Tuesday, 26 May 2015

I got up quite early this morning, but I only walked for about half an hour on a nearly-level route because it was so warm out.

I enjoyed the WIZO English speakers' meeting this morning, mostly for the conversation. We also played a little game something like "20 questions".

I had an appointment to talk with the Maccabi social worker, Jackie, today, just as a kind of check up to make sure I'm doing okay.

I was able to pay nearly half of the cost of David's tombstone today, using money I got from my U.S. Visa card. I'll pay the rest next Sunday.

I had a Japanese salad and pad thai today for lunch at Togarashi at Mercaz Big. Afterwards, I did a little shopping and found a couple of very inexpensive yet comfortable tank tops, one white and the other black.

I managed to get myself to sweep the whole house today. I can't even remember the last time I did that. I'm trying to establish some cleaning habits, because I'm sure I won't be able to afford a cleaning person, even it I could find one.

I taught only 2 units of Berlitz today: 7:00-8:30.

Here's today's story about David, from our early days in Tsfat (also told at David's BCC memorial by Jeff):

Stories about David: Aliyah at the Tsfat Sephardi Synagogue

Within a month or two of arriving in Tsfat, David and I decided to attend the nearest synagogue on a cold Shabbat morning. In fact, it was still under construction, and the sanctuary upstairs was not finished, so they were meeting in the basement. Of course, it was an orthodox synagogue, and, in fact, was Sephardi, which meant that NONE of the melodies were even familiar.

We sat there lost, for the most part, but at one point someone came to David and called him to the front. We were able to figure out that they were giving him an aliyah to the Torah (to watch part of the reading from the Torah scroll and to say blessings before and after). This was a real honor, especially since we noticed that normally they auctioned off the aliyot (plural of aliyah) to the highest bidder! Nevertheless, I think we only attended there one other time, much later, after they were meeting in the completed sanctuary, but I don’t remember anything else at all about that second visit.