Turn, turn, turn...

Having never really celebrated Sukkot before, I didn't realize that the special reading for the holiday is the book of Ecclesiastes, from which comes everyone's favorite Pete Seeger song. It really is fitting, though, to read about the changing of seasons while observing the seasons change here in Jerusalem - quite literally overnight.

At the end of the seven days of Sukkot -that is, the fall harvest - comes Shemini Atzeret-Simchat Torah, in which the yearly cycle of Torah readings begins again, and after which Israelis start praying for the rains to come and sate the parched land. Simchat Torah was Saturday; it rained here on Sunday. Not a drizzling or sprinkling, mind you, but a full-blown cloudburst during my first class of the day. Upon hearing the drops begin to fall, everyone turned to the windows, exclaiming in unison, "Geshem!" Clouds are now a permanent fixture in the Zion skies and the average temperature has fallen a good 10-15 degrees. Sometimes you really do get what you ask for...

So for my 25th birthday last Thursday, along with the shift in weather patterns, my fiancee's return, and plenty of well wishes from friends and family, I received a nasty little cold that began in my eye and has migrated south into my ears, nose and throat. Needless to say, I did not ask for this, yet getting a cold in the fall is a remarkably pleasant reminder of home. :)