Choose Life: A Practical Guide to Health and Nutrition

By Batya Shemesh

This day I call the heavens and the earth as witnesses against you that I have set before you, life and death, blessings and curses. Now choose life, so that you and your children may live and that you may love the Lord your God, listen to his voice, and hold fast to him (Deuteronomy 30:19).

The creator of the world commanded us to choose life. Choosing life means choosing health, both physical and spiritual. Batya writes fascinating explanations of the Bible, explaining Gods perspective on all-around health in modern times.

Choose Life is a compilation of nutritional and psychological advice for all ages. Batya Shemesh reveals case histories and a list of herbal remedies that she has used to help thousands of patients. As a self-help guide that blends Torah and science, it is incomparable to anything on the market today.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Xlibris US
• Release date: Mar 15, 2017
• ISBN: 9781524579517

Batya Shemesh

Batya Shemesh was brought up in an Orthodox Jewish family in New York. She studied in Orthodox Jewish Schools where she learned Bible studies between four and six hours a day. When she was 16 years old She moved to Jerusalem with her family. In Israel Batya completed teachers' college with a major in both Hebrew and Bible, as well as six years of studies in Alternative medicine. When she was 28 years old married and a mother of two she was very poor and very devout. God approached her in a very friendly, matter of fact tone of voice. He offered to help financially by giving her healing advice to assist those in need. With endless patience she helped thousands of patients to get back to health. Today, 28 years later she tells her story and reveals to the world that there is only one God and He wants people to know Him.

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Copyright © 2017 by Batya Shemesh.

Library of Congress Control Number:   2017901367

ISBN:      Hardcover          978-1-5245-7949-4

                Softcover            978-1-5245-7950-0

                eBook                 978-1-5245-7951-7

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the copyright owner.

Scripture quotations marked NIV are taken from the Holy Bible, New International Version®. NIV®. Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984 by International Bible Society. Used by permission of Zondervan. All rights reserved. [Biblica]

Rev. date: 03/15/2017

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Contents

Acknowledgements

Disclaimer

Introduction

Your Family Is Your Ticket To A Good Life

Chapter 1 A Healthy Start

Devotion To Hashem

Health Food

A Teacher’s Advice

Life In Israel

Jerusalem Life

An Ulcer Attack

A New Baby

A Healer In Jerusalem

A Good Name

Chapter 2 God’s View On Nutrition

Fruit

A Sugar Addict

Nutrition In The Torah

Food For Shabbat

Bread

Unleavened Bread

Milk

Milk And Honey Are Tax Free

Who Needs Milk?

We Are Not All Created Equal

Cheese

Humans And Animals

Meat

Cows Have Feelings Too

The Prohibition On Ingesting Blood

Sometimes We Should Just Leave It Out

Fish

The Basic Four

Omega 3

Oil

Why Snack On Snack Foods?

Legumes

Vegetables

Raw Vegetables

Eggs

Should We Eat Eggs?

Let Them Eat Cake

Whole Grains

What Can We Do?

What Else Is In Store?

Introducing Whole Grains

Daily Variety

The Creation Of Life-Giving Food

Children

The Under-Eaters

Children Who Overeat

Quality Time

Babies

The Father’s Role

Nutrition As Medicine

Just One Sin

Cleanliness

Exercise

God’s Menu

Sleep

Conclusion

Miracles

Chapter 3 Keeping Kosher

The First Sacrifice

The First Prohibition On Eating Blood

Esau And Jacob

Bloodshed, Sacrifice And Worship

Incense

Enough Is Enough

Lust For Meat

Roast Before Pot Roast

The Desert Menu

The Pascal Lamb

Blood Poisoning

Animal Fat

The Rabbinical Opinion

Impure Animals

Sea Food

Go Vegetarian

Ritual Slaughter

Sacrifices

Handle With Care

All Kinds Of Sacrifices

The Proper Present

Chapter 4 Don’t Cook A Kid In Its Mother’s Milk

Something To Laugh About

Mother’s Milk

A Parable

Dead Meat

Health Issues

Don’t Cook The Mother And Its Young

The Sins Of The Fathers

A Contemporary Lesson

Don’t Hold On To Mama’s Apron

Chapter 5 Healthy Cooking

Women Live Longer

Variety

All The B Vitamins

A Sneaky Cook

Vitamin C

Oil

All You Need Is Love

Legumes

Food For The Road

Conclusion

Chapter 6 Choosing Life On A Budget

What Vegetables Are Most Important?

