Lag B'Omer

Lag B'Omer is my kind of holiday: bonfires and barbecues. Oh, and I got to spend it with the Baldasares. Need I say more?

This was my final Shabbat in Mitzpe Navo this year, so I couldn't have been happier to hear that everyone (except Avi, unfortunately) was going to be home. As always, a wonderful Shabbat. Shabbat at the Baldasares will definitely be one of the things I will miss most about my year here. So todah raba to all the Baldasares for making me always feel a little reluctant to leave and have to return to my program. Your family is one of a kind.

Chaim constructed an elaborate show for the Happy Minyan by having a torch arrow race down a wire via pulley into a medura that was easily the tallest I saw all night. And the icing on the cake (humor intended) was watching Karen throw her old nurse uniforms into the fire.

Everywhere you went there was a fire burning. The area around the Bnei Akiva snif was described very fittingly as looking like the aftermath of a battle. Each shevet had their own fire and barbecue and singing and games. I spent some time with Michal's group singing and cheering near their fire.

Around one in the morning, my friends and I joined Rafi and his group of friends for their medura and barbecue. I had so much fun. Even though to these kids it was nothing more than making a bonfire, cooking some steaks and sitting around talking and singing, I absolutely loved it. Nights like that make it almost painfully obvious how different it is to grow up in a tight knit community like Mitzpe Navo as opposed to the cold isolation of New York City. (Can you tell I'm just a tad jealous?)

All in all there were around 20 boys and girls, 18 or 19 years old. Some had to leave early the next morning to go back to the army or Sherut Leumi while others had the next day off from Yeshiva because it was Lag B'Omer. As it got later and later the group started to dwindle down and the last of us were finally pushed inside once it started to rain. I went to sleep around 5:30, slightly damp and strongly smelling of smoke and fire but very happy.

Two final tidbits to mention:

(a) I cooked all the steaks. I knew I had done good when Rafi complimented them.

(b) Even though most of his friends knew English, I spoke almost entirely in Hebrew. It's been confirmed: I can speak the language.