I just got back from getting my arba minim, aka lulav and etrog. The whole trip went a lot more smoothly than the last time I tried to do this in Israel–I bought the stuff off some scruffy dati (religious) kid in jeans on the sidewalk not far from my neighborhood, and he didn’t blink twice about selling to me, cut the aravah (willow) off the tree right next to where we were standing, which was really nice. I’m glad I have a better sense of how to get things done with minimal drama in this town now. As I walked home, I smelled my pretty, fragrant etrog (a nice corrective to all the dog poo on the sidewalk) and began to start to get that festival feeling.

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