We arrived in the evening on the first day. We were exhausted after so many hours of travel; I think it was nearly 26 hours by the time we reached the Kibbutz. After we dropped off our bags at Sara’s uncle’s house, Eyal, we went straight away to her Saba Igal’s house (luckily they are all on the Kibbutz and getting places quickly is easy). I have never met someone who is so fit and sharp at his age, 85, and with such a great sense of humor. After the jokes and the catching up Sara had with her grandpa, we sat down for dinner. He gave us an amazing Israeli style dinner with salad (cucumbers and tomatoes), olives, pickles, bread, cheese, tehina, and other Israeli staples. I managed to make it through dinner without fully falling asleep but instead of going straight home to his house we made a stop off at Sara’s aunt Orna’s house to say hi. Her aunt and uncle were there along with Orna’s youngest son Moran and his girlfriend. Both of them are our age, though Sara is older (and claims smarter) than her cousin. Moran has experiences from the army and being an army officer (apparently not a teacher) and of course, he “risks his life” every day.
After a good first night’s sleep, we got home at 8 and slept for almost 12 hours, we woke up in the morning to go to a Brit Mila for Sara’s new cousin, the son of Eran and Amit.
The Mohel at this circumcision was the most ecstatic Sephardi I have ever seen. He was holding the baby by the blanket with one hand literally throwing him from father to grandfather with no care in the world. I don’t know how to explain him, other that he either knows exactly what he is doing, or has no idea what he is doing.
At the Brit, most of Sara’s aunt’s children attended, and I was suddenly surrounded by so many people with so many names to remember. Moran is the tank commander teacher who risks his life, Matan is the computer chip specialist. Tamir and his fluctuating voice, high to low pitched. When he said hi to me, he had the deepest Israeli voice I have ever heard. Ido and his wife Karin who just had a baby girl and their other son Ron who loves tomatoes. May, the youngest cousin, full of jokes and “fluent” in English. It takes us three to move giant bookcases from room to room. Some have superb English, while others speak Hebrew slow enough for me and Sara to understand. I was still exhausted at this point, since it was in the middle of the night back in California, so after the Bris I took a nice afternoon nap.
I woke up in time for my mom to call saying it’s nearly Shabbat. She wished me a Shabbat Shalom and that everything was well with me. Sara lit the candles for our first Shabbat and we headed over for a great Friday night dinner with her extended family at Orna’s. I don’t know how to thank them enough for their hospitality and warmness other than showing how happy I am with my smiles, thanks, and trying to make conversation with everyone. There are so many generations under one house, some who helped make the State of Israel, and some who’s English I’m sure is even better than mine. Even the young kids, maybe four or five years old, even the two year old Ron has better Hebrew than me. So in Sara’s family the Israeli can speak either better English and/or Hebrew than me, even the youngest toddlers.
After a full day and a Shabbat of resting, I think we are accustomed to the time change, and will begin to visit more people and places, starting tomorrow with Rochov Bialik in Ramat Gan and visiting my family with Sara.
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