Even More Visitors

I'm back to writing in Italics! That means someone else has elected to do my dirty work, again. This time: Israel from my parents' point of view. They left on Tuesday night, and I left Wednesday morning for an HUC trip to the Negev. I'll collect my thoughts and write about that in a day or two. Thanks, parents, for buying me a little more time! My interruptions of my mother's words are in italics.

Another guest blog….from Jessica’s most recent visitors. Arrival at Ben Gurion was emotional. The long walk from the plane, through baggage claim and customs to Jessica who was waiting just beyond the restricted area, only increased my anticipation. I was finally in Israel and equally important, I was finally going to be able to hug and kiss my wandering Jew. Of course, I cried. Jessica thoughtfully brought a bottle of water and guided us to the waiting shuttle.

Jerusalem was more than we imagined. Our first impressions were of the Jerusalem stone and seeing the old city, even from a distance, took our breath away. Our first morning in Jerusalem began very early, with a trip to the shuk. We met at 7 a.m. and we knew right from the beginning that we had a great tour guide (that's me!) as we began our day tasting the delights of Israel. (I already miss the rugelah, cinnamon rolls and the cashews and pistachios as well as the fruits and vegetables. Going shopping in the US is just not the same.) It is at normal hours of the day, however.

I can’t describe everything we saw and did, so I’ll try to cover some of the highlights.

Friday night, we walked to Shira Chadasha and enjoyed the quieting of Jerusalem. The service was wonderful. The music, the patchwork on the ark (yes I noticed) and praying in Israel were very special. The dinner and company that followed were terrific too. On Saturday, we walked around the Old City and went to the Western Wall.

On Sunday, we rented a car and drove out of the city. Jessica had warned us that Israeli drivers are offensive rather than defensive, and we were all glad that Jessica sat next to Buzz to give directions and read road signs and I could cower in the back of the car. I tried to ignore the drivers and concentrate on the amazing flowers that were already blooming everywhere. Before we really left Jerusalem, we were serenaded with honking horns and we encountered a woman driving the wrong way down a major street. (She did manage to turn around without being hurt.) We drove first to Old Jaffo. Driving in Israel is tricky because in addition to the drivers who Jessica described as frustrated fighter pilots, the road signs often don’t correspond to what is written on the map and streets appear out of nowhere. I can't take credit for that all-too-accurate description. One of the guide books said that. I simply confirmed. We did find our way to Old Jaffo, eventually. We somehow navigated numerous one way streets and were only stopped once when a truck with a trailer was blocking the road. After the trailer was moved to the side (by hand) and the truck pulled over, we continued on. We had a great time, exploring the old Mediterranean Port, visiting some crafts shops (including Gabrielli), and enjoying the park. I was amazed that 45 minutes west-and-a-little-north, it was warm enough to take off my jacket and be warm in long sleeves! We continued north to Caesaria, which we all loved. Jessica had been there before, with school but Buzz and I loved walking around the Herodian amphitheater and exploring the walls of the Crusader city. We were all impressed with the acoustics of the amphitheater especially when we stood in the right place, not further back as most of the other people were doing including my school trip a couple of months ago. From Caesaria, we headed toward Haifa, and with Jessica’s excellent support (pffffffffffff. "Haifa is a hill. Go up."), we found our hotel. Haifa is a beautiful hilly city overlooking the Mediterranean.

