The view from my veranda

Posts by sheila

Ecology and Hope

14th February, 2025 Tu b’Shvat 15 Shvat, 5785 the New Year for Trees Shabbat Shalom! Today is a very important day in the Jewish calendar, today ecology was born; today is Tu b’Shvat. The festival of Tu B’Shvat itself does not originate in the Torah. It is first mentioned in the Mishna (the first written…

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Trump, for better or for worse

​6th of February 2025 Shabbat shalom to one and all! “The rain will stop, the night will end, the hurt will fade. Hope is never so lost that it can’t be found.” ― Ernest Hemingway I decided to jump right in rather than avoiding the elephant in the room, after all one of my favourite words…

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The Day that Gadi and Agam came home

30th January 2025 2nd of Shevat, 5785 482 days since 7th of October Shabbat Shalom I don’t know how to express my horror at the scenes yesterday morning as we watched what was meant to be a joyous moment as two more hostages were released. We stared open-mouthed in disbelief, then in a deep nauseating…

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Lu Yehi – Let it Be

​24th January, 2025 Shabbat Shalom. I hope this missive finds you well In November 1942 Winston Churchill said “Now this is not the end. It is not even the beginning of the end. But it is, perhaps, the end of the beginning.” And so it is for us, for Israel, for the families of the…

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469

17th January 2025 Shabbat Shalom dear friends. Shabbat Shalom to you, your families and all your loved ones. 469 days and I cannot celebrate the impending release of the hostages without a deep sense of dread, dread for them, dread for their families and dread because I know what the expression “blood on their hands”…

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The Honey and the Sting

10th January, 2025 10th of Tevet 5785 462 days of captivity for those hostages that may just be alive Shabbat Shalom dear friends. This week has been both wonderful and incredibly sad, a true representation of the honey and the sting. It’s strange, someone asked me why I left the green green grass of Wales…

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2024-2025 and North Face

3rd January 2025 This one is going to be a short missive! Our sleep was disturbed by a Houthi missile, yes one of those big ones that travelled a vast distance. It was shot down somewhere near Modi’in but the entire area was woken up at 04:45 which is later than the usual sirens and…

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Santa, Shabbat and Seleucids

Friday the 27th of December 2024 This year, with all its fears and tragedies has flown by and I think that there is no-one amongst us that will not heave a sigh of relief at its passing. Too many tears in a world that is changing beyond recognition, yet is all too familiar. I promise…

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Christmas, Chanukah and a prayer for peace

20th of December 2024 Shabbat Shalom! Just four days until Christmas and two day later it’s Chanukah! Days of family, hope and light. Days of celebration. A friend who lives in Malta, her FB name is Cour di Rosa, posted a brilliant explanation of our days of light and I want to share it with…

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Churchill, Assad and Renewal

13th December 2024 Shabbat Shalom to you one and all. “And now it has come to us to stand alone in the breach, and face the worst that the tyrant’s might and enmity can do, bearing ourselves humbly before God, but conscious that we serve an unfolding purpose, we are ready to defend our native…

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