I didn't get up for Kabbalat Shabbat with Beit Haverim on Zoom, but Torah will be at 7 p.m. my time.
Mary, my friend in Connecticut says her husband is waiting just a little longer to take unpaid time off. They live just three hours from New York City, so I hope he makes that decision soon!
Jessica, my friend in Oregon, sent me a picture of her dog Sunny smelling tulips. Sunny is the happiest and most affectionate girl I know!
A little before noon, I sat downstairs in our little oasis of grass and trees. The birds that sing the sun up every morning were bouncing around on the grass and pecking for... small bugs? Seeds? I noticed another, smaller bird, with less distinctive markings, flying from one tree to another and then soaring just over the heads of the snacking song birds.
My neighbor, a pleasant French woman named Sophie, returned for a Shabbos walk all the way down to the beach with her father. She was breathless and sweaty because she always takes the stairs when she's not carrying anything. She will finish bidud (isolation) in much better shape than I will.
After I watched the birds, I came upstairs and found the list of exercises that the Swedish orthopedic doctor, Suzanne, gave me. The list should look very nice leaning against my refrigerator. Naomi, in the Anglim book club, has been sending us exercise videos. I've watched them with mild interest before checking Facebook or stuffing food in my mouth.
Arlan continues to send out the weekly updates for the WIZO English Speakers meetings. I liked this comment in the most recent one: "I want to wish everyone a happy Pesach. As disappointed as we are that we can’t really celebrate properly this year, let’s keep our perspective: at least we’re not still slaves in Egypt. Dayenu!"
It's the 10th of Nissan. Arlan and I had planned to visit the botanical gardens so that we could say the blessing over the blossoming fruit trees. The gan botani is out of the question now, but in the area between the two buildings where I live are little bushes with edible fruit... if they have flowers, perhaps they'd count as "blossoming trees."
While waiting impatiently for Kelly-Ann's live stream, I focused briefly on a textbook that was delivered six months late. It was for an Oxford University class I'd wanted to take last summer. I learned today that bees have tongues! I though their stingers doubled as straws. (Pardon my ignorance; I had no science classes at all as a kid. I hope I can get through the book without classmates or a tutor.)
Ethan called me; he'd just heard that Bituach Leumi has expanded the eligibility requirements for unemployment and wanted me to know.
Tan's brother, Dewey, posted a link very important blog. Take a look at it: Life Is A Long Story. I wanted to donate, but PayPal is, unexpectedly, being difficult-- I use that service all the time to schedule sessions with Kelly-Ann!
Kelly-Ann's live stream was very enjoyable. Someone mentioned a video of hers that I'd be curious to watch, "Intuition of Paranoia" because of my panic attack at the bus stop the other day. She responded to someone's comment about lack of focus during this time; she recommended that we be intentional before going online rather than mindlessly scrolling through Facebook.
She recommended lots of bands during the live stream. I listened to them later and liked a few, such as Rage Against The Machine. Flogging Molly has a fiddler-- but you can't hear the fiddle over the rest of the group.
A little after six in the evening, I walked around feeding the cats; not many were around. The Russian lady with the cute dog, waved to me from across the street. The very sick, white cat still looks terrible, but has more piss and vinegar today than a few days ago' I hope that continues because it'll be a while before she can see a vet. There's another white cat, near the end of my route, who will only eat if I sit next to him and keep watch for him while he devours his food.
This evening, there were twelve people on the Zoom call for Torah study, eleven were visible on video. Rabbi Berg still has his "I survived Leviticus" mug from Beth El!!! (I never got mine.) Rabbi Berg shared a passage from Arthur Green's translation of a Hassidic Torah commentary by Yehudah Leib Alter.
We spoke of smoke and the ner tamid, the annointing of priests, Exodus as a constant event, purifying our ethics, six categories of existence, the shamir that was created before creation, and the priests bringing quarantined persons back into the community. Rabbi Berg mentioned that the state of Oregon just sent 140 ventillators to New York City. He said that Oregonions had made that possible by the mitzvah of staying home in these times.
Torah study in Oregon was my havdallah in Eilat. After that, I turned on the news. One story showed troops preparing for anticipated attacks from Sinai and Gaza. I cried, thinking of kids, just out of high school, who may have to fight to protect us. Perhaps this was older footage, from before the plague?
Israel is low on testing supplies, so now only people who have a temperature over 38C or respiratory symptoms can be tested.
We still don't have a government! Get your act together, you dipshits, or you'll force me to vote Joint Arab List again!
Then i24 showed a series of short documentaries from 2019 about Passover in Dharamsala and the "Humus Trail" that many Israeli kids follow through India after their army service. Israelis like to congregate (I feel for the Indians), so in Dharamsala, Chabad has set up two houses and there are also a secular Israeli house and a modern Orthodox house. One Israeli man who has been in Dharamsala for 30 years made Buddhism sound like Irving Greenberg at his most unorthodox.
To "give back" to the town of Dharamsala, Israeli tourists are picking up garbage on the streets. Here's an idea: when you return to Israel, clean up the streets here!
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