On Monday, we went to the Baha’i Gardens for a tour. The tour was in Hebrew but the gardens were beautiful, if a bit formal for our liking. I wasn't trying very hard, but understood bits and pieces. I take my small victories happily. The views of the Mediterranean were amazing! We walked down steps and more steps, each with beautiful terraced gardens until we reached the shrine. After exploring a while, we were shown the exit, which was of course, way below where we had come in. The tours, with buses, hopped on their buses and left. Buzz, Jessica and I took a good half an hour steep walk back up hill to our car. Leaving Haifa was a bit like finding Old Jaffo….a series of small streets with interesting curves and dead ends but eventually we found our way. The next highlight of the day was Rosh Pina. While sitting in the back of the car, I discovered that Rosh Pina had a very recommended restaurant called Chocolata. We all agreed that sounded promising and we were hungry. Old Rosh Pina, also at the top of a steep hill was charming. The restored village was the home of Galilee’s first Zionist pioneers in 1882. It is filled with crafts galleries in restored buildings and an old synagogue. There were also blooming almond trees and orange and lemon trees filled with fruit and flowers everywhere. The restaurant is the old home of the tutor for the Baron Edmond de Rothschild and its stone interior, filled with comfortable couches and tables and chairs was a great place for lunch. Lunch was delicious and the chocolate cake we shared for dessert was wonderful. Feeling refreshed, we drove east to Tzfat. We drove up a windy road, commenting on the Israeli drivers passing us on the curves. After a few circles, we found the old Jewish Quarter and the Artists' Colony. We explored and enjoyed the town but it was beginning to be late so we decided to head to Tiberias and return to Tzfat the next day for more exploring and shopping. The twenty miles from Tzfat to Tiberias passed quickly for me. Buzz drove, Jessica navigated and I enjoyed the views and the flowers which were blooming everywhere and in every color in the Gallilee. Cows were grazing in pastures filled with rocks (and some grass). There were groves of fruit trees, filled with fruit, and almond trees blooming everywhere. Jessica guided us to a great restaurant for dinner, right on the Kinneret (Gallilee).

The third day of our trip up north was great fun, although it rained all day. We went back to Tzfat and to the Golan and then drove down the other side of the Kinneret. We also, with a slight detour, found Kibbutz Naot Mordechai, and had a good time in their shoe store. We had expected rain on this trip and other than causing us to miss a few overlooks, it was not really a problem. I wonder if she asked the driver about that statement.

On Wednesday, Buzz and I drove through the West Bank down to Ein Gedi and the Dead Sea. We stayed on a kibbutz in Ein Gedi that also had a botanical garden. The contrast between the Dead Sea and the desert and the kibbutz was amazing. I enjoyed looking at all the varieties of blooming plants and we had a wonderful time hiking to the waterfalls at Nahal David (where David hid from Saul) and exploring the area. Of course, we went to the Ein Gedi Spa and played with the mud and Buzz bravely went into the very cold Dead Sea. Pictures coming, once they are sent my way! We took the cable car up Masada on Thursday and spent several hours exploring. (Thank you, Michael, for suggesting the cable car! Buzz does however, want to go back and climb….) Masada was fascinating. We were lucky enough to be (temporarily) part of a Sephardic Bar Mitzvah party on the cable car up and down. On the way up, everyone was singing and swaying. Once they were on Masada, the party formed a parade and marched to the old synagogue, singing, accompanied by shofar and drum.

We came back to Jerusalem and met Jessica for a delicious dinner. (Notice a theme?!) (Thanks for the great food!!) It was great to be able to rely on Jessica for food and outing ideas! We spent the next few days exploring more of Jerusalem and shopping and of course, eating. We spent a second Shabbat in Jerusalem and went to services at Kol Hanshema (Israeli reform) and at HUC. We met up with the group visiting from mom's old synagogue in Great Neck, several of whom know my grandmother. The assistant rabbi and her husband went to college with Becky. We referenced "It's a Small World" not for the first time this trip. We heard the horn sound the beginning of Shabbat and ended Shabbat with some visiting rabbis who invited Jessica’s class over for wine, cheese and havdalah. It was a beautiful havdalah service.

