Let’s rewind the tape (what an anachronism!) to the last missive from our Israel-Galaxy travelers. That was about 2 weeks ago, just before Shabbat and 2 days before the onset of the Jewish New Year, Rosh Hashanah. That’s a lot to cover, so hang on and let’s hope for a smooth ride. 

Of course will start with the COVID update. For the moment things are stable, with 10K cases for the past few weeks and it’s been in the 6K range for the past few days. That may be a function of less testing on the Jewish Holidays. This morning we took a walk to the Netanya City Square and there was a large pop-up testing facility and a fair number of people there. In the Netanya synagogue where we go, the population is predominantly retired individuals, so most have had 3 vaccines and people there are generally fairly cautious. However, there are, like in Montreal, multiple cases in schools and this puts a strain on families, be it due to illness, quarantine, missed work or family time over the holidays. It’s a juggling act with a fair bit of strategy thrown in. We are all trying to adapt to this new normal, wherever we happen to be located. 

Having spent time with both families here, we decided to give them a break from us :-) and spend Shabbat in Netanya before Rosh Hashana. It allowed us to take a few well-deserved walks along the boardwalk and enjoy the sea air and sunsets. Sunday’s “big event” was voting in the Canadian election! Having applied for a mail-in ballot, we were couriered two vote packages and picked them up at a local depot. Your Canadian tax dollars at work! It looks like this Monday’s election will go down to the wire and bring another minority government. Perhaps not as futile as Israel’s 4 elections in a year before this current new government under Nir Bennet came in but a pretty unspectacular outcome considering the time and expense of the election. Plus, with cases of COVID now over 4000 per day in Canada, there will be a fair number of people unable to vote due to illness or quarantine. As we said, a new normal!

Sunday evening Gila arrived with the kids which took us from our quiet Shabbat to the extremely gratifying sound of 3 rambunctious children in the house. Of course, that meant Monday’s preparations had to include a trip to the beach for the kids as well as cooking and other preparations. Ariel arrived Monday early afternoon to complete the gang. As you know, Rosh Hashana has a very extensive liturgy and synagogue services are a major part of the 2-day holiday. Our local synagogue in Netanya had services both in the synagogue and outdoors in a large Sukkah (temporary structure, more about that next week!) on the grounds of an apartment complex a 5-minute walk from our home. We signed up for the outdoor option and in fact Bruce was asked to lead part of the services. (I think that went well or the congregants left their tomatoes at home). One of the nicest aspects is when there is a lot of communal participation; in Eastern European synagogues, there was incredible music but primarily sung by the cantor/service leader. The trend now is for more participation and allowing people to get involved makes for a more enjoyable service. We had a great time with the kids; in fact, as I was preparing to lead the prayers, I had Elisha and Ora listening and singing various melodies along with me or various Youtubes that we were watching. That was a highlight!

By Thursday everyone was back where they belonged, with Yom Kippur a week away; but Friday morning we got a call from Elan inviting us to come spontaneously to spend Shabbat in Efrat, about 1:30 minute drive from here. So we decided that I would work on the grant that I had due the following Wednesday (which had been a preoccupation along with all the other work in Montreal!) and we would hop in the car to get to Efrat just before Shabbat; that strategy worked really well, no traffic and a very smooth drive. The theme of this trip has been impulsivity or perhaps we need to learn to take advantage of opportunities when they present themselves! So the Shabbat visit was great, spending time with Shoshana, Shlomo, Nadav, Aryeh and baby Eitan was terrific (Shlomo took great pride in beating me in chess) and we came back to Netanya raring to go for the next week. 

While Bruce pounded away at his laptop Sunday and Monday, Barbara ventured to Petach Tikvah to run errands with Gila; and subsequently to Ramat Bet Shemesh to see our friend Gail Jaffe who bought a condo there and where she has a whole bunch of grandchildren (over 20?). 

Wednesday night began Yom Kippur; the holiest day in the Jewish Calendar with 25 hours of fasting and prayer (but not 25 hours of prayer, in case you were wondering….). We returned to Efrat for the holyday. The weather in Efrat, located in the hills outside of Jerusalem, is a huge contrast to coastal Netanya. Perhaps the daytime temperature is close (28-30C) but the evenings are cool and quite windy. Again, due to COVID, the prayers were held outdoors, and it got pretty chilly! There was some shelter and the daytime was very pleasant. The community Elan’s family lives in is made up of almost all young families with children, and the services were very participatory and inspiring. We topped off the end of the holyday with a great break-fast and then immediately started preparing for the next holiday of Sukkot which starts Monday. Pictures attached!

We’re back in Netanya for Shabbat and will let you know about Sukkot and activities in Israel next week. We enjoyed a great couple of hours with some sun, sand and water, and are ready for a bit of down time!

We wish you are a wonderful and inspiring Shabbat Shalom!

Barbara and Bruce

We wish a Refuah Sh’lema (Speedy Recovery) to Rochel Etta bat Dobrusha 

We wish a Refuah Sh’lema (Speedy Recovery) to Tuvia Moshe ben Perl

Mazel tov to Rhona and Haim on the birth of a baby grandson!