Shabbat

Once again, Shabbat is coming--very, very soon! The rhythm of the week is such that we run and we run and we run and then we stop.

This week one of my roommates and I took a day off from this cycle. Yesterday, to start the day, we went to the Rockefeller Museum, which is now run by the Israeli Antiquities Authority, but was founded under the British Mandate and was under Jordanian control between 1948 and 1967. Interestingly, the biblical period was pretty lacking. Historical objects from time periods before and after were much more extensively cataloged and displayed. Later, we hiked the Mt of Olives and Mt. Zion. We saw tombs of Mary and King David, as well as some Christian holy people. We visited churches magnificent and tiny, reminding ourselves that Jerusalem is more than the Angl0-Jewish neighborhood in which we live. We had a tour guide who was an interesting character, getting us into places that might or might not have been open, but the price was a little steeper than we expected. Oh well, it was an awesome day. Lots of great photos and vistas. My roommate discussed how much he liked to hike. We definitely covered that yesterday! Looking for a specific church, we walked up the Mt of Olives twice. Going down a rather treacherous path. (No pictures of that.) We literally walked up the side of Mt. Zion--our tour guide said it was a short cut. Overall, lots of fun and great exercise!

Today I did my weekly nursing home visit. This week there was no singing at all, but some interesting conversations; I also read the entire parsha with one of my friends there. Following that I got a 1.1 k swim in. I'm trying to get back into the exercise cycle; we'll see how it sticks!

In other news--this week's parsha--Moses gets called again. You might say he wasn't listenening at the burning bush? I think it just shows the humanity of Moses--he needs to be asked a couple times. How often do we need to be asked to take upon large tasks? Often it is more than once. We do not want to rearrange our priorities, we fear that we are not up to the task. How great a Torah do we have, that we learn that even our greatest leaders had some of the same problems?? From this we can learn that even if we fail to be ready the first time, it just allows us to be more ready the next time the call goes through.

Shabbat Shalom.