coming home to Israel after almost a month abroad is difficult – not the cleaning, the washing, the reconnecting, the shopping, the bookkeeping, etc. – but the rethinking.  The details we concentrate on – the details from the daily news, the neighborhood gossip, the whatsapp jokes – are all major issues of life and death.  I couldn’t explain it when people asked me – but leaving this country is always a relaxation. 

 And returning is always intense.