Hi everyone,

It's the second day of Rosh HaShana, the Jewish New Year, which gives us a long weekend from Wednesday night until Sunday morning.  Four days to sleep late, which for me is until 6 am.  It's a big help.

We had the New Year's service at the congregation yesterday.  It was nice, but 3 hours of liturgy is more than I can stand.  I ended with a splitting headache and went home to a sandwich and ibuprofen.  Now I remember why I don't do shabbat service anymore....  A crowded room and hours of chanting.....it's not for me.

The festive meal the night before was nice.  Jewish custom includes a "seder"  of fruits and vegetables, which are all part of blessings which are puns on the Hebrew name of the food.  It's traditionally a dairy meal with fish (a symbol of fertility in this as in many other cultures).  Pomegranates, another symbol of fertility, are part of the meal as well.

It may seem a funny time to have a new year if you don't know the mediterranean, but here it makes a lot of sense and probably was the norm in ancient times.  The long, rainless summer is coming to an end, and the farmers are preparing for the winter rains.  The tree fruits are harvested and the grapes are becoming wine (there are wine festivals all over Greece at this time).  So the earth is stirring and coming to life again as the mists and shortening days awaken the first of the autumn flowers.  Nature wakes up from its five month sleep and people sensitive to nature are very aware of this.  So a celebration of a new yearly cycle makes a lot of sense.  Judaism adopted many earlier pagan holidays and customs and gave them monotheistic rationales, but the roots are much older, and fit the landscape in which we live here.

It happens that this year Ramadan ends at exactly the same time as the Jewish New Year so our Moslem neighbors have celebrated Eid al Fitr, the biggest holiday of the Moslem calendar, involving feasts and gift giving.  The Moslems follow a strict lunar calendar so their holidays move all around the year, so it won't coincide like this for a long time.

The coincidence of Eid al Fitr (basically the Moslem Christmas) and the commemoration of 9/11 led to a peculiar crisis.  Just when Moslem feelings are very high at the holiday, a crackpot pastor in Florida decides to celebrate 9/11 by burning a pile of Qurans.  This has led to an international flap and travel warnings for Americans overseas.  We are getting bulletins on every Israeli news broadcast that Americans should lie low and avoid going in Moslem areas (like the Old City), since the likelihood of getting hurt or killed is rather good.  And of course we can all spot an American a mile off, so there is not much chance of going incognito.  Kind of a bummer for the Americans who came here to enjoy the High Holy Days and have to hide in their hotel rooms instead, but I guess it beats getting stabbed.  The Americans seem helpless to deal with this jerk, when it seems like a good beating would resolve the whole problem.  Didn't Kennedy hire the Mafia for things like this?

As for me, I'm busy during this holiday.  In two weeks I leave for Sweden and have to put my affairs in order since it will be a long trip, nearly a month.  I will attend a conference, then visit friends in Holland, then attend another conference in Brussels.  Not too happy about being away from home for so long, especially with a sick cat.  My poor old ginger tom, Fatty, is suffering chronic renal failure and fading away.  I got him to eat but he is losing weight and I doubt will survive very long.  It's the fate of old cats, especially those who lived with FIV for years, as he has.

My laptop is also dying and each time I get it started may be the last.  I'm still negotating wth my workplace t get another one.  Here is where working for the government is a pain in the ass; there is a laptop already set aside for me, but some bloody committee has to meet to approve it, and they haven't met for two months and are not scheduled to meet in the future either.  Three people on that committee; it could be resolved with a couple phone calls.  My boss says the department head should make the calls; the department head says my boss should make the calls, and I'm ready to murder both of them.  My usual end response is to say "aw, screw it" and go buy my own laptop, but I've subsidized our outfit for 15 years doing things like that and am getting tired of it too.  So right now I'm just yelling at everyone concerned and seeing if that helps.  Honestly, how did we ever win the Six Day War operating like this??

Sounds like I need a long trip to the North Woods anyway.  Sweden will be wonderful; I haven't seen a real autumn for a long time.  One where leaves turn color, I mean.  I'm starting the trip by joining a Swedish Quaker retreat for a couple days......hope they can tolerate this fireball from the Middle East.

shabbat shalom,
Linda