A Boy In Israel

Studying for Tests

2004-05-04T15:57:00.000+03:00

As a boy who learns in elementary school I would like to give my view about studying for tests.
I think studying for tests is an unnecessary because you've actually studied for the test by learning in class. Either you know it or not. You shouldn't get hundreds because you studied for a few hours alone. If you don't study for tests by youself, the grade you get is the one you deserve.

The teachers always tell us how they decide our grades in the report card: tests, participation in class,homework and attitude. If you participate in class there is no chance in the world you will get under ninety, the "participation in class" part in the report card and the "tests" should be under the same topic.

The Alternate

2004-04-27T14:41:00.000+03:00

Here is a book I wrote:

The Bad News Giants

As the sun shone on Friday morning Jay woke up with the shout of his father, "It's a great day for baseball (Jay's father is also his baseball coach)." Jay woke up, rolled around a few times, and then got out of bed.

Jay came into the kitchen for breakfast and greeted his sister, Sally and his father. "Good morning," he said.
"Good morning," they both replied.

Usually after school on Fridays Jay has a baseball practice, but that day he had his first game of the season against "The Majors." Jay thinks his team is better than it was the year before. In the year before the team ended up last place with only one win.

As the game started Jay recognized some of the players who they had played the year before. The team was away so they went to the plate* first. Jay was hitting third and pitching*. Jay's best friend, Mike, came to the plate first. The first pitch came in really fast, but it was high. "Ball one," barked the ump*. The next pitch was slow and chest high, Mike knew it was his. He swung and pulled the ball to left center for a double*. Next batter struck out* swinging. Jay came to the plate confident. The first pitch was on the inside corner, he swung and missed. There was silence on the field. The pitcher wound up, Jay leaned back, the pitcher threw, Jay took a stride and swung, the ball went sailing over the pitcher's head into centerfield* for a single*. While mike was rounding third the throw came in from the outfield, Mike slid, the catcher tagged. "Safe," shouted the umpire. The crowd cheered like crazy. Meanwhile Jay went to second. "That's my kid," Jay's father cried.

Jay saw the signal to steal*, "steal?" he whispered to himself. Their catcher* is the best in the league. He didn't know what to do. Should he steal or should he not listen to the coach. It was too late do decide so he stole anyway. The catcher was surprised to see him stealing. He threw a straight throw right at the third baseman*. He caught it and put the tag on. Somehow the ball flew out of the glove and went into left field*. Jay went home*. The ball was thrown by the left fielder. The ball hit Jay's back and he fell down. Jay learnt something very important in baseball and every athlete has to know it, if you get hurt during any play, you first finish the play and then treat the pain. That's what he did and was called safe. Some more cheers were heard from the stands. They won the game 3-2.

They lost the next four because Jay was in a huge batting slump.

The Tryouts

Before every game Jay was convinced they were going to win, but they always lost.
On the way back home from one of the games he thought about what his father said at the beginning of the season. He said there will be an Israel National Team that would go to London to the European baseball championship. He thought he might have a chance at the team.

Everyday he asked his father if he got any information about the team. He always had the same answer, "no." Till one day, while his father was on the computer checking his email, he called Jay in and told him that he and another twenty four kids were accepted to go to the five tryout practices and out of the twenty five kids, fifteen will be chosen for the national team. Jay looked at the list of kids and didn't see his friend, Mike on it. There must have been a mistake, he thought, but deep inside he knew there was no mistake. He didn't know what to tell him.

The next day was really cold. Jay was walking silently, he was very sweaty. "Are you alright?" mike asked while jay's sweat fell on the floor and make a very loud noise. "I have something to tell you," he paused" last night my father gave me the list of kids who will go to the tryouts for the national team, I was on it," he paused again" and you're not. Jay broke a very long silence and said, "I couldn't believe it myself," jay said.
"Forget it," Mike replied.

The first tryout practice was lots of hard work. Jay got to know the kids just a little. Working in the batting cage was the best part. The coaches were very nice, but strict. We had a whole list of things to bring to every practice. Every practice was harde than the one before.

Here, we finally got to the last practice. We had a scrimmage in the cold weather.

"So guys," the coach said "I would want to explain to you what we're going to have during the practices of the team so you will be sure what we're doing and you'll decide if it's you hard for you; every practice will be harder than the one before," he kept talking on and on about how hard the practices are going to be.
"The first few practices are going to be in a training camp and you will sleep here for six nights. Now, this is the way we're going to tell you whether you're on the team or not; if you do not get in ," there was a bit of a pause, " we will call your parents and tell them; if you do get in you will be mailed."

"Well, at least I got lots of practice out of the tryouts if I don't get in," Jay told his parents.

