So close!

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Three days ago a forest fire began near the spring in the valley just below my village.

Besides burning 250 acres of woodland, it totalled several dozen cars.
Today I found seven burnt cars still there in Hadassah hospital's parking lots.
I imagine these are the older vehicles that lacked insurance.
Their poor owners. What a shock for them.

Look how close to the Hadassah Medical Center buildings the fire came!

They were on high alert, ready to evacuate the patients if necessary.

I fear it never would have worked.

We who work or live in the Jerusalem Hills are surrounded by forested hills and few roads.

If these are on fire you are in big trouble.

A long white chicken coop in my moshav is visible through what was the window of the car.

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The fire was stopped at the very gate of the village.

And the airplanes and firetrucks and firemen contained the blaze at the doors of Hadassah.

I would call that a miracle!

We are so grateful.

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UPDATE 2018:  All about our National Fire and Rescue Authority at their website.
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Sea level clarification

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Here is a satellite image of Israel's two lakes.
The normal level of the Sea of Galilee is 209 meters below sea level. I should have said that in yesterday's post about the shrinking lake. It is in the Great Rift Valley, as is the Dead Sea. The surface of the Sea of Salt, as the Dead Sea is called in Hebrew, is 421 meters below sea level.

This fisherman sits on rocks that were under water last year near Tabgha and the Church of the Multiplication of Fishes and Loaves. We need another miracle now to refill the two lakes!

Shavuot miracle

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Today Jews celebrate Shavuot, also know by its Biblical names Chag HaKatsir, the [wheat] Harvest Festival, and Yom HaBikurim, Day of the First Fruits. By tradition today also marks the day of King David's birth and death. In synagogues the scroll of the Book of Ruth is chanted, in loving memory of David and Ruth, his Moabite ancestor, the mother of all converts.

But mainly Shavuot is Zman Matan Toratenu, The Season of the Giving of our Torah. Seven weeks (shavuot) have passed since Passover. It took 49 (+1) days of wandering in the desert for God and Moses to prepare the People for the the biggest day in history.
In  today's morning prayer service Exodus 19-20 is read. All rise in silent reverence to listen to the Ten Commandments, with the feeling that we all are standing at Mount Sinai.

More about the deep meaning of all this and the fascinating customs of celebration await you at the friendly Chabad site.

But what I actually want to tell you today is my Shavuot miracle story from far-away SWITZERLAND.
OK. . . The winds blew cold as I wandered alone along the shore of Lake Neuchatel, missing Israel. So I asked God for a sign of friendship and connection:
 Hey, remember the split rock that our friend Sister H. found and made into something nice? I know such rocks are rare, but please, could You let me have one too?

I searched and searched, but in vain, and was about to head back. Then something told me to try at the little stretch of beach where the ominous sign says (or at least what my poor French thought it said): "Private property. Walking along this beach is permitted but stopping is prohibited."

I walked, and kept walking, and lo and behold--there it was, under the ripples of cold water!


Wrapping the heavy rock in my scarf, I almost danced all the way home.
After it got dry it looked like a loaf of bread,


or maybe the whale about to swallow Jonah.


But no! We knew its real destiny.
With a few strokes of my pencil, trying to do like the finger of God, the Hebrew letters for 1 to 10 were etched in stone and voila--the tablets of the Ten Commandments!

Click a few times to enlarge the photo and see the alef-bet letters:

Chag sameach, happy holiday to all!
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Purim

Missed my midnight blogging deadline last night because . . . I was at a Purim party! Almost all of the some 60 or 70 invited adults came dressed in highly original costumes, even me. 
Lots of dancing, mostly to reggae music. The young man confined to a wheelchair rolled into the circle and danced with his upper body, spinning the wheelchair around and around. 
Food and drink was available, but it seemed secondary to the general merriment. 
Then we sat down for a rather unorthodox reading of the Megillah, the scroll of Esther, complete with funny skits. Just like in Esther 8:16, "The Jews had light and gladness and joy and honor."
The custom of masquerading on the feast of Purim is an allusion to the fact that the miraculous salvation of the Jews of Persia some 2366 years ago is disguised in the garments of natural causes, luck, and coincidence. God's hand is hidden; his name is not mentioned even once in the Scroll of Esther.
The verses that speak to me most are Esther 4:14 and 4:16. Mordechai tries to convince Esther to risk her life to save her people and says, "And who knows whether you have not come to the kingdom for just such a time as this?" Esther decides "Then I will go to the king, though it is against the law; and if I perish, I perish." 

Chag Purim sameach -- happy Purim! 
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