Shabbat Shalom!

What a week this has been! Both for Israel and myself, this past week was filled with activity and tumult. In this post, I will first go over the past week of my life, then I will delve into current events a little, and perhaps unavoidably explain my own perspectives on politics in the country and region. Sound like a plan? Great! Hope you enjoy the following…

My first order of “IDF enlistment business” after procuring a visa was to fax it to the Mahal office. This was done simply enough last Wednesday. Now, the information sheet I received after signing my life over states that I will have to wait two to three weeks before Mahal notifies me of my tzav rishon date. Tzav Rishon is a “day of tests” I must undergo so the IDF knows my physical ability, mental acuity, intentions, etc. (I will explain more about it after the fact.) What’s noteworthy for me is that I called Mahal a few hours after faxing my visa to verify they received it (you never really know here), and the soldier who answered the phone confirmed its receipt and said they would contact me next week! So I am expecting a phone call anytime this week. While I am not too optimistic that it will come, I was still shocked to hear of the potentially quick turnaround. There are no further enlistment hurdles to go through after the tzav rishon, so the supposedly lengthy and headache-filled process has turned out to be…shall I say…doable? But, it ain’t over ‘til it’s over…hopefully I didn’t speak too soon.

Anyway, I have had a lot of time on my hands with nothing pressing to do. I contacted a few friends of mine at Ohr Somayach yeshiva (where I was on a three week program this summer) about staying with them for Shabbat. It took me sixteen days after arriving in Israel to finally make it to Jerusalem! But I made the most of it. With my two friends, Ami and Elliot, we walked from the yeshiva to the Old City, via Damascus Gate. Jerusalem’s Old City has about a half dozen gates, really just entrances. Named for cities they face, Damascus gate faces northeast toward the Syrian capital, thus it is in East Jerusalem. Oh my! Not quite. The three of us walked down a major road toward the city. As we neared the medieval walls, we veered toward the gate and passed Arab grocers and vendors, trucks and vans unloading food, and other like-minded Jews preparing to welcome the Sabbath in the Old City.

Crossing a final street, and dodging cabs and motorbikes in the process, we walked down a flight of stairs and joined the Jewish flood through the gate, hearing Arabic and keeping an eye out for trouble all the while. However, Jews are probably safest at that hour; the entrance to Damascus Gate, and the path towards the Western Wall for that matter, is littered with Israeli soldiers and policeman donning bullet proof vests, with M4 rifles at the ready, and eyeing all suspiciously—Jew and Arab. Still, it is difficult to feel safer than that, or more proud for that matter. I know these soldiers are there to keep the peace. In reality, they are likely the only reason that Jews are able, week after week, to pass safely through Arab controlled streets to pray at our holiest sight.

And pray we did! Perhaps the one word to describe Friday night at the Kotel (Western Wall) is “electrifying!” I remember the first time I was there on Birthright last year. I have davened (prayed) there multiple times since, and twice more on Shabbat. I still think the same thing I did that first time in January: what an incredible and humbling feeling to be able to stand in front of Judaism’s holiest site, a place our people have been trying to return to for literally thousands of years, facing persecution, expulsion, and death, the world over, in the process. On Friday night, the entire plaza before the Wall is completely packed with black hats and suits. As we were not with a group, we found a rabbi we knew, assembled a minyan (ten adult men), and began Shabbat with my favorite song: Yedid Nefesh. It’s tune carries such a yearning in it that, at the Kotel, I am able to transport myself through centuries of Jewish struggle and hope. Even before I learned the meaning of the song, I connected to its melody of hope and remembrance. As the sky above the Wall begins to darken, something comes over Jerusalem and the entire notion of Judaism and the purpose behind hundreds of seemingly different people coming to one specific location for their faith becomes…overwhelmingly real.

Briefly, what makes the Kotel so holy and special? It is the western wall of the Temple Mount, upon which once stood בית המקדש Beit Hamikdash: the Holy Temple. The site for the Temple was not random: it is on Mount Moriah, the location of the binding of Isaac, when Abraham was commanded by G-d to sacrifice his son as a test. The site is also the location of אבנ השתייה Even haShetiya, the Foundation Stone, from which the world was created. It is over this exact location that the Jewish people had two temples: King Solomon built the first in 957 BCE and was destroyed by the Babylonians in 586 BCE; the second temple was completed in 515 BCE after twenty-three years of construction, only to fall to the Romans in 70 CE. G-d’s presence, שכינה shechinah, was ever-present during most of this time period. Fast forward two thousand years, and the great walls of the Temple Mount are virtually destroyed (save for the western one) and instead, a golden dome rises above the Temple Mount: the Muslims built the Dome of the Rock in 691 CE. This shrine, to me, is a constant reminder of what we, the Jewish people, lost and have never reclaimed. However, we still believe that G-d’s presence resides on the Western Wall, and thus it maintains its holiness, and is a place where people, religious and secular, from around the world travel to become witness and leave notes of hope between its stones.

