Lest we forget...

...how to spell.

As promised...

pictures from this morning.

The Temple Institute

The Temple Mount, Dome of Rock, and Kotel

Strapping Young Lads

Kita Aleph Tesha (my class)

I'M-a LEA-vin ON a jet PLANE...

For the Worryworts out there, I am leaving Tel Aviv bound for JFK and ultimately Rochester on the morning of August 1st - leaving at 10:40. That puts me in Rochester sometime around 10PM on the First, your time. So. I'll be seeing you all soon.

This morning, I got up extra early to get a cab to the Temple Mount/Dome of the Rock. There are very sparse hours when they allow non-muslims up there and under extremely tight security, but I didn't want to not make it up this trip and today was my last available opportunity. It was really beautiful up there. The people are not at all friendly to non-muslim visitors, but it was worth the effort to go up as you will see from the pictures.

After that, I went to the Temple Institute to see all the fancy temple implements they've made thus far for the Third Temple - when and if that comes to be - it would require blowing up the aforementioned Dome of the Rock and Mosque..."Oh the wheels in my head have been turning. A dangerous pasttime. I know!" (name that Disney movie)

After THAT, I made a final stop to the cemetery where Oskar Schindler is burried. It's been locked each time I've tried and as luck would have it, it was open this morning, so...I did ALL that in time to make it to class only a few minutes late. What a morning!

I'll try to put the pictures up later this afternoon.

For those who care about such things, I got a 92 on my orals. Yay me!

Az, Jalla, Bye!

Follow the yellow brick road...or Wadi El Joz, whichever.

Ok. So I feel I absolutely have to post something on today’s adventures.

First off, if one is not supposed to walk great distances on the Sabbath, I am about as Jewish as Jimmy Dean. I swear between yesterday and today, I covered the whole of Jerusalem on foot several times over! My feet are killing me, my hair feels like straw, and my cheeks have graduated to shades of rosy which would make the most bawdy rouge in Moulin seem piously pale. Oh - ways I went, what sights I saw! If I could take sensory snapshots of sound and smell to pair with the merely satisfactory impressions I am able to capture with my camera, then you would understand. If New York City is the Olive Garden, Jerusalem is the spiciest Indian restaurant you’ve never eaten at! I am actually really sad when I think that many of you will never make it over here in your lifetime – for various reasons – but I can’t help but think of how much the world you will have missed.

Of course, the same could be said of Kyoto and New Zealand and most places. But if you value a place by how much blood has been shed over it and how broad and pervasive its influence across all measures of time and space, when you think about it, nothing compares with Jerusalem. It’s ridiculously small compared to…well even Cleveland, but its power to both germinate and smother ideas, to incite violence and inspire peace, to conjure new superstitions and promptly remedy them with tinkerbell traditions is unmatched.

If places were people, Jerusalem would be a whacky Italian grandmother – something like mine was – the kind that freaks you out a little but is nonetheless the most interesting way to spend a boring Sunday afternoon – better even than Hollywood – captivatingly spooky at best, amusing and downright ridiculous at worst - greasy in the fingers, stinky in the breath, but stories and more stories and hershey bar on the way out the door.

So I walked into the city today which means walking through primarily Muslim areas. Not exactly Kosher if you heed the fairly biased advice of our Dean. Not very safe. On our first trip into the city, the bus drove slowly through one of the areas I walked through today. Our guide squeaked through a badly amplified mic about how “they” live and advised us to take note of this or that anthropological thing. It was very much like a safari, and they were presented like wildlife – like monkeys that might mount the driver-side mirror or wildcats that were too hot to take on a busload of Jews – but if anyone of us were to wander alone…no telling!

