Goodnight Moon

Saturday was a sleepy Shabbat. When I first came to Israel, I was frustrated by the nature of Saturdays in Jerusalem. The whole city shuts down, and there's little to do for a cabin-feverish American. I wanted the day to buy groceries or see a movie or take advantage of the museums and monuments that there isn't always time for during the week. But sometime in the last few months, I began to appreciate Saturday here for what they are. Peaceful. Relaxing. Stress-free because you just have to throw up your hands and accept that even if you want to use your day of rest for productivity, you just can't.

Rabbi Havivi, Max's rabbi from his synagogue in Greensboro, invited Max and I to join him and Greensboro's other rabbi (at the Reform Temple) for dinner at the Ticho House. Beit Ticho was one of the first houses built outside of the walls of the Old City. It was purchased by Dr. Ticho and his wife (and cousin ... hmmm) Anna. When they died, they left the house to the city, and it now serves as a museum of Anna's famous paintings, Dr. Ticho's large collection of Hanukkah menorahs, as well as one of the best restaurants in the city. We arrived excitedly at the Ticho House, to discover that we were dining with not only Greensboro Jewish clergy, but its Christian clergy as well. 30 of them. The food was amazing, the group delightful, and the speaker, Rev. Dr. Petra Heldt a little crazy. She works for the Ecumenical Theological Research Fraternity (no I did not make that up). She opened with a lovely story about Shabbat in Israel, moved onto to a powerful retelling of her survival from a terrorist attack, and then all of a sudden was talking way over the heads of the group about Sharia law. I'm a little nervous about what the church sermons in Greensboro, North Carolina are going to sound like next Sunday.

I went to the Jerusalem English Language Library for Youth (henceforth JELLY) today for my first day of volunteering duty. I sat in a chair in the corner with a huge stack of children's books, lovingly repairing loose bindings and torn pages. I'm definitely not saving the world with this volunteer project, but JELLY does good work. They provide English teachers in Jerusalem with class sets of more than 100 Engilsh language titles, because the state just doesn't fund English education well. And it's one of the only places that children can borrow books in English. As amazing and wonderful as the Hebrew language is, we can't pretend that English isn't a necessary skill for the 21st century. And JELLY's doing their part. Deborah, the librarian, asked me to come by tomorrow to help out with Story Hour. Tomorrow, there will be little Israeli children beneath my feet, listening to me read Bread and Jam for Frances, and Just Me and My Sister (the Little Critter book), and The Little House.

Goodnight Moon.