Har Menuchot, Givat Shaul, Jerusalem, Walls of Graves

Yesterday I was at a funeral in Har Menuchot, Givat Shaul, Jerusalem. Unlike the usual noontime summer funeral, we didn't bake in the heat, nor get sunburned. After the ceremony in the airconditioned hall, we got into vehicles and traveled to the newly constructed graves.

 Yes, constructed; it's a building with wide, long corridors decorated by graves stacked four high. 

Each wall is labeled/coded to indicate which floor, section and level, so that the grave can be easily located. Yes, these are today's and tomorrow's graves. People can still request and pay more for an outdoor grave in more natural dirt, rather than the soil added by the Chevra Kadisha, but in a small country like Israel, where land is limited and expensive, these graves make more sense. If you believe in ecology and "saving the earth and natural resources," this type of cemetery is what you should request for yourself.

While walking down the long corridor, following a friend to her "final resting place," I couldn't stop mentioning how lovely it looks. As you can see in the photos, people have found ways to decorate and individualize the plaques. 

The older "stacked" section of Har Menuchot, Givat Shaul, Jerusalem is much less attractive. They remind me of "office drawers" in some archive. But this new section is actually lovely in the way that the Military Cemetery in Mount Herzl is attractive, though this one is indoors and Mount Herzl is a well-tended garden.

Apparently the administration of Har Menuchot, Givat Shaul, Jerusalem is constructing kilometers of buildings like these instead of wasting the Holy Land on the dead rather than the living.

Simple COVID-19, Corona Life Saving Measure: Wear a Mask!

Surviving and being a good neighbor/citizen in the time of COVID-19, Corona requires wearing a mask. You don't need to spend money to get a mask. If everyone masks up, we'll all be safer and healthier!

You don't need to spend money on a fancy manufactured mask. I've cut up ripped sheets.

Here's my husband in one of my scarves

The "masked bandit" look is the rage nowadays, though too few people are following the rules.

I keep a bag of scarves and large pieces of cloth on the doorknob, on the inside of the front door.

When we come back home, we put the "mask" in the laundry and wash our hands with soap and water.

Since we live in a private house in Shiloh, which is rather rural/suburban, we don't need to be in a dangerous elevator or closed stairwell to leave home. This is a safety luxury that not all people can enjoy. I honestly don't know what I would do if leaving home was more dangerous.

As a senior citizen who does everything in my power to stay fit and healthy, walking isn't a luxury; it's a necessity. When I see adults and children out without masks, they are endangering everyone's health. Young people can carry the virus and infect others without any symptoms at all. It is necessary to wear masks, no matter how "good" you feel.

Here are the Israeli regulations:
Going Out to Public Space

• Going out in public is not allowed, except for one of the following purposes:
  • Going to and returning from the work place, as permitted by regulations
  • Purchase of food, medicines, essential products and receiving vital services
  • Receiving medical service
  • Blood donation
  • Receiving welfare services
  • Providing medical or other assistance to another person
  • An individual, or people who live in the same household, may go out for a short time and up to a distance of 100 meters
  • For purposes of immersion in a women’s mikveh with a prearranged appointment.
  • Transfer of a minor to educational facilities, solely for children of essential employees and special facilities (in accordance with Public Health Ordinance order)
  • Transfer of a minor, whose parents live separately, by one of his parents to the home of the other parent
  • Transfer of a minor whose guardian must leave for an essential need where there is no responsible person to watch the child
  • Legal processes
  • Demonstrations
  • Going to the Knesset
• A distance of at least 2 meters must be maintained between two people in public and at work.
• In public one must wear a protective mask, covering the nose and mouth. It is recommended to use a home-made cloth mask or a regular mask, fitted over the nose and mouth. 

Counting The Omer, Easier Than Trying to Calculate The End of Corona Lock-down

Here we are a week before Passover aka Pesach, and this used to* be the season when we'd sign up for various reminders to help us remember to Count The Omer, Sefirat Ha'Omer, the seven weeks, forty-nine 49 days between the second night of Passover and the Eve of Shavuot.

*Why did I write "used to?"
I wrote "used to," because today when most everyone has some sort of cell phone with alarm clock, you can just set your phone to be your daily alarm.
This method is fine on week nights, but it doesn't work Shabbat and the eve of the last night of Passover. I came up with a simple method that works for me.
I hang up a sign across from where I like to sit in the living room. As you can see, before  Shabbat or the holiday, I write the number of the Omer I must count. I've found that to be a very reliable reminder. 

Counting the Omer was one of the most difficult mitzvot for me to observe in the early decades of my being Torah observant.

When I became religious in the mid-1960s, there was no reminder system. Only men who went to the synagogue every night to doven/pray Ma'ariv with a minyon had it as their easy to remember routine.

I didn't succeed in counting the Omer until our son-in-law came on the scene and signed us up for reminders with the cell phone company he was then working for. It was around the same time email reminders had begun, but I didn't check my email as often as I do now. So email wasn't the best, just better than nothing.

Maybe I'm the only one who has already lost track of how many days/weeks we've been on this corona lock-down, living with what was once unimaginable restrictions. Not only don't we know when it's going to end, we're constantly being warned that the noose aka restrictions maybe getting tighter.

Most people can adjust to something difficult when they know how long it will last. But even with all the complicated computations and guesswork the experts have been coming up with, there are too many unknowns to factor in for any accuracy. Another issue is that the virus is affecting various countries differently.

We must combine strict obedience and "letting go." There certainly is an inconsistency in that. But that's how we must live in the near future. We must make our efforts, mask ourselves when outside and stay inside as much as possible. Instead of doing our own shopping and choosing the choicest fruits and vegetables, we send in our orders and thank the staff of the local store. It's a new life for us.

Trust and faith are all we can control.

Chazal, our sages tell us that the plague, epidemic, which caused the death of thousands of Rabbi Akiva's students ended Shavuot. That's one of the reasons we count the Omer until then.

Gd willing we'll celebrate the end of this modern plague במהירה בימינו bimhaira biyameinu, speedily in our days.