Survival

Minimum Daily Nutrition For Children And The Elderly

Protein

Why Is Junk Food So Cheap?

Chapter 7 The Acid/Alkaline Ratio

The Four Minerals Of Balance

Vitamin D

Phytic Acid

Oxalic Acid And Oxalate

Vitamin K

Alkaline Foods

Mildly Acidic Foods

Very Acidic Foods

Batya’s Alkaline Diet

The Menu

Additional Comments

Chapter 8 Yin And Yang And In Between

Eggs

The Different Types Of Grains

Legumes

Nuts

Vegetables

Fruit

Drinks

Dairy

Fish

The Yin Yang In-Between Chart

Keep Healthy

Fish

Chapter 9 God’s View On Alternative Medicine

Hands On Healing

Moses And The Rock

It’s In Your Compassionate Hands

A Copper Serpent

A Placebo

Chapter 10 God’s Pharmacy

Herbal Remedies That Undeniably Succeed

Chapter 11 Uncommon Remedies To Common Maladies

Nutritional Supplements To Prevent Diabetic Complications

Your Daily Plan

Timing Is Everything

Case Histories

Adam

Michael

Mindy

Eva

Danny

Aaron

Sarah And Leo

Miriam And Zev

Jacob

Sarah

Rafi

Johnny

Chapter 12 Life, Death And Longevity

Exercise

Protein

Deadly Diseases

Overeating

Go For The Bloodwork

The Immune System

Mononucleosis

Miscarriages And Pregnancy

Cancer

Strokes

The Sabbath

Life Gives Life

Who Wants Life?

Chapter 13 Anatomy Of A Soul

The Chakras

Chakras And Kabbalistic Counterparts

The Third Eye

The Crown Chakra

The Base Chakra

Get Well Naturally

A Healthy Nefesh

Don’t Be Too Holy

The Sacral Chakra

The Third Chakra

Ruach

The Family Connection

Two Hearts

Neshama

Chaya

Yechida

Healing Chakras That Are Too Open

Enjoy Life

Up To The Seventh

Additional Chakras

Diseases Of Our Souls

Spiritual Causes For Disease

Trust Hashem

Organic Diseases

Chinese Wisdom

Mental Illness

The Bible’s Day Of Judgment

Conclusion

Glossary

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

I would like to thank my parents for introducing our family to the world of natural foods when I was only thirteen years old.

I would like to thank my teachers and colleagues for everything I’ve learned from them and applied in so many ways.

I also would like to thank my patients for trusting me, not giving up hope and for being willing to make life changes for their own health and for the health of their families.

I must give praise and appreciation to my husband David for standing by my side doing everything he can to help me succeed in my work and in my studies. His support and aid in writing this book is priceless.

Most of all I would like to thank God in heaven for giving me the intuition and talent to be a healer and the knowledge to write this book and present the many secrets within.

DISCLAIMER

This book is designed for educational purposes only. The readers may find the information valuable to be better informed consumers of health care. This book is not intended to be a substitute for medical advice from a licensed physician. This book is not meant to be used, nor should it be used, to diagnose or treat any medical condition. For diagnosis or treatment of any medical problem, consult your own physician or health care professional. The publisher and author are not responsible for any specific health condition that may require medical supervision and are not liable for any damages or negative consequences from any treatment, action, application or preparation, to any person reading or following the information in this book. Any use of this information is at your own risk.

INTRODUCTION

Deuteronomy 30:19-20

This day I call the heavens and the earth as witnesses against you that I have set before you, life and death, blessings and curses. Now choose life, so that you and your children may live and that you may love the LORD your God, listen to his voice, and hold fast to him. For the LORD is your life, and he will give you many years in the land he swore to give to your fathers, Abraham, Isaac and Jacob.

I n the above verses, God is announcing to the people of Israel that He is about to give them free choice. When they were in the desert, their choices were very limited. They had manna from heaven and they were guided by their leaders every step of the way. In the verse above, Moses is speaking to a nation on the verge of entering the Land of Canaan. They would have to be independent and make many selections in life. Moses gives them two choices; life and good or death and bad.

The Torah promotes life. Moses tells the Israelites, Choose life! We break all laws to preserve the living. If someone is sick on the Sabbath or even if there is a slight chance of danger, all the laws of Sabbath are broken.

On the same note, we must make all efforts to sustain life, to be strong and healthy. The laws of nature are also God’s laws. Therefore, when we keep them we show respect to our Creator.

