For much of my education career I’ve worked a Sunday to Thursday work week. Even now that I’ve been consulting for 11 years, I work more Sundays than not during the school year and Fridays are usually light work days. So I’m very in sync with the Israeli weekend that also includes preparing for Shabbat.
Friday I made my pilgrimage to Shoresh, to see my brother from a Kurdish mother, Avi Yehuda. It was a great visit; I tasted his new blend and drank more than a glass or two of his newish Malbec which has grown and matured beautifully since I participated in the planting around 2015. A beautiful wine. But I left with a bottle of his Shiraz with which I have an even closer relationship.
I know from my many visits to the shul in Binyamina that it’s a place to fulfill an obligation They don’t make it easy. There are no times posted, no web presence. No one welcomes you, you have to be an insider to get a text with the times for tefila. Not exactly the warm and welcoming kind of place most US synagogues claim to be.
Notwithstanding, it had been a few weeks since I’d gone to shul due to DC’s heat wave in June so I went. The only thing that’s changed is that there was no one there with kids, maybe fewer than 20 people and maybe 3 or 4 people there were younger than me. It is a quick service, starting at 8:15 and finishing before 10:30. No dvar Torah, no kiddush of any kind. Not particularly inspiring. I have my mother’s yahrzeit in 2 weeks, this was my test visit for me to say Kaddish then.
Then it was an enjoyable afternoon of hanging out, reading and resting. I packed for my trip to Jerusalem and the Negev (I’m typing this on the train to Jerusalem) and made some calls and sent some texts after Shabbat. Didn’t see the news about Trump until this morning.
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