Blog/April 2014/Apr 18th

Apr 18th — no devar torah today

Hi, again!

Great company, incredible weather, wonderful food, beautiful vistas — what’s not to like about Passover in the Holy Land? The prep-work leading up to the holiday is so intense that sometimes we lose sight of the fact that the holiday’s also a lot of fun, and we should be enjoying ourselves as well as drawing inspiration.

Daniela and Jeremy arrived (B”H!) late Sunday night, on Turkish Airlines via Istanbul. According to them, the service was amazing; I still would prefer to fly El-Al; I’m very nervous about trusting them Turks. In any event, they arrived safely and we whisked them off to our home, and are very happy they made it.

There were a total of thirteen people at the Aaron-family seder, which is about all our salon can handle comfortably. The menu (for those of you who are mostly interested in that) included: vegetable soup with matza balls, slow baked brisket, (meatless) leek patties (keftas de prasa), baked chicken, and a variety of salads. And don’t forget the wine! No less than four cups’ worth…

During the intermediate days of the holiday, we went on two trips: a short one inside Jerusalem, and a longer one to the coast south of Ḥaifa. The short trip involved a tour of the Temple Institute, where a breathless young lady (probably in National Service) rushed through a series of presentations on the different Temple vessels which the Institute is “getting ready” for the Big Day. That is, the day when our mashiaḥ is revealed, the Temple rebuilt, and the sacrificial service resumes. It’s an interesting bit of work they’re doing, and at least someone is doing something constructive; although they could stand to have someone with a little talent redo their audio-visual presentations.

After the Temple Institute we went on a tour of the Herodian Mansion, which was really nice, though geared towards kids. The live presentations were entertaining, but we all really wished there had been some explanation of the artifacts and a more adult-oriented theme. Still, it was very nice as well as interesting.

Our second trip took us to ḥof habonim beach, which is not too far south of Ḥaifa. If you’ve never been, you should go: there is a lot to see, and it’s a beautiful bit of coastline. Since we went during the “intermediate days of the holiday”, there were a lot of people there. And going there, it was readily apparent that a lot of people were using Waze to find the place (as were we), since there was a group of us all snaking along some forsaken back-road, all following the same idiotic path (when there was a much more direct path, which I had seen on the map). Ah, technology!

Besides trips, we just “hung out” with people. Among them, my cousin Maxine and her husband; we introduced Jeremy to some of the twisty branches of our family-tree. Too late for him to rescind his membership, now! We did a barbecue, and it turned out well, even if I say so myself.

These being the “intermediate days” of the holiday, I’ve got absolutely no work-related updates to give you. None, B”H! It’s really a great thing to completely stop working for a week. It’s just a bit difficult to keep one’s mind from straying back to work-related things. Must. Control. Oneself.

This shabbat we’ve got the nyuck-nyuck-nyucklear family, as well as one of Daniela’s friends (who will stay with us). On offer:
potato-leek soup, chicken schnitzel, mina de espinaca, baked salmon, roasted yams, beet salad, cabbage salad, rice, slow-cooked lamb and fava stew, fruit, and brownies.

Until next week,
shabbat shalom and a happy and kosher pesaḥ!

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