Musings from Students of the Pardes Institute of Jewish Studies in Jerusalem
Posted on October 24, 2011 by Suzi
I wrote this last Friday, after Sukkot:
Someone dear to me used to say I saw the big picture bigger and the details as if through a microscope, but couldn’t see the real world as it exists in front of me. Is that why I set off happily for the shuk today, oblivious to the obvious fact that, after a week of entertaining in the sukkah, and with Shabbat just hours away, everybody in Jerusalem would be restocking their refrigerators and pantries today? After being elbowed, tramped on, shoved out of the way and worse, I got what I needed (bare minimums) and got out of there. Not quite everything–for the second time at Marzipan Bakery, I chose what I wanted, handed it to the cashier, and it disappeared. I hope whoever took my stuff likes poppy seeds, and I hope they paid for it. But wow! You should have seen the mounds of freshly baked challah, the HUGE still hot from the oven pitas, the stacks of pastries of every shape and filling, the brilliantly hued fruits and vegetables, even the glistening stinking fish heads, lined up with their mouths gaping at passersby. Strangely, the buses weren’t even half full. I’ll take what I can get. Being here, seeing (and feeling and smelling) the swarms of people is a high not to replicated anywhere. And yes, people were still talking about the release of Gilad Shalit. Not much anger or animosity, mostly sympathy and hopes that he will recover quickly and completely from his ordeal. I hope the same for the released Arab prisoners, that they should grow tall and not warped with hate from their time in prison. Somehow, some way this fraternal fighting HAS to stop. A beneficent G-d could not have created a world in which peace is out of reach, if we only know how to stretch ourselves to find it. Shabbat shalom everyone. To my guys at Hashkama minyan–I wish I could cook for you with the bounty on display here. Maybe next year?
