the Last Day

The truth is that what we most wanted to do on the last day in Israel was to play and do last minute touring and shopping and noshing in Tel Aviv. The weather was absolutely gorgeous:warm, bright, sea breeze. The great outdoors don't get much nicer than this. Some of the group went to Independence Hall, where the Israeli Declaration was signed and the Palmach Museum, the Diaspora Museum, and the Jaffa Artists' Colony.

It was also time to shut suitcases, filled with tchatchkes, jewels, beach bags, books, and dirty clothes: lots of dirty clothes. We all felt sad as we zipped up the bags, because this was such a successful trip. The group of wonderfully disparate men, women and children just naturallly cohered. We connected and communicated. There was never a forced march mentality. Everyone felt that they were considered as important participants in this long and amazing exploration. None of us will be the same after this trip. Our Jewish repertoires are broadened, and so enriched. We have all been touched in ways we never imagined. We've seen the ancient past and we've seen the future, a dynamic, brilliant future.

We saw lots of problems: ameliorating the needs of Eithiopian Jews and Russian Jews. Making peace with the Palestinians. Building bridges between the ultra-Orthodox and militantly secular Jews. Growing the Reform movement in hostile places. Making ethical decisions in trying and extreme circumstances.

We saw lots of valiant efforts at changing the status quo: Rabbis for Human Rights, the Leo Baeck School, Kol Hanishamah... and so much more.

Our final dinner was a testimony to the things we've seen and the fellowship we've experienced.

So to all the participants on this most recent TBA trip to Israel: kol hakavod! We did it! Welcome home!

To all thosewho have read this blog: thanks for keeping up with us. It's your turn next.

Tel Aviv Touring: the last days

No one really wants to complain about the pace and the activities of our trip: it’s difficult to say with a straight face that touring Israel in a big bus, going to great sites and staying in 5 star hotels (except for the Dead Sea Golden Tulip…), is hard work. But I got to say: I am really tired. We’re all a bit road weary and I think pretty resigned to our imminent return. We are in Tel Aviv today in the David Intercontinental Hotel, the best of the hotels we have stayed in. Big, immaculately clean, close to everything, and a striking view of the Mediterranean Sea. In fact, the view out my window is truly breathtaking. The city’s tall white hotels and office buildings shine brightly and reflect the light coming off the sea.

When we arrived in the big T-A, we strolled over to the Carmel Market, a very big, open air marketplace, to find some lunch. The area was memorable. The stink and the filth was by far in a league of its own, surpassing Mahane Yehudah in Jerusalem exponentially. So much garbage lying around, so many beggars panhandling, so… dirty. I know Americans are way over the top obsessed with cleanliness and germs. But even given that: feh!

After checking in and unpacking – again! – we made our way to the old city of Jaffa, which is becoming an increasingly impressive artists’ colony. We wandered about this very picturesque place at a very slow pace as traveller’s fatigue set in. Stumbling back to the bus, we toppled out at the hotel and ‘forced’ ourselves to clean up for a great dinner on our own.

Happy New Year

Happy New Year from Eilat! What a trip to be here to ring in the new. This may be the only city in Israel that even vaguely acknowledges Dec 31st as anything special at all. Whether this is because of the large number of tourists or the generally nonobservant Jewish population, it’s hard to be certain. All I can say is that it was truly special.

Actually, Shabbat morning in Eilat is a different kind of experience in and of itself. There’s not much in the way of services happening. Instead it’s a lot of lounging by the pool, Boardwalk walking, some shopping, scuba diving: vacation, plain and simple. So I guess it works as a Shabbat experience: shavat va’yenafash the prayer says: pause and refresh. There’s a lot of refreshing goin’ on in Eilat…

The whole group did their own thing on Shabbat, including a special side trip to the mysterious city of Petra, in Jordan. I did not go with the Jordan gang, but the review of the day trip was a total thumb’s up from all of the tired but gratified participants. Just getting a passport with the Jordan stamp is a thrill in and of itself.