We had a wonderful tour guide who took us around the old city. I was in class all day. They had more fun. Asnat Cohen met us at 8:30 and took us to the Mount of Olives first so that we could see the city from that perspective, above the Temple Mount. We could see the Old City as well as the Dome of the Rock and the City of David. It was the beginning of a wonderful day. On the way to and from the Mount of Olives we saw several other gates to the Old City. We spent the entire rest of the day (until 4:30) walking around the Old City. It was supposed to rain all day but happily there were only two showers during the day and we were inside both times. Highlights included the Wohl Archaeological Museum where we saw a variety of artifacts from families living during the Second Temple period. It was amazing to see the remains of a mansion from that time. Asnat’s explanations were really helpful. Our favorite part of the day was the Ophel Archaeological Garden. Archaeologists have dug a great deal at this site. We walked on original steps from the Second Temple, we saw the remainders of Robinson’s arch, the place where the trumpet player stood to announce Shabbat and other holidays, and stones from the top of the original wall, lying where they were found but showing the Roman destruction. We also saw some interesting videos in the Davidson center. Other highlights of the day included visiting a few stores where Asnat knew the owners. One was in the Arab shuk and the owner had an amazing collection of original Bedouin fiber. The pieces he had were beautiful. He also had other antique Judaica which was beautiful. He gave us a cup of mint tea which was delicious. We also went to see 4 Sephardic synagogues in the Old City. They were beautiful. We stopped at the Church of the Holy Sepulcher too. It was quite an experience. Asnat introduced us to the keeper of the key for the Church. He is Muslim. The church is co-owned by several different Christian groups, none of whom can agree on much of anything, except that they don't want the others to have the key. Thus, the Muslim keymaster. We walked around the Cardo as well as the Arab Shuk. Asnat was friendly and knew so much that it was a great and moving day.

Our visit was wonderful and we’re already thinking about when we can go back and see more of Israel. The only hard part was saying good bye to Jessica and that was really difficult. For me too! Especially because we said goodbye at about 10:00 at night, at which time I still had work to do, emails to send, and a trip to pack for before the next morning. More to come soon!

Back soon!

A quick, really early in the morning post. As a makeup for being brief, a picture of my parents in Caesaria, with the Mediterranean Sea behind them. My parents are en route back home, and I'm about to head out on a trip myself. HUC is taking us down to the south of the country, where it's supposed to be in the mid-80s and sunny. A refreshing change! We're going to Eilat, snorkeling, studying, kibbutz-ing, Bedouin tent-ing, and enjoying the desert. So this is advance warning that there won't be another new blog for a few days; I'll be back late Saturday night...just in time to go to school Sunday morning!

Have a good (short) week, and I'll be back soon!

Overdue

It has been about 10 days since I last posted, and I don't think I've been that bad all year! At least I warned you...and I have a good excuse ready.

But I'm behind on pretty much everything, especially sleep, so this will be short and sweet, with hopefully more details coming, and certainly pictures coming when I have time to post them, and when I can borrow the parents' cameras to upload their pictures.

They arrived last Thursday, and I was at Ben Gurion to greet them and laugh at my mom (but only a little) for crying: she finally made it to Israel AND got to see me after a lot of months away! They were troopers and woke up early for my crack-of-dawn Friday morning shuk run. Shuk was loved by all. Friday evening services at Shira Chadasha: they loved them. It is a more religious service, but there is so much music, it is impossible not to like it. It's beautiful. Great dinner at Lauren/Aaron's. My parents like my friends. Hooray!

Sunday morning, picked up the rental car and headed north. Sunday we visited Old Yaffo outside of Tel Aviv, what is now an artists' colony, but was previously a big city before Tel Aviv was founded as an escape from Yaffo. Then we went to Caesaria, ruins of a very Roman-Jewish town, and then drove up to Haifa for the night. Monday morning we visited the Bahai Gardens, an amazing terraced garden, although the tour was in Hebrew. It was beautiful nonetheless, although I think I prefer not-quite-so-perfect plants. Then we drove to Acco, an ancient city but also a thriving Arab town, and looked around for a few minutes, and moved on. The ruins were less impressive after Caesaria and we were ready for the rest of the day's itinerary. We found our way to Rosh Pina, a little town outside of Tsfat. In one of the guidebooks, Mom found the description of a great-sounding restaurant there. We found it eventually, and it was worth it! With a name like "Chocolatte," how bad can it be?! To be posted: before and after pictures of dessert. Then we drove over to Tsfat and walked around looking at some old, beautiful synagogues and some of the artists. It was late in the afternoon already though, so lots of things were closed. It went onto the schedule for the next day. Dinner was at a delicious meat restaurant in Tiberias that HUC had taken us to. Yum. Tuesday we headed back to Tsfat to walk around some more, and I got a beautiful microcalligraphy picture. It is an image of Shabbat, but the whole design is filled in with teeny tiny writing of the Shabbat prayers and songs. It's hard to describe, but it's amazing. You may have to come visit my Cincinnati apartment to see it hanging next year! Then we went back to Rosh Pina, because some of the galleries there had been closed the day before, and we wanted to see them. Lunch at the same restaurant! Then we drove through the Golan some, but it was rainy, so we didn't bother going to a lookout point; we wouldn't have seen much. After adventures in directions and Hebrew-speaking, we found our way to Kibbutz Naot Mordechai, which is where they make (and have a factory store for) Naots. Some pairs of shoes later, we got back into the car and made our way back to Jerusalem, driving all the way around the Kinneret/Sea of Galilee (two names, same lake), and getting back for a late (late!)