Any self-respecting person guards his life by going to the doctor and seriously deliberates over following his orders. If you are very diligent, you will make healthy choices in your life style. For instance, with conscious intent, lower your consumption of high cholesterol foods. Some people are also careful about getting enough sleep and exercise.

This book is for those who are looking for more than just the minimum. They are willing to make the efforts to eat right, cook healthy meals and avoid processed food. Individuals that try as hard as they can to be healthy should be respected and admired, but instead they are often looked down upon. The strength that it takes to avoid eating unhealthy foods and actively prepare and cook healthy foods is a serious challenge for the average person. Anyone who does so should be esteemed. Those who pursue a healthy life style don’t look for admiration because their efforts produce results. Feeling good and healthy is the best reward of all.

Sometimes I wonder how people can eat so much junk and apparently still seem to be healthy. It has taken me decades to figure out the answer. After years of experience I’ve discovered a few very important points as follows:

Major life stresses rob us of our sorely needed nutrients. If you have no reserves, you can collapse physically or mentally when any trauma occurs. People who are used to poor nourishment adapt to it but they cannot possibly achieve to be as smart or as successful as their God-given potentials allow. After many years of nutritional deficiencies, people age rapidly and suffer the consequences of their poor diets.

Studies show that Americans who have economic difficulties statistically have shorter lives than their richer neighbors. This is not only because of the stress of the financial burden but because fresh produce is expensive in America and poor families choose less expensive and less nutritious foods instead. In countries like Israel where fresh produce is inexpensive and abundant and there is modern health care, the poor and the rich have similar lifespans.

We can never be sure that life will be perfect. No insurance can prevent heart disease or stroke. However, with proper nutrition and exercise you can have a better life; you will have the strength to cope with life’s challenges. You don’t have to be rich to eat healthy and you don’t have to be one hundred percent perfect with your diet. What you must have is knowledge. When Moses was in the desert, he presented the Israelites the good and bad deeds that will give life or take it away. In this book, I will present to you the good foods and lifestyle that can have the potential of giving you a new and improved life.

Your Family is Your Ticket to a Good Life

Some people say that they want to live but really, they embrace death. How do we know? They do things that ruin their lives. One example is being nasty to your close ones. If you would, God forbid, get sick, your family will be the only ones that will be there for you. By yelling and fighting with family and distancing them, you destroy your own life.

Another example of welcoming death is people who smoke or take drugs. If you don’t care about your health enough to make it your top priority, then you are choosing death. Some parents do not insist that their children eat healthy food because they don’t like it. The truth is that children have a very strong desire to live. If you explain to your children that specific foods will prevent major diseases, you would be surprised with their reactions. Parents tell their children that the good food is healthy, but the concept of health is hard for children to understand. Explain what diseases people have because of poor health. Take a few days to enumerate health problems until they come up with the question, What should we do?

When my son was seven years old, he was having a binge on popsicles that his father bought him in the grocery store. I explained to him that there are a lot of diseases in the world and one of them is diabetes. Diabetes comes from eating too many sweet things. I explained, Many people become weak from this disease and they can become blind or lose a leg. Millions of people have died from diabetes. My son’s reaction was amazing. He looked at me with blame in his eyes, Why didn’t you tell me that there was a disease that was caused by eating sugar called diabetes?

From that day on I realized that no matter what their age, children have a right to informed consent. To give children food that is not good for them, you would have to explain the risks and benefits. If you don’t, you are tricking them. They trust us to take good care of them so how can we deceive those innocent souls? Until they develop enough to fully understand, you should praise them for eating healthy so that they grow up big and strong.

The problem is that many parents do not know what is healthy and what isn’t. They cannot afford to eat only organic or become vegans. This book is for everyone, rich or poor. You can eat and be healthy on a very small budget.

The literal transition of Deuteronomy 30:15 is, See! I have set before you, life and goodness, death and evil, and you shall choose life.

Just as in Deuteronomy, Hashem (our nickname for God) set the good and the bad, in this book I will set before you, foods that are good for you and foods that are bad. The good foods give life and the bad foods promote death. You choose.

Deuteronomy 15: 26

If you listen carefully to the LORD your God and do what is right in his eyes, if you pay attention to his commands and keep all his decrees, I will not bring on you any of the diseases I brought on the Egyptians, for I am the LORD, who heals you.

