Red Sky in the Evening

Better times are coming they say

Shabbat Shalom, if appropriate.

I would be at services but I have a cough and sore throat and I don’t want to infect the nice people, or even just scare them. They have enough to worry about.

The title and subtitle come from a beautiful song by Bruce Hornsby called “The Tide Will Rise.” I’ll post the lyrics at the end of this post.

It’s been a busy week, and I am grateful to have work helping out multiple causes I believe in, from low carbohydrate nutrition to local elections in locations other than this mine to harm reduction. I work with some truly fantastic people, who care deeply about what they do and respect that I care about things too.

“Not caring about things is not exactly your specialty,” said a friend who knows me well.

Here are some things I think you should read:

Gadi Taub in The Tablet: US Scheming for a Palestinian State Unwittingly Strengthens Netanyahu. I’m developing a superstar, far away crush on Gadi Taub. He’s the kind of straight-to-the-point journalist I really go for, and he most certainly can write. Okay, he lives in Israel and is probably married with wonderful children, but if a girl can’t have Israeli fantasy crushes, what is life coming to? Don’t tell him! Our secret. Though I did just share his article on Twitter and tag him with a somewhat adoring caption. Journalists and historians don’t get enough love… I attempt to make up the gap, since after all, I am on record as someone who prefers good writing to.. well, most anything really.

On a different topic, my internet friend Holly the Math Nerd on why in-person friendships cannot be replaced: Meatspace is Mandatory. I love Holly, and I share her feelings about how we need in person friendships, not just online ones. I’ve gotten very close with a lot of people I’ve never actually met, and while I care about them a great deal and have learned a lot from the relationships, I too frequently find myself without someone to grab a cup of coffee with.

(Mixing the two themes together: if I could jump on my dragon, I could fly to Jerusalem and get coffee or whatever one does with Gadi Taub, meet my other Israeli friends, and make tons of in person friends while learning Hebrew for free! BUT! a) I cannot leave my mom and my cat b) I do not actually have a full grown dragon. YET.

Meanwhile, from places we DON’T want to go right now…

Konstantin Kisin in The Free Press: Are Islamists in Charge of Britain? I read his blog and I love him. Reading this piece, you will see that our dear friend Eve was quite right about what was happening to Great Britain.

And then there is the amazing Daniel Gordis of Israel from the Inside, with this interview with Israel’s Special Envoy to Combat Antisemitism.

I love the title, from the Book of Esther: “If you stay silent now, you and your father’s house will disappear.”

I watched an incredibly cheesy movie called “A Night with the King” that was a movie version of the story of Esther a few weeks ago. It will be Purim soon. If I don’t convert, I may have to scratch the plan of finding a Jewish mother-in-law to teach me how to make those cute little cookies, but I bet the nice people in the Jewish Cooking club at my synagogue would. I am probably wrong in how I imagine the Jewish Cooking club… I envision nice elderly ladies, and it’s probably a bunch of guys who get violent when the Eagles lose and have never gotten over the Phillies not winning the World Series… again. I could handle that. I could actually handle that just fine.

Night has fallen on another Shabbat alone, but I’m not really alone because I have all of you. And I am invited to more synagogues than I can keep an easy list of, if I can just get over this persistent sore throat/cough thing. I ran into the Rabbi from Penn on the street today. He was getting his car tuned up by the Israeli mechanic who has a shop down the street. An Israeli mechanic? In the neighborhood? Yes, it’s true. Now I know where I’m taking my 400 year old car if she needs to be fixed. I asked the Rabbi what the Israeli mechanic is doing in this neighborhood, and he said he’d been here for something like thirty years. I may stop by to just say hi at some point, and I’d love to say something in Hebrew, but I’d have to stop by in the morning because I know “boker tov” but I can’t remember “good afternoon,” just that it means “good mid-day hours.” It would sound utterly bizarre to pop into a mechanic’s shop and say, “Good midday hours.” I really must get a job where I can make enough money to take that Hebrew class. I seem to be learning Hebrew in the single least effective way possible. But the cat likes it.

Here are the lyrics to “The Tide Will Rise”:

Sometimes I get lucky
Most times I come up short
Got to pull up the lines
Got to move around the bend
They say it's a dying breed
They say it's going to disappear
Nothing I can do, oh but pull up the load again

The tide will rise
And the tide will fall
We'll be out on the water
Before the break of dawn
The tide will rise
And the tide will fall
Oh, we'll be working on the water
When the long, long day is gone

Full moon it was always best
Keep a little and you sell the rest
Living on hope that the seed is sown again
Red sky in the evening
Better times are coming up they say
Well, why do I feel like it's all coming to an end

The tide will rise
And the tide will fall
We'll be out on the water
Before the break of dawn
The tide will rise
And the tide will fall
Oh, we'll be working on the water
When the long, long day is gone

When the seed is broken
Nothing left to grow on
When you lose the seed
It's hard to bring it on back
Never bowed to no one
Always went my own way
Broke down, run around, but I won't run away
And the tide will rise

The tide will rise
And the tide will fall
We'll be out on the water
Before the break of dawn
The tide will rise
And the tide will fall
Oh, we'll be working on the water
When the long, long day is gone

Red sky in the evening while I was walking. It’s still too cold, but warming up. Better times are coming, they say. Better times are coming. Laila tov.