Getting Down to the Basics

Shabbat day and Sunday were days on our tour of Israel when we got down to the basic elements of the history of Israel: not all of them, mind you, but we found some of the essential sites here that undergird our history and culture.

On Shabbat morning, we separated for a while: some went to Shabbat services at the Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion, the school from which I received my rabbinic degree; others slept in; still others visited relatives; and still others took in the Israel Museum or other cultural sites.  At 12:30, we met up and enjoyed a tremendous walking tour of the walled city here in Jerusalem, usually known as “the Old City.”

Many cultures inhabit this place, and the city is divided into four quarters: Jewish, Muslim, Christian, and Armenian.  We walked through these quarters pretty freely, regardless of the activity in the Arab market (or shuk), or the Shabbat worship that took place at the Western Wall.  For many this was their first time here, at the base of the retaining wall of the ancient Jerusalem temple, and for all is it an emotional experience to be there.

We also took a stroll to the rooftops above the city to get an idea of the layout of the city, a place of only one square kilometer.

Saturday evening was free time, and people had dinners on their own.  As a reality of Israeli life, we found, on the eve of the summer solstice, that many of the restaurants did not open until after Shabbat concluded, which was about 9 PM.

On Sunday, we visited another element of Jewish life that is essential to our identity: Yad Vashem, the Holocaust Museum and Memorial Authority.  The new permanent exhibit displays, in chronological order, the devolution of the Jewish people through the intentional actions of the Nazi regime of WWII Germany.  There are also fitting memorial monuments to the children who were murdered (1.5 million), as well as those who fought the terror in the Warsaw ghetto and other places.

In the afternoon we really dug down to our roots by enjoying an archaeological dig in the region known as Beit Guvrin.  A series of 5,000 caves seem to hold treasures from the Maccabean era, and the team at Archaeological Expeditions had us dig into the earth, uncover pottery shards, and then they will try to put together a fuller history of the people of this region.

In the cave known to the digging team as Django, we found an almost complete cooking pot.  It was a marvelous experience for us!

Tomorrow we will visit the Dead Sea and Masada, learning the lessons of the martyrdom of the Jews of the early years of the First century of Common Era.

Jerusalem – A Miraculous World Unto Itself

On this Friday of June 19, as many do each Friday, we changed our world.

We did not necessarily change “the” world, but rather we transformed the day-to-day existence that we live, and entered the special world that is this holy place of Jerusalem.

On our particular journey, we traveled only 100 miles in space, but eons in time, in order to view a world of real and imagined possibilities.

Here is how we got there.

We departed the beautiful Kibbutz Lavi Hotel where we had lodged for two nights.  I had written before that Kibbutz Lavi was an Orthodox kibbutz, but I don’t think I expanded those words into a practical description of the hotel.  Being an Orthodox institution, they cater not only to modern Orthodox, but also to ultra-Orthodox as well.  This was most evident on Thursday evening and then again on Friday morning at the dining room.  We had eaten previously – all the hotel’s clientele together – in one dining room.  But on Thursday night, at supper, things changed.  We ate in a separate dining room, and it seemed that the distinction was due to the degree of Orthodoxy the group practiced.

Reform in one room, ultra-Orthodox in another.

Other travel groups in our room, ultra-Orthodox in another.

Any group whose men did not wear kippot in our room, ultra-Orthodox in another.

Any group whose women and men did not wear appropriately modest clothing in our room, ultra-Orthodox in another.

I want to be absolutely clear that I do not complain about this.  This is, after all, a private hotel/kibbutz which can operate as it chooses.  But the distinctions made were all too clear, and I simply observe this as a hint of life in Israel.

We left the hotel and proceeded to the Kinneret Cemetery, located at almost the very southern tip of the Sea of Galilee, or Yam Kinneret in Hebrew.  At this cemetery are buried many of the greats of the early Zionist movement: political movers and shakers, poets, even a number of mistresses of some of the men involved in the building of the state of Israel; oddly enough, these women are buried just next to their lovers, who are buried next to their wives.  Again, just an observation of the lives of these great men and women who toiled to raise this nation out of the swamps of a fetid land.

Here are a few photos of our group as we learned from the words and experience of our guide and educator Tzvi.

In this last photo you can see the grave marker of the early Zionist/Israeli poet Rachel Bluwstein, the stone with only her first name on it.  She composed verse on the nature of the land, the trials of being a single person having immigrated to a land of swamps, and the difficulties of the Zionist movement.  If you look carefully at this picture, just directly behind Tzvi's right and, there is a metal plate that appears to be sitting on a low stone.  It is a cover of a repository that Tzvi told us about: In this small niche is a copy of the book of poetry that Rachel composed: today it is a simple paperback version, but it had been a much better preserved hard cover edition.  THAT version had been stolen, and it was the inspiration of a group of guides to find ways to keep the more permanent volume present.  Tzvi is continually working to maintain both the memories of Rachel, and the integrity of the cemetery, in tact!

