Long story short – the 25 minute flight from Dulles to Philadelphia took 2.5 hours. After the 20 minute run across the Philadelphia airport (no, I did not get a pretzel, though I wanted one) all was well. Nice flight on US Airways to Tel Aviv, arrived on time with all my bags intact.
First disappointment, that Avi Yehuda was unable to meet us at the winery Friday afternoon because he was attending a funeral (the second of a parent of a winemaker that week). Yossi Dina, Adva and I had a very quiet Shabbat in Har Adar – Yossi and Dina both cooked a delicious Shabbat dinner – our wine, a 2004 Somek red blend was a bit disappointing – it may be past its prime. We compensated Shabbat afternoon with a delicious dry Riesling from Vitkin. After Havdallah we drove to Nes Harim to pay a shiva call to our friend Yossi Yitach, whose mother died suddenly on Thursday afternoon. After that it was on to Jerusalem. My initial stroll on Emek Refayim at midnight made me the oldest person out at that hour by about 30 years. I was easy to spot – I was the one not dressed like a whore.
Sunday has been a quiet day of unpacking, phone calls, delivering some of what I brought for people, finding out the wine festival admission went up another 5 shekels to 60 NIS this summer, preparing some materials for our USY groups and then an excellent dinner with my friend (known in DC as my bromance) Scott Littky at Papagaio – the buffet was not open because of the 9 days, but we each enjoyed an entrecote and a split of Tanya’s 2006 Cabernet Sauvignon, which paired perfectly with the peppery steak. I met the winemaker, Yoram Cohen last summer. He is a delightful man, it was nice being reacquainted with his wine (I have an unopened Cabernet Franc at home) and it was great spending time with Scott.
Tomorrow I’m meeting with Robbie Sasson, the new director of Crossroads, and then making a quick stop by the shuk to buy dinner ingredients to make a meal for before the fast of Tisha B’Av.
More about that observance in tomorrow or Tuesday’s post. Lots of mitzvah work and people to see. Stay tuned.
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Glad your distant appearance made you easy to distinguish from those around you. I just KNEW that you and Scott were going to have fun together! My best to Robbie - maybe on my next visit we'll connect. Have a good rest-of-the-day.
ReplyDeleteOooops -- should be "distinct" not "distant"
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