Dad's Trip 2

M'tzadah
Herod, a King of Isreal during the Second Temple Period (576 B.C.E.-70 C.E.), build a fortress on top of a mountain next to the Dead Sea. As Israel fell against the hands of the Roman's, many fled to areas outside of Jerusalem, the center of life of all the Judaism. The place the King had made for himself was M'tzadah.

It is a beautiful palace with many public bathing areas, some still with the floor and wall mosaics in tact. Almost nothing brings history alive the way a city that was destroyed thousands of years ago still maintains some of its beauty, uncovered only when the Jews came back to their country of origin.



This is a hot public bath. The space underneath the floor is meant for logs that are on fire. People would put logs into this space from a hole in the wall on the outside of the bathing area. What an ingenious idea!!!

Dead Sea
So, I am not really a fan of the dead sea. Last time I went in there all my most special places started to burn, especially the little cuts on my fingers that come about because I constantly pick them. I decided that I never needed to go in that salty, evil burning water ever again. Maybe I am being a little harsh on this disappearing sea (Its coast line has retreated hundreds of meters since the 60's.) But seriously, private not-really-part-of-the-beach beaches should have warnings about this stuff.

So anywho, I invited Dad and Paula to get into the water, but I was not going there. I saw some friends at the beach resort we were at, and they convinced me to smear black mud on myself. They even secured some of the best mud on the beach for me.


Dad and Paula with mud all over themselves.















Tzfat
There is a special blessing that comes about once every 28 years. This blessing, the blessing of the sun, happened this year. It was during the intermediate days of one of the three biggest holidays of the Jewish year, Pesach, so there was a week-long festival in the holy city of Tzfat.

There were many things going on at every hour, but I believe that I made good choises. At night I went to different lectures/jamming sessions. In the morning, at a very early hour, I went to the grave of a very special person who lived in the 1500's, The Ari Zal. I had time to go to a special, musical prayer service, with guitars violins, and even a guy with a trumpet. After all that I felt prepared to attned a "Hebrew alphabet tai chi class." But one of the best things about this trip was visiting many of the art studios that were opened up for the festival. Tzfat has always been a city that attracts the artists in Israel, so seeing this thriving community was like seeing the art in the whole land.





Me sitting in an art gallery.

Yom HaShoah--Holocaust Day

Today was a day of remembrance. A day of saying "never forget." A day to remember the Holocaust.

Every year since 1951, Israel has taken the time out of her day to remember the events of the Holocaust. This is a tall order for the people of today, as the life in Israel seems as hustle and bustle as any first world country.

Standing outside and seeing the whole world stop is heartbreaking... but only because during the holocaust almost no one took the time to focus on what was happening. Well now it is not too late.

The next week I was able to go to the Holocaust museum and see the children's memorial. Outside of the building there was a line from the Bible that stated, "The Candle of G-d is the soul of Man." Inside the memorial there was a room with a single candle lit in the middle. It was surrounded by glass, and behind where people could walk around the circular room was mirrors from the floor to the ceiling. The effect was enormous: in the myriads of reflected light, all one could think of is the very same myriads of children who were taken from this world.














The following week I was actually able to get up early and give my full day to the main exhibit. It took me about 5 hours to go from the ghettos, to the gas chambers, to the righteous people who risked their lives helping to save people from the travesty that was the Holocaust.

...I felt taxed and drained when I left...

Dad's Trip 1

So I have basically been doing some not-so-interesting touristy things for a while, but I will give a quick overview of them:

This is the Kotel (Western or Wailing Wall), the holiest site Jews go to today. When the Temple still stood, this was the retaining wall of the mountain. It is all Jews have left of our Temple.
For thousands of years, Jews have not been allowed to go near the Wall. In recent times, Jews had to stand far away, behind a fence. It was all some could to to get a glance at this Holy site. It was a garbage dump for the Arabs who controlled the land.
Today the Wall serves as a connection between many elements of the world: almost ever-lasting rocks are filled with plants, birds, and notes written by man. And they are all singing the praises of G-d.

Did I say that was the holiest site? I meant this is. This picture was taken at the section of the Kotel that was closest to the Kodesh Kedoshim (Holy of Holies). This was the place, when the Temple stood, that the High Priest (yes, Jews had them first too...) would go to on the holiest day of the year, Yom Kippur.
If not for the religious significance, this site is an ancient marvel of architecture. As in accordance with Herodian arcitechture, there was no mortar or cement used and each stone's border was chiseled in about 1/2-1 inch. Each stone was inlay, towards the inside of the Wall, about 1 1/2 inches. This was for the visual appeal of the Wall not "falling" on a bystander, at it towered over the street level. There are some stones used in the wall that are too heavy, many times over, for any modern machine to lift.
This portion of the Wall is underground. In the times of the Temple, destroyed about 70 Common Era (abb. C.E.), this was groundlevel. Over the next two thousand years, layer upon layer of houses and streets cover this site that is so rich in meaning to the Jews.

There is not so much water in Israel. I mean, it is a desert...
So in the times of the first Temple, King David built an underground channel to carry water into a large cistern.
The channel is now a tourist attraction, since us modern people cannot stomach this water anymore.
I went on a little detour in the tunnels, probably off limits. But I found a wallet of a girl who had, upon investigation, come only two days earlier. Her name was Adina. There was about the equivalent of 30 USDs inside. When we went to the front desk and asked if there was a lost wallet report, sure enough Adina had already inquired to them.

I felt like such a good citizen :)

Almost nothing has touched me more from Dad and Paula's trip than Paula's openmindedness. It is really hard to accept a country and a culture when you feel that they havent accepted you. But despite all preconceptions, I believe Paula has come to find that the people here do accept her. And in return she bought a frummy hat, and even started covering her hair on holidays .
Dad is pretty excited about this. And the whole world is smiling that she didn't buy a snood... heh heh heh

Passover is coming, and all of Isreal is getting ready!!!
At many street corners, people are waiting to "kasher" (go through the process of making something kosher) their utensils they want to use for Passover. Bread is forbidden on Passover, so any items which have absorbed the flavor of something that could contain bread must be rekashered for the holiday.
The method of boiling out the flavor is seen here, where usensils that are not directly touching food and flame (like the oven itself or a deepfryer) can be dipped in the very hot boiling water and then directly into cold water.

In Judaism it is usually advised not to waste food. But before the special holiday of Passover, many keep the mitzvah of burning any remaining food that could contained leavened bread in it (even the tiniest amount of crumbs could make something not acceptable to eat during this holiday).
In Isreal, there are streets sprinkled with public fires so that those who need to can destroy any remaining foods which aren't Kosher for Passover.
These fires mark the end of a long, long process of cleaning that each and every Jewish household goes through. It is kind of the first sign of freedom (from the cleaning), the marked theme of the holiday.