For dinner, we were to meet up with a rabbi somewhere on the plaza. Like finding a needle in a haystack, it’s near impossible to pick out one individual from the masses. And, no, you can’t use a cell-phone. Thankfully, we were able to find our host, who led us on a short walk from the Wall to his home—yes, he lives in the Old City. Incredible. After dinner, he brought us to his roof and we could see the entire Old City, including the golden dome, which seemed close enough to touch. The view was unbelievable.

We walked out of the Old City via the Jaffa Gate, in the Jewish side of the city. It’s eerily pleasant walking the streets of Jerusalem on Friday night. There are only a few cars out on the streets and people walk everywhere: to dinner, evening lectures, celebrations, etc. It’s a great feeling to be surrounded by your own people in their rightful place.

The rest of Shabbat was a spiritual journey that I need not describe in detail. There was morning prayer, including reading from the Torah, a festive lunch, afternoon nap, afternoon prayer followed by a third meal and inspirational lecture, then evening prayer after sundown. Ami, Elliot and I had a few beers before I returned to Tel-Aviv. One last great thing about the weekend: a bus ride from my apartment to the center of Tel-Aviv, then a sheyrut (large taxi or van) to Jerusalem, then bus to Ohr Somayach, and back again cost me about $20.

I actually returned to Jerusalem yesterday with Kathryn, a friend from school who’s now living in Israel. We left in the morning and aside from a meeting I had set up with a rabbi at another yeshivah, Aish HaTorah, we had no plan. On the bus to the Old City we actually ran into a guy a few years older from Skokie. Small world. But in Jerusalem, you meet people from all over the world, all concentrated in a small locale, all searching for something.

The meeting at Aish was suggested by one of my mentors from back home, Rabbi Shalom Garfinkle. He commented to me that I may enjoy going there for Shabbat or learning while in the military. Conveniently, actually, while Kathryn and I were there for a half hour, I met a few guys who were joining Mahal as well. I definitely plan on going back for classes or Shabbat before my enlistment. For the rest of the day, we spent some time at the Kotel, enjoyed watching the Sephardi Bar Mitzvah from afar (the whole city could tell there was a Sephardic celebration because of the shrieking women!), ran into one of Kathryn’s many random friends and got a short tour of the Arab quarter, including a visit up to the exit of the Temple Mount (beyond which only Muslims are allowed), got intentionally lost in the Christian quarter, walked to a populated street in the “new” city, meandered our way over to the government buildings, and finally settled at a bar for some beer and hookah. Ami met us, and then an Israeli sat at the table next to us. We introduced ourselves and naturally engaged in friendly conversation. He had just finished his military service that very day. Everywhere I go, people often ask where I’m from and what I’m doing here. He was very excited to hear of my plans and offered a few pieces of advice. If I’m ever in Haifa, he told me, don’t hesitate to call. That’s becoming a common theme among Israelis.

Today, I decided to finally visit some of Tel Aviv’s tourist sites. I first went to David Ben-Gurion’s house. It is a quiet home on Rothschild street; the rooms are adorned with pictures of Ben-Gurion and other heads of states, his expansive library and numerous, insightful quotes. I then biked over to ההגנה, the Haganah Museum. The Haganah was the military organization that protected the Jewish immigrants and settlers before the establishment of the state. After, I went to the Ze’ev Jabotinsky Museum, a few rooms dedicated to one of the early visionaries of Zionism. He was instrumental in helping thousands of Jews escape pre-war Europe on clandestine ships to Palestine. Finally, I went to a diamond museum in Tel Aviv’s diamond district. Israel is a world leader in diamond trading. Blood diamonds? Not at all! Israel was an early signatory, and 2010 chair, to the 2003 Kimberley Process, which seeks to end the use of conflict/blood diamonds.

So, that has been the past week or so. In the coming few days I will make good on my plan to talk about Israeli politics and probably a little more about Israelis and being in Tel Aviv.