A Reunion, A Book, and other Miscellany

Once again, many things to write about...

1.) Last night, Sunday, November 15th, I joined a number of others living in Israel for a Class of '76 reunion held right here in Maale Adumim. Well, to be a bit more specific, it was a reunion for Class of '76 for the Ida Crown Jewish Academy. And to be even MORE specific, I didn't even GO to ICJA! But, since Andy DID go there and I DID graduate in '76, and I WAS invited, after all, I decided to go...and I am so glad I did. I saw friends that I have not seen in (some cases) over 34 years. But, in addition to those who had gathered here, we were also joined long-distance, by the miracle of technology, by a large group sitting in a hotel hall in Chicago with a video hook-up. It was so nice to see people from both sides of the ocean get together like that! (When a few people noted that they do not recall me having been in the class at the Academy, I told them that I was undercover and that they just didn't realize I was there!)

2.) Over the years, I have found less and less time to read. Most of my time doing that form of activity was spent either learning for personal growth or learning to prepare classes. But to read a BOOK was a very rare thing for me for years. However, I had one book in my collection that I was determined to read, albeit a book in Ivrit. I pulled it down off the shelf the other day and am already half-way through what has become my absolute, number one, all time favorite book that I have ever read. Now that is a pretty bold statement, especially considering I am only half-way through. So, let me back up and tell you what it is and why I love this book. I am reading the autobiography of Rabbi Yisrael Meir Lau, former Chief Rabbi of Israel. The title is אל תשלח ידך אל הנער which has won the Israel Prize. Rav Lau shlit"a, was the youngest survivor of Buchenwald. While there are many books written about experiences in the camps, this one is incredible! He weaves his story of the past with anecdotes over the past few years and how many of his experiences crossed into his professional life. How, for example a woman called him and begged him to perform the wedding of his daughter. When Rav Lau said he had another wedding that same day to do, she pleaded with him. Before he relented, he had to ask why it was so critical that HE be the one to do this wedding. She told him that this information would only be revealed to him after the Chuppah...to make an incredible story short...it turns out that it was in this woman's arms that Rav Lau's mother died in a concentration camp. How he describes this moment can not be put into words. If your Ivrit is not at the point you can read this book yet, I urge you to pull out a dictionary and read it... you will not regret it!

3.) I had a VERY high cell phone bill and had no idea what made it so high. Then I checked the detail...it says that about 20 calls were made on one of my daughter's phones from Jordan. Now, I consider myself a pretty responsible parent and would think that IF indeed my daughter HAD gone to Jordan I would have known. I called Cellcom, and they explained to me that her location at Kibbutz Sde Eliyahu evidentally placed her within range of the Jordanian cell towers and it was pinging off their towers. While they assured me I will be credited, that is not the point of my story...the guy taking care of me on the phone asked me if he could call me back later to review the charges and the credits as he first had to review it with his supervisor. Without blinking or thinking, I told him that it was no problem for him to call me later as I needed to run out and daven Mincha! His reply was to daven well and that he would call me later...I love this country!

Ben-Gurion Airport

I went in to the office today, Wednesday, and I had a very productive day. When I was getting ready to leave, a co-worker offered to drop me at a bus stop where I could catch the bus to Yerushalayim, because she had to go to the airport and was going out. We got to talking, and the next thing we realized...we were already at the airport! (The office is a 10 minute drive from Ben-Gurion)

So, now I needed to find the bus back to Yerushalayim near the airport. No problem whatsoever with only one exception...I was at the airport and I TRULY began to have palpitations! Why, you may ask? (If you did not ask, you are welcome to stop reading right now). After visiting Israel 21 times prior to our Aliya (bringing groups, coming alone, etc), every single time I went TO Ben Gurion, I was sad because it meant I was leaving Israel. I, of course, associated arriving at Ben Gurion (not through a plane but by a vehicle) with LEAVING Israel.

