi Rockoff — Mon, 03 Sep 2012 10:08:36 +0000

People like to groan about bureaucrats. Israeli bureaucrats are especially notorious for being unhelpful and unpleasant. In fact, a selling point of the Nefesh B’Nefesh program is that it helps olim deal with Israeli officials, or avoid them. Well, perhaps so, but as Albert Einstein probably did not say, everything is relative. Israeli clerks may [...]

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A Jew, a Christian woman and a priest walk into a church…

Avi Rockoff — Sun, 19 Aug 2012 02:02:17 +0000

When John Kerry ran for President in 2004, the world learned (along with Kerry) that his grandfather had been a Jew: Fritz Kohn, who married a descendant of the Maharal of Prague, converted to Catholicism, and became Fred Kerry. The man who headed the Massachusetts state Democratic party at the time reportedly told the candidate [...]

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Happy birthday, USA

Avi Rockoff — Wed, 04 Jul 2012 14:12:53 +0000

Our rabbi was giving a talk about the halakhot of mesirah, discussing when — if ever — it is appropriate for a Jew to turn over a Jewish criminal to secular authorities. A basic point on which this question turns is whether the government in power is fair. Is it committed to a just society [...]

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The Bible tells me so

Avi Rockoff — Wed, 06 Jun 2012 20:41:06 +0000

Felice comes in twice a year. Nothing serious, just a small medical procedure that needs regular repeating. So I was surprised when this time she said, “I can’t wait for the day when there will be no more sickness.” “Sorry,” I asked, “is something else wrong with you?” “Not with me,” she said. “I meant [...]

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Piercing the mountain: For a consumer-friendly rabbinate

Avi Rockoff — Wed, 16 May 2012 15:28:21 +0000

The car salesman and I had something unexpected in common. Just for fun, I had wandered into the upscale dealership next door to the one selling the balebatish sedan I was actually shopping for. Although his cars were fancy, the salesman was something of a shlump, sporting a checked shirt and slacks. For some reason he started [...]

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