The Blogs: A Peeler, a Knife and Seal Food Clips

Most people plan to make aliyah. Then they plan their aliyah. They come prepared, organized, with paperwork sorted and lift containers shipped. They find accommodation and start a new life straight away.

I didn’t know Hashem was choosing for me to live here. I didn’t know how lucky I was that aliyah was soon going to be on the cards for me! It wasn’t even something I knew to dream of.

I came to Yerushalayim for the chagim, and then had nowhere to return to in the galus of chutz laaretz after Succos ended, so I had to stay.

But I arrived with nothing.

I can’t say I had nothing, because truly, I felt I had everything. I suddenly had so much family, my freedom, and a strong, deep relationship with Hashem. And Eretz HaKodesh, Yerushalayim!

The truth is, I had lost everything. I was forced to leave my entire world behind. And yet, miraculously, I had everything I needed.

I didn’t lack for a single thing all the way through. For the first four or five months, I lived completely out of my mini cabin suitcase. And I didn’t busy myself with my needs; Hashem completely took care of me. He arranged it so that things were just taken care of—things would arrive exactly when I needed them. Slowly, I began accumulating so much stuff, all sent directly by Him.

I thank Hashem a million times for His endless kindness. Living in Yerushalayim is loving being alive, it’s breathing, it’s living, it’s experiencing geula; but I was practically homeless for many, many months.

No, baruch Hashem, I didn’t ever actually sleep on the street. I had a roof over my head every single night of the last eight and a half months. I did, however, carry at the back of my mind, a backup plan: sleeping on a bench in Bnei Brak, because it stays warm there even at night. Baruch Hashem, that bench remained empty.

Although I had a bed every night, I definitely didn’t have a kitchen all this time, and I didn’t own any utensils.

I never thought I would ever be able to cook or meal prep again. It has been a long while since I was able to run a regular kitchen and do regular meal prepping. I thought I’d long forgotten that way of life.

And today I bought my first sharp knife and a peeler!

I’d actually forgotten that peelers even exist!

But more than that, there’s something magical about buying the Seal Food Clips. To me, they were always the symbol of a well-running kitchen. So often I never had enough of them, and it was a skill to have enough of them at any one point. A skill I eventually mastered in my old life.

Then I didn’t own a single Seal Food Clip.

Not one!

For over 8 months!

Today, for now, I have my own little space, my own small kitchen. I filled the cupboards and I even bought these clips.

That moment when I chose the Seal Food Clips and placed them on the counter to purchase was a magical moment of such normalcy. Mundane normal.

The pure pleasure of just mundane normalcy.

No drama, no ambulance sirens, no toxicity.

No gaslighting, no worry, no guilt.

No fear, no burden of caretaking.

No flashing lights, no drumrolls.

Although there could have been.

There should have been.