An "Exciting" Month

It has now been a month since my last post, and I apologize for the long lag of information. Unfortunately I was sick for most of the month so there was not much going on here.

My cantorial classes continued, although I missed a few and made them up once I recovered from my illness. I now have the entire Rosh Hashanah liturgy and am practicing to perfect it (as much as I can). I will be starting on the Yom Kippur pieces that I do not already have shortly and expect to have that completed before I return home late next month.

I had relatives come here for a bar- and bat mitzvah. It was wonderful to spend time with family. The service, led by my cousin (a Rabbi in the US) was held at the Southern end of the Western Wall. There were a number of members of his congregation that came on the trip, with their children participating in the service as well.

A friend of mine here is getting married in 2 weeks, and I volunteered to perform the 7th blessing, which is normally reserved for the cantor to do. I am still learning it, but this should be no problem. I found it interesting that my friend, who by trade is a sound man and has worked hundreds of weddings, has never heard this particular melody.

In other news, the PC that I brought with me died a slow and painful death. I did manage to get a full backup before it died completely. (Now it will not even turn on. Sounds like a boat anchor to me, but I can still use some of the parts that are good to fix a PC I have at home.)

I had to purchase a replacement PC. Doing that here in Israel, of course, means that you get the Hebrew version of Windows. Getting the language switched back to English and then loading all of my programs and data onto it was quite a challenge. In actuality I am not totally finished as some of the programs are at home, but I have done what was needed for the remainder of my time here. (Yes, there are still some messages that come up in Hebrew. I guess I have an incentive to learn those terms!)

I have just over a month before returning home. While I am anxious to be with my wife and family again, I will also miss Jerusalem. I have been residing in the holiest city on the planet for over 14 months and have gotten used to the spiritual energies that abound here, especially at the Kotel. I suspect that I will miss the overwhelming feeling and the certain knowledge that Hashem is present all around me at all times.

While I will not have completed what I set out to do, I have covered a significant amount of ground. I hope to be able to complete the rest of my training soon. I will have more on this in my final entry from Israel.

I know I have previously posted pictures from the area where demonstrations in support of Gilad Shalit are held. I took one yesterday and just wanted to share it with you. It is addressed to the Prime Minister (Benyamin Netanyahu, also called BB) and is posted directly across from the exit of his compound.