hodayot [thanksgivings] for today

8:21
My Body, my Partner, my God
I give thanks to your wondrous "condition",
which allows us to go through the strain and stress of this day.
I give thanks to your wondrous appearance ("at our age.."),
which makes it so much easier for me than it is for other people,
to love myself.

I am grate-full for that part of my drama,
which included my husband's children Joel (60) and especially Dita (56),
(When in Sept. 1963 Rafael gently conveyed to his daughter,
that after the divorce he would marry another woman, she said:
"I know, who it is! Christa!",
though she hadn't seen me or heard of me for more than 2 years
and, of course, had no idea of Immanuel, her step-brother).
I am grate-full for Dita's incredibly professional and successful mediation
during the separation process between me and her father in 1981.
I am grate-full that Dita welcomed Efrat & Mika into her house and care,
after that almost fatal accident of both, in summer 2006.
I am grate-full for the relationship between Dita's family and my children.

I am grate-full for Dita's paintings, which touch me so much

"Driving Backward into the Future" = "Closeups to the Past" = Healing&Harvesting my Past

Dita

Dita and Joel in their father's jeep: 3 photos with my simple box: 1960-61, next to little Dita's hand-stand, big Dita, shot by her step-brother Arie, 1969

From Immanuel's Bar-Mitzvah Album:
"July 1965, you are two and a half years old:
finally also your big sister is permitted [by her mother] to get to know you!."
(with Rafael's friends at Sde Warburg)

Rafael with all his children - ca. 1969     Dita, Ronnit, Immanuel and Joel with Ran, Rafael's first grandchild

Dita, the soldier, dances for the settlements! but she also meets Azmiyeh at Ramat-Hadar, and she joins a trip with Naftali Raz see the photo with Ronnit she is on a trip with us and Naftali Raz, our co-worker in the party Ha-Olam Ha-zae.

Azmiyeh, Ibrahim and 2 of their children have the courage to travel from their refugee camp near Nablus and visit us at Ramat-Hadar

How come, I possess 3 photos of 3 different situations with Dita working on the fields?

The relationship between Dita and her step-siblings has always been good -if in our home at Ramat-Hadar, or at the sea, or on our common trips.

With her step-siblings at Chanukka 1969

with her brother Joel at his wedding 1972

part of a picture taken at the wedding of Micha and Ra'ayah, 1994 Hagar, Orit, Gid'on, Dita,      Rafael,    Joel , Ran, in front of them Ra'ayah in front: Uri, probably with Rotem                    Grandma with Elah

part of a picture taken at the Bar-Mitzvah of Alon, Immanuel's son , 2004 Gid'on, Ronnit     Joel & Dita    Elah, Hadass, Tova, Amir (Orit's husband), Ran in front: Yael, Rotem, Tomer, Immanuel      Orit with her first child

Rafael Rosenzweig , 1922-2001, was married to Ines Cohn from 1946-1963 and to Christa-Rachel Guth from 1964-1981

Rafael Rosenzweig's descendants

H A G A R

Hagar and Orit with baby Elah, while both families lived at the airforce base Hatzerim and then~~~ Hagar with Elah at Jonathan's birthday, Ben-Shemen forest 2001

Hagar at Elah's & Alon's birthday, Kfar-Wradim 2001

How strange! When I looked for the photos of my ancestors on the 99th birthday of my dead mother, I came - rightaway - across a page about little Hagar! I don't have many pictures of her, nor is there a single interaction with her which imprinted itself in my memory, and now this page and - next to it - a conversation with my son Micha which began with his shock, that the little girl received from her parents a gigantic gift on her third birthday: a stereo-system!

July 1984, Conversation with my son Micha, then 17 years old:

"How was the birthday party of Hagar and Hadass (Joel's daughter)?"
"guess, what Dita and Gid'on gave to Hagar as a gift!
The most perfect state-of-the-art stereo-system!"
"Whaaattttt?"
"Yes, also Immanuel went crazy. He said:
"I beg people to give me mattresses, so we'll have something to sleep on,
and this baby, 3 years old, gets a stereo-system!" "
[In July 1983 my mother came into my care in Israel.
The 2 1/2 rooms we had in my rented flat made it hard for Immanuel,
to live his relationship with his girl-friend Ruth.
So they moved out and with my help rented their own small flat ]
"The parents explained" said Micha, "that her sister has a system (6 years old),
and there has to be equality."
"And Hagar - does she actually know what to do with this thing?"
"Yes, her father told, that she played all the time with the "eject""
[as explanation for the yet unfamiliar technology I added: 'which flips out the casettes']
"So what will they give her at the age of 10? a house? or at the age of 15? a spaceship?"
We laughted...
"So do you feel poor and pauper compared to them?"
"No, not compared to them, for they are family, but as to my friends, yes..."
And he describes the living-standard of the pupils in his city highschool
(into which I transferred him, when he, too, joined me after the divorce).
Then he comes back to the economic situation of his stepsister and stepbrother.
[I must have told him then, that their mother's family in Holland had bequeathed them a lot]
"The truth is, that I don't understand, how Dita and Gid'on can afford such a living-standard.
Every time I take part in a family event, there are at least 10 guests and food of the first choice.
And Gid'on is nothing but an officer in the airforce and Dita is a teacher.
Unlike Joel who.... and who really earns a fortune, and also deserves it....."
"since the "Israel Aerospace Industrie" , for which he works, is so profitable and successful in the world."

As I wrote then in July 1984, and now again on Sept. 9, 2008 ,
I wasn't pleased with Israel's focus on boosting the armies in the world.
It is to this sadness , to which refers the postcard on Hagar's page : "Flight from the Battle-field "
flight on horses, which associated to both: little Hagar's riding on a wooden horse,
and to her uncle's (enormous!) contribution to Israel's capacity to export military equipment.

Having translated this now (10:55) and thus felt deeper into what could have divided Rafael's two groups of children,
I'm even more grate-full, that even at a time, when my children had to live not very high above the pauverty-line,
there was no envy, - or if there was - it did in no way effect the relationship between them and their step-siblings.

"The Israel Aerospace Industry, for which he travels abroad every moment,
in order to check an installation against rockets in civil aeroplanes,
is one of the most profitable Israeli companies."
"Reallly?"
"Well, this is understandable! the Israeli Aerospace Indusstry has a name in the world,
because our inventions "were tried out on the battle-field".
The French, for instance, developed some rocket, almost nobody bought it.
But after it was employed in the Falkland war and some ship was drowned successfully,
the rocked gets sold in the entire world.
So if one rocket had such a success, how much more is this a fact for the Israeli product."


they shall beat their swords into plowshares, and their spears into pruninghooks;
nation shall not lift up sword against nation, neither shall they learn war any more...

"But the Israel Aerospace Industry does not only produce installations for offense,
but also installations for defense and also equipment, computers [at that time?] etc for the civil air-flight.."
"Alright, alright"...
I didn't want to push him into defensiveness.
After all, I, too, know in some corner in my brain,
that it can't be helped:
this is a re-action to the humiliation and annihilation of the Jews,
and it has to be extracted to the end.
So instead of being "a light to the nations", Isaiah 42:6

Israel exports arms to the nations.
But when will finally come the "action", the deed, which is ours,
and not just a re-action to the deeds of others???