Shabbat Shalom and Shana Tova!

Yesterday as I was flying from Tel Aviv to Philadelphia I saw the most amazing sight out the window. A moment before the sky had been dark. Then all of a sudden, the tiniest bit of light peaked through the clouds. As I watched, the light grew brighter and brighter and gradually encompassed not only all the clouds but also pierced though to the land below. It was a dazzling sight. And it reminded me of why I was flying home from Israel on this visit - for Rosh Hashana and Yom Kippur. To feel and experience Gd's presence on earth, in all of us, in a very immediate and personal way. The sun peaked through the clouds and then slowly slowly filled the heavens and the earth with its radiance, just as the Spirit of the Shechina is present in the universe and in all of us and slowly slowly makes herself seen/heard/felt in our lives. 

May we all blessed in this new year of 5770 with love, happiness, health, parnassa, and all that is good and important. May the world we live in also experience a bright new year filled with peace - lots and lots of peace.  Amen. 

Travel Log: Tzfat

Tzfat: 

     Visited Tzfat with same friend with whom I went to Haifa. What a gorgeous place Tzfat is - the views, the artwork, the shops, the views and more views..... We entered Tzfat in a round about way that enabled us (sort of unexpectedly) to see the streets, homes and back alleys of the city. And the steps! So many steps as the city is on a hill - as is Haifa.  One needs good strong legs to live in Tzfat. 

     Turns out I was right by the doorway that led into the apartment my daughter lived in when she did a modified version of Livnot U'Lehibanot: To build and be built, a wonderful program that does community service and other types of things. Check it out at http://www.livnot.com. Also went to the wonderful Tzfat Candle Factory - I am addicted to their stuff.

Picture 1:  Signs to center of Tzfat. So much to choose from!

Picture 2:  View from the restaurant where we ate lunch.

Picture 3:  Some history: Metzuda - The Citadel. The highest point in Tzfat. During Second Temple times was used to light the bonfires that announced the Rosh Chodesh - the new month - was beginning. Stragetic military position as well.

Metzuda (Citadel)

Picture 4:  An example of just one of the amazing pieces of sculptures that one sees all over Tzfat.

Travel Log: Haifa

Haifa

Visited Haifa with a friend I hadn't seen since High School. While there, we had dinner with another friend whom I hadn't seen since University.

Eze kef! (What fun!)

Picture 1: Cafe Ha-Fuch - literally upside down coffee, 

not so literally, latte (I think). My current favorite drink of choice. Almost always ordered Natul (decaf). 

Picture 2:  A strange government building in Haifa. Pretty cool. 

Picture 3: The boardwalk in Haifa, near the Hof HaCarmel bus/train station.

Picture 4: The waves! Picture sipping the Cafe Hafuch, watching the waves....

 

Worship G-d with ... Horns! Psalm 150: 3

While I love being here in Israel - the atmosphere, the quiet of Shabbat, the profusion of funny shaped and colored and textured head coverings for both genders - there is one thing that really bugs me (or at least just one thing that I will kvetch about at the moment).  Israelis - at least Yerushalmis - have a really irritating habit of sounding their car horns whenever, wherever possible for as long as possible and - & this is the important part - for as little reason as possible. Why wait patiently and quietly for a red light to turn (yellow then) green when you can honk on your horn in the mistaken apprehension that the רמזור  or traffic light will actually hear you and change color more quickly? Or... that the people in the cars in front of you will decide to stop honking their horns and pay attention to yours and drive right through the red light? This technique is especially useful at, say, 1, 2 or even 3 in the morning when everyone else in their right mind is in bed and you are cruising around downtown J'slem with your music blasting and your horn tooting away at lights.

Okay, I'm grousing... and I could go on for pages but I think you get my drift. I've been kept awake for too many nights here by these horns to allow myself to totally unload my frustration on you,  my poor unsuspecting reader.  However,  I do have to mention one more instance of horn blowing which might actually be my favorite.  It's when the drivers in the cars start sending coded messages to each other with their beeps (btw, this is occurring right outside my mirpeset - patio- as I type this. I'd include a sound bite in the blog but haven't figured out how). They beep in unison, they toot in code, they honk in harmony, and they have contests as to who can honk the loudest and the longest. 

My funny and somewhat cynical flat mate Karen recently explained that all this horn beeping and blowing is actually d'oraita - from the Torah. 

Prooftext:  Psalm 150 verse 3a, 5, 6 

ג: הַלְלוּהוּ בְּתֵקַע שׁוֹפָר

ה: הַלְלוּהוּ בְצִלְצְלֵי־שָׁמַע הַלְלוּהוּ בְּצִלְצְלֵי תְרוּעָה

  ו: כֹּל הַנְּשָׁמָה תְּהַלֵּל יָ הּ הַלְלוּיָ הּ

3a. Blast out for Yah with  piercing shofar note!...

