Kubbeh

It's Thursday. Tensions are rising. In Hebron an arab youth sneaked into a jewish settlement and killed a 13 yr old girl and another man. Later in Netanya (where I have to celebrate Mass occasionally) another arab sneaked into the City and stabbed 2 people, injuring them. And all this in the light of the riots of the past 2 days.

And of course we're still reeling form the Istanbul bombing. What is upsetting me is when Paris and Brussels were bombed, there were immediate "Je Suis Paris/Bruzelles" tweets and FB uploads within seconds. NOT A SINGLE "JE SUIS ISTANBUL" yet ......... now you tell me why.

Kubbeh, labaneh and rice

Tomorrow is the last Friday of Ramadan. It's also the muslim feast of Laylat el Kader ... the night when heaven opens and God forgives the sins of muslims and hears all their prayers. It's like a muslim version of Yom Kippur. Tens of thousands are expected to flood into the Al Aqsa Mosque and spend the entire night praying. That means - like every year - that we'll get very little sleep. I dread that.

I've been busy doing lots of translation work ... and still have some 30 pages to complete by tomorrow. Also professors from Italy are here helping my libraries in research and organization so I have to be around to answer their questions and give permissions for this and that. Last night I brought them out for dinner to thank them for their time and effort. There was something new on the menu in Legacy: Kubbeh and labaneh (yoghurt). It was very nice! Kubbeh is deep fried minced lamb with grounded corn shaped into curry-puffs (last night they did it like a fig). I liked it. In fact "kubbeh" is an arab corruption of the italian "cupola" meaning "dome".

Healthwise my asthma is under control ... for the moment. Maybe at Laylat el Kader I should pray for good health ... that these asthma attacks stop crippling my life. Maybe it'll work.