Hi all!
Hello from a soggy Jerusalem. Wendy, Da Boyz & I had a very nice Shabbat/weekend (Sunday is a workday here).
God dusted Jerusalem with about 9 centimeters of snow yesterday evening & overnight; not very much, but the kids are having fun (
http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?pagename=JPost/JPArticle/ShowFull&cid=1076744701944). Wendy is taking Da Boyz up to Jerusalem right about now to play in the fluffy white stuff. The upper Galilee, northern Golan Heights & Mt. Hermon got considerably more than we did here.
Lessee...
dsdumpling posted:
Children only learn fear from adults.
Very true. They also learn bigotry, selfishness & everything else that is ugly from us.
Soulwings posted:
I wish it was spring...it's so much more cheerful....so tired of snow.
I remember an old Peanuts cartoon (may God bless Charles Schulz's soul!) in which Snoopy wakes up on top of his doghouse to find him & it covered in snow, which had fallen overnight. In the first panel, he says, "Hey, it snowed last night!" In the second panel, he says, "Suddenl;y I'm cut off from the world and all its problems!" In the third panel, he's quiet. In the fourth panel, he says, "Let's hear it for the snow!"
When snow comes down to cover everything, it is as if God is spreading a blanket over us and saying, "Shh! Forget your worries and rest for a little while. Appreciate the beauty that I give you."
See
http://www.safed.co.il/galleries/snow/01.html for snow pictures from Safed in the upper Galilee.
Wisdom Seeker, you mentioned taking your son to the orthodontist. At the age of almost-41, I
still have a retainer cemented in behind my lower teeth. It is a source of much amusement to Naor, who oftens ask to look at it & why I have it. Your children are adorable! God bless you & your family!
missionary poet, I find the story of Saul to be utterly fascinating! He is such a complex character. His relationships with Jonathan, Samuel and David are so interesting. What a tragic figure he cuts! In a few weeks, we'll read I Samuel 15:1-34 in synagogue. This whole section, literally, brings tears to my eyes when we read it every year, especially the scene at Gilgal in which Samuel confronts Saul. Shakespeare wished he could write anything half as powerful and moving! I also like Ecclesiastes.
Hi ghost! Welcome!
mle, good for your Grandfather!
I learned something neat yesterday. Judaism believes that there is no such thing as coincidences. One of our guests for Shabbat lunch guests pointed out to us that if you take the Hebrew word for "coincidence" & spell it backwards, you get "God has woven." Thus, she said, what may appear to us as coincidences are all part of God's plan. This jibes with what a Catholic friend of mine told me once. He said that if you look at a beautifully woven rug or needlepoint from underneath, all you'll see is a disjointed crisscrossed tangle without any pattern or harmony. God, he said is the Master Weaver, but all too often we, with our limited human perspective, manage to see only the crisscrossed tangle. We should never lack the faith that there is a pattern and that a/the Master Weaver is watching over it.
Be well!
ssv
