Snow and Samuel

Shalom All!

This morning I woke up to a beautiful blanket of snow covering the kibbutz. I was late to class because I took the opportunity to snap some scenery pics. But don't worry I wasn't the only one and our teacher was quite aquiescent for the special event - I say special because snow here causes more or less the same type of commotion it does in West Texas: schools close, public transport shut down (ok, we don't really have that in WT) and everyone goes out to play. In fact, snow is so uncommon in all of Israel except on Mt. Hermon that people from Tel Aviv (45 minutes away) will load up and trek it to Jerusalem to see and play in the snow! That and the topic of the reports that came out about the 2nd Lebanon War have been the main two topics in the news here. Also similar to WT the sky is now bright and blue and the snow has become sludge all around with patches remaining on the ground and roofs. Last night some guys enjoyed the snow very much and were very rowdy - it was Carlos' (from Venezuela) first time to experience the snow and he definitely enjoyed it! This morning we had an hour break instead of our usual 30 min. break for breakfast as our teacher had a meeting. We took advantage of it and took a tiyyul (walk/hike) for photographs and of course ended up in a snow ball fight - I must say I'm not much of a formiddable opponent but at least I can keep you on your toes!

My biggest excitement lately was the opportunity I had to visit the Prophet Samuel's grave. A family who are friends of a friend had me over to spend a shabbat weekend with them during Chanukah. While I there they mentioned that Samuel's grave isn't far from their home. I expressed interest in visiting it and they graciously made arrangements to take me. I invited my friend Scott to come along as his Hebrew name is Shmuel (Samuel) and so he joined in the adventure. It was a cold, rainy day (sound like a story?) but we persevered. We had to first catch the bus into Jerusalem and then from the central station to my friends' house who would take us. As I had only been to their home once I didn't quite remember the street name and couldn't find the directions before I left so I was relying on HaShem and my memory (but I tho't I remembered what the area looked like well enough). HOwever, I didn't count on not being near a window on a crowded bus. It was really just by G-d's grace that we managed to get off on the exact street the house was on (we had actually passed the one I was looking for!). We met up with one of the sons that agreed to take us and we loaded into his car. As a side note - gas is extremely expensive here so it was very generous and gracious for him to be willing to make an extra trip for us. We arrived at the site which he explained how the Muslims tend to take over any Jewish holy sites yet this aides in locating them (but, at times they're not always accurate). As such, the site was actually housed inside a mosque but we didn't have to enter the mosque itself. The room it's in is actually divided by the sarcophagus (Scott, the wordsmith, gave me that word - google it if you need to!) men on one side and women on the other. People come to study and/or pray. Note - they do not pray to Samuel but to HaShem and rather pray in Samuel's merit - more or less the same idea Christians use when they pray in Jesus' name. When we walked up the ramp to the building - our guide, Hillel, pointed out the valley below (the area we were in is one of the highest places in Jerusalem area) and the valley was where Joshua fought the 5 kings and commanded the sun to stand still - I thought that was pretty awesome to see what I've read and taught about for years! Another part of the Scriptures brought to color! That has definitely been a highlight for me!