Feb 1 to Feb 6, 2009 -What a great week

Feb. 1 Sunday -Stan:

Tonight we went to a dance perform by the Kibbutz Contemporary Dance Company doing the artistic Director Rami Beter’s new work ‘60 Hz’. It was all about energy, I guess, and was too modern for me. The dancers very good, the props very creative, the lights blinding, and the music and sound very irritating. Roberta said as we left, “Do I owe you one.” I nodded yes.

Feb. 3 Tuesday -Stan

After 2 classes at the Conservative school we walked to the Italian Synagogue and Museum which was very beautiful with the reconstructed arc and bimah dating from the 18th Century taken from a city near Venice that lost all its Jews. The women sit up upstairs behind 200-year latticework. The museum had many beautiful ritual objects all made in Italy. One kituba (wedding contract), of many beautiful ones they had, was very different and had the word Diplomat with the name of a Jewish person and the Title of Emperor of Austria and Hungry across the top in very elaborate script. We asked the person at the desk if this was really a kituba and he came over and said sure, look at the info on the wall. We asked if someone else could look at this and luckily there was an Italian speaking person around who determined that this beautiful large certificate was from the Emperor in 1847 granting this Jew a rank of Count in thanks for donating money to the Emperor. They thanked us for pointing the error in the description and said they would correct the label immediately.

We then walked to the Bezelel Art School founded in 1906 when this area was way far from the protection of the Old City. But it had a large wall around the complex for safety. They had a short movie of the very far sighted founder and his very artistic kids and grandkids. The current art display of the students and staff was far out.

We returned at 4:30 ready for the next adventure in 15 minutes which was a concert at the Jerusalem Theater of a quartet playing Mozart and Schulman. The pianist Ian Fountain of England won the Rubenstein Competition in 1989 and was wonderful. Roberta did not come as she had to rest for her choir practice at 7:15. After the concert I had just enough time to come home, have a quick dinner, and go to lecture at 8 by Zornberg which was incredibly fascinating as usual on the Torah portion of the week. So, today had 3 lectures, 2 museum visits, and one concert. Whata great day and life!!

Feb. 4, Thursday -Stan:

We kook a tiyul (trip) with Pardes to The Valley of Jezreel in the mid north of the country. This area is associated with many events in the Torah including King Saul, The Prophet Deborah and her battle with Sisera, Gideon, and Ahab. The route was due east from Jerusalem on #1 thru the Judean desert where we saw many Bedouin encampments and then north on #90 around Jericho thru the Jordan Valley, which as recent as 1967 was empty except for the Bedouins. After 1967, the Israelis started farming here and now the area has many large farms but the area is very poor still. After crossing out of the ‘West Bank’ into Israel the farms are very large, well developed, and the villages and homes look nice. In 1920 when the Jews bought the land there was nothing but desert but they rapidly transformed it into productive land to the surprise of the Arabs. We visited the tomb of Joshua Hankin, in Ma’yan Harod National Park, who from 1890 to 1920’s purchased this land (at exorbitant prices) and other vast tracts of land all over then Palestine from owners local, in Turkey or Damascus for the Zionist movement. Some land was desert, some malarial swamps that none thought was worthwhile including many Zionist who he forced to pay for his purchases. Later all the land was covered to farms or cities and he was then revered as a foresighted pioneer who really helped the founding of the Jewish State.

In the Valley of Jezreel over 3,000, 000 trees have been planted since then changing the landscape dramatically. We drove to the top of Mount Gilboa, a prominent mountain in religious history. Gideon’s battle against the fierce Midianites (Judges 7:1) is a great story and his successful strategy as a real leader and military genius was repeated by others in the 1948 War of Independence. Mt. Gilboa was always a great escape place if need be against the Midianites or other invaders as the mountain was a defensible position. We when went to En-Dor where the battle took place (Psalms 83:10). Saul also went to En-Dor I (Samuel 28: 3) to get guidance for a diviner after just getting rid of them in Gilboa. He finds out that he and his sons will be killed in battle with the Philistines who had moved from the coast inland to get control of the valuable trade routes that passed thru this Valley of Jezreel from the west to the coast and the Coastal road down to Egypt. Instead of running away, he stays with his men to fight and is about to be captured, tortured and killed. Instead he commits suicide. A 1000 years later a sage said it was acceptable to commit suicide if one knows one is to be tortured and killed. Rabbi Grodner explained that the most famous of the suicides was Masada where 600(?) Jews all died at their own hand rather than be captured by the Romans in 74(?) CE. The Talmud, which discusses every facet of life, does not mention this giant suicide because they didn’t want to condone it as in general suicide is strictly against Jewish law. So the best way the rabbis could handle the issue was to not discuss Masada at all. After Philistines put Saul’s head on display in Bet Shean, the men of Jabesh Gilead, whom he had earlier helped defend against the Philistines, came in the night to retrieve his body and burned it and then fasted for 7 days out of respect (I Samuel 31: 1-13 for entire story of Saul’s death) and II Samuel 1:21 for another reference to Mt. Gilboa and Saul’s anointing as King here. Roberta & I climbed a tower on top of the Mt. to get an even grander view of the fertile fields below and the many villages & cities all round. One could even see Mt Meron with snow on top to the north.

