I had a wonderful cantorial lesson last night. I performed a large part of the Saturday morning service and most was “accepted”. I find this amazing, considering that I have had only 1 week on some of the pieces. I wonder just how much this is tied to the feelings I expressed the other day about help from Hashem.

I went for another brief walk today, just “around the neighborhood”. This was about a 1-hour stroll. I have attached a few pictures just to give you all a flavor or things in this area.

The first couple pictures are just typical streets in this neighborhood. These, to me, look like they could be in just about any major city.




The next 2 pictures are of local parks in the area. There are many neighborhood parks throughout Jerusalem.




I know these next ones will seem a bit ----- odd, but I found them interesting. They are of metal structures used to string power along the street. I found them strange because I am not used to seeing a 2-legged tower. The sign makes it abundantly clear how dangerous they consider it for anyone to play on the towers.




The next picture is a section of a street called Emek Refaim. This particular section is almost exclusively restaurants, ice cream shops, coffee shops and the like. Emik Refaim is a hub of activity most nights. When I go for coffee with friends, it is usually on this block. (Yes, if you blow up the picture by double clicking on it you will find a very familiar yellow on red sign on the left side. I don’t go there. It’s not kosher. But I’m just pointing it out.)



Along my path on the way back to the apartment is the Greek Consulate.




Finally, I wanted to highlight something that is apparent to people here. When you walk around, you see these round structures on the roof of almost every building. They are quite ubiquitous. Just to answer the question, I took a closer picture of some for you. These are solar water heaters. Most of the buildings in Israel make use of solar energy at a minimum to heat the water. Many also use it for electrical power. This is something that is relatively new in the US, but has been the case in Israel for years.