Heard Israel's former Chief Rabbi Lau's sermon at shul, at which today's reading was the Haftorah of Mattot.
The Haftorah is Jeremiah Chapter One, which contains the following verses:
Out of the north an evil shall break forth upon all the inhabitants of the land. For, lo, I will call all the families of the kingdoms of the north, saith the Lord, and they shall come...And they shall fight against thee, but they shall not prevail against thee. For I am with thee, saith the Lord, to save thee.
And so it has happened: families have been fleeing the north of Israel for the centre, with buildings being opened for Shabbat. And food parcels are being sent to the north, where Nahariya, Sfat, Haifa, Meron and now Tiberias http://news.google.co.uk/news?q=Tiberias,+Israel&hl=en&lr=&sa=X&oi=news&ct=title are being hit. Very near to Nazareth as well.
People have been told not to go into work tomorrow and that a siren will sound one minute before danger strikes. And Patriot Missiles have now been brought to Haifa. http://news.google.co.uk/news?q=Patriot+Missiles+in+Haifa&hl=en&lr=&sa=X&oi=news&ct=title
But according to my friends there, the place is calm, but determined and all are behind the Israeli Prime Minister. And my friend at the university even sent us an e-mail congratulating Les on his book review in the Jewish Chronicle and saying he will order it for the library at Haifa University.
And back to our shul, our rabbi spoke in Russian to a group of young people visiting from Minsk in Belarus. http://www.fjc.ru/news/newsArticle.asp?AID=129700 A woman from Ramat Bet Shemesh, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ramat_Bet_Shemesh
on holiday in Manchester, told me that she likes this my blog. And the wife of one of the Israelis who has been teaching at a school here is returning to Israel next week and will be getting a job with the medical health fund, Maccabi, http://info.jpost.com/C005/Supplements/CafeOleh/health4.html the one I was thinking of joining, and will be working in Haifa, whilst living in Sfat. So we will exchange details before she goes.
So, really, life goes on after all.
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