I suddenly found myself VERY eager to get out of the airport, as fast possible. I AM NOT LEAVING ISRAEL! I AM NOT BOARDING A PLANE...LET ME GO BACK HOME!!! I can not begin to explain how strange or how uncomfortable I felt being in the airport. Look, I know that when the time comes for me to go on a trip, I will be fine (won't I??!)....but I will know I am going to the airport and then leaving and then returning home to Israel. But, today, just suddenly finding myself there...well, I just NEEDED to get out of there.

As I write this, I am back at home (PHEW!) and nowhere near the airport...for now, I am safe!

Only Six More Days Until Shabbat!

While today is only Sunday, I find myself already thinking about Shabbat...specifically Friday night...and specifically Kabbalat Shabbat. To participate in the serene, melodious nearly-surreal singing is to BEGIN to understand the idea that Shababt is "me'en olam Haba" (a taste of the World to Come). If I could describe in the printed word what it feels like to sit there with a few hundred people singing so beautifully together and the absolute peace at which I feel while singing, I would attempt to put it in words. But the best way to say this is to say that anytime you find yourself in Israel, you must experience a Shabbat in Mitzpe Nevo, especially the Tefilla.

During the week, I often catch myself humming tunes from the Friday night tefilla and think that it is only "X" number of days until we are together again for that mystical time. While I could elaborate further, you get my drift by now!

I had a very interesting thing happen today that, when I thought about it in retrospect, I FULLY understood the situation. I often go to daven Mincha at 1:35pm at the local boys Yeshiva high School. There is, of course, a gate through which all visitors and students must pass and must be buzzed in through the security gate. Over the past few months, the one or two Shomrim (guards) who are at the gates came to know me, and buzzed me in as soon as they saw me. Today, however, I arrived to see a new guard. He asked me for ID...I had been working in the house on some project and was not walking around with any identification. He asked again for me to present ID...when I told him I had none, he would not let me in. As I began to explain how I am there nearly every day, and he said he would not let me in, I just put up my hand, stopped the conversation and said, "Ata tzodek" (you are correct!). Under no circumstances should he have let me in, and he was 100% right about it. As I walked home, I recalled that the #2 Bus was bombed by a homicide bomber dressed like a Chassid. Just because a guy comes with a Kippah and tzitzit out does NOT entitle him to walk freely into a high school.

(PS--As I write these words, I am sitting in our backyard until a moonlit sky filled with 1000's of stars. I look up, and in the distance, I see Jordan and hear the faint sounds of cars on the main road a couple of kilometers away. The beauty of Maale Adumim is staring me in the face one mountain over...Ah, Hashem has truly blessed us!)

Travel Documents

Once a person makes Aliya, they are not entitled to an Israeli passport for a period of one year. Instead, when someone needs to leave Israel, they must apply for and receive a document called a Teudat Ma'avar. It looks identical to a passport, but it is not a passport. It functions exactly like a passport...but it is not a passport. So, you may ask, why give a Teudat Ma'avar instead of a passport, if indeed they function the same way. The answer to that question is very deep....I JUST DON'T KNOW.
But, since my job will eventually require me to go to Chutz La'Aretz, I figured it would be a good idea to get that taken care of and not wait until the last minute. Besides, who knows how long it would take to get the actual pseudo-passport? Well, the answer to THAT question, I DO know...it takes about THREE MINUTES!! I went to the Misrad HaPnim (Ministry of the Interior) branch office right here in Maale Adumim. I brought all the documentation and money; handed everything in, and in a matter of three whole minutes, I walked out with this passport-wannabe! I was shocked it went so smoothly and so efficiently. As I turned to leave, I opened it up and I got a little choked up. Under the title "Nationality" was the word ISRAELI. It truly was a very special moment for me.

Rain, Hot Water and Various Sundry Events

Lots to write about, so I am going to jump right in (and in no particular order):

1. IT RAINED ON FRIDAY A GOOD PART OF THE DAY! Now, back in Chicago, where I know there has been an endless supply of the wet stuff, here it has been sparse to say the least. However, Friday, the "Gishmei Bracha" (rains of blessing) began to descend on Israel. I can honestly say that I have never sat and just watched rain and thanked Hashem for it. Yet, here we were in the middle of Shabbat preparations and everything stopped to look at the first sustained rain of the season. It was actually an emotional moment as we watched what we have been davening for. (While we did get the rain, I heard a statistic today that was somewhat daunting...it will take 500 hours of rain to replenish the Kinneret!)