There’s some truth to back up the alarmist, overly cautious perspective most people at Hebrew U have taken when it comes to the neighborhoods of people who shoot off guns in the air each night to celebrate weddings or randomly set fires to things like stolen cars or piles of trash…still – I am convinced that people are people. The kids playing in the streets there are still kids. You know, it’s funny how anywhere in the world, you can give a group of kids a ball and voila (as in abracadabera, for you speedreaders, not a medium voiced stringed instrument), they know instantly what to do with it. You never see kids just look at it like – “What the fuck are we supposed to do with that?” They play. It’s what kids do. American kids. Israeli kids. Palestinian kids. Iraqi kids. To some of them, I was clearly an outsider and somewhere along the line they learned to spit on such as myself…but, unfortunate for them, they missed. I walk at a brisk pace with a confidence that says – "I’m somebody. I’m going somewhere, and wouldn’t you like to know details?" OK. It’s delusional, but it’s a healthy delusion.

Right?

Shut up. It is. It's all I got since I ran out of pills.

Anyway. I had a falafel and an RC cola in the Muslim Quarter today - the more or less off-limits quarter where a couple of students from the program got mugged with clubs recently. I have to say – it was the, hands-down, best falafel I’ve had here. AND, the Muslim areas were by far the most interesting places I’ve been to thus far. Thinking on it, to not have gone there while in Jerusalem would have been like going to Disneyland just to buy batteries. I am glad I went. There were Israeli police at every turn, and moms, we need to be realistic. We’re talking about people. This isn’t snake handling and speaking in epileptic tongues in the Bible-belt of Bush-voting red states; it’s people buying and selling food and clothing on the streets where they live - and occasionally kidnap people so CNN has something to air.

I also went to Holy Sepulchre. Finally was able to find it. Ummm. It should be said that Christians are fucking weird. Really palpably weird. Particularly Roman Catholics, Greek/Russian Orthodox, and Armenian Christians.

Seriously. If I personally had a driver-side mirror on me, these people would have lept up onto it and licked me! I mean – people kissing stones and climbing under things and lighting candles and immediately snuffing them out and lighting more and snuffing those out, dropping coins into holes, and weeping at pieces sparkly and shiny things and putting those sparkly, shiny things in really cold, damp, dark, smelly places where the candlelight only accentuates their sparkly-shininess. There has to be a chapter on them in the DSM-IV. Honestly, the whole place was just eerie. It didn’t feel like God was there. And the big Jesus that stares down at you from the cupola looks menacing and terribly displeased with you - just for breathing His musty inscense-air. It felt like people had died there - along time ago and just - and more were going to die – soon and after. It felt kind of scary and intimidating and hopeless. Like a cemetery with drag queen superintendents to sprinkle glitter on every dead thing and the box it was put in. Everything centered around death – not life – not love – not hope – not joy. Just darkness. Darkness with all the sophistication of Transylvania.

Now – by far one of the best places I’ve been here was the Garden Tomb. It’s probably the only protestant-run holy place here. It was absolutely beautiful. It was a garden. The garden of Joseph of Arimathea – they think. The history, the archeology – everything fits the story - I'll fill you in if you're interested. But for starters – the bible talks about Jesus being crucified outside the city walls, which was required by Jewish law. The Garden Tomb is just outside the walls. The Holy Sepulchre, on the other hand, is smack dab in the freaking middle of the city and was “identified” as a holy place by the mother of Emperor Constantine who came down from Greece so many centuries after the fact. What’s really funny is that people are kissing a stone which purports to be the stone Jesus’s body was anointed on before entombment. Essentially, above and beyond the herpes lottery, why would you want to kiss a stone that is drizzled with hundreds upon thousands of people's saliva and chapstick? Um, we know for a fact that that particular stone was put there in 1810, so Jesus may have made it, but he didn't lie down on it. What’s more amusing is that we also know that the place where the Holy Sepulchre Church is is the site of a Roman Temple to Venus. The Romans were the people who came up with the whole crucifixion thing for capital punishment, right? So, they probably wouldn’t want to do that in one of their temples, right? Um…yeah. Kinda like December 25^th for the birth of Christ who was born in the Jewish month of Tishri. Can we say, September/October?

Sigh.