The Longest Week of All
Here it's starting, the longest week of my life, Jay thought to himself. The teachers' lips moved so slowly and every lesson seemed like it was two hours. Jay couldn't concentrate on school; his mind only thought about the team.
He hoped knew that he gave his best and did everything to impress the coaches.

He was considered the best in his class in basketball, but during recess he was terrible. "You're falling off your feet," said Mike.
"Yeah, you got bags under your eyes," Daniel added.
"What's the matter?" Kenny asked.
"Nothing, really guys," Jay said.
"Yeah right," Mike whispered to himself.
"Okay, I'm just nervous about the tryout results," Jay said hesitantly with a few pauses.
"Oh, so that's it," they all said
"What was that voice: oh, so that's it .Aren't you going to cheer me up?" he was amazed.
"You have no chance of getting in, Jay," Mike replied.
"Yeah," they all agreed.
"This is the reason why I didn't tell you in the first place," he exclaimed and ran away.
This was the most annoying and long week in Jay's life.

The Message
It's Sunday, first of March 6:44 AM. Jay slept one hour that night. He always kept on doubting if he would get into the team; Well, I have another year if I don't make it, he thought. He kept on thinking, oh, I have no chance; and then, I'll get in for sure. He wondered all night. He was so nervous. He went into the kitchen to drink a cup of water a few times in order to fall asleep, but with no success. He tried to fall asleep watching TV, but he couldn't take the national team off his mind.

Beep, beep, beep, the alarm clock shrilled. He always used to snooze after the alarm clock went off, but this time he immediately got up. He almost collapsed. He took his clothes slowly out of the closet and got dressed. He went to eat with his father after getting dressed. He ate cheerios, one by one.
"What's the matter? Why do you have bags under your eyes?" his father asked.
"I couldn't manage to fall asleep for most of the night. I slept ONE HOUR," Jay replied.
"So that's the noise I heard last night,"
"Yeah, I tried to fall asleep listening to the TV," Jay said.
"I'm not surprised," his sister said jokingly.

Jay's father let him go to sleep for the whole day. He stayed home alone in front of the TV. Surprisingly he fell asleep.

At about two o'clock the phone rang. Beep-beep, beep-beep, beep-beep… "Hello, you've reached the Taylor family, please leave a message after the tone," the message machine said loudly.
"Hello Jay, I know you think this is bad news, but I think it isn't," he paused," you were chosen to be the team's alternate. Now, that means you will practice with the team, but you will not go to London for the tournament, unless someone gets hurt or if someone quits. Please think about it strongly and call me to tell me if you want to do it or not," the coach said slowly.

Jay woke up at about three o'clock. A thick silence cut the air to the sound of little birds. Jay looked at his watch; his mouth and eyes were wide open. The coaches probably called or emailed me while I was sleeping, he thought. He took off his blanket quickly and ran through the hall to the computer. Jay is known for his fast typing on the computer; this time his hands were shaking and he typed a lot slower. Finally when he got into his inbox he read, "Zero unread messages." Well, at least I have next year, he thought. Maybe my email didn't work and they called and left a message. Jay's shaking hands hit the "play" button. After the message was heard Jay went into the kitchen and made himself a cup of hot chocolate. He didn't know what to do.

Training Camp

"It must be about thirty degrees outside," Jay said at breakfast.
"So wear shorts," his sister said.
"You don't ware shorts in baseball," Jay explained, "I'll go make holes in them," he said.

As they approached the field on their left Jay saw shirts and hats on a table. "Do you think I'll get a shirt and a hat?" Jay asked his mother.
"Of course, you're part of the team," his mother replied.

"Everybody take a seat please. You all know you are the fifteen best players for your age in Israel. Well, really sixteen," the coach said quickly. They all looked at each other. "Jay, please come here," the coach said. Jay walked to the coach feeling embarrassed while standing next to the coach and watching all the kids staring at him. "Jay will be our alternate. He will practice with us and will be treated like the rest of the team, but will not go to London with us unless somebody either quit or gets hurt," the coach explained, "you may take a seat."
"Everybody will take a hat and a shirt and we'll divide you up into rooms. When you get your rooms you will get dressed into the shirt and hat, get a bed, organize your things and be back here in twenty minutes," the second coach said.

Jay was so embarrassed when he walked into his room. All the kids were whispering to each other and staring at Jay. Some even laughed. Too bad no one from my team is on the team, Jay thought to himself. They had fielding practice first. Jay usually played shortstop* and he was really expecting that, but he ended up playing right field*. "This is for you, Jay," the coach called out. The ball flew slowly threw the air right at him. He closed his glove before the ball went in so the ball hit the glove and jumped out. The shortstop cried from laughter.

While taking his lunch from the table he saw those faces laughing and staring at him. He sat down at a table where no one was sitting. He ate very slowly. Even though it was crowded at other tables the kids just didn't want to sit next to Jay. Jay was starting to regret his decision and go to the team anyway.

