Yom HaShoah

The siren wailed at 10 a.m. for two minutes. From my window, I saw only one other person, a cab driver who had stopped his car and was standing in the street.

Benny Gantz's speech was better than either Rivlin's or Netanyahu's. Rivlin seemed clueless, while Netanyahu was eloquent but possibly self-serving.

After I washed clothes and opened my door, Sophie came out of her apartment. She invited me to walk in the hills with her.



She knows the names of plants and birds and taught me some interesting things about Eilat. We spoke in Hebrew for a while after I mentioned that I'm having a terrible time learning. It was a warm day, but summer has thankfully been late in arriving, so I don't feel I can complain.

After our walk, I walked through Canada Gardens to go to the store and spent time with Louie. A few combined families were out and the city gardeners were eating their lunches in the shade.



My digestive tract had done something healthy this morning, so I prepared a lunch of veggies, basmati rice, and tehina.

I worked on my tarot book briefly and also studied Hebrew for a very short time, but I'm hoping it's the start of a good habit.

The news today has focused primarily Yom HaShoa and on Holocaust survivors. Efforts had already been underway to preserve their memories and the history before the last generation is gone. There are 189,000 survivors living in Israel today and their average age is 84 years old, so they are very vulnerable.

In the U.S. there are 1,000 new cases of corona virus every day in the United States. In Israel, there have been a total of 181 corona virus related deaths. According to i24 News, there are more people recovering than people contracting it. There are fears of a second wave. The month-long holiday of Ramadan

Also in the news: Trump wants to suspend immigration to the U.S. for the duration of the pandemic,  Israelis have mixed responses to the new unity government, and Saudi Arabia is closing mosques for Ramadan.

Antisemitism was already more noticeable before the pandemic. I expected that conspiracy theories would emerge, but was surprised that they started immediately. I've been trying to ignore articles about it, even though they've been shockingly horrible. The latest: Israel created the virus so it can profit from developing the cure.

However, an Arab member of the Knesset, Mansour Abbas, who is the leader of a religious party in the Joint Arab List, offered a prayer from the Quran in memory of the victims of the Shoah. "I stand here to show solidarity with the Jewish people here and forever." More of his remarks were published in The Jerusalem Post. (I feel better about having voted for the Joint Arab List in the third election.)

Kelly-Ann's internet connection has been poor, so she wasn't able to keep her appointment with me this evening.

It was a cat feeding, Spotify listening, and Rabbi Sacks viewing evening. (Rabbi Sacks was very busy with interviews today.)

Tonight begins the 13th day of the Counting of the Omer:

When you realise that listening to views different from your own is not threatening but enlarging,
you have discovered the life-changing idea of argument for the sake of heaven.

Technology and old chicks

 

User issues* sent me back 24 pages to the beginning of the document this evening, but I was chugging along merrily again when software issue nearly derailed the project! Luckily, I'd hit the "save" button more frequently than I usually do, so it was possible to recover most of my work.

I'm going to bed now and setting my alarm for 8:30.

Except for the setbacks, I am enjoying this.

Tonight was the beginning of the fourth day of the Counting of the Omer: 

First separate, then connect; it is the carefully calibrated distance that allows us to grow as individuals and create stronger relationships together.

_____
*Since I used a different program to save documents when I worked in law firms, I'm not sufficiently familiar with MS Word's "track changes" function. I needed to undo most of my changes to the ToC at the beginning of the document, but couldn't. So I started from scratch. Perfectionism is foolish cross to bear.

A day of document editing and reserach

I really enjoy editing documents. I even enjoy the pressure of racing against an editing deadline. (It seems odd to use the word, "enjoy," when people's freedom is at stake, but "enjoy" is the right word.)

I was disappointed, however, that I had only reached page ten of 40 after a (mostly) full day of work, but I did have to do some research to understand what the document was about.

I said "mostly" because I took two trips to the park to chat with Arlan, in addition to feeding cats in the evening.

It was a beautiful day in Eilat. The number of people outside and the vehicles going up Nahal Shachamon suggest that Israelis have just about HAD IT with isolation, but really, it's surprising that they've been so compliant for 26 days!

In the news: online articles differ as to the intended "end of isolation." Some say it will be right after Pesach ends. Others say it won't be until September.

The third day of the Counting of the Omer begins tonight: 

Follow the inner voice, as did those who came before you, continuing their journey by bringing timeless values to a rapidly-changing world.