Yearning

Just a quick post from me in AZ.
I hope you're enjoying the wonerful posts my guests have been posting here.  Maybe I should go away more often.  They're invited to post more frequently.


I've been busy on a major Kibbud av v'em project, (honoring one's father and mother.)  Last fall, I took my father to Shiloh on aliyah.  The plan was for my mother to join him a few months later in Israel.  What can I say other than, planning is easy, but following the plan is a different story.  My mother decided to move to my sister's area in Arizona.


Now, by taking care of and observing my father all these months (read more here and in me-ander of this saga) I've learned something about the Jewish yearning for Jerusalem to be rebuilt and the Bait HaMikdash, Holy Temple.


When he first came to Shiloh he was confident that my mother would soon join him "in Yerushalayim."  Then slowly, he began to deteriorate.  He became weaker, less walking, less communicating.  He was shutting down.  It's like our mourning customs for the Beit HaMikdash versus for death.  With time my father got worse, but the Jewish customs for death go in the opposite direction, getting lighter.  Because my father knew that my mother was alive he suffered more.


When we mourn the Jerusalem of Old, our mourning gets more intense, because we know that we can have it again.


Yesterday I brought my father to my mother.  The last few days before we flew to Arizona he perked up, becoming more alive, active than he had been for months.  He was totally joyful to be reunited with the woman he has loved for seventy years, since he first saw her.


May we, the Jewish People be reunited in a rebuilt Jerusalem, bimhaira b'yamainu, speedily in our days.