It was Mark Twain who observed that the land of Palestine, in the mid-to-late 1800’s (in his book “The Innocents Abroad” noted that Palestine was “a desolate country whose soil is rich enough, but is given over wholly to weeds... a silent mournful expanse.... a desolation.... we never saw a human being on the whole route.... hardly a tree or shrub anywhere. Even the olive tree and the cactus, those fast friends of a worthless soil, had almost deserted the country.”  The land as we observed it could very well have been the same: it was a warm and humid morning there as we overlooked the Kinneret.  But we could only imagine the sights and sounds of the Kinneret that greeted this author laureate of our nation.

Anyway, being at this cemetery inspired us to wonder about how any of us address any task in our own lives: To what extent are we willing to sacrifice our ideals and lives to achieve a goal?  What can we, ourselves, do in our day to affect the kind of change in which they participated?

From Kinneret Cemetery we went to a strip mall just outside of Tiberias for a coffee and bathroom break, preparing for the next two hour drive to Jerusalem.  During our sojourn where we had a bit of interesting scenery and a lot of desert to observed, we engaged in a discussion of the latest political machinations of the governments of Israel and the United States.

We arrived at a scenic overlook of the city of Jerusalem: We parked at the northern campus of the Hebrew University of Jerusalem and participated in a welcoming ceremony for our group, most of whom had never been to Jerusalem before and were completing this pilgrimage today.  It was a very moving experience for all of us.

We then traveled to the Machaneh Yehudah market, a vast area in the western part of the city (the new and Jewish part) consisting of streets of stores and stalls selling anything you can imagine!  As it was 2 PM on erev Shabbat, the place was packed with people, buying for the Shabbat or for ‘the weekend’ to come, and after 75 minutes of our own engaging in this shopping craze, we boarded the bus and transferred to our hotel.

Just before our dispersion into the shopping crowds, someone on the street beside me noticed the OSRUI logo shirt I wore: For some who may not know, OSRUI is the acronym for the Olin-Sang-Ruby Union Institute camp in Oconomowoc, and for the woman who noticed my shirt, it was a warm remembrance of a camping experience that she had as a teen, and asked me about my connection.  As it turns out, she is a member of the Reform congregation in Fort Wayne, Indiana, which was also running a tour at this time.  As it turns out, her Rabbi is a very close friend of mine who just happened to be across the street and coming to greet me.  A miracle is something unexpected, and it surely was a miracle to be a the saem time, in the same place, and to see a good friend in the city of Jerusalem, in the middle of throngs of people, at this particular time.

Anyway, we departed Machaneh Yehudah and went to check in at our hotel.  As we approached the Dan Panorama hotel in the heart of the city, some of our travelers noticed familiar faces walking on the sidewalk alongn side our stuck-in-traffic bus: David and Aleeza Hoffert, our temple’s Executive Director and Director of Community Engagement, were just walking along in Jerusalem in the hours prior to Shabbat.  (I knew they were going to be there, but) it was a total surprise for some of us to see them.  But still, the fact that we were all going to be in Jerusalem at the same time is another miracle.

After a lot of waving and calls, we encountered them personally at the First Train Station in Jerusalem, where our group went to experience Kabbalat Shabbat Jerusalem 2015 style:

The name “Kabbalat Shabbat” refers to the series of psalms and prayers said in synagogues just before the start of the evening service on Friday evenings.  And in the sultry summer Friday evenings, the First Train Station – formerly the terminus of the rail line from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem and now a beautiful performance venue – is totally transformed into a lovely “open air synagogue,” with a band that performs these tunes for the more than 300 people – mostly secular but some modern Orthodox – who enjoy the evening, drink beer or eat ice cream or bring their picnic suppers and participate in the evening’s arrival of Shabbat.  I described a bit of this scene in a high holy day sermon two years ago after having seen this scene during my sabbatical sojourn in Israel.

Another miracle: As I was talking with Gil Nathanson and Manny Price, two of our group’s participants, about the calls for modernity and innovation even in the Talmud, up to us comes Susan and and Mira Sellman, two other of our Temple Beth El congregants who live in Janesville.  It is a very small Jewish world indeed!

