Lapid

*The cast: Idit (46), Baruch (46), Shani (21), Noa (18), Rinat (13), Yarden (11).

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* Additional tenants: Tishtash, a mixed dachshund with a sweater, and five cats - Haley ("the queen"), her daughter Dazon, her granddaughter Banana, and Kafika and Michele ("the new ones").

* The home: Two stories with five different levels inside, detached, on a damp lot (from the March rains), 160 square meters, red-tiled roof (with an attic), a Jerusalem stone wall and a painting of a harp on the mezuzah on the front door.

* Entering: The lower level contains a living room / dining area / kitchen with a piano (French), sofas (green velvet) and vegetarian lasagna in the oven. Half a floor above is the master bedroom, which contains a library laden with CDs, tapes and books (selected items: the "Star Wars" trilogy, the latest Meir Shalev novel and Pearl Buck's "The Good Earth"). Slightly above is the "music space."

* The music space: A set of drums, a synthesizer, a cello, a violin, guitars, amplifiers, loudspeakers, consoles, a video projector and a "charter."

* The charter: An agreement concerning the "Sound of the Family" (the family's musical ensemble). Among the clauses: "I joined of my own free choice - exemption from rehearsals only by prior notification."

* The home (cont.): Adjacent (same level) is Yarden's room (with a Beatles poster) and above it are the rooms of Noa (with a sewing machine) and Shani (with Hillary Clinton's book "Living History"). Way above, in the varnished pinewood attic, is Rinat's room ("the best room in the house"). We head back to the living room (to instant coffee and wafer cookies).

* Real estate history: The family moved here in 1999, buying second-hand, paying the shekel equivalent of $200,000 ("before the renovation"). Previously they lived in Givat Ze'ev, a neighborhood outside of Jerusalem ("We wanted a place that isn't in the territories"). The Green Line, they say, passes along the sidewalk opposite.

* Livelihoods and occupations: Baruch, an electronics engineer, has worked for more than seven years for a high-tech company in Tel Aviv that develops "broadband communications equipment." His working day starts between 9 and 10 A.M. and ends between 7 and 8 P.M. ("during development we work without a clock"). His transportation is a company car (Mazda MPV). He likes his work. At home he plays guitar and piano.

* Idit: Has a Ph.D. in physics, teaches, plays violin, recorder and bass guitar. She does her teaching as part of a project involving concentrated physics studies for high-school students in Tel Aviv, getting back and forth with Baruch, with a colleague or by bus. She devotes the afternoon hours to driving the children (to extra-curricular activities in Modi'in, Jerusalem and Beit Shemesh).

* Shani: She completed her army service a year ago, and works as an assistant in an anthroposophic after-school center in Neot Kedumim (which is next to Lapid), where she is responsible for 10 first-graders, warming up their lunches and sometimes also playing the recorder for them. She gets to work in a 1994 Daewoo Racer ("the family jalopy"). In October she will enter the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, taking International Relations and East Asia Studies. In the family ensemble she plays piano, recorder and drums, and also sings.

* Noa: A high-school senior, she is studying for her matriculation exams in an eternal framework, in Jerusalem. She is also studying piano and will perform a recital as part of her matriculation obligations at the conservatory of the Rubin Academy of Music and Dance on the Givat Ram campus of the Hebrew University. She left her previous high school (in Modi'in) last year, after explaining to her parents that it wasn't for her ("Two serious talks convinced them that I had to switch to Jerusalem"). During the week she stays with her boyfriend in the Jerusalem neighborhood of Rehavia, or with her grandmother, Lily, in the Nayot neighborhood ("She lends me the wheels"). She has "a big bag with everything that's needed for the week," and comes home on Thursdays. She also likes to sew ("using the trial-and-error method"); as we saw, she has a sewing machine in her room ("which Mom got for her wedding"). She is also studying voice development with a private teacher, and in the past took cello lessons. Noa will start her army service in the summer.

* Rinat: An eighth-grader at a school in Modi'in, in a class that specializes in mathematics, physics and culture. She will likely do her matriculation exam in mathematics early, in 11th grade ("And then I will be free to pursue a B.A. track"). At the moment, she is studying the irrational behavior of people in regard to the planet, aspires to be the first person to land on Mars, and is also studying violin (with a private teacher in Beit Shemesh; Idit drives her there and back), piano (with a teacher in Jerusalem; ditto Idit), harmonics and Krav Maga (self-defense; she has an orange belt). She also takes part in a trekking group ("I recently gave up ping-pong").

