It’s been more than a week since I learned the devastating
news of the Navy Yard shootings- in the weird way of our news saturated,
over-violent world it’s now old news for everyone but those directly affected.
As a friend said “life goes on”, and I’ve been trying to make the best of the
time I’m here in Israel, and counting the days until I’m home and can make
plans to go to DC and visit Melanie.
Looking in the calendar book I’ve been recording plans and
logistics in, I remembered that a week
ago Monday was the day I attended my second cousin Shira’s henna event in Petak
Tikvah (near Tel Aviv). Sam and Shira’s
wedding will be Oct. 3- Sam Sadka, comes from a Yemenite Jewish family, and
henna events are an important part of the hectic lead up to the wedding- a
custom borrowed long ago from Muslim neighbors. This one was held in a large room
above a synagogue- the room had been decorated with wall hangings, baskets and
tall-necked bronze vessels. There were salads, breads, sweets and soft drinks
offered, Yemenite music played throughout, there was mingling and folk dancing
(and some modern line dancing), but the main features were the lavish costumes-
while the men wore mainly fezzes and robes, the bridal couple changed several
times- both Yemenite and Moroccan “moderne” styles- the moderne featured
gorgeous strapless dresses for the bride while the Yemenite style was highly
covered up with a tall headdress. We were given baskets of flowers to wave about
as the bridal couple rode aloft on…what? Seats that were carried by several men
each. The party staff offered costumes to all interested guests, as well. Photo
ops galore!! J the
good news is I now have a camera and I know how to work it…the bad news is that
at the henna it hadn’t been charged up yet to use! I’ve seen one photo of Shira
and her brother Amit in costume on FB, and I’ll try to post it along with this.
I especially enjoyed meeting cousins and their friends. One young cousin is a make-up artist and she
came prepared with paints to offer designs on hands to augment the official
henna splotch applied with a blessing by the hardworking mistress of ceremonies
at the end of the night- near midnight. I went home with Shira’s Har Adar
family that night, and then took the bus back to Tivon early Tuesday and slept
most of the rest of the day. My elaborate mandala that Harmony painted on my
right palm is almost faded and the splotch on my left palm is totally gone now.
Wednesday night began the festival of Sukkot- full moon,
harvests are in, pomegranates on the trees are getting ripe, the hot winds are
cooling down and Jews are encouraged to build and spend time in temporary open
structures outside their homes- eating, even sleeping out there in the sukkah.
It’s a lovely, lovely time to be here in Israel. Aviva and I went to a holiday
service with Aviva’s daughter Einat and her family at Nigun HaLev at a nearby
moshav (traditionally, an agricultural collective- this one has cows, I can
tell you for sure J)
The services here are offered by a female rabbi and a man who plays guitar,
sings, sermonizes and officiates at weddings. I’ve been there several times for
Shabbat services (last visit) and I still am not sure of his role. Everything
is in Hebrew, and it’s all relaxed, casual, pleasant. There’s a table right
behind the chairs set up for the congregation where kids are making paper
decorations for their sukkahs. There’s tea, coffee, snacks throughout. http://idits.co.il/en/jewish-renewal-nigun-halev-congregation/about/
After the service, we went to Einat’s home for supper in
their sukkah- their kids, Tamar (10) and the twins Noa and Mattan (8) took
turns charming, entertaining and annoying us J.
The girls attend a Waldorf school, while Mattan has started at a school near
Nigun HaLev- he’s a math whizz and the Waldorf system wasn’t agreeing with him.
The full, full, Sukkot moon shone down and lit up the view of the valley from
their deck.
The next day we had a visit from Einat’s brother Asaf and
his wife Tal and their 3 week old baby daughter Yaelah, who live in Tel Aviv.
This was the baby’s first excursion out of her home city to visit both of her
savtas (grandmothers) in Tivon, and she was very well behaved (mostly
sleeping!). Asaf works at the Ben Gurion airport as an AIS officer, and has
just returned to work- he was able to take 2 weeks leave to be home.
Each day in Tivon, especially now that it’s the 2 week
Sukkot holiday from school, Aviva walks early in the morning through the cool
and quiet neighborhood, through fields and wadi and Bet Shearim (a limestone
cave burial excavation that’s a National Park). I’ve managed to get up early a
couple of times to join her. We go to the swimming pool for laps around 9.