Unexpected Sweat Revenge

The last practice was coming up. Jay's baseball condition and social condition got better every practice. There was one kid who hated Jay; he showed off so much and always made fun of Jay. He was like a dictator in the team.

"Are you ready for the last practice, son?"
"Sure," he replied.

At the end of the practice the coach called them all into a room. "We brought you here to have a little ceremony," the coach announced.
"With food?" Joe asked.
"No Joe. We will have a ceremony for Jay. As you know Jay's has been our alternate. He had a very hard decision to make. You probably wondered why you all signed that glove before hand. We are giving this glove to Jay and by that we thank him for practicing with us. Everyone was cheering for Jay and clapping their hands and calling his name. Only the show-off kid was sitting angrily on the side. Now he feels how it is to be treated like trash, Jay thought.

Team Leaves to London

The team's flight took of at three AM. Jay came to the airport to wish them luck. His father didn't let him go at the beginning, but Jay insisted. His father ended up letting him go.

Back at home, the next day Jay looked for the European baseball internet site and he followed the scores and standings. There were ten teams from around Europe, Israel was in fourth place.

Jay also emailed them at the time. That day he promised himself he'll treat next years alternate nicely and would be very good friends with him.
Glossary

Catcher- Player who stands behind home plate and catches the ball that the pitcher throws. See baseball field- next page.
Centerfield- Player who stands in the middle of the outfield. See baseball field-next page.
Double- When batter approaches second base after hit. See baseball field- next page.
Home- Also call home plate. Home is the target of the offensive team. When a runner runs around all the bases and touches home he scores a run. See baseball field- next page.
Pitcher- Stands between home and second base and between first and third base. Throws the ball to the catcher. See baseball field-next page.
Plate- See Home.
Right field- Stands in the right side of the outfield. See baseball field-next page.
Shortstop- Stands between second and third base. See baseball field- next page.
Single- When batter approaches first base after hit. See baseball field-next page.
Steal- When runner runs from a certain base to the next one while pitcher pitches the ball to the catcher.
Third baseman- Stands next to third base. See baseball field-next page.
Ump- Referee. Ump is short for umpire.

Hasidim take over

2004-02-25T19:01:00.000+02:00

On Monday night we had a little party in school with a guy that did all the activities with us. This person was not very nice in a few ways:
a)During the activities some of the kids went out to get something to eat and drink. So the principal of the school asked him to take a brake because the kids are hungry. The guy refused and said,"there not hungry, they're just pigs" You're probably wondering why the principal didn't say anything. My guess is because he was scared of him because he had a beard. These days people think whoever has a beard is an important person.
b)The activities were competitions between teams. The teams have to get up and talk to each other. So when time's up they have to sit down. One of my friends was still standing up after the time was up, so the guy came over, grabbed his shoulder and sat him down. Because of that my friend went home.
c) One of the activities was that you act out a play with out talking and the other teams have to guess what saying is it in Hebrew. So one time it took a long time to prepare the act so he canceled that activity.
At the end there was some kind of a video where a hasidic man dances around with yeshiva boys singing:
אין לנו על מי להשען אלא על אבינו שבשמים
In other words:
No one helps us, only our father who is in the sky helps us.
What does this song supposed to mean, that if we pray all day there will be no terrorist attacks. 90 % of the suicide bombers don't succeed in there mission because the army stops them. If there was no army that hasidic guy and those yeshiva boys wouldn't be dancing and we wouldn't have that party and I wouldn't have been writing now. It's all a matter of common scence.
What people don't understand is that god will help us only if we help ourselves and work hard.

Patience

2004-02-03T19:41:00.000+02:00

Here in Israel patience is not so active. Car accidents happen because the nonpatient drivers.

What I really want to talk about is inpatient teachers. For example we had a paper do for yesturday, on Monday. The day before on Sunday My friend and I went to the library to finish it up. My friend brought it home to print. I had the other part of the project at my house. Now, I had to get the paper to my friend because I came in late to school because I watched the last half of the superbowl and here it's in the middle of the night so I gave the paper to my twin sister to give to him. She put it on his chair, but when he got to school it wasn't there. After dovinning the teacher checked who broght in the paper. He tried to explain, but this teacher wouldn't let him talk, of cource she screamed at him like crazy. The worst thing about this teacher is that she always looks for kids to blame and punish. I think you should let everybody talk and tell what they want to say.

Conversation with Kids

2004-01-27T19:50:00.000+02:00

About a weak ago I played basketball with my friends. When coming back somehow my friends and I got into a conversation about charadim. One of them said that they do everything better than us and we should concentrate more on torah and a lot less on math and English. He started to say all kind of wrong things. I asked him:" What's the best thing to do by scence, either you sit at home and pray for a miracle or help yourself and davin to god because the only way god will help us is if we help ourselfs, meaning going to the army, learning all subjects and working.

