Say what you will, about Israeli politicians.

(I can’t on the blog, as most of them like to sue anyone who suggests they aren’t 1000% paragons of total virtue…)

But, Eizenkot gets the prize for most creative campaign.

Here’s a game he just launched, called ‘Sleepy BB’, where you win if you manage to get Bibi to bed on the morning of October 7th, without being woken by any annoying telephone calls etc, about pesky ‘terrorists’ invading the country.

https://sleepybb.com/

It took me nine goes before I figured out how to do it, but then, I’m not a good gamer.

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Of course, it’s all water off a duck’s back, isn’t it?

Or at least, that’s how it seems.

Me personally, I am feeling so, so strongly, that something / everything needs to change up in my own dalet amot, at the moment.

I’m feeling like God has been taking a sledgehammer to crack that stubborn nut that is me, since Rosh Hashana (actually, a few months before…)

But now, I can’t take it any more, and I really, really need something to change.

In me.

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My good friend recommended this book, I just ordered it:

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We can go on and on and on about how ‘everyone else’ is the problem, but really, the problem is us.

Me, myself and I.

And all my yetzers and bad middot, that are keeping me stuck in quite a difficult place at the moment.

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Part of the problem is trying to find somewhere to live, in Jerusalem.

I cannot tell you what a saga we’ve been through. We got to the lawyer’s office stage, with 2 different properties – first one, we backed out because the lawyer scared the pants off us that this particular building on Church Land has an awful lease that leaves the buyer with absolutely nothing, once the lease is up in 2071.

(Even though it’s ‘Church Land’, the Greek Orthodox Church has actually sold most of its leases to Jewish businessmen. Most of whom live in chul, and are apparently ‘frum’. And most of these landlords have ‘big plans’ for the Holy City, apart from screwing the residents in the apartments they own the leasehold on…)

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So then, we found something else.

Got to the lawyer, who encouraged us to pay a lot for a full survey, where we discovered that the 2 back patios AND only bathroom were built on the neighbor’s land…

It’s been like that for 40 years!!!! the estate agent told us, when we had to pull out again.

The lawyer explained that ifffff, the neighbor ever wakes up to what happened, they could tip off City Hall, who would demand the demolition of the ONLY TOILET in the property – and also, ask for 40 years of back rent.

That just didn’t sound like a fun experience.

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Our problem, is that we are trying to stay within walking distance to the Rav, and don’t have $2 million dollars to spend on something a step up from a total dump.

You can just about find a dump in Jerusalem for a $1 million bucks – usually, no more than 3-4 rooms, and with a whole host of ‘issues’ chucked in for free, including massive damp, illegal construction, leaseholds that run out – and the new guy in town, pinui binui.

Pinui Binui is basically the Israel term for urban renewal projects, where they take old buildings, knock them down – and build disgusting-looking, horrible massive skyscrapers instead.

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Up the road from us, at the First Station, they have started to build THREE tower blocks, each with 40 storeys.

No, that’s not a typo.

So, last week, we went to poorer, cheaper Armon HaNatziv, just about walkable to the Rav on Shabbos, just about, if we are in the ‘fit hiking’ mindset.

We found a cute, affordable garden apartment in an older building, that was in an ‘advanced stage of the pinui binui process’.

The sales blurb is, they knock down your scanky flat, and you get an extra 25 sqm in a new flat, with a security room, storage and parking.

The only down is…. that’s in a monster tower.

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We put in an offer, then started looking up what they were trying to build there:

2 apartments of 22 storeys each, plus another 11 storey in the middle.

And guess what? The garden wasn’t officially in the seller’s tabu, or property registration, which means that even though he’s had the garden for 50 years – and literally put his soul into making it beautiful – it counts for nothing, in the pinui binui process.

I.e. he’ll be stuck on the undesirable 2-7th floor of a massive skyscraper, and there’s nothing he can do about it.

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How the pinui binui process works is, they need to get a certain majority of the residents to sign up for it, usually, 67%.

Once that happens, any resident who DOESN’T agree can be sued by his neighbours, for preventing them from making more money etc, by getting a new expanded apartment.

Currently, there are 38 of these pinui binui projects ALREADY AGREED in Jerusalem – and way, way more in the pipeline.

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Who is going to live in all these monster towers, that is the question?

The more pressing question, at least for me, is how can someone who is not a billionaire just buy something lowrise, preferably with a garden, if they have less than $2 million to throw at it?

I don’t have a solution.

And while I keep trying to believe in miracles, all this has worn me down in ways that are quite hard to explain.

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I really want to live in my own home again.

Walkable to the Rav on Shabbat.

With a garden.

At this stage, it’s sounding more and more like a fantasy.

And I can’t lie, and say I am filled with optimism and emuna that I can somehow get this to turnaround, if I just do another six hours, or take on some other additional ‘thing’ to show God how much I want this.

How much I actually need this.

It’s in God’s hands, He will do as He sees fit.

And in the meantime, I have to figure out how to find my joie de vivre again, and my emuna and optimism, if the answer ends up being ‘No’.