Wednesday, April 8, 2020
Our neigbourhood supermarket sold
eggs, but only one box per client. Another plane load of one million eggs had
arrived from Portugal, but those would only be distributed from Sunday on.
Tonight at 6 p.m. a curfew starts
until Friday 7 a.m.
Throughout the city there will be check points and the
police and army will act strongly when people disobey the rules. These
measurements are needed to keep the ultra-orthodox in check, who will try to
celebrate together, despite the health danger.
For us, after the last couple of
busy weeks, it feels like a holiday. Strange.
We received a beautiful video clip
from the ICEJ, who have been a blessing to Hineni. Wonderful to have been part
of this amazing project. Click here to see the video on YouTube: Many Hands - One Heart
Wim and I
didn’t feel like doing a Seder just for the two of us, so we enjoyed our usual ‘dinner’
at lunch time with a glass of wine to celebrate. Trying to live more frugally,
we’re down to one glass of wine per week, instead of the one per day. It does
taste extra special now.
That evening
around 9 p.m. we heard loud singing in the neighbourhood, the voices echoing
against the stone walls: “Mah nishtanah haleila hazeh” – why is this night
different from all other nights. Because
people could not celebrate the Seder meal, the start of the Pesach holidays, with
the extended family, they were encouraged to go on the balcony and sing! It
happened all over the country, really special.
Our
neighbours celebrated via Zoom with a daughter in the Negev, one in the USA, an
acquaintance in England and their in-laws. It definitely was a Pesach to
remember!
Thursday,
April 9
A really
quiet day, like a shabbat, but now even more so because of the peace and quiet
everywhere.
Because of
the coming Good Friday and Passover holiday, I worked hard to be able to send the
JBC special edition newsletter out today, instead of the usual Shabbat. On
Facebook we saw pictures of Israel under total lockdown, taken by policemen and
security personnel. Surreal, with those empty roads!