But then, another miracle occurs!  Earlier in the week, our guide mentioned that his wife – as I – was raised in the San Fernando Valley of the city of Los Angeles, and that her name was Debbie.  At that earlier moment and always exploring Jewish geography, I tried to discover if I had known her during my youth, but could not make a connection; our guide did not know intimately too much about her earlier days.  But at the First Train Station she came to meet him for their own Shabbat observance, and he introduced her to me.  It was then we discovered that we were the same age, we had both come to Israel for our first times as 15-year-olds in the same program in the same summer, that we had many of the same friends and acquaintances, and that this particular summer was a pivotal point for each of us as we developed our attitudes about Israel: She is an attorney and social worker for the Ministry of Social Welfare, whose focus is saving at-risk youth from abusive family situations.

I think that Jerusalem is the city of miracles, to be sure!

After the events of the First Train Station, our group, along with David and Aleeza Hoffert and Aleeza’s mother and two sisters, returned to the hotel for a festive and filling Shabbat dinner.

Shabbat Shalom!

The Character of Northern Israel: Between Many Worlds, Especially Today

Some of our group have organized morning walks, and this morning we started off with a fast-paced stroll around the perimeter of the hotel and residences at Kibbutz Lavi Hotel, where we stayed last night, and will do again tonight.  At a time when most kibbutzim have privatized, dramatically changed the nature of their mission, or are selling their land to private individuals for housing developments, Kibbutz Lavi has never (yet!) wavered from its goal of providing a socialist expression to those who choose to live there.  The local buzz is that the kibbutz is about to undergo a transformation into differentiated salaries, modified dining hall procedures, and the like.  If you are interested, please ask me more.

Upon departing on our touring from the kibbutz hotel, we proceeded literally across the street to the Jordan River Village, a project of Paul Newman and many others who wished to impact significantly on the lives of children with chronic and life-threatening illnesses or challenging physical deficits.

Throughout the year, groups of 64 children come for two week periods of time when they can, in the words of our guide, can be kids; when the parents can have a respite from taking care of their children on a 24/7 basis; and when the kids can live with kids with similar or the same ailments, providing them with more of a normal existence.

Their amenities included a zip line for the many intrepid students and counselors; a Zero Entry” pool for all who like to swim:  a water center who all who are present; and play equipment for the students there who find it comforting to play outside.

We traveled then to Tzfat, city of the origins of Jewish mysticism.  We do not know for certain why this was the case; the actual reason for the city to have been built there might have concerned the elevation (such a pleasure in the summer months to) and the history of the city.

We visted the artists' colony there on the way to the Ashkenazic ARI synagogue, ARI being the nickname of Rabbi Isaac Luria, the first modern day day (for its day in the Seventeenth century) mystic of Tzfar.  The ornateness of the ark inspires worship as well as tourist visits.

 

On the way to the Dan Nature Preserve, we passed a tank and soldiers on patrol.  We began to hear and tell inspiraitonal stories of the Golan Heights and territorial compromise.  Perhaps they will come some day.  On this day, however, we also began to hear artillery bombardments from the civil war in Syria.  None of us was afraid of these sounds, even though the distance to those bombing sites may have been no more than 15 miles.  Such is life in Israel today.

Following our time in Tzfat, we traveled to the Dan Nature Preserve to walk through the cold head-waters of the Jordan River.  Literally through them!  There is a large pool/pond combination with a zero-height entrance, and there is a 1^st century synagogue that has been excavated over the last 40 years.  Both of these components make the Reserve a beautiful place.

For a fun afternoon, we had a chocolate and wine tasting at Bahat Winery and De Karina fine Chocolate.  And our group certainly added to the Israeli economy!

Up the Coast, a Warm and Tiring Day

You like warm?  We’ll give you warm!

You like water?  We’ll give you water!

Today was a day of warmth, water, ruins, and wonderful Israelis to get to know.

We departed the Dan Panorama hotel today at about 8 AM, and headed north through Tel Aviv’s famous traffic that is sometimes as confounding as any comparable big city in the States.  A few times we stayed in stop-and-start traffic longer than we had hoped.

But soon we left the traffic behind, found the main coastal road, north and traveled to Caesaria, one of Herod the Great’s architectural wonders of the Roman world.

Today's Caesaria, located on the coast between Netanyah and Haifa, consists of a beautiful reconstructed amphitheatre that, especially in the summer, hosts a great number of concerts and artists.  Our guide Tzvi first offered us a history lesson of the timeline of the Jewish people, challenging us to remember which era represented what conqueror.  

Then he staged a wonderful drama that included two native performers of our group, Alan and Laurel.  They were great, they were dramatic, and because of the superior acoustics of that ancient structure, we could hear them far away.

