Friday, 8 May 2015

I got up early this morning and got in a full walk, all before the sun appeared above the Jordanian mountains. Later, but still before breakfast, I walked down to the local bakery and bought my usual 2 small whole-wheat challot for Shabbat.

I was scheduled to teach a 1-unit Berlitz lesson (9:00-9:45) this morning, but no one showed up because today is a big holiday all over Europe. In fact, this year's it's the 70th anniversary of Victory in Europe (the end of World War II in Europe).

I had my traditional whole-wheat spaghetti with Palermo sauce at Il Pentolino for lunch today.

I got a little more work done on my variations on HaTikvah for orchestra.

As the sunlight was about to disappear from our beautiful valley, I lit candles, drank sweet red wine, and ate a bit of challah to welcome Shabbat.

Lag B'Omer (Wednesday night and yesterday) got me thinking about fires (I wonder why?), and that reminded of the story of Moses and the burning bush. Here's a short extract:

וירא מלאך יי אליו בלבת-אש מתוך הסנה וירא והנה הסנה בער באש והסנה איננו אכל: ויאמר משה אסרה-נא ואראה את-המראה הגדל הזה מדוע לא-יבער הסנה:

And an angel of Adonai appeared to him from the middle of a fire in a bush, and he saw that the bush was ablaze with fire but was not being consumed. And Moses said, "I must see this great sight -- why isn't the bush being burned?"
[Exodus 2:2-3]