Thursday, September 18, 2008

Late Summer Morning in Israel


Yom chamishi, 18 Elul 5768.

I love late summer mornings on this mountain.

One can sit outside as the sun is coming up, before the moon has quite gone to bed after another night's work of shoving tides around.

The air is cool. The quiet in the yishuv is so complete that the occasional dog-bark takes childhood memory to appreciate. Birds twitter. There are insects; but for some inexplicable reason, they leave me alone.

I am grateful -- for the peacefulness; for being allowed to live here; for my husband's willingness at last to let go of the notion that his family's security is shaped like life in Chutz l'Aretz.

I am hopeful -- that my family will be permitted to stay; that even more of my friends from America will come Home; that our Home will remain ours, through the strange and frightening decisions of our government.

Slowly, slowly, the yishuv awakens. A baby cries. Mothers begin to start their day, preparing children for school. Doors open and close inside apartments with open windows. At last, the day picks up its insistence. "I matter!" it says, in the rising stridency of the parents' voices, pushing their kids through breakfast. I assume there is "Mah pitom! Only NOW you decide you have only dirty clothes to wear?" coming from at least a few homes. A car engine turns over. In the distance, a jet transports her crew on another mission toward Gaza...

In a half-hour, the Arabs will arrive, to start their day's work of building houses for more Jews. The air will fill with the jackhammer politics of life in Israel.


But for now, I still have this cup of coffee to take care of, and a bit more holy Jewish morning air to imbibe.

5 comments:

rickismom said...

Nice post and oics. I love, even in the city, getting up early to watch the city "wake up"

rutimizrachi said...

Ah! Now I know that I will be sharing my morning cup of coffee with a friend... a few kilometers away, in the city.

BTW -- your photography is eye-candy. Thank you.

Ricki will be in my prayers, for a successful surgery, and a speedy recovery.

Mrs. S. said...

What a beautiful post!

"Mah pitom! Only NOW you decide you have only dirty clothes to wear?"
LOL! Just today I said to one of my children, "All of the sudden this morning - five minutes after you should have left for school! - you notice that you have no socks without holes?!"

rutimizrachi said...

Mrs. S.: Ah, validation from a fellow mom. And these young hopefuls will one day run the world, in clean, hole-free socks. Boggles the mind, doesn't it?

Thanks for the tsimmes recipe. http://ourshiputzim.blogspot.com/2008/09/tzimmes-on-my-mind.html
I think my guys actually may eat a tsimmes based on carrots! Shana tova u'metuka!

Anonymous said...

Very nice. I love the quiet also. Clean fresh air and the sound of birds instead of honking horns!