Today was the first day I was without the group. It is such a different feeling when there is no required time schedule. I found myself actually sitting somewhat relaxed at breakfast without looking at the clock!
The main story today is the weather. All day long are dire predictions of a terrible snow storm to being Tuesday night and run into Wednesday. Today, Tuesday, we had a precursor of things to come. For ISRAEL, today was great weather! For me it was not the greatest…we had wind gusts over 60 miles an hour (I can hear the wind howling as I write!), heavy rains and bone chilling temperatures. All in all, if you are into that kind of thing, then it was a gorgeous day! Reports vary between a dusting to 10 inches (!!) of snow. My flight is early Thursday (meaning, leave for the airport middle of the night on Wednesday. Better not mess up anything…)
[Addition...added later: IT HAS BEGUN TO SNOW IN JERUSALEM!]
A couple of observations about today….Considering the weather, I decided to do something I had wanted to do for a while: I went to Yad Vashem without a group..alone…solo. The weather was SO right for this visit. It reminded me (although no snow on the ground…yet) of the weather in Poland, when I visited the concentration camps. It was a very moving experience to be there and to realize that I had the chance to visit SO many of the communities “highlighted” in Yad Vashem. So much resonated within me as I looked at the documents; watched the videos; read the signs; and as I listened to the voices…the very haunting voices…of the witness reports. The piece-de-resistance was the Children’s Memorial. Those of you who have been there know what I mean. Everyone else—I will let you discover that on your own.
The final observation had to do with a shopping mall. I went with my daughter to the Malcha Mall (I hate malls…). While I was there, it was time to daven Mincha. Where else in the WORLD can you be in a shopping mall that has a BET KENESSET with a minyan!?!? There were over 50 people there for Mincha. I marveled at the Aron HaKodesh that was brought from Italy and made in the late 17th century (Do you think that the ones who built this EVER could have conceived of the Aron being in a Bet Kenesset in a MALL ?? Yet, there it stood…
Well, tomorrow is my last day here (weather permitting!!) and am hoping all will go off without a hitch. On a personal note, I get to celebrate my daughter’s (Daniella) 18th birthday with her tomorrow. This will be the first time I am with her on her birthday since she was 12 years old! I am always in Israel at that time! So from that perspective, I am very happy also to be where I am!
Layla Tov…L’Hitraot.
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4 comments:
Rabbi, the other Yaelle and I would like to express our dismay and disgust that Yerushalaim had 10 inches of snow, but we in Chicago couln't muster enough for even an early closing.
What that heck.
Hoping your flight's canceled (so you can stay longer)
Ya'el and Yaelle
P.S. Yaelle says rhombus (I think that's how you spell it...)
P.P.S Shula says hello and she hopes you have snowboots.
P.P.P.S my dad was telling me the story about the time it snowed when he was doing his junior year abroad his sophomore year at Hebrew U and it snowed. He needed to withdraw money from the bank, so he went to the teller and handed him a withdrawal (sp) slip paper thing, but the teller refused to give him money because it had snowed outside a few hours before, even though it was no longer snowing, and even if it had been, they were both inside, so it wouldn't have mattered anyways.
I am now being accused of rambling by several people, so I will finish by saying that Shula would like you to know that this one time, when she was a baby in Yerushalaim, they were snowbound. Great story Shula.
You guys really need to switch to decaf!!!!
PS--dodecahedron
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