Just Like Home

Yesterday morning I accompanied my sister-in-law to a friend of hers for T'hillim, Psalms.  T hey have one of those sets of all the one hundred and fifty divided into equal length booklets.  There were lots of women, and we finished quickly. I'm getting to know the women, since I've met them in shul on Shabbat here.  Home in Shiloh, I frequently join neighbors on Tuesday afternoons.


One big difference was that in Shiloh we finish our prayers, requests and Psalms and then leave.  In my sister-in-law's neighborhood they read from a book.  Amazingly the excerpt was about caring for parents.  It was as if it was chosen specifically for me.  I was in New York after taking my very elderly father from my home in Shiloh to Arizona, where my mother decided they should live, near my sister.  Last October I took my father to Shiloh from their home in New York.  He made aliyah and impatiently waited for my mother to join him.  We all accepted the change in plans, and now I'm "vacationing" with family in New York.


Last night we all went to their synagogue for the Tisha B'Av service and reading of Eicha, Lamentations.
This was also divided up among a few readers.


The synagogue was very crowded.  Public mourning on Tisha B'Av is much more common and acceptable abroad than it once was.  I consider this a very good sign.  G-d willing we will rapidly begin building our Beit HaMikdash, Holy Temple and all be in the Land of Israel.  And next year, we'll be celebrating the dedication of the rebuilt Holy Temple!