We then visited Ein Harod associated with King Ahab and his wife Jezebel and their evil ways (I Kings 21:1-29). Other sources say Ahab was a great King but in the Torah he is no good as this chapter relates. The Tel Jezreel hasn’t revealed anything about their palace here as nothing apparently survived. But the view was great. Our last stop was the Kibbutz Ein Dor, which had a very fine Museum of Archaeology (www.eindormuseum.co.il). It was an old kibbutz and in the process of farming they discovered all the items in the museum ranging from pottery 10,000 years old to unbroken glass dishes of Roman times and many pieces between. We drove back the same way and the desert was beautiful as the sun set.


Feb 6. Friday. One Fabulous Day! -Stan :

Went to the Israel Museum to see the Blue-White special exhibit. Took #24 bus from Rachel Imenu and Emek Refraim right there. This exhibit which closes the next day had documents from the state of Israel’s history, such as the Declaration of Independence, all the proposals for a flag (the original Zionist flag won out over some pretty neat designs), Arafat’s letter to Rabin in 1993 stating full recognition of Israel, renounce violence, and changing the PLO charter to remove the destruction of Israel as a main part of the PLO constitution. Unfortunately none of this was done and a clue should have been the letter was in English not Hebrew or Arabic. They also had the dairy of Col. Ramon, the Israeli astronaut who died in the Columbia disaster. Incredibly his diary survived the fiery destruction and 2 months of Texas weather. The crime lab was able to show what was written, the Kiddush for Friday night he wrote from memory. Another moving exhibit was the recovery of the remains of a Jewish Palestinian soldier/poet working for the British during WWI who was killed by the Bedouins. In 1967, they were able to track his remains as the Bedouins passed the location down thru 50 years. Incredibly a date tree was growing right were he died from dates he was carrying in his pocket. He received a full military burial. Last was the first page of the lengthily manuscript written by Eichman while he was waiting trial and execution. He hoped a major German publisher would publish it, but Israel said no thanks.

We also spend time in the Shrine of the Book where the Dead Sea Scrolls are stored and exhibited. To me the most exciting item is the Aleppo Bible from 925CE written in Tiberias and used by Maimonides in 1150. The magnificent Torah is in book form hence a Codex and has full vowels put into the Torah, by the Masorites a splinter group of Jews who said we need to make sure we know the real word meant in the Torah since without vowels there could be ambiguity. This was not a problem if one was taught the word meaning from someone in an oral tradition going back to its origin, which was done. But as Jews dispersed this was not possible. Absolutely incredible and sad is that no bible in Hebrew is older than this one as all others were destroyed by a variety of forces. But the main incredible thing is the 925 Bible text is the same as the Jewish splinter group, the Essenes, wrote in the desert from about 100 BCE to 100 CE. Roberta mentioned something about lunch and I replied that we didn’t have time for lunch, this is a military operation. She was glad later after we saw the entire Blue and White exhibit.

We got the #9 bus back to center of town and walked back. After lunch, a 30 minute nap, we got ready to go Marcia and Dennis Gelpe’s for Shabbat dinner. We took a cab since buses had stopped running. Had a wonderful time with great food as Dennis had a kosher gourmet bakery in Minneapolis until they came here. Their daughter, Yafa, was ready to deliver her full size (or so it appears) twins any second. The son, Joey, is going to India for a vacation in few days. Marcia looks after Barnard grads in Jerusalem and Flo from Creve Coeur and Brith Shalom was there. 30ish Flo is probably the only person I know who hated her time in St. Louis as turning egalitarian religious, she was left out in the cold. Now she is very happy in Jerusalem. Since everyone is religious we planned to walk back so I prepared a complicated Google route and took notes for it (no printer). Luckily Flo was walking back so she took us back by the best route. For sure we would have gotten lost. It only took 1 hour for a very pleasant walk with the temp about 45F.