Laura arrived last night just as Shabbat was about to begin, a challenge for her sherut driver who insisted on driving through parts of town full of observant Jews who resent drivers on Shabbat.  She joined us for Shabbat dinner after a walk through the new city.  We enjoyed a traditional chicken dinner in our kosher kitchen--nice to pull out the meat dishes for the first time.

Today we toured the Old City, haggled with a few merchants in the shuk, but mostly enjoyed walking around the city on this warm and sunny winter day.

Tonight we will head out to dinner on Emek Refaim with the Wolks who are here with their grandson.

It is Sunday evening and we have just completed our first week in Jerusalem.  It's been a glorious week for us, sunny and warm.  Great for us but not so for Israelis who are very concerned because the Kinneret has reached its lowest level ever and the Dead Sea is receding at an alarming rate.  These drought conditions have been going on for several years.  It's a far cry from the winter we spent here eleven years ago when it snowed at least 3-4 times!

We've had a marvelous week filled with hours of walking through the streets of Jerusalem. We celebrated Erev Shabbat at Kol Haneshama, then went to the home of our friends Evan and Don, for a lovely Shabbat dinner.  Shabbat morning was spent at HUC where the first-year cantorial students presented a special service for Shabbat Shirah.  We've loved living on Jewish time and were among the throngs at Machane Yehuda who purchase their challot, food and flowers before all the stores close down for Shabbat.  Today we marked Tu B'Shevat with a seder at HUC.  How much more meaningful this holiday is when not celebrated in the frigid Boston temperatures--the fruits are so plentiful and stores are filled with dried apricots, dates, almonds and figs.