A Jewish Grandmother : Prayers, thanks and misc.

Let's start with the prayers for a refuah shleimah, a full and speedy recovery.

Gitel Chava bas Pesia, ~Sarah's~ mother
Gnaidel Malka bat Michle, a friend of mine
--v'she'ar cholei Yisrael

Thanks to Daf Notes for the excellent Havel Havelim, full of Divrei Torah.

This morning a group of "olei regel," pilgrims on their way to Jerusalem for Pesach passed through Shiloh. Pictures are here. It was a real event, as they let the local kids ride their donkeys. What a wonderful opening for this year's pre-Pesach camp, which is a tradition here for about 24 years. I remember when my daughter and her friends began it. They wouldn't take money, so one of the parents collected money and bought them gifts, the Koren Chumash-Siddur for Shabbatot.

Our local shul, the Beit Knesset Ramat Shmuel is very special. Besides being a local shul, it's well-known in the area for it's "late" mincha. Over the years I've benefited from it finding myself in rides straight the the shul which is in our backyard. Even though it's officially the Ashkenaz shul of Shiloh, our "shul board" is made up of a wide variety of Jews. For years the main gabbai was from Morocco, and now we have a "halabi" on the board, who with great enthusiasm has been fixing it up.