Living on the front page of Jewish history

Moving to Israel means living on the front page of Jewish history. That's usually exhilarating, something that offers wonderful growth and deep meaning to my life.

Other times, that means living on the front page of anti-Semitism and Islamic fundamentalism. That's quite a bit less pleasant.

After our targeted killing of a Hamas leader who was responsible for killing and terrorizing innocent Israeli civilians, not to mention kidnapping and holding onto Gilad Shalit; Israel's South knew the forecast for rockets wasn't any 40% chance--we were gonna feel the pain.

And pain we felt. I lost count very quickly. But my friend and fellow Beer Sheva resident Ravit painstakingly kept track of those last night 7:57, 8, 8:10, 9ish, 12:15, 1:15, 2:35, 3, 6:30, 7:45, 7:48, 8:06, 8:40, 9, 9:15...there were another couple on my way out of town to Jerusalem.

So that was more in about 16 and a half hours than all the sirens I had heard combined in the two years prior.

Skype-ing with Mom and off to Sheva Brachot for my amazing friend Mark (below, his wedding was two nights ago).

And this is the spectacular Negev sunset from my train ride to Beer Sheva yesterday. I got the news from my boss right before I took this, knowing that the sunset to the west would certainly beat anything else coming from that direction in the near future.

Lots of love and huge thanks to so many amazing friends here who offered me a place to crash to get out of rocket range.

Now I'll catch up on some old interesting links. A Wall Street Journal piece about rocking out the morning at work. An interesting guide to which types of produce it's important to buy organic, and which less so. And jazz guitar maestro Pat Metheny, on YouTube, talking about how YouTube's access to so much music has proved to be a game-changer for musicians.

שבת שלום מירושלים/Shabbat Shalom from Jerusalem,
אריק/Eric