Mom and Dad went down to the Dead Sea on Wednesday and Thursday and had an amazing time at Ein Gedi park, Masada, and the Dead Sea. I went to school. I also got some really pretty flowers on Wednesday:)

We made Shabbat dinner last night and had a few friends over. Another one of those nights where we all of a sudden realized it was midnight...and we were going to services in the morning. Services today at HUC, where we met up with the group from Beth El in Great Neck, NY, where my mom grew up. Had lunch with Rabbi Davidson (who married my parents) and their younger rabbi, Darcy Crystal, and her husband and son. She and her husband are Princeton '97, and so of course knew Becky and we had a great time with them. And they have a really cute baby. Had an afternoon wine-and-cheese party at the apartment of a couple of rabbis who are on sabbatical in Jerusalem right now and want to get to know our class. It was really nice, and felt good that they're really trying to spend time with us. Then lots of homework and catch-up work...

Now bed. Pictures...soonish.

Catching Up

I'm completely exhausted, so hopefully I can successfully string some words together before I collapse into bed for a few hours. I know I don't often post on Wednesday nights, but I wanted to catch up before I potentially fall behind again. (Yes, I use a similar philosophy with my schoolwork!)

Monica left last night. Or this morning. Or somewhere in between. She stayed up reading a book. I went to sleep for a couple of hours, set my alarm for 1:40 in the morning, sat half-awake probably not as very good company while we waited for her shuttle (which, for the first time in my experience, was late), and then at 2:15, I went back to bed. Hence the confusion over when she actually left. And a few minutes ago I got an IM that she made it home safe and sound! I love that everyone knows to check in with me and let me know that. Thanks, mom, for the extra measure of concern. (For the record, I had checked Monica's flight a couple of hours ago, and I already knew the plane had landed in Boston. But I appreciate the check-in IM all the same.)

It was so much fun to have Monica here! I love that with Monica (and also Saroj who was here a couple of weeks ago), I haven't seen her for more than 6 months, but she arrived and it was like no time had passed at all. We had lots of stories to catch up on, but there was no lack of comfort or anything. Friends like that are not easy to find, and I'm glad I have them...and that they were willing and able to fly around the world to visit! She did some touring on her own, and we did some together between my classes. She seemed to enjoy Shabbat services at my favorite synagogue and we had a delicious Shabbat dinner with friends, one of those dinners where we're having a great time, and all of a sudden it's midnight. We went into the Old City twice. The first time we did the part I know: the Kotel (Western Wall) and the Jewish shopping area and Arab shuk (market). The second time we were aiming for the Church of the Holy Sepulchere, where I had never been. We only made a couple of wrong turns, but with some timely help from my StreetWise, we made it there without too much of a problem. Unfortunately, neither of us had managed to read about it before we arrived; we just knew it was supposed to be an important and impressive site. Also unfortunately, neither of us had remembered to put a guide book in our bags, so we didn't really know what we were looking at. We walked around though and talked about our various religious experiences and marveled at the building and its art, which really is amazing. And then after we got home, we read up on where we had been. It's apparently the site of Jesus' crucifixion and burial! The part of the church with his tomb is through the room which was so small and crowded that I couldn't stay in it. Also, we didn't know why everyone was in there, so we didn't stay, so we kind of missed a main attraction. Oops. But now that I know more, I kind of want to go back (with a book) and really know what I'm looking at.