We’ve gone out shopping for stuff I needed- a new SIM card for a phone to use,
a computer cable, a camera, some shoes for the wedding 10/3- all in town or
within a ten minute drive. There was a small dress shop having a sale- an
Israeli designer whose clothes feature colorful prints on knitted dresses and
separate pieces- it was fun trying on things with young and youngish Israeli
women, seeing how they combined various pieces. The layered look seems to be
the thing…especially loose pants under a tunic, with or without a head-wrap- a
look that Aviva assures me is very “Anthroposofic”- the Waldorf school
community. I bought a couple things, and wore one of the outfits to the henna
last week, feeling very smart J.
The day after the baby’s visit was an unforgettable outing-
we went to the sea early in the morning with Aviva’s 70-ish friend Michal who
is said to “go everywhere”- and I got to
see some of what’s meant by that. Although she’s waiting for knee replacement
surgery and walks with a limp, she drove us confidently in her mini-van an hour
or so southwest, through the valley between the Arab town of Fureidis and the
Jewish town of Zichron Yaakov, to a kibbutz next to the Mediterranean. We drove
around agricultural bldgs. and fields over packed sand and dirt roads in really
rough shape- a couple of holes in the road could have fit an elephant or two.
Michal just said “my car she drives like a jeep” and plowed ahead- down into
the holes and back out again. We parked in a jumble of cars beside the road and
walked over a bluff of dunes and lacy, lethal looking rocks to behold the Dor
beach spread out below- 2 beaches,
actually, separated by a rock outcropping, and each protected by rock
formations out in the water that kept the surf gentle. And what surf! Deep,
deep turquoise alternating with patches of dark blue- it’s not always this
color, I was told…it was beautiful just for my visit! White white sand, with
tents and hippie camps dotting the beach. People sometimes camp out all summer-
it’s unsupervised, could use a good cleaning- it’s a mess really, but what a
beautiful resource.
The water is clear and clean…salty, of course. We made our
way out over the lacy looking rocks to a spot where a channel of water runs
between 2 rock outcroppings, about 20 feet across. Someone had installed a
thick rope over the channel, and we went into the water, hanging onto the rope,
and floated for a long time. The tide wasn’t rushing in…they said it could be
much more forceful, but it was still flowing hard enough to keep us afloat, or
to offer resistance when I would momentarily let go and start doing an overhand
crawl to keep in the same spot- like one of those infinity lap pools!
When we got out of the water and sat on the rocks
overlooking the rope, we could see tiny creatures in the tide pools at our
feet. Aviva had brought her favorite grapes, and Michal had brought pomegranates
from her tree, offering hunks of them around…delicious! The best “fruit of the
dead” I’ve ever had. Felt like heaven to be there munching as we dried off. http://www.bing.com/images/search?q=Dor+Beach+Israel&FORM=HDRSC2#view=detail&id=A0660EEE87D825411702D5C0EDE5C9E6A8D7BF73&selectedIndex=11
Next to Dor beach are excavations of Phoenician ruins…some
you can just climb up on and sit! overlooking the Mediterranean, watching a
sailboat, a couple of kayaks going out into the surf, and if you looked to the left
you’d see Caesarea’s much more tame public (and not free) beach, and the
tourist attraction of Herod’s compound there…his amphitheater which is in use
for big concerts, restaurants, museums, ruins to visit and learn about…(we
visited them later on in the week with Einat and her kids, but for now they
were just a distant curiosity). Way beyond THAT to the left you can see the
smokestacks of Hadera’s power plant, and the off-shore rigs for importing oil. If
you were to turn with your back to the sea, you could see a ring of horizon
stretching out beyond the shore- low hills and green slopes. It’s such a
beautiful shoreline, and you can feel hugged in history and nature’s embrace -
the advantages were seen and seized upon by countless civilizations, but not
the Jews, really. They (we) historically moved inland to the grazing areas, I
understand.
The sun was high in the sky and burning hot, so I chose not
to go swimming again before we left the shore. Hope I get to go back before
heading home!
What else have I been doing? I met up with Sofie Leyko- one
of the two student teachers Joe and I hosted last April. Sofie’s teaching 5th
grade in Jerusalem now, and we met in Tel Aviv- partway between us- for dinner.
It was really great to see her, and she put me in touch with 2 other young
women who will be coming in March to student teach at Doane Stuart. That brings
me to yesterday, when I got to actually meet those 2 young women! They came to
the Israel Museum in Jslm, at my request, and we sat and talked for a while.
