Last night I watched the film "Life is Beautiful" with my family. It is by far one the best films I've ever seen. It's in Italian. I love watching foreign films, and letting the exotic sounds of other languages tickle my ears.

it's rosh chodesh tonight.
i hope the western skies are clear
so i can see the moon.
i want to see the moon.

it'll be one year ago tonight that i stood on a mountain-top in the Golan and looked for the moon with an odd collection of Messianic, Jewish, and Karaite Israelis. i didn't see it. but these people did. after they saw the moon we built a giant bonfire beside the old Syrian bunker on top of the mountain, in a recreation of the signal fires from Jerusalem to the Diaspora in ancient times.