Up until this past Friday, my main point-of-contact with the Israelite Samaritans has been reading the weekly Torah portion in my translated English Torah & following the Hebrew commentary that I download from the IS website. The IS readings are now about the 11 Plagues & the exodus from Egypt. The IS count 11 plagues in Egypt, not, 10. They count the incident with the staves & the crocodiles ("serpent" is a mistranslation of the Hebrew t'nin, which means crocodile) in Exodus 7 as a plague. (FYI, in Exodus 4, the word nahash, snake or serpent is used.) This is my contact; this is what I must make do with at present. But this past Friday, my wife & I went to a family-owned pharmacy in our community. The pharmacy also stocks natural herbs & extracts & stuff. We went in & I noticed on a shelf IS tehina (tahini), from the factory in Kiryat Luza, on Aargareezem. I was delighted; naturally we had to buy some. The wife pharmacist (they're a couple) said that they had recently visited Kiryat Luza & the national park, saw the tehina & decided to buy some for the pharmacy. Seeing & buying that tehina, this token from Aargareezem, inspired me. When I was in synagogue Friday evening & I faced Aargareezem (see my previous post) to beg Shema to bless me and grant that I might serve Him one day on the Mountain, I felt the wind carry me all the way past Har Bracha, through Kiryat Luza, past the Passover pits and deposit me down on Givat Olam. I felt the wind at my back as I stood there, I actually leaned backward into this spiritual wind as I stood there, on the Mountain, before the wind picked me up and brought me back to our snagogue. How exhilarating! I thanked Shema as profoundly as I could.
The other bit of news is that just before Purim, my wife will travel abroad to help her mother (a wonderful woman) move into the local Jewish assisted living facility. She will be abroad for almost three weeks. I would love to visit the Mountain if I could. We shall see.
