ישראל

שלום

אנילי יודע אם אני יכול מה לאמר אחר הניסון של ישראל אבל אני חושב מלון לא עושה צרק
And nor does crude Hebrew.

We arrived on January 4th, and left on the tenth. In between my life changed. The place has been called a drug, and now I see why. Each day counted as a month, as a whole it was more of a semester than a week. Talking to Palestinians and IDF officers... all too much. I don't know why the ADL choose us, or what made us special. But damn, just damn.

When the El Al plane lifted off New York soil and went אל על, I couldn't help but feel a disconect with reality. I had rarely ventured outside Wyoming, let alone Israel. The morning in the plane was surreal, dawn's light drifting through the window, gently grazing the shoulders of orthodox Jews praying. On the map before me I could see our plane flew over Rome, Αθενης, Κρετε, and finaly in the distance תל אביב.

Walking in Ben Gurion airport, sheltered indoors... I couldn't wait to get outside. There we met ופיר who would lead us throughout the rest of the week. The night ride to Jerusalem (ירושלים) made reality plainly clear: This was a very, very small country. More so than I could imagine. This entire area could fit in the space between Casper and Cody Wyoming easily.

ירושלים is built out of white limestone, roughly cut, much like the University of Wyoming is of browner material (see the above photo). The old city is clearly of ancient design, only people can walk through the streets. There are cats everywhere, it was surprising the individualistic touch this put on what was otherwise mostly history. The Ottoman walls and guard towers have evolved into resteraunts. The market is a bit of a labrinth, with people assainling you with manipulation to entice you into their stores. I ended up spending 300 or so sheckles on gifts (not as much as it sounds). You would be eating comfortably as the call to prayr sounds from the Dome on the Rock. What surprised me is that the call began with a woman's voice, waving like a flag through the speakers set around the area. ופיר was saying something at the time, but I lost all connect with him as the voice sang over the Holy Seplechre, over the Wailing Wall. ירושלים is a far older city than indicated by the תנייך, when walking along the recently excavated portions of the wall you can look down and see pillars of a far older civilization... it seems that the Temple of the Mount is itself built on a previous religious site. This occurs often in Israel, where cities are built upon each other due to localized sources of water, as well as strategically placed defenses.

מצדה

Few people know what happened here, or to what extend the legend are true. However, in this picture you can see a Roman fort just right of the circular rim of Herod's defenses at Masada. Allegedly Flavius Silvas assailed this Hebrew bastion after the fall of the second temple at the hands of Titus. A group of loyal Jews fled to the desert of the נגו, and then split into two groups. One would hide their identity and merge with Roman society while faithfully following their religion, these people seem to have been the ones to leave the Dead Sea Scrolls. A more orthodox group flet to Masada, and lived there for three years. Flavius Silvas was then sent to destroy it, and built a huge ramp to the site. Upon entering it, he found all but the storerooms on fire, and 1,000 dead people. As a last resort, they had resorted to mass killings to avert capture by the Romans by drawing lots. The last person committed suicide.

The Dead Sea (ים מלח) put a disturbingly light touch on everything. Otherwise I was somber. No, somber isn't the right word. In awe. So much of Israel's countryside looked like Wyoming that it was difficult to drawn concrete distinctions. Particularly after visiting Masada. The ים מלח is known for it's unusually high salt content, allowing you to float. For the same reason, don't swallow the water. The mud is said to rejuvenate you to a younger person (said by who?), and covered in it we all pretended to be statues (I'm in the center with the arm raised). Beach Boys music played from loudspeakers nearby, and there was an incredibly relaxing ambience. Later, when eating lunch at Qumran, we still felt the reverbarations of the Dead Sea.

It all ended in the same city it began, Tel Aviv. Remember the Tels? They symbolize the antiquity of the region. Tel Aviv has no archaeology (other than nearby Jaffo), instead Aviv means spring. It is the first layer of a new city. And by the Mediterranian, it all quietly ebbed into the sea. Israel, like the shore of the Mediterranian, is always changing. But it follows the same basic pattern along the familiar shores.

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