After the rain, and the sun came out, we saw a GORGEOUS FULL rainbow upon which we had the opportunity to say a Bracha.

(A beautiful view from our back yard prior to the rain and the rainbow after the rain)

2. There was a funny thing that occurred as a result of the rain and showed our "newness" in the country. All of the hot water in our building (and in most in Israel) is supplied by a "dood shemesh" or solar heating of water in the reservoir on the rooftop. When we went to take showers Friday, I was wondering why there was no hot water. Maybe, genius, BECAUSE THE SUN WASN'T OUT TO HEAT THE WATER! Made a mental note to myself that the next time it is cloudy for a significant part of the day,we need to throw the switch that manually heats up the water!

3. I have been asked a particular question lately MANY times that I figured I may as well mention here as well. "Do you enjoy taking busses or do you miss the freedom of having a car?" I have been asked this question DOZENS of times. My answer has actually changed over the past (nearly) four months. In the beginning, I definitely missed the freedom of going WHEN I wanted to, WHERE I wanted to and HOW I wanted to. However, over the past few months my perspective has greatly changed! Consider: I do not have to pay for gasoline, car insurance, maintenance, repairs, licenses and I also do not need to deal with the actual driving (which can be "difficult" at times). In addition, I have the freedom of using my time on the bus radically differently than when driving a car...I can learn, I can read, I can talk to my neighbor, I can simply enjoy the beautiful vistas...and no worries if the traffic is lousy, since I do not have to drive! Having said all that, I still think/hope/plan to get a car one day :)

4. Smachot: On Thursday this past week, Andy and I participated in another simcha. We went into Yerushalayim for a Bar Mitzva of twin boys (sons of Rabbi Akiva and Chanalee Stolper, grandchildren of Mr Lothar and Sue Kahn). It was SO nice to participate in yet another simcha but there was more to come. One of our new friends here in Mitzpe Nevo had a new grandson, and we were invited to the Shalom Zachor. It was so special to participate in our first Shalom Zachor in Israel, but the truth is that this one happened to have had SPECIAL significance, that I did not know before entering their home. The mother of the new boy gave birth in Shaare Tzedek Hospital a couple of days ago. That in and of itself was nothing out of the ordinary beauty of having a baby . But I learned that she had the baby in the very hospital where she was a patient in critical condition, after being injured in the Sbarro bombing on August 1, 2001! Whereas an Arab terrorist tried to take her life, instead she brought a life into this world. What an emotional moment at that table last night!

5. A friend of mine called me while we were on the bus (see above) on the way to the Bar Mitzva (see above) to tell me something he said, I would greatly appreciate. Barnea called me to tell me that he was standing in Rami Levi (a local grocery store chain), and an announcement came over the loudspeaker: "For those who still need to daven Mincha, there will be a Minyan in Aisle 4 in a few minutes." Yet another reason I love living in this country!

6. This Shabbat was stellar! Friday night, we ate at friends, had the Shalom Zachor and enjoyed the cool, crisp, night air on our brief walk home. In the morning, we walked about a half hour to a different Bet Kenesset (called Mussar Avicha) for a special Shabbat Olim. New Olim participated in the Tefilla and I had the opportunity to give a brief Dvar Torah at the Kiddush. We ate our Seudat Shabbat in the neighborhood of the Bet Kenesset, an area I have harldy been in since we moved here. (It is important to understand that we live in the Mitzpe Nevo neighborhood in Maale Adumim, and there numerous other neighborhoods. With 32,000--bli ayin hara--residents, this is not a small Yishuv! ) After Seudat Shabbat, I had my first real "test" of my use of Ivrit, as I taught a 45 minute Shiur to women. My subject was "V'Hasheina M'shubachat" ("...and sleep is praiseworthy") and I looked at various aspects of sleep in Halacha and Haskafa. I was very surprised at the very nice turnout--surprised because it was at 3:15 on Shabbat afternoon...and they should have been asleep! (which is why I actually chose the topic).

