Siyum on Kesubos

Another nice Shabbos for us in Modiin. My parents usually have to stay home to help care for my grandmother but my aunt and uncle are in town from San Diego so my parents were able to come to us for Shabbos. We also had two boys from Netiv Aryeh, through Anywhere in Israel. We were supposed to have Eli and Elie with us for both meals but in the end they went out of town for Shabbos. Lucky for us they only found out they were going away after they had already brought us three delicious cakes for dessert. They didn't take them back so we had good desserts. (Eli and Elie are moving back to the States after only a couple months here because of the university strike. Mr. Eli was supposed to be in a PhD program and this strike was messing him up so they're going back to the States.) For lunch today we had the Neustaters and their kids had a total of three friends. Then our next door neighbors on both sides came over for dessert with lots of kids and kids' friends. So it was a good thing that we had so many cakes for dessert.

At shalosh seudos at shul, we made a siyum on maseches Kesubos. I actually still haven't finished Yevamos because when we first came to Israel I slacked off a little and have to still learn the last 20 blatt or so of that masechet. When Kesubos started Aryeh Bak agreed to become my chavrusa and we've been learning consistently for the last four months. Tomorrow we start nedarim. After learning the last couple blatt of Kesubos it's hard to move back to Chutz La'aretz. With lines like these, how can anyone leave Eretz Yisrael (explanation courtesy of Kollel Iyun Hadaf):

• This is because anyone who lives in Eretz Yisrael is like one who that has a G-d, but anyone who lives in Chutz la'Aretz is like one who does not
• Anyone who lives in Eretz Yisrael dwells without sin
  
• anyone who walks four Amos in Eretz Yisrael is guaranteed a share in the world to come.

Don't take that the wrong way ... we really haven't made up our minds yet.