FRIDAY, JULY 18, 2008
This was a day of high points and low points – at least topographically. We traveled from the physical and spiritual heights of Safed to the Kinneret and Dead Sea, the two lowest points in Israel, up to the hills and spiritual uplift of Jerusalem. And even a few surprises along the way. What a day!
The morning began with an early walk along the Jordan River. Kfar Blum has built a beautiful promenade along the Eastern Bank of the river (above the Sea of Galilee both East and West banks are in Israel proper). Every few steps along this flower path hold a grape vine arbor, and the grapes were just growing in. It was fragrant and lovely. Embedded in the pavement were occasional biblical verses relating to the Jordon. I noticed in particular the verse from Deuteronomy (27:2) – “. . . On that day when you have crossed the Jordon into that land. . .” We have crossed that river Jordan and we are, indeed, in the Promised Land.
After another lavish breakfast (is there another kind in Israel?) we left Kfar Blum and began our journey to Safed. Along the way we saw many fields that were empty right next to opulent fields. In those brown fallow fields were a large yellow banner: “Here (the laws of) Shemita are Kept.” I explained to the group that the Torah mandates every 7 years fields in the land of Israel the fields are to be left fallow, that is, the land itself is given a year of Shabbat. This year is a “Shemita” year – the seventh in the cycle. We are fortunate to see it.
Our bus began its climb up the hills toward Safed. Doron explained that the town had exploded in growth over the past several years at it became a desirable place to live. High in the hills above the Kenneret (Sea of Galilee) Safed has long inspired mystics and dreamers as well as those looking to retreat a bit from the world.
Everywhere we looked we say the graffiti that has become among the most ubiquitous in Israel: “Na-NaCh-NaChMa-NaChMaN Meuman” – no, it is not a chemical formula, and it makes as little sense in Hebrew as well. The phrase is a mystical meditation, from a simple nonsense syllable adding one letter at a time to create the name of the Chassidic Rebbe Nachman of Bratzlov, one of the great Rebbes of the early Chassidic era (and to whom I am directly related.) The story is that if one meditates on his name it is an opening to bring in the Messiah. We found that there are many, many followers of this tradition and the graffiti was everywhere we turned in Safed. Doron told us that to those who engage in the “Na-NaCh” custom are known in Israel as “Jumping Jews.” They believe that repeating and meditating on the name of Nachman of Bratzlov by increasing one letter and vowel at a time are increasing the Messianic presence on Earth. Through joy and music and dance (and graffiti) they make a better world. At the end of our visit to Safed we encounter a “Na-NaCh” van playing joyful music and our group caught their “Portlander Rebbe” engaged in joyful dance (there was even threat of a YouTube posting. Stay tuned!)
Safed is a very emotional place for me. It is the city where my father was born, and where his family first came to Israel generations before. We toured the Ari Ashkenazi synagogue, where tradition has it that Rabbi Isaac Luria, the founder of modern Kabbalah, prayed. From there we broke into groups and wandered the streets of the old city. I was able to take a dip in the Ari Mikve, which is supposed to bring good luck. Then I went hunting through the sprawling Safed Cemetery looking for some of my family, without any luck. It would have been a huge coincidence if I had found any. But huge coincidences were yet to come.
From Safed we traveled down, down, to the one of the lowest spots in Israel, the Kinneret or Sea of Galilee. After passing through Tiberius, we came to the Kinneret Cemetery, the historic burial place for the founders of Labor Zionism, including the more recent grave of Naomi Shemer, composer of Israeli classics such as Yerushalayim Shel Zahav. Shemer died in 2004 and her grave overlooks the Kinneret.
Before I left for Israel I had been given several assignments: to give tzadaka, to carry some notes to the Western Wall, and to find some of our high school students traveling in Israel through the NFTY program. There are thousands of those kids in Israel right now, touring all over the country. I had our kids’ itinerary, but unfortunately it did not match up with that of our group. However, when I walked into the Kinneret Cemetery I had a very strange feeling. At first I thought it was just my Spider Sense tingling – then I realized that there was a group of NFTY students also at the cemetery at the same time. The odds of this particularly group being in the cemetery at this particular time as we, were astronomical. It would have to be a huge, Israeli-style coincidence for it to be the same group.
Thanks to my Spider Sense, our kids were more surprised to see me than I was to see them. So here they are: Blair Wax, myself, Jason Cook and Evan Goldsmith. See, parents, they are just fine! And having a great time.
We stopped for lunch and I had my first taste of a Kosher McDonalds. Pretty good!
