David playing with Pascal with a peacock feather

Here's a video that I shot just this morning (Friday) of David playing with kitten Pascal, with a peacock feather. We got the feathers from our friend, Golan, who raises many different kinds of animals, including both snakes and peacocks.

Horse update

I happened to see Roi Davidson, the vet, the other day, and he told me that the horse we rescued is now in Tel Aviv and is doing well. I was very glad to hear that!

Saving a starving horse

For the last several days, we had noticed a horse tethered in the wild area near our house. At first, he had been further up the trail, but then they moved him to the area right across the street from the house. Three or four boys (early teens, I think) seemed to be the ones responsible for him, but they obviously didn't know how to care properly for a horse. Several days ago, they had asked us for water for him, and I had told them that they would need to pay for it. They agreed to pay 5 shekels for each time that they filled their big tub, but they kept making excuses about the money and, worse yet, began to simply fill it with water without asking me. Finally, I just went out, turned the water off, and told them that from henceforth they would have to pay the money BEFORE they took the water. We then detached the hose and brought it in the house, and, a little later, we also removed the faucet handle and brought it into the house, as well.

This morning, we called the city vet about the horse because he was getting very thin and emaciated. The very dry weeds out there are NOT adequate food for him! The vet said that they had been looking for this horse but had not been able to find him. Our neighbor, Shimon, called the cops, and they did come out. But they really didn't do anything but call to the boys, who simply ran away up the trail with another horse! In the end, it took almost all day before the vet's assistants actually made it out here and led the poor beast away. I hope that he will get a better home and plenty of food, soon! At least we did our good deed for the day.

Pascal playing with a feather

Other than telling you that I filmed this on Friday (2 days ago), I think it needs no further commentary! :-)

A terrible tragedy and a drasha about it

I'm sure all of you have heard by now of the shooting last Saturday night (nearly a week ago now) at the gay youth center in Tel Aviv. Two young people were killed, and a number of others were injured, some seriously. The masked gunman escaped and has not been caught yet, as far as I know at this writing. So, we don't know anything yet about his precise motives, but there can still be little doubt that this was a hate crime.

Last night at synagogue, our Rabbi Yisrael's sermon was on this very topic. He condemned this terrible act in very strong terms, saying that the Western Wall (the holiest place in Judaism) was truly weeping blood. He called this שינת חינם (sinat khinam), baseless hatred. As he reminded us, this was the reason that the temple was destroyed, according to the talmudic rabbis. He said that Judaism is an open religion and that G-d has given all of us the right to live our lives as we see fit. At first this bothered me a little, until I realized that he was saying that even if the gay life is a choice (which I KNOW that it is NOT), we must honor everyone anyway. In a way, this is even stronger: we do not even have to make the argument that this is the way we are born (although there's plenty of evidence that it is); everyone is to be respected and honored. He also reminded us that all of us have a spark of the divine according to Jewish tradition.

Usually at our synagogue, sermons are given only in Hebrew, and printed English and Spanish translations are handed out just before. This week, though, there was a problem with the rabbi's computer, so he delivered his drasha in small segments (a sentence or 2), first in Hebrew. Then Sue, an American member who also knows Hebrew well, translated to English. Finally, the rabbi gave his own translation into Spanish (which, I think, is his native language, perhaps along with Yiddish). In this way, he made sure that everyone in the congregation would understand exactly what he was saying.