Hashem is not only interested in our spirit, but like any father He wants us to be well. His commands are not only the rules of the Torah but also the laws of nature. By obeying the principles of nature, you are obeying God’s laws.

The rules that I present to you in this book are not conventional laws of Kosher eating. My purpose is not to change Jewish law. I am searching for the secret of health. What’s better than to look for clues in the Bible? The Creator of the world certainly knows us better than what we think is healthy and what isn’t.

How do we know that the Bible is true? See Rabbi Lawrence Keleman – How do we know that the Torah is True? You can watch his fabulous speech on YouTube.

Aside from the amazing findings that are in the Bible, I have my own discoveries. Throughout my twenty-six years of experience with thousands of patients, I’ve discovered many secrets of health and natural medicine, some of which I will reveal in this book.

One of the amazing topics that I will cover is the comparison between eastern studies of health and the Jewish outlook. We will compare the Kabbalistic teachings of the soul with the chakras adding constructive ways how to implement this wisdom. I also delve into the way Chinese medicine categorizes foods and how we can use that knowledge to choose the proper diet that we need as individuals.

To begin, I would like to tell the story of how I got interested in health food and healing as a young girl and developed into a successful healer.

CHAPTER 1

A Healthy Start

I was born in New York City and reared in an orthodox Jewish home that kept all the laws of the Bible implicitly. In 1972, my family was living in a Jewish religious neighborhood in Brooklyn. I was very close to my mother. She taught me how to clean, cook, sew and do all kinds of needlework and crafts. After I started the seventh grade, my mother became very weak. She couldn’t keep her job. She used to work as a secretary from 9:00 A.M. to 5:00 P.M., but suddenly she lost all her strength and enthusiasm. Mommy remained exhausted in bed all day except for supervising my brother and me in the kitchen and laying down on the couch in the afternoon. All the housework fell on me. I attended to all the dishes, the laundry, and the vacuuming. I also cooked most of the meals with my mother’s guidance.

In the spring of 1973 when I was thirteen years old, I worked in preparation for the Passover holiday, known as Pesach in Hebrew. I cleaned and changed over all the dishes and scrubbed the kitchen appliances according to the laws of the eight-day festival. After the holiday, I had to pack up all the Passover dishes in one night. My mother was too tired, so I did it all by myself. I worked until midnight and then I came to my parents’ bedroom to inform them that I had finished. My father was very pleased and proud of me. He went back to his bedroom, returned and offered me ten dollars. Ten dollars was a lot of money in those days. I used to baby-sit at that time and made a dollar an hour. I told my father that I didn’t agree to lose out on the reward of my mitzvah (Hebrew for good deed) for ten dollars. I said, It’s not worth it. I worked too hard to sell this mitzvah for just ten dollars! My father was shocked but impressed. He went into his bedroom and told my mother. Until this day I am not sure if they appreciated the extent of my unique sense of religious commitment.

Mitzvah means a commandment from God in the Torah. It also refers to a moral deed or act of kindness as in the above example.

Today I know that there is nothing wrong with getting paid for doing a good deed. You don’t lose out on Hashem’s reward because of monetary compensation even if the mitzvah is part of your job like a teacher or a nurse. However, I do want my readers to understand how even as a young child I was very spiritual and devout.

Devotion to Hashem

As I matured I continued to grow in my level of faith and devotion. To fulfill the commandment to Honor Your Father and Mother, I respected my parents, no matter what they did. I started praying from the prayer book, with deep concentration, attending to every single word. I also took my schoolwork very seriously and excelled in Bible studies.

I worked on myself to develop a love for God. We learned in school that if you say to Hashem, I love You, Hashem you would start feeling love for Him. I already learned from the first grade that it is a mitzvah to love Hashem. We say every day in the prayer book that you should Love Hashem with all your heart, all your soul and all your strength. (Deuteronomy 6:5). My faith gave me the strength and perseverance to excel in my studies and in my household chores.

Health Food

My mother’s illness was diagnosed as a thyroid problem. The medication that was prescribed to her didn’t help her recuperate her strength. A few months after Passover, my mother finally visited a private doctor. He was a pioneer in a new field called mega-vitamin therapy. He instructed us to remove all the white flour, white sugar and white rice from the house.

