Old Jerusalem

On Israeli Independence Day, we walked in the old city. It was a moving experience, One I will not forget in a while.

It started overlooking Hell – Literally. I’ve now seen the Valley of Hinom, where there were temples to Molech and where, as we read in several places in Leviticus and Kings, children were sacrificed in pagan rites by being burned alive. King Hezekiah finally put an end to such horrible practices. On mount Zion we saw the tomb of King David and the place where the last supper was held. Walked from there into the old city, through the crowded markets, which was quite the experience.

At the end of this walk we came to the western wall. As we waited for the group to get through Security, the Israeli version of the Blue Angels flew overhead, involved in acrobatic displays for Independence day.

I walked up to the wall put my little message into it and closed my eyes, then said the Shema. I asked God for something and I believe the beginning of the answer to that prayer was almost immediate. A quote popped into my mind:

My dove in concealment of the cliff,
In steep hiding places
Show me your appearance,
Let me hear your Voice
For your voice is sweet
And your appearance beautiful [Song of Songs 2:14]

There have been many interpretations of that verse. The traditional interpretation describes it as God talking to Israel at Sinai. I’ve believed it is God pleading with Man to pray with Kavvanah. But when I opened my tear filled eyes, I had another interpretation. On the upper parts of the kotel there are doves nesting, turtle doves and even a few white doves. They cling to the wall as their home, and hide in the cracks of this rock. Birds were nesting everywhere on the wall actually: the more I looked the more birds I saw. I had not noticed them before, maybe now I will. I had asked my eyes to be opened, and here was sign that they had. It was an intense moment.
From there we walked through the crowded Arab quarter to being our trek on the Via Della Rosa, the path Jesus took from his capture to his death and burial, ending at the Church of the Holy Sepulcher. Being here there is a reversal from the wall. While a Christian would not find the wall important, I found it full of faith. Now the roles were reversed, and I could dispassionately observe what I felt at the wall in others, as they kiss the stone where the cross has been put into the ground. Faith is a powerful thing, it’s just sad that faith through history is often twisted by leaders in their lust for power. Being in this place so often conquered since the time of David and still under contention, I wonder that a lot. I keep asking why we fall to such people, like Hitler as I saw I Yad V’shem.

New Jerusalem

New Jerusalem

Today was Yom Ha Zikaron, Israeli Memorial Day. Our tour was to be of sites which, totally coincidentally were one related to exactly this, and that was a bit of a problem during the day.

Our tour started with the Chagall windows, which were beautiful. Even if I’m not the biggest Chagall fan I found his use of color amazing. After looking at the windows we headed over to Yad B’shem. Yad B’shem is named from a quote form Isaiah

And to them will I give in my house and within my walls a memorial and a name better than sons and of daughters; I will give them an everlasting name, that shall not be cut off.[Is 56:5]

This was not a big picture day for me. There were things we were told not to photograph and there were things I just didn’t find appropriate to photograph. My somber mood was one of those reasons I felt that there was no picture that could describe what you feel in the museum or the two memorials there. At 11:00 there was the moment of silence again. Everything in the museum stopped, and the alarm sound sounded for what seemed like an eternity, though it may have been just a minute. Standing in the middle of an exhibit about the labor camps, I can’t think of a more poignant moment to think about those who died for Israel, and those who died before Israel was a nation in the holocaust.

From there we went to the military cemetery next door, and walked around the graves. Some things were closed off for security reasons. So we did not get to see them. Yet on the other hand there were many people visiting the graves. It was anther somber poignant moment about this place.

The final stop of the day was to see the Dead Sea scrolls. For the second time in my life, I read a bit of what was written there. It too was a poignant moment.

Borders and boundries

Steven Lipton wrote:

Borders and boundries

Tuesday we started in Tiberius with a visit to the grave of the Rambam, other wise known as Moses Maimonides.  Then it was off to a few Christian sites on the north shores of the Sea of Galilee. First to the church over the spot Jesus made a miracle of feeding people, then to Capernaum where he lived for a while and performed a miracle or two. From there we made a stop along the river Jordan, then boarded the bus and headed for the Golan Heights.

 

Someone once told me that once you stand on the Golan Heights, you realize That Israel cannot ever give them back. As cynical I was of that statement, it was a very true assessment. From issues of water rights to strategic geography to give up the Golan Heights would be suicide. Yet that was only part of what I felt there. I realized how much of a waste this land is.

 

The Syrians made this a buffer zone between themselves and the Israel. In doing so they took lands that had been agriculturally productive for millennia and made it into a war zone. The signs for land mines are everywhere. The remains of Syrian bunkers are all over the landscape, mixed with ancient stone fences. This is a place where plowshares were beaten into swords. These swords bred more swords as the Israeli bunkers and military bases here attest. What a waste.

 

From there we went to a kibbutz in the Golan Heights, so green and different from the desolation around it. I really don’t know what to say about kibbutzim, I learned so much about them the way the American Jewish education system of the 1970’s wanted me to when I was younger. I can say it was not what I expected. But I can also say, I would never be interested in being part of one either.