We then proceeded to the current archaeological excavations on the site.  Over the last few years a parking lot gave way to an uncovered hippodrome where, in Herod’s day, there were horse and chariot races. Today there are active excavations going on, including the attempt to reconstruct the Herod’s palace, the base of which is below the surface of the ocean.

After concluding our time there, we visited the Druze town of Usifiyah, had a home hospitality lunch in a Druze home, and learned something about the Druze religion and people.

There is a movement among the usually private and reserved Druze people to disclose more about their people and religion than they had in the past.  The twenty-nine of us gathered in the sitting room of one of the Druze families, enjoyed a very tasty, traditional Druze meal, we sat and listened Jo-al describe life as a both a secular and religious Druze person.

Sated and educated, we drove along the coast up to Rosh Hanikra, the northern-most point of Israel along the shore of the Mediterranean, to see the sea grottoes that had been carved out of the sandstone walls of the cliffs by the might ocean tides.  We descended by cable car to the entrance of the grottoes, and walked through and saw the layers of erosion in the stone, trying to stay out of the splashing waves that crashed up onto the walkways.

Finally, we ended our day with a wonderful visit with the leadership and membership of the Progressive congregation Emet V’shalom in the town of Nahariyah. We were received with a typical reception of food and drink, a sign of their true hospitality.

and we met in their very comfortable, clean, and air conditioned bomb shelter.  They described their community to us, introduced us to their new Rabbi, and led us in song.

When we were concluded there, we turned east, headed across the hills of the Western Galil to our hotel for the night on Kibbutz Lavi.  A modern Orthodox institution, one of their industries is the hospitality business (among others), and we are the beneficiaries of their choice.

Over dinner at the Kibbutz, we met representatives of the People to People Partnership, a project of the Jewish Agency for Israel, Jewish federations across the country.  On Thursday morning, we will have a tour of Jordan River Village, a practical project of this new collaboration that includes Jews of Madison, Milwaukee, St. Paul, and Tulsa.  So there’s a lot to learn.  That is it for now, and there will be more tomorrow.

Origins of the State in Tel Aviv

Some have called the city of Tel Aviv “a city that never sleeps.”  Although there are only 500,000 people within the city limits, the entire megalopolis that is Tel Aviv and surroundings is more than 60% of Israel’s population: The density here is among the highest in the world.

This morning we began our touring in earnest with our guide Tzvi, born and bred in Brooklyn, NY, and having immigrated to Israel in 1980.

After a very large tourist-style breakfast for which Israel is very well known, we left the hotel at 8:45 and headed for the start of our understanding of the independence era of Israel’s modern history.  We first arrived at the Ayalon Institute, the scene of a top-secret clandestine operation – in effect from 1945-1949 – to manufacture sufficient quantities of ammunition for Israel’s war of independence.  In an underground bunker 30 X 10 meters, a small and secretive staff worked to produce up to 6,000 bullets a day to supply the needs of Israel’s fledgling army.

Over this factory the Israeli authorities built a bakery and a laundry, which served the needs of the kibbutz where this was located.  The sights, sounds, smells, and supply chain of the ammunition factory were masked by the otherwise routine activities of the bakery and laundry, and the British authorities in charge of the land apparently never discovered this place.

From there we traveled to the old city of Jaffa, which today is part of the Tel-Aviv/Jaffa municipality.  From Jaffa you can see the entire Tel Aviv coastal and inland skyline!

One of the oldest cities in the region (mentioned in the prophetic book of Jonah), today it is a mixture of Jew and Arab, and seemingly able to get along with one another.  In the two stores we visited today, the (Arab) staff people were wearing t-shirts that read “Jews and Arabs Don’t Have to Hate Each Other,” perhaps a sign of some improvement of relations between members of the community.

We then visited Independence Hall, the site of the signing of the Declaration of Independence on May 14, 1948.  

The center today serves as a historical remembrance of that day, as members help to re-enact the events of history leading up to that fateful moment.  The signing ceremony was very emotional for many, as a dream of 2,000 years was about to be fulfilled.  After the reading of the declaration and the singing of Hatikvah, Israel’s (then new) national anthem, with the accompaniment of an orchestra in black tie that had been assembled for the occasion, we could hear David Ben Gurion’s final words of that moment: “The state of Israel has been established.  This meeting is over.”

Finally we walked along Shenkin Avenue, the site of great fashion shopping (though frankly we did not find very much), along a pedestrian mall housing for this day’s arts and crafts show, then into the Carmel Market for Tel Aviv’s open air fresh fruit and vegetable, meats, sundries, snacks, and alcohol market.  We then retired and prepared for an earlier start for tomorrow’s day, when we leave central Israel and head for the north of the country.

We hope you have enjoyed the photos and the travelogue.