UNRAVELLING PESACH

It is very difficult at such a distance to try to make sense of the the extended Pesach period and I will, unfortunately, not really be able to do it justice.

Talya and Julia arrived two days after our return to Israel. Julia set up camp at the Lev Yerushalayim while Talz came back to Tel Aviv with us. Within a day or so we were meeting Talya boyfriend Josh who had come especially to spend Pesach with us. A few days later Reuben had arrived and we were all one big family moving into the hysteria of Pesach planning.

Because we knew we wouldn't have much money to make a whizz-bang Pesach, we wanted to try to contribute to making this a special Pesach in another way if we could. We asked Tovia (Singer) whether we would be able to use the apartment in the Old City that we had seen (although not stayed in) several months before. The apartment was three-bedrooms with a decent kitchen and would make an amazing location for our seder - as well as being large enough to accommodate all of our guests (we were expecting to be about 14 people). Amazingly, and to our delight, Tovia gave us the thumbs-up which meant that our Pesach experience was going to be very special.

We (by now 'we' is the unit of David & Marjorie, Talya, Reuben & Josh - who was to remain a permanent, and welcome, Solomon fixture for his entire trip) started getting things ready in the Old City apartment a day before; somehow, with miracles, a little quick thinking and just some basic chutzpah we cobbled together enough mattresses, chairs and a few tables - enough to meet all our needs for the seder.

The night before the seder we slept in the apartment and David met its owner Guma Aguiar at Tovia's place. Guma didn't actually know that we were staying in his apartment, but was pleased when David thanked him for the opportunity to share this with his family.

It was lucky that he did meet him because the next morning we were in his apartment for one of the most amazing events I have experienced. The morning before Pesach this year was the once-in-every-28-years occasion of Birkat Hachamah and we were incredibly lucky to be able to spend it in the Old City, from an apartment which faced directly on to the Kotel. Everything from running through the Arab markets at 6am with thousands of other people to watching the tens of thousands gather at the kotel, to waiting for the sun to appear - it was all amazing. Here is Tovia's video of the event:



Seder was great. Apart from family, our guests were mostly Perth connections and included Dalya and Aviad Diamont & Keren Buchbinder, Avi Winner, Adam Vanherden but we also had Yehudit Cohn and her father Bill. It was an amazing night, fabulous location and a great group of people. David also ran a meaningful seder - as one would expect!

Josh performed second night seder (no pressure in front of potential future father-inlaw!) for Talz and Julia. I can't remember what David and I did, but we didn't stay to share that event while Reuben went back with the Diamonts to Modiin.

We were made to feel welcome to stay in the apartment for all of Pesach and so mimimised just how much we schlepped between Jerusalem and Tel Aviv - although it still felt like we were doing a lot of schlepping at the time.

In between all this, things we getting very tense for us as the disastrous nature of our situation was looming in our consciousness, David was spending a lot of time with Guma and some very strange things were happening.

Finally, as all the bells began to toll for us, on the advice from a couple of close friends and family David spoke to Guma about our dire situation. And as the eleventh hour struck, as we returned all our borrowed furniture from the apartment and prepared to go back to Tel Aviv for the final daunting packing-up for homeless (this is no exaggeration) David met with Guma who told us that we should feel welcome to stay in the Old City apartment and to consider it our new home.

Miracles, blessings and gratitude.