Tuesday evening we went on the weekly visit to my Ethiopian family, but this week all the HUC families were getting together for a Tu B'shevat party, the holiday that celebrates "the birthday of the trees." It turned out to be a great time: we made tissue paper flowers, handprint trees, and lots and lots of pipe cleaner crowns, for us and the kids. I also learned that Monica has amazing language skills. For someone who could not name a Hebrew letter when she arrived, she picked up a good amount of vocabulary, and now can recite most of the alphabet! She wrote "Monica vas here" on our fridge with our Hebrew letter magnets before she left.

In spite of being completely exhausted, today was an amazing day. For this week's Israel Seminar, we were learning about the Palestinian-Arab-Israeli citizens. These are Arabs who live within the main part of Israel (not the territories) and have full citizenship and full rights under the law, although often not in practice. We went to an Arab town north of Jerusalem, to an Arab teachers' college. We did some learning about the issues on our own, and then for the afternoon met in small groups with students from the college. Our best days of seminar have been when we get out and really talk to people, and this one was definitely not an exception. We were all told that no topic should be off limits, and we really had a conversation about tough issues: how they feel about Jews, what we think when we see a Muslim, the likelihood of peace, Palestinian-Arab-Israeli identity, family, dating and marriage, politics...you name it, we talked about it. It was a great activity, although it was far enough away that we probably won't see them again. Our professors were talking about trying to bring the same group of them down to Jerusalem to meet with us here, and I would absolutely love for it to happen, but given the craziness of our schedules, I am unfortunately pessimistic that it will happen. I truly hope they find a way to make it happen though. We all need more encounters like this one as a reality check: they're not so different from us at all! and as a small, but hopefully not completely insignificant, road to peace. We did all agree that if there aren't interactions between Jews and Muslims, peace is just a dream.

And why do I have a feeling I may fall behind on posting again? Tomorrow afternoon I'm going to the airport to pick up my parents!! I can't wait! :)

Busy, busy, busy

We’ve noticed recently that HUC has been piling on the meetings, getting to the point where we’re feeling over programmed and completely lacking in free time. The problem is that it’s hard to seriously complain about it, because the added events recently have been so interesting! A potentially long post to follow…

I gave my D’var Torah on Monday, as I mentioned and included a few days ago. I think I’ve now received the fallout from it, and it’s really been fairly positive! The main criticism I got from some of the faculty was that the (two-sentence) reference to Shrek was not really necessary and distracted from the overall message. I still think it lightened the tension and seriousness, and I like it there, but I guess it goes to show that there’s no way to please everyone. A day later, an older, very respected professor/rabbi came up to me to tell me how much he had enjoyed my talk. He did not just stop there though, but gave me lots of details back from the speech, and told me exactly what he thought was really good. That made me feel really good!

Before I got up onto the bima to give my speech, there was another amazing part of the service. We read Torah every Monday, and everyone is required to do so at least one Monday during the year. (I did mine in September.) So all three readers did their thing Monday morning, but before they could go sit back down, the cantorial student who was leading the service started talking. She revealed that the third Torah reader, a cantorial student in his 40s, had actually never been called to the Torah before. (He had never been involved Jewishly when he was younger, and therefore never had a Bar Mitzvah, and had never had occasion to do so since.) This meant, she explained, that despite his being a *few* years older than the traditional 13-year-old Bar Mitzvah boy, it was his Bar Mitzvah. She presented him with a Kiddush cup from the rest of the cantorial students, the traditional temple gift to a Bar Mitzvah, blessed him, and we all broke into a chorus of “Siman Tov u’Mazal Tov,” a song traditionally sung at happy moments. A good portion of the class started crying. It was one of those incredibly unexpected, but completely moving moments that just sneak up on you. I loved it.

