holidays are such a wild card - you never know how they are going to turn out.. this post has been deleted and while i am confident that one of the aggregators will publish it verbatum - i feel the need to let it out now.. so im recreating it.. for anyone who has already read it in its original version - you have my blessing to refrain from this incarnation..
so obviously its rosh hashana we're talking about here.. the infamous jewish new years eve.. originally i was going to have a gefilte fish event.. one of the blessings of rosh hashana is to be a head and not a tail.. a bit weird sounding but do your own symbolism search and im sure you'll figure it out if you havent heard about it before.. but things dont always happen as you expect them..
our family didnt all come together for the festival and we expected to have a nuclear gathering which then expanded to include some friends and grew from 4 to 9.. its a mitzva (good deed/commandment) to take in people on the holidays.. i didnt really plan however for my house to sleep 6.. but alls good..
thank goodness for jewish grandmas who even when you only expect four people - including the grandma person - still cook for 20.. there was a lot of left over food believe it or not.. even though two of the guests (jewish) were co-celebrating ramadan and had fasted all day.. and another of the guests was a combat soldier with an appetite the size of the ramon crater..
after the dinner was over my family left and my to-be-lodgers were supplemented by a small collection of friends who came over for cake and tea.. thats when the music started and i think things wrapped up finally at around 2.30 am.. it wasnt quiet around here by any stretch of the imagination.. but the nice thing about yaffo is that people dont complain about celebrations.. i guess there is always someone celebrating and sooner or later its going to be you.. so people just flow..
the next morning - while everyone was busting the zzs i went to the gym.. suddenly a lady from the cafe next door came in and asked if i would go to the ancient yaffo synagogue (tiny) on fish street in the old city and complete a minyan.. i went home and woke everyone up and we all marched over there.. it was kind of funny.. the tourists snapping at us as we prayed in this minute place of worship that overlooks the 5000 year old port.. by the way all the alley ways of the old port city are named after the signs of the horoscope wheel.. the shofar was blown several times.. and all i could think of each time was the poor animal that was once attached to that horn..
once the service was over we strolled around the old city and soaked in its beauty for a bit.. i was so tired afterwards that i cancelled all plans and slept till the morning.. ive had a lot on recently and i think my body just gave in..
there was so much honey all over my house.. on the chairs and table and kitchen bench.. so much honey.. the cleaning seemed futile..
a view of telaviv from yaffo port with my guests fascinated by the water..
anyway - i didnt have a blessing book for the rosh hashana ceremony in my house so we kind of made it up and as part of our adlib attempt everyone around the table was asked to bless the new year.. my 79 year old sudanese grandma who blessed us 4th was the first to ask for peace.. i was proud of her.. she speaks from her soul.. always.. the others also wished us all nice things..
may the blessings of all 9 of us be echoed to all of you.. wishing you shana tova and happy eid as well..
btw - also want to say thank you for the nice words.. and also thought i'd share with you some photos of surfers from my beach..
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