Following the Jordan River, which down here serves as the border with the country of Jordon, we traveled South and then West past Jericho entering into the Judean desert and the northern tip of the Dead Sea. After a brief stop and a camel ride for Rick and Jenny (ha!), we began the steep climb up to Jerusalem. At last, as day was beginning to draw to a close and Shabbat was preparing to enter in, we entered in to the Golden City of Jerusalem, spiritual home of the Jewish people, the site of millennial yearning. Stopping at Mt. Scopus for a brief overlook of the golden city, we read Psalm 122:
I rejoiced when they said to me,
“We are going to the House of the Lord”
Our feet stood inside your gates, O Jerusalem,
Jerusalem built up, a city knit together
To which tribes would make pilgrimage. . .
We said a shehechayanu together and drank a kiddish in celebration of our arrival in this holy city.
After a brief rest at the hotel we dressed in our Shabbat clothes and traveled to the edge of the Kotel, the Western Wall, the focus of Jewish yearning for millennia. The plaza of the Kotel was packed as it was almost time for Shabbat to begin. Men and women divided up. The men’s side was raucous with many different prayer services going on at once. A sea of Chasidic men in long coats and fur hats on one side, a group of American young men in shorts on a Birthright tour energetically dancing on another. I was told the women’s side was much quieter, but that the women were much more protective of their personal spots, making it difficult for newcomers to approach the wall. Some of us took quiet moments of prayer, some were more observers of the goings-on. I am always moved when I come to The Wall and feel its warm stones and think of all who have touched this very spot with reverence. I placed notes that I had carried from some of our congregants and sent prayers for my family who I miss greatly at moments like these.
We found a quieter place for our group to be together, an overlook at Mishkanot Shaananim, the first Jewish settlement outside the Old City which has a spectacular view of the Old City. As the just rising full moon hung deep orange before us, we welcomed in the Shabbat with the prayer that had been composed in Safed: “Lecha Dodi” Come, Let us Greet the Bride of Shabbat. That very morning we had stood in the place where the poem was written, and now as Shabbat was beginning we stood in a place where we could welcome the bride entering from the Old City of Jerusalem. It was an emotionally fulfilling moment.
Beside us on the overlook was a group of teens traveling from the United States who were energetically holding their own Shabbat service. Throughout our travels we have been encountering young American Jews engaged with Israel and with Judaism. We have been deeply impressed with their enthusiasm. Those who worry about the future of Judaism need only see these young people to know that the Jewish world is in good hands.
Back at the hotel we had a beautiful 4 course Shabbat dinner in a private room. We sang Shabbat songs and blessed our children and lingered late into the night before ending our first Shabbat evening in Israel, emotionally full.
This was a day of high points and low points – at least topographically. We traveled from the physical and spiritual heights of Safed to the Kinneret and Dead Sea, the two lowest points in Israel, up to the hills and spiritual uplift of Jerusalem. And even a few surprises along the way. What a day!
The morning began with an early walk along the Jordan River. Kfar Blum has built a beautiful promenade along the Eastern Bank of the river (above the Sea of Galilee both East and West banks are in Israel proper). Every few steps along this flower path hold a grape vine arbor, and the grapes were just growing in. It was fragrant and lovely. Embedded in the pavement were occasional biblical verses relating to the Jordon. I noticed in particular the verse from Deuteronomy (27:2) – “. . . On that day when you have crossed the Jordon into that land. . .” We have crossed that river Jordan and we are, indeed, in the Promised Land.
After another lavish breakfast (is there another kind in Israel?) we left Kfar Blum and began our journey to Safed. Along the way we saw many fields that were empty right next to opulent fields. In those brown fallow fields were a large yellow banner: “Here (the laws of) Shemita are Kept.” I explained to the group that the Torah mandates every 7 years fields in the land of Israel the fields are to be left fallow, that is, the land itself is given a year of Shabbat. This year is a “Shemita” year – the seventh in the cycle. We are fortunate to see it.
Our bus began its climb up the hills toward Safed. Doron explained that the town had exploded in growth over the past several years at it became a desirable place to live. High in the hills above the Kenneret (Sea of Galilee) Safed has long inspired mystics and dreamers as well as those looking to retreat a bit from the world.
Everywhere we looked we say the graffiti that has become among the most ubiquitous in Israel: “Na-NaCh-NaChMa-NaChMaN Meuman” – no, it is not a chemical formula, and it makes as little sense in Hebrew as well. The phrase is a mystical meditation, from a simple nonsense syllable adding one letter at a time to create the name of the Chassidic Rebbe Nachman of Bratzlov, one of the great Rebbes of the early Chassidic era (and to whom I am directly related.) The story is that if one meditates on his name it is an opening to bring in the Messiah. We found that there are many, many followers of this tradition and the graffiti was everywhere we turned in Safed. Doron told us that to those who engage in the “Na-NaCh” custom are known in Israel as “Jumping Jews.” They believe that repeating and meditating on the name of Nachman of Bratzlov by increasing one letter and vowel at a time are increasing the Messianic presence on Earth. Through joy and music and dance (and graffiti) they make a better world. At the end of our visit to Safed we encounter a “Na-NaCh” van playing joyful music and our group caught their “Portlander Rebbe” engaged in joyful dance (there was even threat of a YouTube posting. Stay tuned!)
