Sefirat HaOmer – A Turtle’s Pace in Lavon
It was a turtle, of all things. There I was, walking to shul on the morning of our first Shabbos in Lavon, when a small turtle incongruously appeared on the side of the road. The closest lake is the Kinneret, some 25 miles to the East; high up in the mountains of the Galille is not a place that one would expect a turtle to roam. But there it was, meandering down the street at its own pace, oblivious of the absurdity that it presented to those who chose to notice. Turns out, however, that it was somewhat of an omen. I really did not know what to expect on our first Shabbos in Lavon. We discovered a Beit Knesset on the yishuv, but our first day there, on the last day of Pesach, was not encouraging. I arrived for the Tefilla with my two sons and two sons-in-law, and figured that by bringing half a minyan with us, the odds of having a tefilla b’tzibbur were not too shabby. No such luck. No one was there but us crickets. I tried to l...