Not in Kansas any more!

I have new neighbors, on the other side of the mirpeset (balcony) wall and the first thing they did, literally the first night, was start shiva (7 days of public and private mourning) for some member of the family. Each night for a week, at least 50 to 100 people trooped up the steps and into the apartment. At 3:30 and 4:30 pm they did a service out on the mirpeset--loud, loud. Completely unfamiliar singing, etc.

Finally shiva ended, there were 2 nights of quiet, and last night, they are doing this amazing Shabbat service together--must have been 50 people, with either women or young boys singing at the tops of their lungs. And it was this sing-song chant that sounds EXACTLY like the "Corn Dance" at the Taos Pueblo in New Mexico! Fascinating, living in a world far different from my former world, to live right next door to yet another.

Today on Shabbat, I went out to do my 6 kilometers, and passed some of my very different neighbors. "Shabbat shalom" I said, with a smile. "Shabbat shalom!" they smiled back at me. These are some of the people the world considers dangerous. Worth thinking about.