Both of them are terrific and I know it’s going to be another great experience.
I was at the Museum especially to see the brilliant Herod exhibit http://www.english.imjnet.org.il/page_2136
but it’s a great museum and there’s so
much to look at- saw the incredible interiors of 4 or 5 synagogues- from the
Netherlands, Germany, Surinam, India, a gorgeous collection of Jewish costumes,
ritual items, Torah covers, etc…Botticelli’s exquisite Annunciation mural was
there…other paintings, sculpture, could not see it all …Didn’t even get over to
the Dead Sea Scroll exhibit. The museum was staying open to 9 each night of the
Sukkot holiday, so although I arrived at 4, there were hours to roam.
I had arranged a tour of the Old City for yesterday with a young
history teacher who’s a friend of Aviva’s daughter. Noah had carefully asked
about my interests several day before the tour. She was fantastic- we began at
Montefiore’s Windmill, which provides an overlook just outside the Old City at
the southwest corner. You can see East Jerusalem beyond and to the south, the
line just before the Old City that marked the 1948 border, Mt. Zion to the
south of the Old City walls, the zip line that carried supplies and sometimes
soldiers between Israel territory and Mt. Zion (which was held by Israel in
1948). The story of Moses Montefiore is amazing and a good place to begin a
study of present day Jerusalem. He advocated industry and healthy living, and
set out to build a community to support those things just outside the walls of
the Old City.
I had told Noah that I was mostly interested in seeing the
Jewish sights, but that I was also very interested in aspects of interfaith coexistence
and cooperation. And, I had heard that 3 PM vespers at St. James Armenian
church were not to be missed, so I decided we would end our tour there. It was
a treat to leave the crowed, bright and hot small streets and go inside the
cool, dark, calm church…a vaulted space lined with blue and white tiles low on
the walls and priceless, darkened oil paintings on the upper walls. Chandeliers
large and small…crystal lamps suspended. The black robed priests filed in and
began singing and chanting prayers.
Noah had worked for Ir David, the excavation of the City of
David, until she realized the right wing politics they actively support. Think “Settler
Activity”- that kind of thing. When we parted, I told her that meeting her and
learning what a good, thoughtful and principled teacher she is gave me hope for
the future of Israel.
On our walks, Aviva and I often pass the entrance to the
Zaid family compound, founded in pre-state days. The statue of Alexander Zaid
presides on a hill side overlooking the Jezreel Valley- I’ll post a photo of
that I took the other evening. I spoke with Alexander Zaid’s granddaughter,
Tal, today, and arranged a tour of the property for next week. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alexander_Za%C3%AFd
Tonight begins the final holiday of the season- Simchat
Torah. We’re going to go back to Nigun HaLev for a service, and then to a
special Klezmer event and a singing event. I can write about that in tomorrow’s
post, and then I’ll be on the road for a couple of days and unable to write in.
I’ll be going back to Jslm for an Ir Amim tour (http://ir-amim.org.il/en) and
then on to visit cousins in Ashkelon- one of whom is a pediatrican and runs a
clinic. Back to Jslm for another, archeological tour suggested by Noah, "Emek
Hashave” http://www.alt-arch.org/index.php, and then I should be back in Tivon Sunday night. You know, schlepping
around on the Egged buses.
Thanks for reading- hope some of it is interesting…! Hope
you’re all fine & enjoying FALL at home- Stav has begun here but there’s no
fall color. They all seem crazy about these spiky looking flower/weeds that are
called “Candle Flowers”- don’t remember the Hebrew for that. These flowers bloom
a bit at a time, like a candle burning- white blossom, not much to talk abt but
they indicate Fall- Stav- and so are special to Israelis:
One of the views on our walks - this is on the road above Bet She'arim
At Cesarea- at the hippodrome, I think:
Juice break at Caesarea- Aviva and granddaughter Noa;
At Caesarea, moi & Tamar, another of Aviva's granddaughters:
The amphitheater at Caesarea...built by Herod...still in use!!
Shira and her brother Amit at the Henna!
St. James Armenian Church, Old City J'slm
Nigun HaLev Sukkot service- Tamar holding palm frond
Aviva and Yaelah
Crowd in Old City, J'slm
Hope to find my other photos soon :-) more to come~
