Family Matters

My family left Israel a few days ago and I’m just now getting a chance to sit down and write about it, this blog is always two weeks behind but that’s just the nature of the game around here. I can’t believe eleven days passed so quickly, where did the time go? It felt like an eternity and a split second now that they’re gone. Let’s start at the beginning. My Mom, Dad, Sister and Brother-in-Law arrived in Tel Aviv at 9:05 on at beautiful Saturday morning, I traveled to Tel Aviv the day before and spent my Shabbos evening in my friend’s apartment, she wasn’t there but I had a nice night with her two roommates. It was an uneventful evening but very nice, I went to bed early with the delusion that I would sleep soundly. As I said I was delusional to think I’d sleep well the night before my family arrived, I tossed and turned all night, waking up every hour or two scared to death I’d overslept. When the morning finally arrived I was relieved to get out of bed and head over to my parents hotel which was just a quick walk from where I was staying.

I arrived just after my family did and ran up the stairs to surprise them. Which I did it was a great feeling to know they were in Israel for the first time and would soon be getting a chance to see the country that I love. And with that our adventure began, we spent Saturday afternoon wandering around Tel Aviv, we went down to old Jaffa and wandered through the old city. After Shabbos ended we headed off for dinner, at my request we found a Sushi place and had a wonderful meal. Unfortunately it wasn’t so great for my sister and brother-in-law both of whom were completely incapacitated the next day with a bad case of food poisoning. Me and the parents spent Sunday wandering around Tel Aviv: Jaffa market is a place where you can find weird items its fun to bargain with the Arabs down there. The Carmel Market is wonderful its Tel Aviv’s main bazaar you can watch the butchers cutting up meat and filleting fish, or simply watch the chaos or buyers and sellers trying to get the best possible price on/for candy, socks, hookahs, breads of all shapes and sizes and more. The Diaspora Museum is a must visit it right by Tel Aviv university and its free to get in, go wander around and see the history of the Jewish nation unfold before your eyes. By the end of the day my mom wasn’t feeling to hot either so me and my dad ended up grabbing dinner alone, although I felt bad for the rest of the family in the hotel feeling bad it was really great to get to spend the night with my dad, we had a good dinner and then wandered the streets before calling it a night.

The next day with my sister, brother-in-law and mother all feeling much better, we packed up our stuff and headed for the North with the guide we hired, he’s taken many of our family members though the Holy Land and it was a lot of fun to hear stories from their trips while we drove our way up Israel’s Mediterranean coast through Hertzelya, Haifa and up to Akko. Our first stop was a British camp used to house Jews who retuned to Israel illegally after World War II, it was amazing hearing their story’s and getting a chance to feel first hand the struggle they endured to making it to Israel. In Haifa we stopped to see the beautiful Baja gardens. And in Akko we explored ancient Crusader ruins. Our last stop for the day was at Yardent its where Catholics can go to be baptized in the Jordan river, its supposedly very close to where Jesus was baptized. With another exciting day done we made our way to Tiberius and called it a night. Highlights of the next day were: Mt Bental a lookout point up North from Mt Bental you can see the Syrian and Lebanese borders. It gives you one of the most breathtaking views that I’ve ever experienced in Israel. Tzfat was our next stop for the day. It was my third visit to the mystical city and just like before I loved it. It was special to share the experience with my mom and sister especially they both loved the array of colors, sounds and smells that Tzfat offers. And had fun looking for artwork, we met any amazingly cool artist, a Hassid born in France, part of the post acid movement in Greenwich Village New York, before coming to Israel, finding god and settling down in Tzfat. Our last stop for the day was a Kibbutz, my brother-in-law had old family relatives living there Tora and Zeevik. They showed us around the Kibbutz, talked about how life has changed the integration of free enterprise into their lives and the decline of the Kibbutz system and treated us to a delicious meal. This was my personal highlight of the trip, even though we did a lot of really cool stuff it was just a great experience to get to sit in their home, hear about how Israel has changed and where they think its going in the future and with that another exciting and busy day was finished.