He said by scence you help yourself, but... I stopped him and said:" Did you notice what you just said, you said that charadim don't make any scence and I agree with you".

Thank you

2004-01-21T19:19:00.000+02:00

I would like to thank Out of Step Jew for linking my blog as an article.
The blog is linked on the top right. Thank you very much.

Books,Books and MORE Books

2004-01-20T07:13:00.000+02:00

The next poem was written by myself and is going to be shown on the front page of my school's English magazine:

So many books
They've got great looks
Old and new
They would take you to Peru
For 15 bucks
You're really in luck
Sport books, comedy books, action books and love stories
From all the categories
So come to the book store at the mall
If you got a problem just call
03-9182736

"Dictator" in Classroom

2004-01-14T19:08:00.000+02:00

Here in Israel almost every class in school (as far as I know) has one kid who some how sort of "takes over" kids' minds and he turns them against certain kids who are aware that this kid is doing a wrong thing, so they try to convince the "taken over" kids to turn around against this kid. The only reason for this is the fear that the kids have, even though this kid is not so strong physically. This kid just brain washed everybody else.

The worst thing is that the kid is behaving like a dictator. Whoever would do something against him he would hit him and curse him. Of course there are kids who are not scared of him such as myself. We are trying to convince the other kids that they shouldn't be scared of him. I hope it works out sometime in the future.

The refusenicks

2003-12-26T11:16:00.000+02:00

I'm guessing you heard about the people who are refusing to fight and bomb the Palestinians. These people should be kicked out of the army and sent to jail.

This is a shame for Israel, that their own citizens don't belive that they should fight their enemy. I can't belive how these soldiers can dare to turn down an order. Don't they know that the people they're supposed to attack killed other jews. These jews are antisemites and pro Palestenians. They should be sent to jail for a very long time because it's as if they killed other jews.

I have to say that the following site is the most disgusting site I've ever read, people that agree with this site should be ashamed of themselfs and I rather they wouldn't come back to my site
oznik.com/webmasters.html
shministim.org

Learning Equality

2003-12-19T13:20:00.000+02:00

In addition to "Equality Between People" I would want to give you an example that happened to me today. Of course before Chanukah we have a learning activity so the school got a rabbi to teach only the boys, you wouldn't guess what the girls did, they baked chalah(special bread eaten on Saturday meals).

What I don't get is why the girls can't learn Torah with the boys or the opposite, I mean, we learn Torah in class and davin together as well so why when some rabbi comes to teach then only the boys have the right to learn Torah. Again I say men and women should be treated equally and with the same amount of respect.

Equality Between People

2003-12-16T18:14:00.000+02:00

I have a twin sister. Both of us are going to read from the torah. We started learning the teamim today. It might sound strange that a girl would read from the torah, but I don't think that way. I think that we are all god's creations and we should be treated equally. I mean you shouldn't all the time think of a woman as a cook, as the only person who takes care of the children and as the one who cleans the house etc. Also the father has that job of taking care of the children,cleaning and cooking.
You should also have equality between people, although there are people who you shouldn't treat them as you treat the rest of the citizens such as those who do not work of their own free will and people who don't go to the army and fight for their country.
I hope you noticed now why there should be equality between men and women.

The Palestinian Saddam

2003-12-15T19:43:00.000+02:00

Of course everybody is very happy that the Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein was finally captured, but there is an almost as cruel as Saddam, Palestinian dictator who kills without finding out first, innocent Palestinians who he thinks give information to Israel. I say the Israeli government needs to take army troops and send them in to either capture him or kill him. We should certainly not throw him out of the country from a simple reason: he would go to Europe and they would feel sorry for him, so they would give him money and he would send it to the terror organizations to bye new weapons and bombs.

A Brother in The Army

2003-12-08T07:56:00.000+02:00

My big brother got drafted a weak and a half ago into the army, he is in the paratroopers unit. He has basic training for a few months, than another long training and then he goes out to fight. The most important thing in going into the army is the self-sacrifice for the country and for the people. The reason why some people don't go into the army is that they think if they sit down in their houses and pray for hope then god's going to help us(not including the handicapped). This is wrong, the only way for god helping us is that every kid is educated physically and mostly mentally for the army. My brother trained 3 years to go into a very hard unit to get into and we are going to know on Tuesday if he got into it or not.

Introduction

2003-12-05T13:51:00.000+02:00

I am an 11 year old kid who lives in Israel. I got the idea of a blog from my father. He thought I have a writing talent so he asked if I would want to write one. I accepted the suggestion.

I think that living in Israel is the one of the most important things in judiasm and all jews should make aliya. Please comment and tell me what you think.