Almost the entire TBA clan gathered at 9pm at the Boston Fish Restaurant. Yes, believe it or not, we found the only restaurant in Israel with a map of Brookline in the Ladies Room… While it’s not Legal’s or Skipjacks, Boston Fish isn’t a bad place at all. They set up 38 chairs outside on the boardwalk with some outdoor heaters to take the chill off night breeze coming in off the Red Sea. We were all comfortable and happy to be together after a long day apart from each other.

The meal was wonderful, even if the service moved at a snail’s pace. There was a live band outside playing good jazz standards. As we approached the midnight hour we all grabbed our champagne and stood on the boardwalk as every big hotel started shooting fireworks. It’s true that they were no match for the Boston Garden display, but we were VERY close to the action and loved it!

Shortly after midnight the band was packing up to go. That’s when our very own Bill F (aka Billy Beduoin) stepped up to the keyboards and started playing! This drove the TBA gang wild and pretty soon the party was on! We danced and hollered until around 2.

Bouncing Around Eilat

We had fantasies of Eilat: warm, sunny, comfy, spa-like, and just flat out fun. Fun it is: warm, it ain't. This is not a complaint: the sun is out shining over the Red Sea. However, it is definitely chilly at night and not balmy during the day. They are predicting 84 degrees tomorrow but I'm not holding my breath... much.

So out into the cool morning we went, splitting into 2 groups: the first one went for a hike into the mountains with our great guide, Ya'ara. The rest took a jeep excursion into the mountains of Eilat. I thought my fillings were going to pop out of my head it was so jarring. I've driven in some steep mountain country before, but never in a 4 wheel drive ancient jeep. And never with exactly the central casting choice for the Israeli jeep driver. Yosa was a grizzled guy, skinny, baked by the sun, macho, and really smart. Man, this guy knew everything about the history, geology, topography, botany, and politics of Eilat. Yosa spoke 7 languages, quoted relevant Biblical references, made us laugh, and scared us out of our minds. In other words, we loved it.

The jeep caravan dropped us off at the famous Eilat underwater observatory. Besides all of the usual cool aquarium stuff they possess, this ploace has a large building out in the Red Sea anchored to the sea floor. By going down into its base, which is all windowed, you can see the fish truly in their natural element. It's a great place.

Of course there's gotta be shtick, and there in the Coral Reef section of the aqarium is a guy in a wet suit and scuba gear right in the tank standing next to a menorah. He wants to 'light' the menorah, so he pulls out the 'candles' (plastic something or other). He then reaches in his bag and pulls out a knit kippah which he bobby pins to his head in the tank!

Ok, it gets better. He invites the crowd to join him in reciting the candle blessings. And no one joins him. In this humiliating moment, not one person, man, woman, or child, wants to participate in this bizarre activity. It is 1130 in the morning, which makes it odder still. The young beautiful Israeli woman on the other side of the tank is trying to make it work, and she is utterly humiliated, doesnt know what to do. She doesnt know the second blessing by heart (she'asa nissim), or if she does she starts to blank -- and no one comes to her aid.

I couldnt figure out if Israelis are more discerning of the ridiculous, or if they thought it was profane and slightly blasphemous or if they didnt know the words, either, or most likely a combo of them all. It was a moment...

We returned to the hotel, a good deal nicer than the Golden Tulip, and all of us pretty much collapsed after some lunch. Shabbat dinner was a huge and I mean a huge feast the likes of which I havent experienced before for a small group. As we sang Shalom Aleichem I thought of all the people singing the same shabbes song all over the world. We are all so connected in so many ways.

The TBA travellers have found that connection and it is precious indeed. SHabbat Shalom and see you soon!

Ein Gedi to Eilat: We cover the South

No one wept as we left the Golden Tulip Hotel overlooking the Dead Sea. Service was mediocre, the clientele was noisy and just plain rude, the rooms had the odor of tobacco so ingrained in the fabric and plaster and sheets that the no smoking signs smirked, and, well, that's enough, I suppose.

