shabbat shalom 06.04.07

Hi everyone,

It is beautiful spring weather here in Israel, good for the Passover holiday week. In my office we get the first and last day of Passover off, but I am also taking some vacation time in between, and working only two days this week, off for five. I like that!

I had wanted to attend the Palm Sunday march from the Mt. of Olvies, but the weather was bad and my foot was hurting so I skipped it. Went home and my neighbor told me he found my Persian cat dead in his garden. Dead about two weeks from the looks and smell of him too--hard to tell what killed him at that stage but it must have been quick. Looked like a dog tore his throat. At least I know what happened to him. My next door neighbor is not the most observant type, I guess--my cat had been lying by his woodpile at least a week.

So I contacted my cat shelter friends and will be going to Beit Shemesh tomorrow to get another cat, this time a little male who cannot adjust to life in the shelter and has been fading away. He's the shelter's pick, and they are happy he has the prospect of a good home.

The seder was on Monday night, the usual 80+ people in the communal feast in my congregation. I have a traditional job to come that afternoon while everyone else is getting dressed, keep an eye on things, supervise the remaining volunteers and make sure the three roast lambs don't burn. I was busy from noon until w sat down at six pm. The reading of the Haggada and the meal went on until 9 pm but I left before it was over, too tired to last until it all finished at about 11 pm. It's okay--I've learned to go to whatever is happening and leave when I get tired, without guilt.

The nice thing is that for I'm catching up on rest. I have four more days ahead of vacation from work and sleeping until a respectable 6:30 instead of my usual 4:30 wakeup on working days. It enabled me to last through the end of a performance of Handel's "Messiah" last night (translated to Hebrew by a member of our congregation) which lasted until past 10 pm, didn't get home until 11 pm. That's normally something I just cannot do. I guess it takes a couple days of cumulative rest before I can do much in the evening, and even then the brain turns off about 8 pm and I can't understand Hebrew any more. It's just sounds floating past without meaning when I am tired.

Since I missed Palm Sunday, I will brave the crowds in the Old City for Easter service with the Lutherans (best of the bunch, they sing Bach) and a field trip to see flowers with some Catholic friends the next day. We will go to see Latrun monastery, a beautiful Italianiate complex I've seen from the road but never entered. Trappist, I've heard they are nice. Latrun has a place in Israeli history also, as the jumping off place for the rescue of Jerusalem during the War of Independence. It is also nestled in a beautifu area between forest and maquis, just as the mountains open into the Shefela (rolling hills). Definitely time for the camera.

I have to run, one cat has a vet appointment.

shabbat shalom, happy holidays whichever you do,

Linda