It’s mid-Sunday afternoon, in my time zone at least, and I am sitting on our Turkish Air flight from Istanbul to JFK. We woke up before 5:20 am in Jerusalem, and we’re about 1/3rd of the way back to Cambridge. I had hoped to be able to focus on writing what I am thinking and feeling today, rather than catching up on the last few days in Jerusalem, but we were very busy, in a good way, and I decided to enjoy the moment instead of opening up my Netbook.
I think my last post ended after the CK and my trip to the JBO. We took a cab to a makolet about 3 blocks from the boys’ school so that the CK and I could get something to eat for breakfast. We also stopped by the hardware store to buy packing tape in case Pentheus and I needed it to finish sending our boxes to the States.
The CK and I then walked to the Szold School, and I went through some of the CK’s “schoolwork” to decide what he wanted to bring back to Cambridge. I took most of his textbooks and papers then, although there ended up being another big pile at the end of the day. Pentheus had walked the WK to school and had brought a couple of boxes for us for more shipping. Pentheus had found out that the WK’s “misibat l’hitraot” was at 10:30 am, so we planned to be back at the school with the WK’s cake after our trip to the post office. We walked to the post office and packed up a box to send via “yam” (sea). I waited in line at the post office, while Pentheus quickly hurried home to start another box before leaving for a tour of Katamon that had been arranged by our synagogue.
The post office line wasn’t too bad, and by the time I got back to the dira, Pentheus had finished the other box and was walking out the door. I walked back to the post office (I know, it’s ridiculous how many separate times we shipped stuff) and mailed the final box. The boxes sent by “aveer” (air) have been arriving in the States after 3-4 Israeli business days, and who knows how long the “yam” (by sea) boxes take. We’ve been told everything from “chodshayim” (two months) to three months to “hetzi shana” (half a year, or 6 months). After all the shipping, we were sure that we had eliminated at least one of the suitcases for the trip home, but that didn’t happen… (and that’s the primary reason why I didn’t get this blog post out while we were still in Jerusalem).
Pentheus and I then met back at the school for the WK’s party, but it turned out the party had been at 9:30, so we missed it. We spoke to Yael (the WK’s teacher) while his class was with the Arabic teacher, and she said the party had been great. Yael asked each of the kids in the class to say something to the WK, and whenever the kids spoke in English, the WK would say, “rak b’ivrit” (only in Hebrew). The WK also told the story about how we had decided to come on this adventure and spoke only in Hebrew. The class gave him a little booklet with their good wishes and contact information. When we saw the WK later, he was very glad that we had missed the “misiba” for him. (Apparently, we would have only embarrassed him.) The WK had written a letter in Hebrew to his class, and he read the letter aloud at the end of the day.
When we gave Yael the gift certificate for the massage, she was incredibly surprised and said, “Atem lo normaleem” (You guys are not normal!). We really wanted to give the boys’ teachers something special after all they had done for them during the past 4+ months.
Many of the kids in both boys’ classes wanted our email, Facebook, and Skype addresses in order to keep in touch. They kept asking us when we were returning to Israel, and when we did, would the boys please come visit them. The kids were so welcoming and inclusive to the WK and the CK, which I know made something very hard a little bit easier.
Pentheus and I are quite proud of both boys and how they handled their exit from the Szold School. They clearly both learned a lot of Hebrew – and I really hope we can keep some of that up – but they also grew up and matured a lot from the experience in Israeli public schools. It certainly wasn’t easy for much of the time, and despite the difficulties, we believe the boys gained much more than they “lost” by being out of their public school in Cambridge for the past 4 ½ months. I know they are both nervous about “re-entry” on Wednesday, and I am sure there will be bumps along the way. Both the CK and the WK did some of their “Cambridge work” while we were in Israel, and we’ll just have to see how the readjustment period goes.
At the end of the school day, we gave each boy 6 shekels (about $1.50) to go to the makolet to buy whatever they wanted. The WK bought a lot of candy, including gummy candies, of course, and the CK bought a couple package of Supergoal cards (what else?) plus a few pieces of candy. Pentheus and I really needed to get some stuff done in the dira (like packing!), but, “davka” (no English translation, but kind of means “as luck would have it” or a Murphy’s Law situation), that afternoon the boys did not want to go to the Park Moshava, even though the weather was sunny and in low 60’s. We finally pushed the WK out the door (and I mean that both literally and figuratively) for an hour or so, and the CK stayed in his room and played a bit. Later on, everyone showered and got ready for Shabbat.