We hiked this morning to the natural springs of Ein Gedi, an oasis in the midst of the Negev right smack dab on the African-Syrian Rift. The hike was beautiful and leisurely and all of us loved it. As we approached the springs and the waterfalls that feed them, we were overtaken by a girls' yeshiva from J-lem. They appeared to be young teens, and ALL of them wore long black dresses and top o' the line Nikes, Pumas, Adidas, etc. Yes, they were 90% American girls doing a semester of Torah. They contrasted sharply with our girls.

That's the thing about being in Israel: so many Jews of so many differrent colors and values and religious practices. I want to write a fieldbook that describes all the possibilities. But I digress and my internet is on an hour timer and ticking...

After frolicking at the Ein Gedi springs we returned to our big bus and continued on the Kibbutz Yahel. Founded by Reform Jews in 1977, it is the first Reform kibbutz -- ever! It's changed so much since the first heady months and years of ideolgical turmoil. But, like the kibbutz movement itself, there's been lots of morphing and conforming and evolving to where they are now. We had lunch and celebrated Celia's 13th birthday on the kibbutz then headed into the pomello fields to hear about the strange fruit that keeps the kibbutz going and the Jordanians who live on the other side of the fence. Ron Bernstein, the pomello man, gave a short but very memorable speech about life at Yahel and life in Israel. He talked about making peace in a beautiful and inspiring way. I hope he will visit us at TBA. By the way, he peeled the pomello in a most unique manner: our kids wore pomello hats while enjoying the fruit.

From Kibbutz Yahel we drove to Eilat where I am finishing the blog for today. The group is happy and content and very comfortable. Our bonding is complete and so great! We've had the best moments together and look forwaqrd to more as we begin the last days of the sojourn. Our suitcases are increasingly hard to shut but we'll happily manage. No one's homesick, which is the best of signs.

I am exhausted. Up and down Masada. Ein Gedi Springs. Just wrote a long blog entry that disappeared.

But...

I have to report on the amazing moment the group shared on Masada.

Way up on top of this mountain in the middle of the desert where Herod built his winter palace and 1000 Jews committed suicide rather than surrender tyo the Romans is an ancient synagogue. It was built by the Zealots in the 1st century. In that synagogue is a room double locked and in that room is a safe with an ark cover over it. With the right keys I opened it and pulled out a Torah. Can i tell you what it's like traipsing across Masada with a Torah in my hands? The overwhelming feeling of somehow continuing a process? Of doing a bold new thing?

I can't describe it. It was too new, too intense, too overdetermined... Walking into the room where the TBA group was waiting, and seeing their eyes as i entered with that scroll. It couldve been a thousand years ago -- 2 thousand years ago. To see the excitement and the joy in their faces.

We made a ceremony honoring our most recent Bat Mitzvah, Monique and our next Bat Mitzvah, Halley. Standing on one side of the room were all those who already had a Bar/t Mitzvah. On the other, those kids and adults who never had one. I had all the TBA post Bar Mitzvah celebrants line up and pass the Torah to Monique, who then gave it to Halley who held it as all the younger kids touched the Torah. Talk about symetry and a perfect moment.

I then asked the non-Bar/t Mitzvah adults a question: Is anyone ready to declare that they are ready to commit to the next adult B'nei Mitzvah class? No pressure, really. Just 2 thousand years of history swirling through the air. Reesa, Suzanne, Deborah and Michele and John stepped up. How amazing was that?

These are the moments that reminds one that occasionally a group trip can change your life. Every day.

a full day

As we finished packing our bags to leave J-lem , we realized it was harder to close them than it was at the beginning of our journey. We’ve all been collecting treasures: spices, dried fruits, jewelry, artwork, zibben-zachen, and who knows what else… It’s been such an honor, a thrill, a joy, and a darned good time touring Israel. And we still have a week’s worth of exploring to do.

