Wednesday, October 15

We spent the morning with the Tanners. We visited the Jewish Synagog. It is big and old and we were curious. It is very beautiful and our guide was gracious in telling us about it. There is a very small community of Jews who are associated with it. The workmanship is very fine. The wood is polished and elegantly carved. There is a stand in the middle of the floor for the person leading the meeting to stand. At the front of the building, there is a large elegant cupboard where the Torah is stored. We were curious about the floors. They are sand. She said even in the women’s balcony there is sand. There are three reasons for the sand. 1) to remember the desert where they came from, 2) to remember their humility and 3) to catch oil lamps to keep the fire from spreading to the building (the first building burned down because of that). We really enjoyed our visit. We also met again our French couple whom we met on the ferry.