Lila Tov to Israel

(Note added 6/1/14:  no, we are not back in Israel.  We are actually heading off to another house trade on June 9 - to Ireland - and in getting ready to update blog, noticed that this post was inactive and not showing on the blog - so just reposting it)

"Lila Tov" means "good night" - so here you see us in the courtyard next to my aunt and uncles' home as we head out for our last dinner and say our good night to Israel. Just like there are many different ways to write the English pronunciation of Hebrew, there are other ways to spell out "Lila" tov, but as a kid I always assumed it was spelled this way because my mom's name is Lila. So we will stick with it!

Since our trip to Dead Sea/Masada, we have mostly spent time reading, writing, relaxing, and enjoying getting to know our Jerusalem cousins.

On Friday afternoon Marc's oldest son, Zalman, came to visit along with his wife Rivi. They were just married in January. They were going to be spending Shabbat with her family, so this was our one chance to see them. She doesn't speak any English, but Zalman was good about translating so we felt we got to know her a bit.

As sundown approached, we EASILY hailed a cab (we have switched to a different street and they seem less snarky) who actually offered to use the meter, and headed up to Marc's. The whole family is back from vacation, so we got to see/meet everybody, of course with that big of a family it was hard to get everybody in the same place at once to get a photo (and have to do it all before sundown). So bear with us as we share family photos!

Here is Jim, with Alexander and Shalom Simcha, who is the 3 year old "baby" of the family. He is non-stop chatter and energy and kept us entertained.

Jim was to join Marc and Alexander again at the Western Wall, but managed to snap this photo before they dashed off to catch a cab.

Adding in another of his kids that we hadn't yet seen - Ashira, age 16. She is going to be a junior in high school, is a gentle soul, and loved to hear all us adults share family stories and memories.

While the men were gone, Marc's wife (Sarah Batya) and I sat on the back porch with the lovely evening breeze and had a great chat. We have met a few times over the years, but always in a bigger family gathering, so we realized we had never really had a conversation. We made good use of the time!

After the men returned, we had a wonderful dinner, and like we did last Friday evening, walked home.

We returned mid-day on Saturday to spend the day/evening. More wonderful food and conversation. We then joined Alexander and the younger three on a walk through the "forest" area behind their house, which included a few play structures. After learning several new board games, it was time for another meal. The two youngest went on to bed and the rest of us enjoyed old memories, political/philisophical conversations, and mostly created a lot of new memories.

The rest of the photos are taken after sundown on Saturday. This is me and Sarah Batya

Mom and girls

And all of us except the two little ones (who were long ago asleep at this point)

Marc, both last week and this week, kept trying to figure out things like when did he first meet Jim, when did he first meet our boys, when did we every sit down the four of us. The conclusion we finally came to is: he was away at college when we got married and after college he moved to Israel. So our adult contact as cousins is ancient. It really felt like we were starting from scratch getting to know each other - but with a common thread of growing up memories. It was so special to have this amount of time to get caught up and to know his whole family.

So today, Sunday, was our final day as we leave for the airport tomorrow morning at 8:30 a.m. The thought of seeing one more ancient ruin, or putting on a museum headset, or climbing steps seemed much too overwhelming. We opted to relax at the house this morning (which afforded Jim the time to finish what he has been writing about Jerusalem), and then went for a walk through Yemin Moshe, the first neighborhood that was built outside of the walls of the Old City.

We started out walking through a park area with outdoor sculptures.

And then when where we least expected it - an ancient ruin! Turns out it is Herod's Family Tomb (he was buried someplace else) - you can see the round stone that would have been rolled in front of the entrance.

But then we were back to modern sculptures

And fountains.

This area was created by a rich British-Jewish philanthropist, Sir Moses Montefiore. He had been so horrified by the conditions inside the Old City that he wanted to build an improved area for the Jews. He included this windmill to make the area self-sufficient, but apparently there wasn't enough wind to make a go of it.

His first project was this "Dwellings of Tranquility" - a communal block of 16 apartments, completed in 1860. This was the area I mentioned in our post from the Old City - nobody wanted to leave the security of the walled city so he had to offer it for free, and even with that the residents would sneak back into the walled city at night.

We finished up our walk exploring the charming streets

and colorful gardens.

We had a lovely dinner at an outdoor (of course) cafe and talked about the amazing month we have had. We have learned so much about the history and people of this country. And now have a personal experience to put what we hear in the news into perspective. So many special moments and memories.

It has been 30 days; 1257 photos taken; 274 snippets of videos on the flip camera; all these blog entries; tired bodies and feet all add up to a great trip! But next summer we REALLY need to re-do our master bath!! Unless...

Anyway, I am ready to hit "publish post" so I can finish packing and go to bed.

So "Lila Tov" from Israel.

Love,

Lisa and Jim