There was trepidation going into "Three Day Yontif", but it turned out to be absolutely wonderful (at least here. The North of the country had a very rough few days with tons of missiles sent from Lebanon). We had three quiet and peaceful days and it now feels to me like Tuesday night's crazy missile attack from Iran was a million years ago. I think it also really helps that pretty much everyone in the country went through that together so there's an instant support group with, well, anyone you talk with.
We had a full house for the holiday: Penina and Menashe, Menashe's mother, stepfather and 10 year-old brother, and Ilana and a friend of hers from camp who is from Gibraltar so spoke both English and Spanish.
First night of Rosh Hashanah, we ate with two other families who we are really close with. As we were setting up, there was some talk about where everyone had been Tuesday night but it was already feeling much farther away than only 24 hours. (Menashe's family had been coming back on the bus from doing a big grocery shopping trip [they are still getting their new apartment set up]. Thankfully, another person on the bus showed them a store they could all run into. They were already in their neighborhood, and between sirens they tried to run back to their apartment, but with all those groceries, it was impossible. Thankfully they were able to flag down a driver who drove them right home.
Another "fun" story we heard later in the holiday when Ilana's former Boston classmate Naomi C. came for a meal. She said she had been shopping in Meah Shearim and trying to get back to her seminary in Geulah when the sirens started, so she had to lie down on the sidewalk with a bunch of Israeli-bubbe types because all the nearby buildings were locked.
"And then I ran back".
"Wow, how far is that?"
"It normally takes about 15 minutes, but I did it in 8" ;))
We're heading into the October 7 anniversary and I was focused on what memorial events would I attend, when Ilana's seminary sent out a notice that they had told the girls to stay on campus due to the high risk of terror attacks (one person was killed yesterday in a terrorist attack at the Be'er Sheva central bus station). I hadn't even thought about that....Hashem Yishmor
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