Purim, Medical Ethics and Life Building

The sun burned off the haze that hung over Jerusalem when we returned four days ago. The budding branches outside our windows promise a return of privacy and the renewal of our side terrace as a tree house. Kids have emerged as cuckoo clocks and snowmen, and IDF soldiers, Queen Esther and evil Haman. This morning a caravan left Jerusalem to bring mishloah manot, the traditional Purim packages of treats, to people under daily Kassam landings in Sderot.

We managed to avoid or ignore jet lag the day after we arrived to be with "Zeke" Ezekiel Emanuel at Hadassah Hospital for the first lecture in his honor on Medical Ethics and Health Policy. Having just met Zeke in DC it was nice to be greeted so warmly by him and his family and to meet his eldest daughter Rebekah doing chaplaincy at Shaarei Tzedek Hospital who will soon, I hope, be with us for shabbat.

The next night, granddaughters Noa and Yarden came with me to deliver Purim gift packages to the rooms of mostly poor and elderly Russians living out their days in the Diplomat Hotel in Talpiot, converted to a residence for them. Noa, 12,smiled her way into their hearts; Yarden, 7, was dutiful but ready to leave. As well as giving, the girls received candies. Noa charmed them with Russian words learned from her Latvian babysitter.

The same day, Leon Furchgott-Roth came for supper and a few good hours of talk about Princeton, physics, politics, being back in Jerusalem. He's visiting with a few Princeton friends along with their Chabad rabbi for Easter break. Other than our own family, there are hardly any people I find more important to be with than young adults embarked on and building meaningful lives. In Abraham Joshua Heschel's words quoted in Alex's book (Alex--Building a Life): "Let [young people] remember that there is meaning beyond absurdity. Let them be sure that every deed counts, that every word has power....And, above all, let them remember to build a life as if it were a work of art." (television interview 1972)