I have often wondered how a nation such as ours will ever achieve peace. When you hear Israeli's talking about politics it is almost impossible to believe that we will ever be able to reach an agreement on Peace with the Palestinians, when we ourselves cannot agree with each other over the most simple issues.
Interestingly, and somewhat connected at least in my head, last night I went to my first ever Va'ad Bayit meeting. A Va'ad Bayit is the elected organization that runs the affairs of your building, from paying bills to ordering gas for the heating etc...
Our building, built in 1972, has 9 apartments. Originally it only had 8 but the woman downstairs on the bottom right split her apartment in two and expanded into the basement to create another apartment on the bottom floor, where her son now lives.
What amazed me about this meeting, is that these people (mostly over the age of 50), who have been living together for the last 15+ years, meet every couple of years or so for a massive screaming match. Inevitably at this meeting one or another will accuse the other of stealing this or that, the argument comes back to the same issues that have been haunting the building since 1972. No money in the kupah, the heating is not on long enough, the heating is on too long, the cleaning lady is useless, the cleaning lady needs a pay rise... you get the point. After 2 hours of sitting quietly by, just listening to the accusations flowing back and forth, the most amazing thing happened.
People who 5 min before had been yelling and screaming threats at each other, stopped so that the lady of the house could serve drinks and sufganiot, we stopped to light candles together and sing happy birthday to one of the neighbors daughters who turned 12. She went around the room and gave everyone a kiss. People who until this meeting had walked past each other in the halls with their heads bowed down, not a greeting to be heard, we seen wishing each other chag sameach and passing drinks and food!
After we had eaten, we sat down and one person suggested we forget the past 15 years. Actually he suggested they forget all the arguments up to and including 2003. He did a quick cheshbon of bills and outstanding payments due for 2004/2005 and split it up into sensible payments for each apartment owner. It was decided that the apartments on the right of the building with 4 rooms would pay one amount. The apartments on the left of the building with 3 rooms would pay a lesser amount. The cleaning lady would get a 130 shekel monthly increase. The one person in the building who could not afford to pay any money would be covered by everyone in the building. The number on the door outside our building would be replaced so people could read it (my personal gripe). The heating would be put on from 6:30-8:30am to warm the apartment for the day because many of the residents were elderly and didn't leave their apartments to go to work, and again from 4:30-10:00pm each night.
It was decided that 2 new people, a French man who is 4 months new to the building, and a French woman who has rented for 15 years, (they wanted me to do it but I think my husband would have killed me) would open a new bank account and manage the Va'ad from that point forward. The latter part of the meeting (after food) taking a total of 30 min to work out.
All said farewell and chag sameach, smiles and handshakes all around...
But I am assured it will all be repeated at the next meeting. Ain't Israel a marvelous place!