Safed is a very emotional place for me. It is the city where my father was born, and where his family first came to Israel generations before. We toured the Ari Ashkenazi synagogue, where tradition has it that Rabbi Isaac Luria, the founder of modern Kabbalah, prayed. From there we broke into groups and wandered the streets of the old city. I was able to take a dip in the Ari Mikve, which is supposed to bring good luck. Then I went hunting through the sprawling Safed Cemetery looking for some of my family, without any luck. It would have been a huge coincidence if I had found any. But huge coincidences were yet to come.
From Safed we traveled down, down, to the one of the lowest spots in Israel, the Kinneret or Sea of Galilee. After passing through Tiberius, we came to the Kinneret Cemetery, the historic burial place for the founders of Labor Zionism, including the more recent grave of Naomi Shemer, composer of Israeli classics such as Yerushalayim Shel Zahav. Shemer died in 2004 and her grave overlooks the Kinneret.
Before I left for Israel I had been given several assignments: to give tzadaka, to carry some notes to the Western Wall, and to find some of our high school students traveling in Israel through the NFTY program. There are thousands of those kids in Israel right now, touring all over the country. I had our kids’ itinerary, but unfortunately it did not match up with that of our group. However, when I walked into the Kinneret Cemetery I had a very strange feeling. At first I thought it was just my Spider Sense tingling – then I realized that there was a group of NFTY students also at the cemetery at the same time. The odds of this particularly group being in the cemetery at this particular time as we, were astronomical. It would have to be a huge, Israeli-style coincidence for it to be the same group.
Thanks to my Spider Sense, our kids were more surprised to see me than I was to see them. So here they are: Blair Wax, myself, Jason Cook and Evan Goldsmith. See, parents, they are just fine! And having a great time.
We stopped for lunch and I had my first taste of a Kosher McDonalds. Pretty good!
Following the Jordan River, which down here serves as the border with the country of Jordon, we traveled South and then West past Jericho entering into the Judean desert and the northern tip of the Dead Sea. After a brief stop and a camel ride for Rick and Jenny (ha!), we began the steep climb up to Jerusalem. At last, as day was beginning to draw to a close and Shabbat was preparing to enter in, we entered in to the Golden City of Jerusalem, spiritual home of the Jewish people, the site of millennial yearning. Stopping at Mt. Scopus for a brief overlook of the golden city, we read Psalm 122:
I rejoiced when they said to me,
“We are going to the House of the Lord”
Our feet stood inside your gates, O Jerusalem,
Jerusalem built up, a city knit together
To which tribes would make pilgrimage. . .
We said a shehechayanu together and drank a kiddish in celebration of our arrival in this holy city.
After a brief rest at the hotel we dressed in our Shabbat clothes and traveled to the edge of the Kotel, the Western Wall, the focus of Jewish yearning for millennia. The plaza of the Kotel was packed as it was almost time for Shabbat to begin. Men and women divided up. The men’s side was raucous with many different prayer services going on at once. A sea of Chasidic men in long coats and fur hats on one side, a group of American young men in shorts on a Birthright tour energetically dancing on another. I was told the women’s side was much quieter, but that the women were much more protective of their personal spots, making it difficult for newcomers to approach the wall. Some of us took quiet moments of prayer, some were more observers of the goings-on. I am always moved when I come to The Wall and feel its warm stones and think of all who have touched this very spot with reverence. I placed notes that I had carried from some of our congregants and sent prayers for my family who I miss greatly at moments like these.
We found a quieter place for our group to be together, an overlook at Mishkanot Shaananim, the first Jewish settlement outside the Old City which has a spectacular view of the Old City. As the just rising full moon hung deep orange before us, we welcomed in the Shabbat with the prayer that had been composed in Safed: “Lecha Dodi” Come, Let us Greet the Bride of Shabbat. That very morning we had stood in the place where the poem was written, and now as Shabbat was beginning we stood in a place where we could welcome the bride entering from the Old City of Jerusalem. It was an emotionally fulfilling moment.
Beside us on the overlook was a group of teens traveling from the United States who were energetically holding their own Shabbat service. Throughout our travels we have been encountering young American Jews engaged with Israel and with Judaism. We have been deeply impressed with their enthusiasm. Those who worry about the future of Judaism need only see these young people to know that the Jewish world is in good hands.
Back at the hotel we had a beautiful 4 course Shabbat dinner in a private room. We sang Shabbat songs and blessed our children and lingered late into the night before ending our first Shabbat evening in Israel, emotionally full.
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