Rain

It drizzled the whole morning. The sky was heavy and dark. And a cold wind was blowing. The temperature fell to 15 degrees! It was cold and wet. But afternoon the sun came back for a few hours to dry the ground and again darkness enveloped us at 5pm because it's winter time. But there was a lovely amber full moon shining over the Mt of Olives - incredible sight. It was awesome. It's the full moon of Sukkot.

This morning I will go to the Wailing Wall for the Jewish Priestly Blessing (Birchat Kohanim) which takes place only twice a year at the Wall. This ancient blessing (of Aaron in the Book of Numbers chapter 6 verse 22 onwards) was given every morning by the priest who offered the incense sacrifice in the Temple 2000 yrs ago. But since the destruction of the Temple in AD70 it was rarely done in this holy site. The blessing at the Wall was revived in 1971 I think; and it never attarcted much attention until last year when immense crowds came so that the police had to block off the roads and stop people from entering the Wailing Wall Plaza. I hope it wouldn't happen again this year. I'll go there with my 2 Brazilian friends Cris and Thiago.

Meantime my research is going ahead - rather tediously. Get a terrible headache each time the day ends after I've written or read lots of books. The thing is I don't take a break in between. I just got through 2-4 hours of work and then get terribly tired. And hungry. I should eat snacks in between to stave off the hunger but I don't ... so when it comes to lunch or dinner I gorge myself and get terribly sick afterwards and regret. Hmmm the pattern is getting stuck so I'd better break it.

But meantime the rains will hopefully continue to pour and the dry parched land gets a soaking. We need it.