Hi all!
It's 17:37 here in Jerusalem & I'm sitting here at my desk at my office. I'm working on mug #2 of turkish coffee

. Lessee...
Shabbat was pretty good. There was the usual praying, eating & sleeping. A bride & groom were at our synagogue yesterday morning. They just got married a few days ago & this was their first Shabbat as a married couple. So when the groom was called up to the Torah, everyone broke into singing & dancing & the ladies threw candies into the men's section, at the groom. The kids all scrambled on the floor, grabbing at the candies. Yohanan & Naor made out like bandits!
We started cleaning the flat/apartment for Passover this morning. My mother-in-law is arriving from Cape Town tomorrow morning. So I cleaned the spare bedroom very thoroughly & we told Da Boyz that from now on. no food other than raw fruit & veggies may be brought into that room.
Philippe, you asked about my favorite man of God. The character in the Bible (i.e. the Tanakh, what we call what you call the "Old Testament") who most fascinates me, believe it or not, is Saul. He is so deep & so complex! Shakespeare wrote that, "Some are born great, others achieve greatness, while others have greatness thrust upon them." Saul definitely had greatness thrust upon him but he was never quite comfortable with it. He never quite understood what was happening to him and why; the big picture remained just beyond his grasp. His relationships with just about everyone (Jonathan, David, Samuel, etc.) were problematic and strained. But such was the power of his personality that Samuel and David, whom he pushed from being staunch allies into being bitter rivals, each cried and wailed for him bitterly. Samuel lamented Saul's spiritual fall ("And it grieved Samuel and he cried unto the Lord all night", I Samuel 15:11; indeed, Samuel mourned for Saul so much that God had to tell him to stop, I Samuel 15:35-16:1); David wailed over his father-in-law's physical fall and composed one of the most beautiful elegies in all of scripture (II Samuel 1:17-27) over him. The more I read about Saul, the more he fascinates me!
Philippe, I look forward to welcoming you to my country!
Since we're on the subject of mothers-in-law...
II Kings 3:16-28 tells us about King Solomon & the two harlots and their babies. Well, after the two harlots and their babies leave, two other women come in before King Solomon, dragging a rather distraught young man by his ears. The first woman says to King Solomon, "This s.o.b. married my daughter last week and now he's trying to run out on her!" The other woman says, "Oh, no! This s.o.b. married my daughter last week and now he's trying to run out on her." King Solomon looks and thinks and then says to one of his men-at-arms, "Fetch me a sword!" The man-at-arms trots out a jumbo-sized long sword. King Solomon commands to him to chop the distraught young man in half & give half to each woman. The first woman says, "Hmm...chop him in half?...that sounds fair." The second woman says, "What, are you nuts??!! Chop a person in half??!!" King Solomon stops the man-at-arms and tells him to hand the young man over to the first woman. The completely bewildered man-at-arms says, "But, but sire, she wanted me to chop him in half!" "Yes," the king replies, "Obviously, she is the true mother-in-law!"
(I thank God that I get along wonderfully with Wendy's Mom!)
Be well!
ssv 