The next day we were confronted with rain, not to be deterred we headed off for Ceasarea we drove around and looked at the aqueducts. Finally the rain subsided enough for the family to jump out of the van and see the ruins. It’s a beautiful place right on the beach with a theatre, chariot races, a bath house, and much more. Our next stop was the Ayalon Institute, Kibbutzim Hill where we took a tour of an underground bullet factory used in the war for independence in 1948. It was an amazing experience to get to see what people went through to provide the necessary equipment and supplies to the newly formed Israeli army. And with that we all piled back into the van and headed for Jerusalem, as we got closer and closer I found myself on the edge of my seat I hadn’t realized how much I had been anticipating this moment, my family was finally going to get to see what I was doing in Israel. As we pulled into the hotel I found my head pounding I was in short totally stressing out, I had to get away, after the family settled down in the hotel me and my dad eager to get away from a tired and cranky family headed for the Old City. I got to show him my apartment and Aish, it was much more stressful then I imagined it would be, I’ve bee here for the last two and a half months living and suddenly I had the most important people in my life sharing it with me. And I had a hard time with it. It can be hard to express to everyone back home why exactly I want to be here, why I feel it’s important to be learning what I’m learning. A lot of people don’t get why Judaism the way I’ve begun to see it is worthwhile to me. And I don’t always have a simple answer for them, if I did that would make it easy but its not easy and having my family share in my world here really brought that to life. After we all settled in for the night, we went for a lovely dinner and went to bed; Masada and the Dead Sea beckoned.

We woke up early and headed down the Judean hills dropping altitude as we approached one of the most unique places in the world. The Dead Sea is the lowest point on the earth, the water in the Dead Sea is unlike anything in the world. It’s rich in minerals, and has a trampoline like quality to it; you can stand straight up and float. But before we went for a soak we had to ascend Masada. The family took the snake path challenge and off we went a short 40 minutes later we were standing at the top and marveling at the landscape below. As our guide gave us the history of Masada I couldn’t help but be amazed by the amount of people at the top with us, tour groups from all around the world were marveling at the natural beauty stretching out seemingly forever below us. Next stop Ein Gedi, a beautiful nature preserve, King David supposedly sent time around Ein Gedi’s waterfalls writing some of his famous Psalms. And with that another day was done.

Shabbos was next on our agenda and thank god for it, after running around for the week it was wonderful to experience a Shabbos in Jerusalem with the people who I love most in this world. We had a leisurely morning, before meeting up at the main market in the city, it’s an experience any day of the week, but on a Friday morning/afternoon there is really nothing like it. Everyone in the entire city meets to buy goods of all kinds and prepare for Shabbos. You can hardly move a muscle or hear a thing while walking through the many isles and pathways, the market itself is a giant mix of vendors selling, meat, poultry, fruit, sweets of all shapes and sizes, fresh baked breads and cookies, socks, t-shirts, you name it they have it. You can take care of all your day to day needs with one efficient sweep of the market. We had a great time sampling the wide variety of food; my brother-in-law discovered a wonderful new juice combination: orange and pomegranate which he got from one of the many fresh squeezed juice vendors in the market. With our shopping complete we headed back to the hotel where we got ready for Shabbos and headed into the old city, unfortunately it began to rain hard so they missed out on a real Friday night experience at the Kotel, but I think they still got a real taste of what Shabbos means in the Old City. Dinner was at one of my favorite Rabbi’s houses, he lives in Mea Shearim so the family got to see what its like in that section of town on Shabbos, everyone walking though the streets, the shuls rocking with everyone singing loudly, me the family and a few friends who came along had a wonderful meal together I kept wondering if I was dreaming having my family with me in Israel, in Jerusalem for Shabbos. After two plus months of living here and beginning to feel like I belong here it was great to share it with my family.

With Friday night dinner over and Shabbos waning the beginning of the end came, my sister and brother-in-law left on Monday and my parents left on Wednesday night and just like that life here went back to ‘normal’. Saying goodbye was without a doubt one of the hardest things I’ve ever done, knowing that I won’t see my family for a long while, knowing that when I do see them again, I’ll have learned so much, changed so much, experienced so much. Those changes will seem gradual to me, I’ll know how much I’ve struggled though those changes, how much I’ve fought and won and fought and lost and won again. And they won’t get to see that they’ll just see the ‘end’ result. Not that there is ever really an end result. It’s all a process it’s all a battle to figure out who I am, what is truth and what is falsehood. Luckily I’m comforted in knowing that I have the love and support of people greater then myself. It’s a double edged sword it makes being here both very hard and very easy. As I walked home having said goodbye to my parents I thought about all this. As I’ve mentioned many times being here is a great challenge, being so far from home, so far away from those I love, but having those people here with me only made me realize how committed I am to them and to the life I’ve began back at home. And it’s a good feeling to know home will always be there.