So we hit the road and headed for our first stop, a JNF forest where we were to plant trees. Actually our first stop is generally a bathroom along the way. Our group doesn’t exactly have the best bladder capacity… Anyway, we were met at our planting site by Susan Horowitz, a former member of the temple who made aliyah almost 8 years ago. Susan, by the way, sends her love to everyone back at the ranch.

It would be fair to say that no one in the group initially thought of this stop at a JNF forest as a particularly emotional experience. Planting a tree in Israel is a quintessential Jewish act. We’ve been doing it vicariously over the decades by putting coins in the pushke, collecting dimes in slotted sheets to make the shape of a tree, etc. So this time we were actually, literally getting dirt on our hands.

We arrived at the JNF forest because Steve and Reesa had planned some time ago before we got to Israel to dedicate the forest named in memory of their dad/father-in-law, Norman A. What a good idea to include all of us in that and then do some planting! Only at the forest Steve and Reesa were going to, there were no more spots for planting. So we couldn’t join them for the ceremony but we could plant in another spot.

As has been mentioned before, there are lots of tourists in Israel over this holiday season. Israelis are shaking their heads in disbelief, overjoyed that somehow a pall has been lifted and suddenly there is excitement and hope again. So their were crowds of congregations and missions at our planting spot and a Sephardic guy in a suit making holes in the ground with a planter’s pick. The scene was frenetic and exciting and just a bit surreal.

As we finished planting, we gathered together as a group to each declare for whom they planted their trees. As we assembled another congregation’s cantor began singing in a booming cantorial tenor, El Maleh Rachamim, the prayer chanted at the conclusion of a funeral. This struck me, at least for our group, as the absolute wrong note to leave the forest on. After all, yesterday we were at Yad Vashem, remembering the Holocaust. That’s a place where El Maleh should be chanted every day until the end of time. But we were here in this grove where one day our children and grandchildren will visit and long after we’re gone, the beauty and nobility of planting these trees will endure. So we remembered the people, living and deceased, for whom the trees were planted, and then said, not Kaddish, but Shehechiyanu.

The next stop for our group was Beit Guvrin, an archeological site where we had the opportunity to actually dig and find shards of pots and containers from the 2nd century BCE. A sub group formed to go spelunking, crawling on all fours through one of the many caves in the vicinity of the dig. We claustrophobes hung back, but young and old, big and small adventurers went for the crawl. As always, the meek are told what was missed, and it did sound great. We finished up with a take-out delivery of pizza and felafel to a nearby picnic grove, filled with us – and hundreds of young Israeli soldiers on their own educational field trip.

From Beit Guvrin we wound our way through the mountains as green hills gave way to the Negev, the desert region of Israel. The stark change in topography is magnificent and inspiring. The roads are steep and at points precipitous.

Outside Arad, we came to a funky Bedouin village for tourists, kind of like Storyland. Here we were greeted by the tents and the desert breeze, and the aroma of camels and donkeys. Yes it was time to mount up! What a trip!! Young and old climbed aboard (my camel glanced at my girth and choked on his cud…). To her everlasting credit, Bev H. really tried to get on a donkey. But swinging her leg around the side seemed just a bit too difficult. But it was something!

After our ride (only one near accident where apparently Eggo pulled the saddle the wrong way and we almost had a runaway TBA family), we had a great explanation of Bedouin life by a real Bedouin man. As he told us of his culture we were served sweet tea and bitter coffee (sweet like a woman, bitter like marriage, he said…?), as we reclined on cushions. Following his lecture we had a Bedouin dinner sitting on the floor. We used hands and pita and it was a blast.

Finally we boarded our bus and came to the Golden Tulip, a rather suspect ‘luxury’ hotel jammed with Israeli families on vacation. They are the noisiest assemblage of humans I have ever been around! It’s stunning just how loud and present they can be… We got here tired, happy and it’s fair to say, more cohesive than ever. Our group is just that: men and women and children of TBA who together share a common experience and celebrate it.

Tomorrow is Masada!