The Countdown Begins

  Jerusalem, Israel
Sunday, April 13, 2008

March 4-7, 2008

My father and Linda arrived in Jerusalem on Tuesday.  After they settled into their hotel, we met them for dinner at Cup a Joe. 

On Wednesday, I spent the day with them on Ben Yehuda St. so Linda could shop.  I took them for lunch at Tmol Shilshom, my favorite little hidden away bookstore/café. 

On Friday night, we had Shabbat dinner with them and Linda's family at their hotel. 

March 6, 2008

Around 8:30 this evening, Evette and I were sitting in the apartment and heard siren...after siren...after siren...  We often hear sirens from all over the city because we are situated high on a hill.  Usually it's a car accident or ambulance.  These sirens sounded close and they continued on for an unusual amount of time.  We turned on the news and saw live what was happening.  An Arab terrorist infiltrated Jerusalem's Merkaz HaRav Yeshiva at around 8:30 Thursday night and murdered eight Jews. At least 10 students were wounded, including five in serious to critical condition.

The Merkaz HaRav Yeshiva is located near the entrance to Jerusalem, in the Kiryat Moshe neighborhood, just a few miles from our neighborhood. 

In Gaza, Arab residents went out into the streets and fired rifles in the air in celebration of the attack against the Jews of Jerusalem.

The body of the terrorist was held by Israeli Police until the family guaranteed not to have a public event with media, etc...  The family would not agree to comply until just a few days ago. 

It was pretty scary.  The Director of the RRC Israel program & Evett's other schools called to check on everyone and we received numerous emails and phone calls from concerned family and friends. 

March 7, 2008

Very early this morning, Evette and I went to the Old City to Robinson's Arch.  Today is Rosh Chodesh.  Rosh Chodesh is the first day of any new month in according to the Hebrew calendar.  There is a group called Women at the Wall.  They go to Robinson's Arch to pray the morning of Rosh Chodesh.  In the past few years, the Israeli government has opened Robinson's arch as a place for groups to pray that do not meet the approval of the Ministry of Religious Affairs as the arch area is not under the control of the Religious Affairs Ministry; such as non-orthodox prayer, womem praying aloud & men & women praying together.  Since 2000, egalitarian prayer has taken place at the site under the backing of the Conservative movement.  Anyway, we wanted to join these women this morning.  We got there and no one showed up. We realized that they probably cancelled it due to yesterdays attack.  There was a security warning about visiting this area.

Evette decided to pray on her own, while I explored and took photo's.  On the right side of the Western Wall of the Holy Temple was a great arch. It was the highest arch in the world in its time. The arch supported a great stairway that led from the street to the top of The Temple Mount.  During an expedition in 1838, an American historian, Edward Robinson discovered some stones projecting from the Western Wall. He was the first to realize their significance. These were all that remained from the Great Arch. The stones were soon named Robinson's Arch.  By 1967, the dirt level rose 80 feet, all the way from the ancient street level to the bottom of the projecting stones.  It was the Jews at the time of the destruction that destroyed the arch in a futile attempt to prevent the Romans from entering the Holy Temple.  Shortly after the Israelis recaptured the Old City in 1967, archaeologists began removing the earth from the Robinson Arch area.  By 1997 they reached all the way down to the original street level.  During my explorations, I found these ritual bathes, secret pathways and in the midst of all this antiquity, tons of lavender.  Sometime, I'd like to have a guided tour, but it was neat to explore on my own. 

March 10, 2008

Tonight, I started a 4 week cooking class.  Each week is a different ethnicity.  Tonight, we cooked Indian food.  It was sooo much fun.  I thought all Indian food had curry & was very spicy.  This was really, really good.  I can't wait to cook for you all (okay, maybe not ALL of you at once).  The next 3 weeks will be: Italian, French & my favorite, Japanese.  The course is held at a little restaurant called Belinda's Café.  The owner, Linda, is the teacher.  Very, very fun!

March 20, 2008

Today was the beginning of the holiday of Purim.  Purim is one of the most joyous and fun holidays on the Jewish calendar. It commemorates a time when the Jewish people living in Persia were saved from extermination.  The story of Purim is told in the Biblical book of Esther.  The heroes of the story are Esther, a beautiful young Jewish woman living in Persia, and her cousin Mordecai, who raised her as if she were his daughter. Esther was taken to the house of Ahasuerus, King of Persia, to become part of his harem. King Ahasuerus loved Esther more than his other women and made Esther queen, but the king did not know that Esther was a Jew, because Mordecai told her not to reveal her identity.

The villain of the story is Haman, an arrogant, egotistical advisor to the king. Haman hated Mordecai because Mordecai refused to bow down to Haman, so Haman plotted to destroy the Jewish people. In a speech that is all too familiar to Jews, Haman told the king, "There is a certain people scattered abroad and dispersed among the peoples in all the provinces of your realm. Their laws are different from those of every other people's, and they do not observe the king's laws; therefore it is not befitting the king to tolerate them." Esther 3:8. The king gave the fate of the Jewish people to Haman, to do as he pleased to them. Haman planned to exterminate all of the Jews.
Mordecai persuaded Esther to speak to the king on behalf of the Jewish people. This was a dangerous thing for Esther to do, because anyone who came into the king's presence without being summoned could be put to death, and she had not been summoned. Esther fasted for three days to prepare herself, then went into the king. He welcomed her. Later, she told him of Haman's plot against her people. The Jewish people were saved, and Haman was hanged on the gallows that had been prepared for Mordecai.

