Assumption Day

Parents dancing with son on his
Bar Mitzvah

It's Assumption Day and it's a holiday. No work in both libraries so less stress today. There was the solemn Mass down in Gethsemani where the Tomb of Mary is situated but I didn't go. I had to preach a conference at the same time. There was an lively discussion on the Assumption and I rather enjoyed it. It was intellectually provoking. After the talk I had half an hour to rest before having lunch with our greatly reduced community. We're down to 7 but that's typical of summer holidays. But that doesn't lessen the feast day lunch ... the cook is always great and we never lack anything. In fact we're grateful for the good stuff that we eat everyday. And the food has been done in ways and with ingredients that I am not allergic to. So I'm eating more often now. Only thing I still don't eat is pork.

Bar Mitzvah boy
reading from the
Torah Scroll

Yesterday I passed by the Wailing Wall and there were Bar Mitzvahs being celebrated. It occurs every Monday and Thursday, when boys at 13 yrs celebrate their coming of age by publicly reading from the Torah scrolls. It's a big family event and those who can afford will pay for traditional drummers and trumpeters to herald the event. It was good to watch them rejoicing on their big day ... but under the blazing sun ... that's too much. Many of the people carried umbrellas and the Wailing Wall administrative. provided huge sunshades as well. These mornings the temp rises to 30 degrees by 9am and by afternoon it becomes scorchingly hot. I've stayed mostly at home during those hours and go do my work only in the early and late hours to escape heatstroke. Even so it's made me quite sick. I try my best to reduce any strenuous work but as it's holidays and there's no one to help me, I have to do it slowly ... like carrying heavy boxes of books to and from the Printing Press for binding and repairs.

There's an incredible news that in China's universities there is a boom in students wanting to study latin and greek. Europe on the otherhand is abandoning it's classical heritage. Our professors say in the near future the world's latin and green scholars will undoubtedly come from China because of this unprecedented interest in the classical languages and culture.  https://classicalstudies.org/scs-blog/yongyi-li/amphora-new-incarnation-latin-china?utm_source=dlvr.it&utm_medium=facebook