Aliyah-versary

Today is our "aliyah-versary"- we have lived in Israel for 8 years now.

This morning, my husband, Scott, and I went shopping for Shabbat.

Family and friends will be joining us over Shabbat, and I am currently elbows deep in cooking for our guests.

Here in our city you can get anything you could possibly need, and when you walk into the shopping center- the smell of Shabbat already welcomes you.

The air is scented with freshly baked challah and caramelized onions.

I followed my nose to the corner store and bought two massive bags of freshly popped popcorn, and I got my meat from a counter that had any kind of kosher cut you could imagine.

There was a line out of the door of the little supermarket, people buying ground spices and chocolate rugalach and salatim of eggplant, chumus, matbucha, and any other Israeli salad that exists.

All while a DJ in the center of the shops played party Shabbat music, the speakers pumping good vibes through the place.

I went to the fruit store and filled my cart with ripe peaches, a whole watermelon perfectly warmed in the sun, enormous grapes, soft mangoes and avocados, sweet plums, and berries. The produce of this amazing land.

I came home with my shopping bags, and my house still smells like the challah that I baked last night.

The gooey chocolate babka that I made is resting on the counter.

And now the brisket and chicken are roasting in the ovens.

The chulent in the crockpot is bubbling, and the flowers my guests brought over are already in beautiful vases.

The floors are clean and chicken soup is rich and golden.

To me, this is the perfect Friday in Israel.

Everything feels like home, tastes like home, smells like home.

Everyone wishes each other a Shabbat Shalom.

We all move on the same rhythm, our weeks at the same pace.

When Shabbat comes, a small piece of heaven descends on this country.

It's in the air, in the food we eat, in the quiet, in the birdsong.

After 8 years of living here, I will never take for granted the blessing of living as a Jew in our homeland.

What it's been like to make a home here.

Raising Israelis.

and becoming one myself.

Shabbat shalom from Israel.