Well, I think that I have covered all that I wanted to for now. This week coming up is a busy one, and I am looking forward to getting started tomorrow morning. Hey, it's only six more days until Shabbat!

There's a New Dome In Town

In almost every picture that you see of the old City of Jerusalem, and anytime one drives into Jerusalem and first sees the Old City from a distance, one's eye is immediately drawn to the gold dome that stands behind the Kotel HaMa'aravi. It is hard to miss it, and over the last few hundred years, that view with that gold dome has become synonymous with Jerusalem. The sad part is, of course, that it is a non-Jewish site located on the holiest Jewish site in the world.




Today, upon entering the city by bus and seeing the beautiful vista of Jerusalem, my eye fell on a different dome for the first time! As many of you know, there is/was a synagogue in the Old City known as the Hurva Synagogue, which was a main Ashkenazi synagogue for centuries. In the 1948 war, it was reduced to rubble by the Arabs. It was noticeable for years, when walking through the Old City, by the arch that stood in the place of the ruins.




However, a few years ago, a project began to re-build the Hurva, which is nearing completion sometime (theoretically) in the not-too-distant future. One of the key features is the beautiful white dome that sits atop the newly constructed edifice. It is THAT dome that is now highly visible from a distance as you look towards the Old City. It is THAT dome that we must replace in our national-mind's-eye when we picture the Old City. Our eye should be drawn to the Kedusha (holiness) of what we have and not the the non-Kedusha (see Breisheet 7:1) buildings atop the place that Hashem has chosen for our Bet HaMikdash.




On your next trip, as you stand on a promenade overlooking the Old City or as you merely enter by car or by bus, allow your eyes to be drawn to the dome of the Hurva synagogue and think about what IT symbolizes! Think about the great House that will be built nearby there speedily in our days, AMEN!








IN THE PICTURES ABOVE: A VIEW OF THE SYNAGOGUE IN THE 1800'S
A VIEW FROM A FEW YEARS AGO
A VIEW FROM TODAY

Perplexed and Politics

While the title of this blog entry could very easily refer to the same event, they are actually two parts of a very interesting day today.
In my role in the tourist industry, I felt it would be in my best interest to enroll in a very special class. Machon Lander has a two-year class to become a licensed tour guide, and I made all the inquiries into taking this class. I felt it would be of a very strong benefit to me personally and professionally. I gathered my necessary documents and hauled all the materials and other paraphernalia to the office for a 1:30pm appointment in Yerushalayim.
Then, as I was sitting there waiting for my appointment, a very strange thing happened. Quite uncharacteristically, I began to second-guess my decision for a whole host of reasons. Usually, if I make a decision about something, I decide, do it and move on. Today was very different. It perplexed me to know end as to why I was wavering on this decision.
However, in the end, I decided that for a host of reasons (not necessary to go into here) I am going to wait for the next go-round next fall and do it then. No longer perplexed...

Politics...as some of you know, I have always been interested in Israeli politics. If you think CHICAGO politics is strange (actually, I LOVE Chicago politics!) they haven't got anything on Israeli politics. However, there have always been certain issues that I felt needed a major overhaul in politics here. Not only have I found someone who shares a very similar view politically but one who is truly out there and doing something about it...Moshe Feiglin of the Manhigut Yehudit faction in Likud. And not only that, I had a chance to meet with him today for about an hour and had a magnificent time. I have always wanted to get active politically so...I will keep you posted! [For further information on Moshe Feiglin you can visit http://www.jewishisrael.org/ . In addition, please feel free to visit his Facebook page at http://www.facebook.com/pages/Manhigut-Yehudit-Moshe-Feiglin/5733858057?ref=search&sid=701265731.2519147086..1&v=wall ]