* Yarden: Fifth-grade student in a Lapid school, takes lessons in classical guitar in Modi'in ("Mom drives me") and electric guitar (close to home). The electric guitar has a story.

* The guitar: Baruch built it when he was 17, and he was written about in the youth magazine published by Maariv.

* The rehearsals: During the week in separate groups, on Shabbat with the full ensemble, from 10 A.M. until 11 P.M. ("with a lunch break").

* The repertoire: Usually Beatles stuff. They have been appearing for three years, usually on a volunteer basis, sometimes for a fee (in the Kultura Club in South Tel Aviv). During the Pesach week they will perform at the Bombamele Festival ("No one talked to us about money").

* Baruch's bio: An only child, born 1960, Kishinev, Moldova. Came to Israel with his parents in 1972 (to French Hill in Jerusalem). His father, now retired, was a mechanical engineer, his mother an electrical engineer, a teacher and a principal at a Jerusalem branch of the ORT vocational schools network. He spent a year at the Hadasim boarding school ("I learned how to play guitar there from the kids"), returned to Jerusalem, attended an ORT school and then joined the army's officer-candidate academic studies program. He completed an undergraduate degree in electronic engineering at the Technion - Israel Institute of Technology in Haifa, served in the career army in Modi'in, reaching the rank of captain, and then joined the company where he continues to work. He started to take piano lessons back in Russia; at work, he says, he tries to liven things up ("with no success").

* Idit's bio: Born 1960, Kibbutz Beit Kama. Her parents, who had been members of the left-wing Zionist Hashomer Hatzair youth movement, immigrated from France in 1959 and returned there after the 1967 Six-Day War ("Dad was recruited by IBM"). She attended a school near Paris and immigrated to Israel by herself at the age of 19, to enter the Technion, where she did a bachelor's degree in civil engineering and physics ("the most interesting thing in the world"), got married to Baruch and went on to do a graduate degree. She did her doctorate when she was already the mother of four children (at the Hebrew University).

* The meeting: 1979. Idit came to the Technion and didn't know that Baruch had spotted her. Baruch: "She was such a special creature, a girl with two golden braids." Later they met in the student choir, and not by chance ("I sort of kept an eye on her"). Baruch sang and Idit played the violin in the accompanying orchestra. "He also stood out," she says. "He was tall and didn't sing off-key, in contrast to others." At this stage nothing happened between them. For four years he revolved around her without results, until one day, during a birthday party, he sat down at the piano and played Queen's "You Take My Breath Away" ("and the manipulation worked").

* The wedding: 1984, at Shulhan David on Mount Zion, Jerusalem. "We both performed," they say, noting that there was no other musical group. "It's a principle with us to do it yourself."

* Daily routine: Idit gets up every morning at a quarter to six ("There's laundry, there's the dishwasher") and she's also the first to leave. Baruch gets up at 6:30 and is responsible for making the sandwiches. If he doesn't have time for his coffee, he will take it in a thermos and drink it while driving to work on Highway 443. At lunchtime it's everyone for himself: Rinat will heat up spaghetti, Yarden eats in school ("We get a hot meal"), Baruch in the company cafeteria, Idit at her place of work (a salad from home), Noa will make do with hot chocolate from a local Aroma, and Shani will find something in the refrigerator before heading for work. The only joint meals take place on Friday evening ("with Kiddush") and Saturday for lunch ("usually vegetarian").

* Household burden: Everyone washes the floor of his room and Baruch also does the public areas. They don't have a cleaning woman.

* Television: "There's usually no time." But the family didn't miss the finale of "Born to Dance."

* God: Baruch hasn't decided, ditto for Noa. Idit says that thinking about the complexity of the planet can generate faith even in the heart of a physicist. Shani reveals that she is experiencing an inner struggle, and Rinat "believes until someone proves different."

* Peace: "Not in our generation" (Baruch). "The other side is not yet ripe for it, but in the final analysis I am optimistic."

* Dreams: Baruch - "To create something for the world, like a song, for instance"; Idit - "For the children to find their self-expression"; Shani - "To contribute in the field of human rights": Noa - "To have a family as quickly as possible"; Rinat - "To be an astronaut or invent a medicine"; Yarden - "To meet Paul McCartney."

* Eleanor Rigby: Idit and Rinat, violin; Noa, cello; Baruch, vocal (solo); Shani and Yarden, vocals. Moving.

* Happiness quotient (scale of 1-10): Baruch - 10; Idit - 10; Shani - 8; Noa - 6; Rinat - 7; Yarden - 9.

The place

Lapid - A community northeast of Modi'in with a population of about 2,000, established 1996 in an area that was part of no-man's-land until 1967.