On Tuesday I had my first history class with the second professor (each one is teaching 6 classes this semester), on the history and religion of Islam. He had complete laryngitis, so we walked in and found a PowerPoint slide on the screen explaining that he had no voice and we would be watching clips of a movie about Muhammad. One interesting thing about the movie was that traditionally, Muhammad and his family cannot be depicted on screen visually or audibly, which understandably presents a rather large obstacle to making a movie about his life. This movie got around that problem by showing his followers and he was generally an off-screen presence. When people were speaking to him, they spoke directly into the camera, and we never heard his replies, just how his followers responded to his replies. It was a little awkward, and made him out to be a more passive leader than I’m sure he was, but it was certainly some creative thinking! It is an interesting story that I’m looking forward to learning more about, and we talked afterwards about questions that we had not thought about much before, like how difficult it must be to present oneself as a prophet, and the difficulties faced by a brand new religion. It reminded me on the class I took in college on “emerging religions” (or, commonly, cults), because every new religion starts out that way. I have lots to learn in this class and I’m excited about it!

Tuesday night, Monica arrived! I also had a ridiculous Israeli moment. The cell phone rental company said they would drop off her phone between 7 and 10 at night at my apartment, and they would call when they arrived, since our buzzer doesn’t work. We weren’t excited about having to stay in, but we made a good dinner and sat and caught up. At 10:10, when the phone had not arrived, I called the company. The woman on the other end said apparently they had tried to deliver but could not get in touch with me. My phone had been in my pocket. I guess it’s hard to get in touch without calling! She then checked again and said, “apparently the driver put it in your mailbox.” I went to check while we were still on the phone. [Background info: these phones usually come in boxes slightly smaller than a shoebox. Things go into my mailbox through a small slot, and we unlock the back of it to get things out. The locked door opens up, exactly the way that a USPS mailbox is not allowed to do, meaning that if it’s full, everything falls out when you open it.] I unlocked the mailbox, and immediately realized it was packed full. I put my hands underneath to catch what was falling out, and found everything that should have been in the phone box. Apparently the driver did not or could not call me, so instead left the box for me. Except that the box didn’t fit in the mailbox, so he took each individual part: the phone, the charger, the case, the instruction sheet, the rate sheet, the contract, and slid them one at a time through my mail slot. Only in Israel.

Wednesday night we had our first presentation on the FSU trip to start giving us some background on things we should expect, bring, not bring, and more. Highlights: It will be cold. There may be bread on the seder table. Don’t refuse the vodka, but you don’t have to drink it. Dress nicely. Bring your own toilet paper and purell.

Yesterday afternoon was one of our extra programs. We’re usually done at lunchtime on Thursdays for the weekend, so you can imagine our excitement when all of a sudden a 4:15 program showed up on the calendar. Rabbi Yoffie, the head honcho of the Reform Movement, was in Israel and would be speaking to us. But, then his speech was really good! He had some interesting things to say, and he is a fairly engaging speaker, which is always a nice surprise. Content: the future of Reform Judaism. Not surprisingly, we have gotten a lot of that this semester, but this one was enough different that I enjoyed it. After the talk we had a short Tu B’Shevat seder and dinner. Tu B’shevat is taught in the United States as “the birthday of the trees,” and it’s basically an agricultural holiday that marks the approximate beginning of the planting season and is how traditionally age of fruit bearing trees is tracked. So for trees that are required to grow a certain number of years before eating their fruit, they all count as a year old on Tu B’shevat. The seder involves drinking wine that starts as white and gradually gets more red added to it (Four cups: white, light pink, dark pink, red), and eating different kinds of seasonal fruits. Things that (amazingly) went into my mouth last night, and were enjoyed in varying amounts: pomegranate seeds, raisins, dates, dried apricot, walnuts. Be impressed!

This morning, Monica and I got up early to go to the shuk as per my usual Fridays. Every so often I have to remind myself to look around as if I haven’t been doing this stuff for six months, and it’s an easier reminder when I have a visitor. The shuk is huge and overwhelming. We bought a fruit today that just looked interesting, and I have no clue what it is. She took lots of pictures of the impressive displays and aisles of food. We were in the Old City yesterday. I was reminded of the impressiveness of the sights and the sheer age of the city, and the craziness of the Arab market there. Visitors are a great way to make sure I remember all that. Monica’s here until Tuesday, and then mom and dad arrive Thursday! That only gives me a few more days to think of more things they could bring for me...

Shabbat shalom!