The Last Few Days

So, a few days since I've posted. Happy to say, by and large they have all been pretty good.

Let's start with Wednesday. Went to visit Toby's school (our contact, "Rachel" -- we still don't know her last name -- who seems to be the office administrator, has the day off on Thursdays, so...). And I can say this: it was much better than I expected. Although what I expected was that I'd see the school, be so depressed that I 'd have to figure out how I was going to homeschool Toby AND get my research done. The school itself, Yehuda ha-Levi, was actually not bad, and Rachel was absolutely wonderful. It seems Toby will be in a rather large kita bet, but that there are something like 20 other English-speaking children. I would guess that among them there are several bi-lingual (meaning, they'll be speaking Hebrew), but the odds look good that he'll have someone to talk to.

On Thursday, we were honored to attend the bar mitzvah of Rafi Abraham at the Sephardi synagogue in Yemin Moshe. It was great...the shul was very interesting, and the meal was excellent -- held at the Begin center a few meters away from Yemin Moshe.

Since we were near(er), we decided to finally take the trip to the Old City. A moving experience...mostly the experience of trying to move Beruria in her agula down the narrow alleys of the suk (just so you know: no ramps), with her in rather a sour mood. Toby was priceless: the Old City was his image of what all of Jerusalem looked like; he was so excited. We went down to the Jewish Quarter, and it was pretty much as I remembered it...crowded, fascinating...with one massive change: the Hurva synagogue. I am actually amazed that the building has been reconstructed. My last memory is of the rubble and single reconstructed arch. It is an impressive building; and I'll leave it at that.

Went to the Kotel (de rigour, of course). Toby and I caught mincha with a Sephardi minyan there, which pretty much put a damper on Toby's enthusiasm (it was much longer than he was accustomed to), but I found it really...elevating. The truth is, I never quite know how to feel at the Kotel. But I guess that's ok.

Had a coffee at the massive new mall built just below the Jaffa Gate. Talk about bizarre. And don't even get me started on the almost incomprehensible fact that a big chunk of the plaza seemed to have been underwritten by BMW. I have no idea where to go with that. But the coffee was good.

Ok...getting late. To be continued...