Hebron

Who are you??
What are you doing here??
Where are you from??
Do you know the person your with??

Before I knew it the world was buzzing around me I was surrounded by five or six people some in IDF uniforms, some in plain clothes, I was asked for my passport and peppered with questions, welcome to Hebron. Let’s start at the beginning. Early this week we studied the weeks Parasha, the portion of the Torah that we read from that week. Its called Chayei Sarah and found in the book of Genesis. In it we hear about Abraham, Abraham has come to Hebron; to the land that g-d has promised him looking for a place to bury his dead wife Sarah. He negotiates with the locals, insisting on paying full price for a piece of land that was offered to him by its owner. This is the first recorded payment for the land of Israel by Jews and its only one of three places in the Chumash (aka the Hebrew Bible) where this happens. And so on this particular Shabbat Jews from all over the world stream into Israel to show their solidarity. Why do Jews do this you might ask? This is because Hebron is one of the most disputed pieces of land in the world. It sits soundly in the West Bank, in an area that is 97% Arab. And so once a year Jews make a pilgrimage to this place, it is one of the holiest places in Israel, Abraham, Sarah, Isaac, Rachel, Adam and Eve are all buried in a cave that sits below what is now an Arab Mosque. This is not exactly the safest place for a Jew in “united Israel” but on this one weekend, everyone floods in. The army sends down extra units and tightens security. And so I found myself going on the adventure of a life time. Before I left with my friends, Todd, Daniel and Yoav, I was asked a simple question; do you know what its like to be in a war zone? “No” well you’re about to. And so early Friday afternoon we loaded our gear on a bus and headed off. Hebron is approximately a forty five minute drive from Jerusalem. We arrived with just enough time to set up camp before the sun went down and Shabbos began. Normally when Shabbos begins a sense of calm fills the air, anything that you didn’t have time to get done must wait for the next 25 hours or so while you are left to yourself to wonder in gods creation, not so this time. As we and the large groups of new friends who we just made welcomed in the Sabbath, gun shots rage softly in the distance. Our Arab neighbors were welcoming us to the neighborhood. We collected our Siddurs (prayer books) and headed off to the Mosque. As we walked down the road; we noticed the multitude of soldiers around us, protecting us. They were tense and we took cue, not the normal soldiers you see in this country dressed down sporting World War II weapons. These were battle ready soldiers. Covered in body armor, grenades on belts, clips loaded into modern weapons. We knew they weren’t messing around, we were surrounded by enemies and they were prepared for trouble. It was quite a sight, as we walked though the Arab town, people living in poverty surrounded us. We saw a dead sheep being dragged down the road, donkeys and chickens walking around the streets and eyes on us everywhere. When we arrived, in the main part of town we found at least 500 men, mostly dressed in black and white. They were singing, dancing and praying, joy was abundant as we celebrated the lives of our fore parents. We entered the building and pushed our way through the praying masses to find the spot where they are buried, the actual spot is in the caves below but this was as close as anyone was getting. Goosebumps covered our arms you could feel the power of that spot on that moment. We all stood in awe of the amazing sight, surrounded by our fellow Jews. We ran into friends from Jerusalem and shared in what we all agreed was a magical moment. Without a proper Shabbos meal planned we went in search of food. After wandering around aimlessly (but staying well within the area we knew to be safe, right mom :) we found a meal. Thanks to an angel a man dressed all in white we managed to find a wonderful meal surrounded by scores of people we washed our hands, said the blessings and dug in. A few hours and many songs, blessings and great conversations later, we headed back to camp, pausing once again to take in the incredible sights of so many of our fellow Jews celebrating our birthright. Little did we know that would be the last time we’d be allowed in, to that most mysterious and wondrous place. Full and tired we settled in for the night, the night came and went with little drama, unless you count me nearly freezing to death because I’m an idiot. I stupidly forgot a basic rule of outdoor survival: in the desert, temperature extremes are the norm, very hot and very cold are a rule and you’d better be prepared. I wasn’t but luckily my travel mates were and thankful they bailed me out. Finally warm, full and happy I dropped off to sleep on the hard ground, completely unaware of the scene that I’d have to deal with in the morning. I awoke early and went outside, within a short time the sun and the temperature and both risen considerably. One of my travel buddies and I were both awake and decided we’d like to go back to the main area and see what was going on, as we walked down the dusty road we looked around, tension was in the air. Then we arrived at the check point before town. We were asked for our id’s and we gave them. Before I knew what was happening me and my friend were separated, and questions were being asked. When it was all over we were told to turn around and not so politely told not to come back to Hebron. Apparently we were entering a ‘closed military zone’. And so with little fanfare we did just that, as we went to leave a solider shouted something at me in Hebrew that I couldn’t understand but my friend translated it for me; “tell your friend to take that stupid ‘effing kippa off his head he’s not fooling anyone.” Shocked but not harmed we went back, resigned to waiting around for the next twelve hours or so until the sun went down and we could get on a bus and leave town. And that should be the end of this story. But boredom can do funny things to people and before long we stuck up a conversation with a soldier hanging around our camp sight. We told him what had happened to us and he persuaded us to coming back up the road with him. Assuring us nothing would happen to us and he’d sort the whole thing out. And so we went, we knew before long that it was a bad idea. A solider was on his radio when he spotted us and before we had a chance to turn around we ran into a line of men. They grabbed me and my friend and pushed us into a car. Our other two friends were stopped and told to turn around. As I sat in the car I decided to have a look around I had barely turned my head before an Israel FBI agent pushed me against the car seat to told me to shut up (strange I didn’t say anything) we were questioned again mostly in Hebrew (very fun for me since I couldn’t understand a thing, I mostly stayed quiet) before long, they got in the car with us and drove down the road thirty feet or so. We kept quite and after a few minutes an officer came into the car. He asked us why we had come back and told us we had been warned, normally that would mean a night or two in jail. For whatever reason we were released, and told once again not to come back, we couldn’t get back to camp fast enough. The story as we were told by our soldier friend was that radical left wing, Arab sympathizers has set a filed on fire the night before and they thought we were part of that group, they didn’t want any trouble from anyone and we were not the only ones who were refused entrance into Hebron that day. Finally the sun went down and we retuned to Jerusalem aka home, with no further incidents. My final thoughts on the trip to Hebron are this: first Friday was a beautiful experience, it was amazing to be in that environment, just when we had just about given up on finding dinner we found it, all of us were extremely grateful. Second since nothing happened to us, this is one of the greatest stories of my life, and must crack the top three and everyone at my Yeshiva wants to hear the story. Third after being in Israel for almost two weeks, Jerusalem has really begun to feel like home. We all felt extremely thankful to see the walls of the old city. So a GREAT trip, even if by the end we all felt like crap, and wanted nothing more then to head home and NEVER return to Hebron ever again. Eretz Israel!!