It's so good to be in my second home Israel! A piece of my soul has always lived here in Jerusalem and I meet up with it every two years or so when I come for the summer.
As I'm about to enter my second Shabbat I figure I should get off at least a quick post. I've been very tired since I've been here. Didn't sleep much the first week but that didn't stop me from doing LOTS of walking. Had hoped that would cure the not sleeping from jet lag but it didn't. oh well. Am sleeping every other night now. Days are spent doing some davenning (praying) at the Conservative Yeshiva (my home away from home) when I can get there early enough for the morning minyan, doing some hevruta (pairs) learning with friends/colleagues, walking around the city, and beginning writing on my dream book (more on that later). Oh, and shopping - must be a visitor and contribute to the economy:)
I'm sharing an apartment with my good friend R'Laurie. We've shared a flat before. She comes every summer and I glom onto her place every other summer. Works out well for both of us - at least she hasn't kicked me out yet - so far so good. This place is right off Emek Refaim, a very touristy part of Jerusalem. Lots of shopping, lots of restaurants. Good coffee shops. We happen to be right across from מוזיאון הטבע / the Nature Museum (or Museum of Natural History according to Google Maps) which is where I learned at a Beit Midrash with Nava Tehila a thousand years ago when I was a baby rabbit in rabbinical school.
Best thing about this apartment is the back yard. Or as Lady Catherine de Bourgh (of Jane Austen's Pride and Prejudice) once described the side of the Bennet's household to Elizabeth, “Miss Bennet, there seemed to be a prettyish kind of a little wilderness on one side of your lawn." Here are some pictures of our prettyish kind of wilderness complete with pomegranate trees, the likes of which I'm sure they are unlikely to see in Hertfordshire.
This is the pomegranate tree - or eitz rimon in hebrew. The fruit is beginning to turn. Maybe we'll luck out and a piece or two will be ready by the time we leave end of July!
Anyone who knows me knows I rarely sit outside. But it is so lovely out here that I find myself sitting outside and writing - or at lease sitting on the couch and gazing out the floor to ceiling windows and thinking about sitting outside:)
Have already spoken with my spouse and children to exchange Shabbat blessings. Now I will actually go into the wilderness beyond to celebrate Shabbat with a colleague.
My next post will be about last Shabbat and this one.
Wishing everyone a Shabbat of peace, health, love and happiness. Emphasis on peace.
R'Arlene