My father meticulously threw out all the unhealthy products from the house. He bought large sacks of whole-wheat flour and brown rice plus a large jar of honey. I was fourteen years old at the time but very precocious. I learned to make breads and cakes. I practiced altering recipes from white flour to whole wheat and from white sugar to honey. My parents also bought books and magazines about nourishment which I relished. Adele Davis was my favorite author. Today I know she made mistakes. Nevertheless, I respect her for her many breakthroughs in the field of nutrition and vitamins. The doctor that treated my mother prescribed vitamins in large doses for both her and my younger brother, who was very hyperactive. My mother completely followed this new doctor’s regimen and she regained her health after a year of illness. She returned to work with even more energy than before. I was thrilled and became encouraged to learn more about nutrition, vitamins and minerals.

I came to school with whole-wheat crackers, an unpeeled carrot and a cucumber. In those days, it was unheard of not to peel vegetables. I learned that most of the vitamins are in the peels, so why discard the best part?

At first, the girls made fun of me. Even though I was usually very shy, when talking about health food I was proud and confident. I would open a box of whole-wheat crackers in the late afternoon and distribute them to everyone. They were thrilled because everyone was already hungry by the end of the day. By the end of the year, one of the most popular girls in my class brought unpeeled carrots, cucumbers and whole wheat crackers to school.

A Teacher’s Advice

When I was in the tenth grade I had a private talk with my Bible teacher and told her that I wanted to improve my level of religious observance. She advised me to write a diary and specify in each day what I did right or wrong. She said that just writing would make me grow. The diary really did help me advance emotionally and spiritually. When I browse through it today, I can find stories that I have no memory of at all. It is fascinating to learn about myself from my own words of the past.

At the time, we were living in a neighborhood of young Jewish families. There were lots of children on my block and I started working as a baby-sitter in the evenings. The dollar an hour I earned was enough to pay for my own carfare, clothing, a new tape recorder, and even to have enough left over to save a little in my own bank account.

Thus, I blossomed into a little lady at age fifteen. I began to exude a bit more self-confidence concerning my new ventures into the world of health food and into earning my own allowance. Slowly I became more socially outgoing and began making more friends.

I have never stopped learning about natural medicine, vitamins, and herbs. When I was first married and was waiting to have children, we didn’t have money to purchase books. A friend bought me the book called Laurel’s Kitchen by Laurel Robertson, Carol Flinders, and Bronwen Godfrey. My sister in law bought me another book called Back to Eden by Jethro Kloss. I also found a few health food cookbooks in my parents’ house and started experimenting with them in the kitchen. I loved Diet for a Small Planet by Francis Moore Lappe. These and others books kept me busy, well versed in the basics of nutrition, vitamins and herbal healing and further provided a springboard into my future knowledge and expertise.

Life in Israel

My father was a Turkish Jew. He never felt at home in America. He taught us about our homeland and the Jewish connection to Israel. After years of trying to make the move to Israel, he finally did and found a job there as a social worker for the elderly.

My sister and I went to Israel ahead of my parents and younger brother in order to start the school year on time. I was sixteen years old and my sister was fourteen. We were so happy on that plane flight; I will never forget it. We were laughing and playing for the whole eleven-hour flight. We didn’t sleep a wink.

After we landed in Israel, my sister and I were escorted from the plane to an old vehicle it’s called a tender. It was something between a truck and a bus. We were driven right to our new school. The girls who had started school just a few days earlier were very excited to greet us. In Israel, an American girl was a real novelty in those days. The year was 1976 and Israel was not as modern as America. My grandmother, that is my father’s mother, was living in Israel. She was very happy to have my sister and me visit. We had fun in her place during our stays for our Sabbath vacations, that happened once in three weeks.

The dormitory was in a fairly new campus and the food was simple. The main staples of the diet were dark bread sold without packaging and leben, a cultured milk product like yogurt sold in plastic containers. We had delicious oranges! The school was right next to an orchard and three crates of oranges were brought into the dining room every day. They were a real treat; no one ever got tired of them. Each girl could take three oranges to her room if she liked. For breakfast, they served bread with a soft white cheese, olives, tomatoes, cucumbers, jam and leben. No cereal and milk like in America.

Lunch was a vegetable soup, baked chicken, rice or pasta and some string beans or carrots. Supper was just a little bit of tuna made spicy with tomato sauce, tomatoes, salad, tahini and bread. Tahini is a paste made from sesame seeds. I lost a lot of weight those first few months because I had a hard time getting used to the Israeli diet.

