My husband discovered Eretz Nederet!

My dear husband loves reading a rather large number of blogs and newspapers, so when I told him I started this writing endeavor, he asked for the blog’s address added it to his Google – reader; that’s true love folks.  Last week he stumbled across a skit from a show called Eretz Nederet and emailed it to me. I love Eretz Nederet! It is highly irreverent, makes fun of everyone and everything that goes on in Israel. Eretz Nederet (ארץ נהדרת), which translates to “[our] wonderful land” is Israel’s version of Saturday Night Live. Even some of my religious friends enjoy this Friday night show through the wonder of Tevo, which allows a person to pre-program to record a show at a later time. Eretz Nederet airs on Friday nights which is when Shabbat (or the Sabbath), the Jewish day of rest, begins. Observant members of the community refrain from doing any work, including using electricity, phones, and writing. Thus watching Eretz Nederet on Friday nights is not an option, but here is where Tevo comes to the rescue: Tevo turns on and records the show automatically on Friday night without prompting the religious person to break Shabbat by using electricity. Pre-programming of electrical appliances before Shabbat which starts at sundown allows some, but not all, people within the religious community to use electricity while observing Jewish Law.

Like I said, I love Eretz Nederet. I am ashamed to admit to how many hours I wasted on youtube looking at sketches. I justify the wasted time on the internet, by telling myself that this is the best way to maintain Hebrew comprehension. If you are interested, some skits found on youtube have English subtitles. Last week, A. love of my life surprised me by forwarding a skit about Israelis in India. If you searched for Tamil you likely narrowed our future post to two candidates, Sri Lanka and India. We are going to live in South India where there are approximately 50 million Tamil speakers, who are mostly concentrated in one state.

I want to give you a little bit of context for the skit A. sent to me and why, even though I think I have seen this skit 100 times, I still find it really funny. If you are a Jewish-Israeli citizen born or naturalized, and live in Israel past your 15^th birthday, I believe, you will automatically be drafted to serve in the Israeli Defense Force (IDF). Women serve for 2 years and men for 3 years. After a soldier completes his initial service, he or she will remain on reserve duty every year for 6 weeks, I want to say until the age of 45. I think the service times have been reduced, but I don’t remember the exact figures. If you are a woman and get married, you are released from reserve duty altogether. After the service, young Israelis work to save up money to pay for a six month to a yearlong trek abroad.  In droves 22 year old Israelis flock to South and East Asia and to a lesser extent to South America. Israelis love trekking through India and visit in very large numbers every year. This skit pokes fun at Israeli tourists in India. Unfortunately, I could not find a version of this skit with English subtitles. However half of it is in English and is very funny even if you don’t speak Hebrew, if you are interested click here. I think the funniest part said in Hebrew is that the girl keeps telling her friends that certain things are not “politically correct.”