5.   Ring out for Yah with cymbals that resound!

      Clang out for Yah with cymbals that rebound!

6.   Let every living thing Yah's praises sing, Hallelu/Yah!*

Gotta go bury my head under my pillow now....

* Translation from Kol Haneshama - the Reconstructionist Siddur

Does reality nullify truth?

I've received lots of email prompted by my post on the Temple Mount - in a very short time - asking the same question. Here I quote my very wise and spiritual good friend Janaki who also commented below. Janaki writes:

Comment part 1: "what i always come to in grappling with these questions is, does it matter whether something happened or didn't happen - whether the stories are history or fiction, doesn't the human (or Godly) Truth matter, in the end?"


         IMHO,  no, it doesn't matter whether or not something actually happened, whether the stories are history or fiction and whether Truth ultimately matters.  My feeling is that these ideas - the Akeda, Creation story, the Exodus - are part of the Jewish story, they form the core metaphor around our beliefs. Whether or not they happened historically is beside the point - to US, they DID happen. They form the Judaism that we all currently believe in or run away from - therefore they must be real. Now, does real mean the same thing as historically accurate. Not at all.
         Ever since I've been little I've understood that Gd created the universe in 6 days and rested on Shabbat. At the same time, I know that the world is billions of years old, not just 6000 plus. Does it matter? Did this dual belief challenge my אמונה  my faith, at all? No. I guess even as a kid I knew that I lived in 2 civilizations.  As an adult, I often wonder why all people can't understand that.

Comment part 2: "i find it particularly fascinating to try and hold the multitude of meanings for different peoples, Jews and Muslims and Christians, that the "holy" sites hold."
       All I can say to that is "ditto." Perhaps the ultimate time of peace for all of us will come when we will be able to respect these multiple meanings and all those that hold them.  That is my wish and my prayer as I go into this weekend which contains the Sabbath of all 3 major religions, takes place in the introspective month of Elul and holds within it the observance of Ramadan.

שבת שלום ומבורך
Shabbat Shalom from Jerusalem,
Arlene

More Pics from the Temple Mount

The Temple Mount

             Spent yesterday in the Old City. A friend and I went to the Temple Mount. Weren't sure we'd be able to enter the site, as it is the beginning of Ramadan.  While we weren't able to enter any of the Mosques on the site, we did get to walk around the grounds, enjoy the spectacular views, people watch, and appreciate the amazing craftsmanship that went into the mosaics of the Dome of the Rock.             
           There are signs up as one approaches the ramp up to the Temple Mount that say it is a violation of Torah Law for a Jew to enter the Temple Mount. It also says that the Conservative Movement finds that it is allowable. If you are interested, here is a link to an English summary of the Conservative Movement’s Responsum on Entering the Temple Mount In Our Time: http://www.responsafortoday.com/engsums/1_1.htm.
            The following is an excerpt from one of the responsum, this one written by Rabbi Reuven Hammer:  "How do we fulfill this commandment of revering the Sanctuary? A visit to the Temple Mount should not be just a sightseeing experience, but a pilgrimage to the place where the Temple stood. One has to behave there in a very respectful way, be dressed properly, and a Jew should not enter the area of the Holy of Holies (i.e. inside the Dome of the Rock), where only the High Priest was allowed. Moreover, one has to remember that in the days of the Temple, not only ritual purity was required to enter the Temple Mount but also moral purity. Therefore, one should read a Psalm, such as Psalm 15, upon entering the Temple Mount."
            As I did not read this before entering the Temple Mount, I did not read a Psalm when I was there. In truth, I don’t know if I would have read a Psalm even if I had read it before I went as I am not that into Psalms as links to occasions. In any event, I was dressed respectfully and did behave in a respectful manner. I was also awed by standing on this piece of ground that means so many different things to so many different people.
            On one hand you could say “oh, this is just another Israel experience,” but on the other hand you really can’t say that because for some reason the Temple Mount is different.  Suppose the Akeda (the Binding of Isaac for the Jews and of Ishmael for the Muslims) really did happen and really did happen there? Was this actually the place of the Holy of Holies? And if it is the location of the this most holy of places – what does that mean to me as a 21st century Jewish woman who vacillates between being liberal and traditional and who is going to become a Reconstructionist Rabbi? All good questions to which I am not prepared to offer answers to at this time.
            What I can say is that there is something special about the atmosphere of the Temple Mount; this despite all the political play that is carried on about it. It is almost as if it stands outside the known and accepted space-time continuum and exists in a reality all its own. The air is still, the views are spectacular, colors seem more vibrant, one can sit and think and pray and of course, people watch.  I feel this way about some other locations in Israel as well. But this one seems different. Wish I knew why.