Day 11 - Time to Get Away

Out on My Own

I have needed to get out for some time, hoping and longing for an opportunity to get away from the house and the kids, if only for a few hours, preferably in an outdoor setting.  On Friday that opportunity finally arrived.  There's a very nice guy from my neighborhood, loosely associated with the yeshiva, who is a major biking enthusiast.  He organized a group of likeminded folk (half the group is compromised of friends of mine) to hit the trails at least once a week.  Every Friday morning the load up the gear and head out, and there are sporadic trips in the middle of the week as well.  I joined their WhatsApp group some time ago, and the almost daily discussion of where to ride, when to leave, who's going in which car, etc. have been fostering my appetite.  I decided this week I was going to join them for the first time, or bust!   Michal and I hatched a plan that would allow this to happen.  Chanania would stay home to play with Noam, and she would ask a friend to come over so the kids would have an adult presence around.  I got the other kids out early, with Binyamin's help, and at eight o'clock sharp headed over to Daniel, the bike guy's, house to load up my bike and head out.  We drove to the Ben Shemen forest, the largest planted (by the JNF) forest in the country, and one rife with hiking and biking trails.  

In the Ben Shemen forest, one month prior

As it turns out, this is a very popular spot for a Friday morning bike ride.  The combination of its proximity to the Tel Aviv metropolitan area, combined with the only day most people are off of work, but don't need to go to shul/take the kids to the beach (depending on your persuasion), resulted in the fact that when we arrived I thought there was some sort of mountain bike convention going on there.  That day, by some fluke, none of the regular guys could come, so it was just me and Daniel, who is a semi-professional guide and instructor in the arts of riding and decking yourself out for the ride.  We suited up and started on the trail, he occasionally giving me tips or demonstrating proper technique for going over large rocks or dealing with gravelly conditions, me just really enjoying being on my bike in the forest, feeling the wind on my face and seeing green and sky instead of cars, pavement, and buildings.  The ride was sweet, but too short, and by eleven we were back in the car, on our way to Ramat Gan again.  I felt refreshed and relaxed, kind of like taking a long shower after working out in the sun all day, and following up with an ice-cold lemonade.

Shabbat in the Mountains

On the Jerusalem light rail

I made up with our long-lost (and long found) cousins who live in the Judean mountains to spend Shabbat. Yishai Ben Mordechai (formerly Perlin, mentioned in a previous post) grew up in Florida, and made aliya in his twenties, followed shortly by brother Asher, and much later by sister Becky, and eventually his widowed mother came over, too.  He settled in the quaint and quiet town of Kochav HaShachar, which is effectively in the middle of nowhere but has a view that covers half the width of the state.  We are second cousins, once removed, with a 15-year age gap between us, but we happened to have learned in the same yeshiva (not at the same time), and we have a lot in common.  He married a girl from New York, Hannah (don't recall her maiden name), and they're going to be grandparents very soon, since their eldest, Moriah (20) is due around Rosh HaShana.  We used to visit them more often, when we had fewer children, but the last time we were at their house was more than five years past.  Before we left the house on Friday Binyamin asked me why we don't go to them like we used to.  The trip there was more than enough of a reminder why not.  Two long bus rides, with a stint on the light rail connecting them, resulted in us leaving the house before two o'clock and arriving close to five.

Relaxing on a swing before Shabbat.  Standing next to them is cousin Yishai

Shabbat was a very positive experience for everyone: I got to reconnect with my cousins, and share experiences and issues relating to child rearing and family maturation processes, as well as not having to spend Shabbat feeling lonely and isolated watching the kids by myself.  Some of the kids made (or re-made) new friends, they all got to experience a different kind of environment, and on Shabbat afternoon I took them to feed the goats someone keeps just beyond the last row of houses.  That, if fact, was the highlight of the whole weekend for some of them.  At the end of Shabbat Binyamin remarked that he really liked it there, because it was as quiet and Shabbat-friendly as Bnei Brak, but in a rural setting, not stinky and crowded like Bnei Brak.  A good friend of his is moving there in about two weeks, so he may begin to make more frequent visits, on his own.  

Everyone came home with smiles on their faces, ready to set in for one more week of just the six of us.  It's the last week we have to pass on our own.  I hope it will be no harder than the first two.

Photo was taken next to the goats, 1.5 blocks from the Ben Mordechai homestead