Rain At Last On The First Day Of Kislev And Moroccan Poufs

Chodesh Tov, wishing you all a happy new month, the Jewish month of Kislev! Rosh Chodesh, (rosh means head, chodesh means month) the first day of the month, is a special day which includes special prayers in the synagogue, a half day of school and maybe a special meal or activity for the family. Today I treated my kids with hot chocolate ready and waiting as they came in the door as it was positively pouring, like really really pouring! Where you live you may wish that it sometimes rained a bit less, but here in Israel, the more rain the better. For us given our hillside location that generally means streams of water flowing like rivers down the stairs that surround our house, and down the street a few stories down the hill, an actually very lovely experience as we really get to witness the shear quantity of rain.

As it turns out that we were in such a bad situation with no rain, that if this had been the case during the time that the Holy Temple stood in Jerusalem everyone would have needed to fast, if it still hadn't rained today. Sadly we have no such Temple today, and happily it did rain, something like 7 inches overnght, which is a nice amount. It is amazing how the weather just quickly tuns to winter here, and my kids scrambled into the attic to bring down the boxes of scarves and gloves and of course all of my crocheted creations for winter, ahhh so much fun!

Here in Northern Israel temperatures don't drop as low as say the snowy areas in the US, but it seems colder because our homes aren't heated with boilers and construction is more geared towards warm weather as opposed to cold weather. So we are all wearing our fleece and woolen socks and ioving it! Our lives become focused inwards, except of course I do have my eye on my succulents, which I always bring indoors when temperatures threaten to get close to freezing.

And what to Moroccan poufs have to do with rain? Well it was just so cute I had to share it with you, and of course with my mother who is a regular reader here. The first thing my boys did after taking off their wet shoes was to run upstairs and bring down the four Moroccan poufs that are in their rooms. Why you ask? Well so that they could simply sit next to the tall windows in our living room and watch the weather! So sweet and just the kind of thing I love to do as well. Of course they each had a book in hand in order to multi task, which reminds me of myself as well.

Oh and just by the way, Moroccan poufs from Morocco come unfilled, and so I filled them with old clothes, which means they are mighty heavy, so bringing them downstairs was also akin to weight lifting. Speaking of exercise I'm now going to go brave the elements and climb the hill in order to go buy our weekly supply of vegetables, many of which will be used to make Moroccan salads for shabbat, so see ya later alligator!