More in Israel

Shalom again, folks.  I've now been in Israel for more than a week, but it feels a bit like I've always been here in some ways.  It feels like home, even though I cannot really speak much of the language. There are enough English speakers around to get by. This land wraps itself around your heart. It's God's land, after all, and you don't have to be Jewish to love it or to feel it.

Two days ago we drove to Tiberias where the Galilee is, called the Galil (Gah-LEEL)in Hebrew. I only got a brief view of the lake though I would have liked to walk by the water's edge. The lake is HUGE with hills rising up from it all around. We met our friends for dinner and then there was a concert of Alyosha live!  It was easy to use one's imagination and picture a storm, the guys in the boat being fearful and Yeshua walking across the water toward them from the other side where the mountains rise above the water. There I was where it happened! The story gets to be more than bible verses when you can see where it took place and you an easily imagine it taking place right there in front of you.

Driving through the Land the views are beautiful. High hills, mountains, and then flat planes with patchwork quilt looking squares of different colors of the different crops. Fruitfulness is everywhere.

As we were leaving Tiberias, it was bustling and busy, not exactly a tourist attraction where we were. I couldn't help but think of how villages in Yeshua's day would have also had the smells of cooking, the noise of people selling things, and as we were hearing a group of young people sitting on the ground singing some ethnic sounding songs, undoubtedly there would always have been music.

Yesterday Jody and I went for a hike - me hiking is not a usual happening but one much worth the jaunt.  It is a natural park where Baron Rothchild who funded almost the entire establishment of Israel as a new nation in the late 1800s and his wife and sons are all buried - finally the generous Baron was living in Israel which he never did while alive. But support the vision for it he did. The trails are easily hikeable and the view is extraordinary once you reach the top.

Once at the top, the ruins of a Second Temple era large home sits in what must have been a most impressive dwelling - especially with that view. A tall strong arch stone entrance opens to both outside and internal walls, though its now much broken down.  You can also see where grapes were turned into wine in a stone grinding wine press and where a ground deep well was the holding tank for the wine. It must have been a good bit of wine going on there that it needed an eight foot deep well. Once again, its enticing to use your imagination to try and picture what life must have been like living there. There's the remains of a threshing floor situated at the edge of the cliff, just where the strong breezes blow that we could feel as we stood there, that would have provided for the blowing away of chaff while the wheat would settle to the ground. There are also some indications of where the Byzantines in later years re-occupied the property and made it an agriculturally working property.  A fascinating taste of yesteryear.  

Today was an Israeli citizen adventure - we went food shopping. Perusing through a supermarket when you can't read the labels is a challenge. Pictures help. I try and sound things out in my limping Hebrew and wonder if when I get home some of the things I put in the cart will turn out to be nothing like what I thought they would be. Fortunately, Alyosha's fluent Hebrew helps but I didn't ask him about everything.  The three of us spent at least two hours buying lots of veggies, fish,  a chicken, and what I hope are munchies.  Two challahs are for Shabbat tomorrow night when we have company coming.

Tonight after dinner we took a walk to the local park which has not shrubs or flowers but herb gardens galore all through the park. One can pick what herbs you need and Jody making her own herbal concoctions for healing purposes will be able to make some use of some of them. The park is beautiful and new, with a fountain in the middle where the spouting water at different heights change colors. We watched two little boys about 8 years old dancing in between the water jets from one side to the other with much glee.  Part of the park is a kids playground with the most unique and clever climbing and swinging stuff I've ever seen. Wish I was uninhibited enough to climb up the rope jungle gym, or whatever it would be called here. Israelis are even creative and high tech about toys. Its been many years since I was on a swing but I couldn't resist this unique one. Fun stuff.

This week is the 40th anniversary of the Yom Kippur war. Tonight was the first time I've seen any TV since the airport in NY. On a rare occasion it was turned on tonight as we watched two documentaries about the 40 year anniversary of the Yom Kippur war.  The '67 war was one Israel won with with a sense of victory. But the '73 war, in which Israel was taken by surprise on the holiest day of the year and most people, soldiers included, were in synagogue.  It lasted three weeks and was a war that was very costly for them as they lost a lot of men, even though they won the war.


While some Arab nations around us here consider death a victory, Israelis take the death of any of their own very seriously. The Talmud says that if you save one person, you've saved the world. So the loss of one life is a loss to the world. Israelis value the life of each person, seemingly as God does. As peaceful as it seems to me here, and as much as life just goes on normally for most folks, except that every person out of high school is in the army, gals and guys, and there is still the awareness that Israeli is at war continually with her enemies. Still, as far as I have experienced, it feels less stressful or tense inducing here than in the States. Maybe its just where I've been so far, or that I'm more or less on vacation. Could be. But there is no war-like stress here or where I've been so far. I assume it's the peace of God among them.  

Well, I think I'll go see what one of those things I brought home for a snack are and then to bed. Big day tomorrow.  Lila tov (good night).