Desperately Trying For A Creative Title But Coming Up Empty

Hopefully the Cipro isn't depleting important brain matter....

I did not make it out of the apartment today, just didn't feel well enough. It was interesting to be here with all of the windows open all day and hearing all of the sounds of the people strolling up and down Jabotinsky rather than the loud cars I am used to. I periodically went to the window to look out -- in broad day light it was not quite as interesting as what I wrote in the blog post about last night.

I kept myself busy today praying, not something I really planned on doing, it just happened and I'm glad I did. First I did a little Shabbat specific praying by going through the Shabbat service Rachel and I created for the Shabbat service we hosted the weekend of my conversion. I hadn't looked through that in quite some time -- I was looking in my original tallis bag and found it -- and it really felt good to become familiar with it again. I actually found myself thinking that right now in my life I don't feel the need to become Bat Mitzvah, that in many ways my conversion experience and the before mentioned service was kind of like a Bat Mitzvah -- I was called to the Torah in that I gave a D'var Torah on that week's portion and brought together many family and friends to pray with Rachel and I and to celebrate my becoming Jewish. Who knows what time will bring, and I'll go with the flow. I then read the entirety of the morning, afternoon, memorial and concluding services since I was missing all of it. I know that a big part of prayer is that it is something done within a larger community, but I kind of liked being alone today -- I felt better able to really read, understand and reflect on the liturgy. Turns out I'm glad I read the prayerbook cover to cover as Rachel reminded me that the URJ is releasing a new prayerbook next year. I had post-it notes with me and marked some places where the liturgy really struck me or where I had questions and wanted to ask Rachel for some insight when she got home -- what can I say, I keep her on her toes.

I was still praying when sunset came and went. At 5:57pm I heard the first car drive past me on Jabotinsky. At 6:07pm I heard a second car. Then at 6:13pm a third car went by and the floodgates were opened. Within 20 minutes it sounded like just another day in Jerusalem -- car after car, scooter after scooter went by, and just like it was 24 hours ago, the horns they were a' blowin'. The unique and special experience I witnessed, the quiet and calm, the innocence and quiet of Yom Kippur disappeared quickly and it became just another night on the streets of J'lem -- loud and annoying. I quickly got up and shut the windows, trying to hold on to that peaceful quiet a little longer but resigned to the fact that not even closed windows can keep the world from spinning onwards. Time, it moves forward, whether we like it or not.