While you were away...

Back in Israel, summer has arrived. The daytime highs are pushing at 30C and I cannot say I mind. After a chilly and wet bit of spring in Vancouver, I'm quite enjoying drying out and warming up!

While I was away, the holidays were coming fast and furious in Israel. As you may recall, I left Israel the first night of Pesach. About two weeks of holiday follow on Pesach...university is closed, Jews from around the world visit Israel, Passover being one of the pilgrimage holidays in the Jewish calendar. Between Passover and Shavuot (Pentecost) is a period of semi-mourning in the Jewish calendar. From Wikipedia (ah, wikipedia, what did we do before you?):

The 49 days of the Omer [counting from the first night of Passover] correspond both to the time between physical emancipation from Egypt and the spiritual liberation of the giving of the Torah at the foot of Mount Sinai on Shavuot [7 weeks, 49 days after Passover], as well as the time between the barley harvest and the wheat harvest in ancient Israel.

In this stretch of 7 weeks there are several holidays, but few of them are joyful. Three of them occurred while I was in Canada:

Holocaust Remembrance Day (Yom HaSho'ah) 7-8 April 2013 (sunset to sunset)
This is self-explanatory: It's a day to remember the six million Jews that died in the Holocaust. Across the country at 10am sirens sound and Israelis stand silently at attention.
I am sorry to have missed this day because of its solemnity and also because seeing Israelis stand still and silent would be an amazing thing.

Memorial Day (Yom HaZikaron) 14-15 April 2013
This is less obvious. It's a day to commemorate the soldiers who fell defending Israel and the victims of terrorism. The sirens sound at 8pm and 11am and again, Israelis stand silently at attention wherever they may be. This day I'd really like to have seen as it offers the benefit of seeing a normally very active culture stop and stand still, but it also highlights divisions in Israeli society--not everyone wants to celebrate this day. I've been told that when the sirens sound the Haredim and Arabs don't stop, but keep going about their day.

Israel Independence Day (Yom Ha'Atzma'ut) 16 April 2013
Celebrates Israel's declaration of independence in 1948.

And then last night was the fourth holiday...considered a break in the mourning period.

Bonfire Day - Lag BaOmer 27-28 April 2013
Most Israelis I've asked about this day are a bit fuzzy on its meaning. Something to do with commemoration of the fall of the 2nd temple and something to do with the kabbalah. Today it is mostly a children's holiday: A chance to build a bonfire and roast marshmallows and potatoes and stay up late. Lag BaOmer is the 33rd day between Passover and Pentecost, so it should only be one night, but this year it's being celebrated two nights in a row (something about shifting it because yesterday was shabbat). I have no idea about any of this but I can report that the air quality is not improving tonight. I walked home along a road with a park on one side of it (Dor Dor Vedorshev) and the park slope was blanketed in bonfires. Smokey the Bear would be appalled -- it's awfully dry out there, the humidity is about 10% right now (we have a heat wave -- Red Sea Trough -- which thankfully doesn't have high winds) and the daytime highs are 30C. Yikes!

Meanwhile, I'm settling back into life here. It's good to be back and I look forward to getting caught up on my postings (and work)!