Our Stuff - The Happy Ending
From New Jersey, we went to Ranana, and stayed at Veev's aunt and uncle there. For Shabbat, we went to Jerusalem, to Bayit Vegan. The war started getting more intense at that point, and warnings went out for anyone north of Tel Aviv to be near a bomb shelter. Even though we thought Ranana was safe, it is north of Tel Aviv, and so we decided to extend our stay in Jerusalem by a few days.
After a few days in Jerusalem, the Youth Hostel we had been staying in at Bayit Vegan had gotten to be too much, so we decided to go home, finally, to Modiin, and borrow whatever we needed to survive. This included a fridge, some air mattresses, and table with chairs.
During the Aliyah, I started to wonder how long we had been without our stuff. I tried to do some quick math in my head, and realized it had been about forty days since we left. And since forty is the same number of years that the Jews wandered in the desert, I thought it was enough time to get our stuff.
On Monday morning, we were at a neighbor's house, borrowing a microwave, when we got the call. Our stuff had arrived, and was cleared by customs, and would be delivered that afternoon.
A short time later, i got a call that they would be arriving in half an hour, and half an hour later, the turck was being unloaded at my house.
After all the lift was unloaded, I went and counted back forty days from Monday, and came to Thursday, June 15, exactly 40 days after our things left our house.
I don't know if it means anything, but it is pretty interesting to me.
Anyway, our stuff is here now. We have been opening boxes, putting things away, and so far, have not found anything to be broken.
To all those, Like Emah S, who have not yet got their stuff, I hope your shipments come in soon, because there is nothing better than sleeping on your own stuff.
And yes, there is a slight amount of guilt when you worry about your things being stuck in Haifa and all the people from up in the north have been either under attack, or have left their homes.
My brother is among the wanderers, and has had to rent an apartment and office space in Jerusalem as he and his family are waiting out the war.
You can read about his wanderings on rock of galilee