How about getting older ?

B"H

When I see some of the really old chassidic Rebbes I am always amazed how they still dance and jump around. Of course, you can see their age and not everything is asit used to be when they were younger but still ...

I am still busy writing the book about a former Tiberias celebrity. However, today know one seems to remember the person and, as I said before, then I start thinking about what fame really means. It means nothing. In the end we all have to die and then G - d won't judge us according to our amount of Facebook friends but according to our Mitzvot and deeds.

I think it was in the "Tikkunei HaZohar" where I once read that the Cherubim (angels with children's faces) are guarding the entrance to Gan Eden (Paradise). Usually people think that those Cherubim are such nice creatures because of their children's face but, in fact, they are not. They have the power to destroy and it says in the "Tikkunei HaZohar" that these Cherubim look into your soul when you are standing in front of the gate.

Whatever that really means, one thing is for sure: Nothing is that easy and especially these days, I am thinking a lot aout the subject. Getting older and then ? How do you deal with an advanced age when you are not called Noach and become 900 and something years old ?

I went to an old age home this morning because I am doing research for my book. As soon as I entered, I became aware of the hospital smell. Staff and visitors were nice and talked to me. Afterwards I went to the local cemetery looking for the grave of a former mayor. Walking around on our local cemetery is not that easy, as, many times, you only have a few centimeters walking space between the graves.

Towards the end of the day, I phoned the "Chevrat Kadisha" near Tel Aviv in order to find out about another grave. They invited me to come to their office. But not after 1.30pm because it is Chanukkah and the Haredim working there want to go home early.

At the Tiberias cemetery.

Photo: Miriam Woelke

One more cemetery next week and I hope this is it. 

I was so busy today that I didn't even notice the news about the huge fire catastrophe on the Carmel near Haifa. Someone told me later on that I should be dealing with the world which is alive and not with the dead.:-)