When the siren indicating that Shabbat had started sounded, we all gathered together to light Shabbat candles one last time in Jerusalem. After the blessing over the candles, I suggested that the 4 of us also do a “shehechianu” which is a blessing that thanks G-d for sustaining us to reach this occasion. A “shehechianu” is typically recited on the first night of a holiday (like Rosh Hashana, Sukkot, Chanukah, Passover, etc.) and at the “first” time something unique happens.(http://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/Judaism/Shehecheyanu.html) There is no real protocol for when a “shehechianu” can be recited, and I figured we needed to commemorate the occasion of our last Shabbat in Israel.
I think I mentioned that our synagogue, Shir Chadash, had its first ever Shabbaton (community retreat held over the Jewish Sabbath) last weekend. Perfect timing for us – no shopping, no cooking and no clean-up. The boys and Pentheus went to Friday night serves at shul, and then I joined them at Shabbat dinner. We all had a great time. We were sitting near people whom we didn’t know from the Shir Chadash community and were bummed that we hadn’t met them until Friday night. Rabbi Pear asked Pentheus to lead the community in “beerkat hamazon” grace after the meal) following dinner, and thanked us for our contributions to the synagogue. We were very touched.
There were 4 girls, ages 7-10 (Rabbi and Rachel Pear’s 3 daughters and the daughter of another friend) who decided that it was time they got to know the WK and CK and asked me if the boys could play with them. It was very sweet, even when one of the girls screamed out, “He’s not my boyfriend or anything!” The boys had a fabulous evening and spent most of Saturday with the girls, too. Figures that for the first 19 Shabbatot (plural for Shabbat), the kids don’t even look at each other, and the last one they are inseparable. At Shabbat lunch, they all sat together at “the kids’ table” which meant that Ian (the Rabbi) and Rachel could sit with Pentheus and me. The boys spent all afternoon at the Pears’ house while Pentheus and I continued packing.
I went back to synagogue for “havdalah” (the services marking the end of the Sabbath and the beginning of the new week) and to get the boys. Baruch (our friend who had made aliyah from South Africa who, along with his wife, came to our house to Shabbat lunch a few weeks ago) asked the WK to hold the candle during the service, which was incredibly sweet of him. The CK was bumming that Baruch hadn’t asked him (even though the CK had been playing in the kids’ room anyway), and ended up standing next to the WK during the service.
We went back to the dira to take care of some things, like a little more packing, making arrangements for someone to sell Pentheus’s monitor, etc. until around 8:25. Then the four of us walked to the Emek to have our final meal in Jerusalem.
We decided to go to Roza restaurant – it’s got great steak, and we’ve had a lot of great experiences there.
We thought about going to Burgers Bar but it's always so hectic and loud there, and we wanted something a bit more quiet. At dinner we talked about Israel and what we are going to miss (to be sure, kosher meat restaurants and gummy candy made the list, near the top). We talked a little about what our favorite parts of the last 5 months have been and what we’ve gotten out of the trip. After Roza, we looked for gummy candies to buy but none of the stores in the area had what we wanted. On the walk home, around 10:30 or so, we stopped at Park HaMoshava one last time. We were only there 10 minutes but we were all very glad we did it. We were talking about what a big part that park played in our Israel experience.
Back at the dira, we tried to settle the boys in to bed around 11-ish, knowing that they would be waking up in 6+ hours. Maybe we shouldn’t have pushed them by going out to dinner so late, but we wanted the last night to be special. It was, and I am so glad. Pentheus and I finished packing, cleaned out the fridge, took out the recycling, etc. for a few hours before finally turning out the light sometime after 2 a.m. We had made arrangements for Shmuelik (our favorite cab driver from when my Dad and sister were visiting in October) arrived right on time (actually a bit early) around 6. He took a great picture of the family.
We loaded the bags in Shmuelik’s trunk and the boys got into the taxi.
Your adventure will continue- just on a different continent!
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