Right now I feel like Dorothy at the end of “The Wizard of Oz” when she realizes that home is only a click of her heels away. I went to visit Nishmat today, a school that has come highly recommended by women I respect. The building was beautiful, the faculty friendly and the student body clearly very intelligent, but I knew almost immediately that it wasn’t for me. On the bus ride home, I realized that I missed Midreshet Rachel and the classes I was taking there, and that I wanted to go back. Other schools that might fit me are either too far away or not right for my schedule. So the answer is obvious: coupled with my extras at Simchat Shlomo and the art class I am planning on taking, I think I’ll be able to find the balance I’m looking for at MRC. It says in the Gemarra that the greatest joy is clarity of direction. In this case, I can wholeheartedly agree: my forays outside made it clear that I was in the right place all along.

The latest development in the life of Yonah is that Rivka, his morning mitapelet, is moving away, which means we had to find someone new to take him. Well, we did, and guess where she lives? ACROSS THE STREET. Literally, the house across the street from ours. You have no idea what a big deal this is, especially now that the rainy season is coming. Even Shuie was excited when I told him. “Baruch Hashem (Praise Gd)!” he said into his grilled cheese sandwich. I feel badly moving Yonah from place to place but he doesn’t seem the worse for wear. Thankfully, he is a happy, friendly little guy (”gentle” was a word Perel used to describe him) and seems to get along well with everyone. He takes after his father that way. Let’s hope he’s so easygoing when his new brother or sister arrives.

We have at least three guests coming for dinner Friday night so the menu planning has already begun: Garlic and Potato Soup, Sweet Potato, Walnut and Bean Salad, Mustard and Dill Roasted Chicken, Sweet Potato and Beef Stew, Kugel, Veggie Stir-Fry, and for dessert, whole wheat almond cake. My newlywed friend Chava is coming with her husband, Stephen, and their friend Pesach, who has just made aliyah. Chava and a few other friends of mine are asking me about cooking healthy, where I find my recipes, etc. My dear friend Rachel even offered to bake me spelt challah when we come for Shabbat. I hope that by laying a nice table with healthy but yummy food, I can spread the health-awareness to other tables in Israel and beyond. What can I say? I just don’t feel right plying people with dishes laden with oil, sugar and fat. There is nothing wrong with them in moderation for most people, but I cannot tell you how many Shabbat meals I have sat through where, at the end, people look glazed over with the toxins running through their system. You CAN eat well without sacrificing your arteries and your rear ends, people! Trust me on this one. I should probably get off my soapbox while I have at least a handful of friends left, but I would be remiss if I didn’t mention it just once.

Okay, I didn’t want to say anything because I didn’t want it to look like I was rubbing it, seeing how there has already been snow in Massachusetts. But there has been a heat wave here for almost a week, longer than any most natives can remember, that has been sucking the moisture and energy out of everyone. The strange thing is, it’s not only expected to break tomorrow, it’s supposed to start raining and get cold. You should know that this is not typical Israel weather. Chalk it up to global warming if you want to, but I heard a mystical take on it that I thought was pretty cool. In my “Living in the Times” class yesterday, R. Silber was saying how the world reproduces the energy of the weekly Torah portion, as it originally happened. The rabbis say that the water from the flood was exactly like the water of the dead sea, filled with minerals, uninhabitable by life, and turning the ground beneath it into what is chemically recognized as salt. The earth was cleansed physically and spiritually during the flood by being burnt by the chemicals in the water (this is one explanation for the reason scientists believe the world is millions of years old when Jewish tradition maintains it is only 6000: the water from the flood aged it so that it looked older than it was). While the earth was essentially being re-created, some Rabbis say, time stopped. Therefore, each time the parsha of Noah reappears, the energy of the world repeats the same pattern, thereby making time, matter and space flexible. The current weather pattern certainly indicates a warp in the natural order of things, and we are certainly being burnt, if not to a crisp, at least to a crust (my lips feel like paper grocery bags). Noah’s 120-year project of building the ark was not just to provide him with shelter during the flood, but was also an opportunity for people to ask him what he was doing so he could inspire them to change. “If somebody tells you you need to work on something this week,” R. Silber said, “You’d better listen!”. In my case, I’ve got some work to do on the attitude front, as was pointed out by my sweet husband last night. Interesting that he happened to mention it yesterday, no?

As the weather has tapped me out, I am early to bed. Wishing you all the clarity to see opportunity when it comes.