 

Then we had a drive to Beit Shean. Beit Shean has a prominent part in the biblical text as the place the Philistines hung the body of a dead King Saul. As the story in I Samuel goes Saul committed suicide rather than fall into enemy hands. But after his death the Philistines cut off his head to parade around Philistine territory and nailed his body to the walls of Beit Shean. That city today is buried under a tel. In front of the tel is the Roman city of Beit Shean. The Talmud makes a few comments about this town, Resh Lakish, refers to it as the gate to paradise in Israel. This might be a sarcastic comment, as the previous discussion on that page was about the nature of hell, and Beit Shean was certainly a pagan town. R. Assi notes that priests from Beit Shean are prohibited from making the Priestly benediction since their accents are so bad the make two letters (ayin and aleph) sound the opposite.[Meg. 24b] In modern pronunciation of course both of these letters are silent.  The Tannaim uses Beit Shean as an example of a metropolitan area where shops are decorated, one cannot shop there [A.Z. 12b].  There are a lot of ruins here, much of it excavated. One of the most intact theaters is here, and a rather impressive city center.

 

After that, we began our journey to Jerusalem, but with a twist – Through the Israeli controlled areas of the West Bank.  The barb wire around settlements here stood out, as did a geologic feature of much of this area: caves and lots of them. This wasn’t where David hid in his day that was further south. But such caves littered the hills around us. Even thought I think everyone on the bus was also tired there was a strange silence about this part of the trip.

 

I realized how much a of a climb from the shore it is to Jersusalem. It truly is a going up, an alyiah.  Then after encountering a few Bedouin shanty towns on the sides of the road to Jerusalem, we entered the city and began to feel the energy of the place. That evening began Yom Ha Zikaron, the Memorial Day in Israel for the war dead. There was a minute of silence marked by the sound of a siren at 8:00. We watched the staff of our hotel go outside and listen silently to that sound.  

 

Headed North

Today we started at the Tel Aviv University, where we went to the Diaspora museum. The museum is ostensibly a record of the Jewish people in exile, their customs and buildings and writings. The exhibits were put together quite well, in both English and Hebrew. The exhibit is very linear in how one views the exhibits, ending up rather predictable and rather disappointing. I’m not a big fan of museums as political exhibits. Museums should be museums.

From there we went to Caesarea, the great roman city Herod the great built, which in many ways became the capitol of Judea under Roman rule. I though about were I was stepping. Many of the great rabbis lived here, and some died here. Although I couldn’t find any source material for it in the story in Ber 61a, according to the exhibits in Caesarea, rabbi Akiba was supposedly jailed and executed there. But in some research I did this morning, two figures stood out more than the others for me. The first was Eleazar b. Hyrcanos, who was put under the ban for in the oven of aknai incident. Eleazar incidentally was a teacher of Akiba, and Akiba was at his teacher’s death bed in Caesarea.

The other figure was Resh Lakish, who came to Caesarea along with R. Abbahu. But this may not have been Resh Lakish’s first time there. One set of stories claims he was a gladiator in his younger life, and He may have fought in the amphitheater of Caesarea. What an odd thing it must be to be in the same town as a sage as he once was such ugly profession. Walking on that same ground made me wonder about him.

From there we went to Nazareth to the church of the annunciation, which is really a complex of churches signifying the spot where Mary was told she was to have a son by the angel Gabriel. While there I heard the sounds of Gregorian chant, and while enjoying the sound outside the church the call to Muslim worship was sounded. In stead of clashing they harmonized with the bass tones of the Christian chant backing the high tones of the Arabic. I understood none of it but it sounded like heaven, and maybe it was -- the sounds of God in Harmony.

In the land of the Philistines.

Today we headed southeast to tel Maresha. Much of the land we traveled over was in biblical times the land of the Philistines. Though some were Isralite territories, such as Beit Shemesh one of the borders of Israelite territory, where the ark eventually wandered back after Philistine capture (I Samuel 6). Also Among the places we crossed was the valley of Elah where David slew Golaith (I Sam 17:2)

At Tel Maresha, We actually did some Digging, I unearthed a small pottery shard and several pieces of charcoal about 2300 years old. While waiting for our group to get together I find laying on the ground beneath my feet a weight used for weaving. The whole experience was mind Blowing, hold such things from Hasmonean times in my hand.

From there we went to Yaffa for Lunch and took a stroll around, and from there to the very crowded market to see everyone shopping for Shabbat.

From Penguins to Rabbis

Well, Its time for another vacation.

This Time, I'm journaling, and hence this blog.

Last August, my big vacation was the Galapaogs Islands.

This year It's Israel.

I was excited about seeing penguins and iguanas hanging out in in the wild.

It's with great trepidation I think about going to the Kotel.

Since this didn't fit in the themes of Sholmo's Drash and Torah commentary, though I'm sure there will be some here, I thought another blog was in order.


Hence this. Pictures and thoughts about my first trip to Israel.