The primary commandment related to Purim is to hear the reading of the book of Esther. The book of Esther is commonly known as the Megillah, which means scroll. Although there are five books of Jewish scripture that are properly referred to as megillahs (Esther, Ruth, Ecclesiastes, Song of Songs, and Lamentations), this is the one people usually mean when they speak of The Megillah.   We are also commanded to eat, drink and be merry. According to the Talmud, a person is required to drink until he cannot tell the difference between "cursed be Haman" and "blessed be Mordecai," though opinions differ as to exactly how drunk that is. A person certainly should not become so drunk that he might violate other commandments or get seriously ill. In addition, recovering alcoholics or others who might suffer serious harm from alcohol are exempt from this obligation.  In addition, we are commanded to send out gifts of food or drink, and to make gifts to charity. The sending of gifts of food and drink is referred to as shalach manot (lit. sending out portions). Among Ashkenazic Jews, a common treat at this time of year is hamentaschen (lit. Haman's pockets). These triangular fruit-filled cookies are supposed to represent Haman's three-cornered hat.  It is customary to hold carnival-like celebrations on Purim, to perform plays and parodies, and to hold beauty contests. Americans sometimes refer to Purim as the Jewish Mardi Gras.

Here in Israel, it was like Halloween.  All the stores had racks & racks & racks of costumes for the kids to wear.   All the schools had costume parades, salespeople were dressed up.

March 23, 2008

Today, Easter Sunday, Evette & I took a taxi to the Christian Quarter of the Old City & went to the Church of the Holy Sepulchre.  Originally built by the mother of Emperor Constantine in 330 A.D., the Church of the Holy Sepulcher commemorates the hill of crucifixion and the tomb of Christ's burial.  The original Byzantine church was destroyed by the Persians in 614 A.D.  Rebuilt shortly thereafter, the Egyptian caliph al-Hakim destroyed the church in 1009 and had the tomb hacked down to bedrock.

The Crusaders rebuilt the church and much of what is standing today is from that time period.  The ladder in the upper right window has been there since at least 1860, a testimony to rivalries between the church's factions.
So, we were winding our way through the Old City, trying to find the Church.  This very sweet, young Christian Arab boy asked if he could show us the way.  He walked with us, asking questions about where we were from, if we were enjoying our stay, etc...  He seemed to feel very important leading us.  He, of course, asked his father if it was okay.  Unfortunately, I cannot recall his name. 

It was very interesting & moving to walk through while many different religious observances were occurring simultaneously.    Photographs were permitted, although I must admit, it felt slightly intrusive doing so.  There was one man in monks clothing, who did ask that he not be photographed.  Of course, I was respectful of that. 
After we finished there, we wandered around the Christian Quarter.  We saw this cool café called Papa Andreas that was on a rooftop.  We thought it would be awesome to eat lunch while overlooking the Old City.  But alas, it was closed due to Easter.  So we ended up here, where we had a very, slightly below mediocre lunch. 

April 7, 2008

Around 10am this morning, Evette was doing schoolwork & I was checking email & suddenly a siren/alarm started sounding unlike any we had heard before.  It sounded like the type of siren that might be a warning alarm.  It continued for a solid 5 minutes.  We were really worried.  We turned on the news, but did not hear anything.  Evette ran outside & called our upstairs neighbors on their intercom to see if they knew if there was danger. They said it was nothing, not to worry.  About an hour later, I was reading the news on the internet & saw this:

Air raid sirens sent Israeli schoolchildren into bomb shelters on Tuesday as part of a five-day nationwide exercise to prepare for any future conflict that would include rocket attacks on Israel's major cities.
More than 4,000 rockets hit northern Israel during its 2006 war against Lebanon's Hezbollah guerrillas, attacks in which more than 1 million Israelis took to shelters.

National Infrastructure Minister Binyamin Ben-Eliezer, inspecting his ministry's emergency preparations, said Israel would face a stronger pounding in the event of a future war.

"I expect that in the opening attack, hundreds of missiles will strike Israel," said Ben-Eliezer, a former defence minister. "There will be no place in the country that is not within range of rockets fired by Syria and Hezbollah."

Israel has told the United Nations, which maintains a peacekeeping force in southern Lebanon, that Iranian-backed Hezbollah has been re-equipped with longer-range rockets since the 34-day conflict nearly two years ago.

At schools across the country, teachers shepherded children in kindergartens, primary schools, and secondary schools to shelters, where they were to receive an hour-long civil defence lesson.
The Israeli tourism ministry distributed flyers to hotels in Jerusalem, packed with visitors, to inform them that the sirens were just a test.  (we apparently missed these announcements).

It was quite an unnerving experience.

April 11, 2008

As Evette & I have spent the better part of the past 6 weeks taking turns being sick, we decided we both needed a day in the sun.  We packed a little picnic & some reading materials & took a sheirut to Tel Aviv.  It was about 80* & sunny.  We rented chairs on the beach & had a very lovely, relaxing day.  It sure was a different atmosphere; much more crowded, than the last time we were here in our raincoats & sweaters in January. 

Misc.

So, as I've started sorting through our belongings and decided that since spring was now here & for 3 straight days it was 99* that it was safe to pack up all our winter things, long pants (except for 2 pairs each), raincoats, long sleeves, etc...We decided that since we would each be travelling alone & Evette would have Rascal in addition to suitcases, that it was worth the money to ship our winter clothes.  After that was all done, the weather, of course, got very cool again, like 50's-60's.  Of course, during all this, Evette had pneumonia & then I was even sicker & we had no warm clothes.  OY!!! 

So, on the positive side, it is truly spring now; 70's-80's, mostly sunny & everything is blooming.  Suddenly, all the trees that looked dead in the winter are green & flowering.  Gorgeous flowers popping up everywhere; it's fabulous.  Hopefully, we will enjoy this spring-like weather for a bit before it gets horribly hot again.   

Hebrew word of the Day 

Aviv = Spring       Pigua = terrorist attack     Bitahon = safety