Blog

Three Levantine Arabic diary entries from the Jewish New Year season — a late-night Selichot prayer while sick, Tzom Gedaliah (the fast day right after Rosh Hashanah), and a sleepless morning after the kids took over the bed.

A parent takes the bus to school after their son loses the car keys, hoping he learns responsibility.

Life got busy and the daily posts stopped for a while — a quick note explaining the gap, missing readers, and picking the habit back up.

A restless week of insomnia, failed remedies, and accidentally learning Latin American history through a four-hour podcast.

I’m too tired to do anything today — except, it turns out, dishes, job applications, a 2:30 meeting, a walk, and a swim at the nearby spring.

The Arabic keyboard kept slowing me down, so I built a Telegram bot to post Daily Derja by voice instead.

I baked a Hungarian Esterházy torte for my Hebrew birthday — meringue, custard, fondant — and what I’ll change before my civil birthday on July 5.

One year in — the dialect changed, the work changed, the Iran war from my first post hasn’t, and I’m still complaining. الحمد لله.

Learn the word for ’enough’ in Shami Arabic (كفاية / kfāya) — used to stop something, say something is sufficient, or express you’ve had your fill.

A cold shower in summer — because the solar water heater ran out. A short Shami story about Israeli logic that makes sense until it doesn’t.