I came to Israel thinking that I knew Hebrew. I was in for a big surprise! I excelled in Hebrew class in my American high school, but book smart didn’t work in the big arena. The girls were talking a mile a minute and I had no idea what they were saying. When they addressed me, they slowed down. Then I got a chance to look things up in my pocket dictionary. I was very insistent; I wanted to know everything. I asked the girls what every item in our room was called in Hebrew. No one knew any English; I had to sink or swim. I chose to swim. Apparently, my sister also chose to succeed. Although she initially knew less Hebrew than I did, within a few months she was totally acclimated to the language.

The dormitory was mostly populated with girls from different parts of the country. Some of them who were not born in Israel came from the Soviet Union. Many girls were born in Israel while their parents were born in Morocco or Yemen. They had a very heavy accent in their Hebrew and they enunciated every syllable and consonant, including the guttural letters that modern Israelis didn’t pronounce. Hebrew is a phonetic language so when I learned a new word I immediately knew how to spell it. No spelling mistakes!

Then it came to grammar class. I didn’t do well at all. I did OK in Math. This was not an easy task because all the definitions in geometry were in Hebrew! I had a friend named Ilana who helped me with my homework. We studied for tests together and I started to really comprehend. She had tremendous patience. Ilana even took me to her house on a moshav, a village of farmers, to stay for the holidays. Like a kibbutz, a moshav is also a cooperative settlement but it is composed of small individual farms where each farmer earns for himself rather than for the collective.

Ilana’s house was on a beautiful countryside farm in the valley of Jezreel, in the lower Galilee region in Israel. As a child, she heard that the world was round. She thought that the perfectly rounded valley with hills around it was the whole world! Staying on a moshav the first time in my life was fascinating. It gave me a glimpse of Israeli farm and family life.

There was no thought of telephoning anyone who lived out of the country. Ilana’s family didn’t even own a phone. The only contact that I had with my parents was through letters.

One day I got a message from my parents. We’re coming to Israel! They sold the house and would come on Aliya (Hebrew for immigrating to Israel) as they had planned. I was so excited! My sister and I were in Israel for four months. By the time my parents arrived, we had learned enough Hebrew to show off our knowledge of the Holy language. The best part of Hebrew fluency was the ability to learn the Bible and its commentaries so much more easily. Instead of being a burden, studying Bible became fun. We studied The Holy Scriptures for about two hours a day and we were able to learn at least five time faster and more in depth than in any classes in which we had studied in the Diaspora.

In the morning, before we started the school lessons, we prayed in our classrooms for about a half hour and then went for breakfast. I prayed very slowly.

I sensed a strong sense of holiness in the Promised Land and feeling that way, I took time expressing myself to Hashem. I was very devoted to observing every word of the Bible. I even refused to gossip about other girls because it is forbidden by Torah law.

Leviticus 19:16, A gossiper should not walk amongst your nation.

We studied Jewish law and Jewish history followed by a few hours of secular subjects such as math, English and science. We finished school about two o’clock in the afternoon. In New York, I came from a school in the city that ended at 4:30 every day; now I felt like we were on vacation. We had all afternoon to take walks in the fields, go to town, do homework or just goof off and have fun. Once we were given a task to collect the remaining peanuts from a neighboring field that had been already harvested by machine. Before plowing their fields to prepare for planting sunflowers, the owners encouraged us to gather as many peanuts as we could for free. We collected sacks of them; they were so delicious!

Jerusalem Life

As much as I loved the school, the language and the new culture, the dormitory life was too close-knit and cliquey for me. I needed my independence. When I returned to the dormitory after the summer vacation, I realized that I was not cut out for that group living. I left the dorm and lived with my parents in Jerusalem, the Holy City. I applied to continue studies in an all-girls religious high school in Jerusalem that was a branch of the village school. They gladly accepted me for the senior year. I was already fluent in Hebrew but I needed help in literature and grammar classes. I made friends who invited me to their homes and helped me with my studies. The atmosphere in the school was very friendly. They weren’t so strict about rules and regulations. It was a very orthodox school, but not more religious than I was accustomed and desired.

My parents were totally committed to life in the Holy Land. They were willing to suffer the lack of basics they had in New York, like owning a car. They lived on a much less range of food, just in order to adapt. Nowadays, an enormous variety and plentitude of food is available in Israel, but in the 1970’s, most people ate bread, soft white cheese, fruits, vegetables, eggs and once a week chicken in honor of the Sabbath.

Jerusalem city life was fun. I went to the shuk, (open market) to buy fruits and vegetables for my family. I cooked and cleaned at home and still had time to swim