The Garden Tomb was the most calm place I’ve been in in this whole city. The people who greeted me at the gate had Mormon manners. It was an intelligent, repectable, holy site which made no definitive claims, no solemn deference to tradition, just facts and a good case to support a very plausible connection between a site which was unearthed after being forgotten for a very long time but which is nonetheless validated as significant by early Christian markings around the tomb suggesting early, early, early Christians thought it was someplace pretty special. Anyway. Very cool place. Glad I made it a priority to go find it…in the Muslim part of the city. *wink*

I also stumbled onto another really cool place – again – a church, but not one which is highly publicized. Probably because it’s not flashy and scary. It seems to be the site of an early Byzantine church which was built on top of Caiphas’s palace which is replete with a prison. It’s supposed to be the place where Peter denied Jesus three times, and the underground dungeons etc are believed to be the authentic place where Jesus would have been held from the time of his arrest to the time of his trial. Again, there are all kinds of early, early Christian markings which predate the Byzantine church all of which would suggest that the initial Christians thought this place was significant. I’m beginning to think that the sites with Byzantine correlations are probably the more authentic ones. The rest seem to have popped up out of nowhere at the time of the Crusades. I mean, the Via Dolorosa was pretty much invented in the 15^th century and makes absolutely no sense since it has Jesus coming from the opposite direction of the Citadel toward the Holy Sepulchre Church. The Citadel is where we know Pilate ruled from, so the Roman trial would have happened there. Let's not even talk about how a trip from the Citadel or the first station of the Via Dolorosa to a place outside the city walls would never have led you to where the Holy Sepulchre is. Let's not even discuss how ridiculous that is.

It’s just really funny to me how religion perpetuates falsehoods for the political and economic benefit of the institution and its leadership and absolves itself of all evil with fine print that claims the laity can’t handle truth and faith instantiated by lies is better than no faith at all. I personally think no faith at all is better than faith in a lie. But that’s just me.

Anyhow – I’m gonna post this cause it’s getting late, but I didn’t want to neglect my fans.

Pray for the Peace of Jerusalem.

That’s the trouble with homophones.; everyone prays for his piece of Jerusalem.

Shalom, shalom. Pictures here.

Don't fret...

As negative an attitude as I have at this very moment, I am improving my Hebrew by watching Harry Potter DVDs in Hebrew...

bet you all can't wait for my pizza and Hebrewy Potter marathon evenings, can you?

WTF!?!

OK.

After many,

many phonecalls to

Travelocity, Delta, El Al,

and

El Al, Delta, and Travelocity,

and Mom,

and Delta again (I hung up on two Delta people),

and after respeaking my selection five-million times to some automated call filter system that is meant to sound like June Cleaver but actually aggravates you to the point of compacting a plastic Nokia cell-phone into a diamond tennis bracelet...

after all that...as it now stands, I have a ticket to return on August 15th.

I am still stuck, broke, in the Middle East.

Something really sucks about being put on hold for half-hour stretches at a time at $0.31/minute on an international cell-phone while someone "checks a price" or "checks a time" or "confirms a flight number."



At this point, I have had enough "international" bullshit and am good and ready to return home for a chocolate milkshake at Abbott's, thank you very much!

Question...

I'm not sure how much longer I'll actually be over here, but I just checked with a couple of world news sites and I honestly can't formulate a solid opinion on what is happening over here.

I'd really appreciate hearing from those of you who read this (post a comment) what you think of this current Mid-East conflict. Who thinks Israel is doing the right thing? Who thinks that the US should continue to back Israel? I'm really conflicted. From the perspective of an Israeli, everyone has always and will always want them obliterated. Domestic attacks have become a veritable culture here and military offensives from the outside are the constant rather than the variable. Israeli experience has cultivated defensive wisdom from the very pragmatic realization that if Israel doesn't stick up for Israel, no one else will. So...in large part, I completely understand why Israel has decided to respond with "disporportionate" force.

The fact remains that this is a response. Israel didn't just decide to stretch forth an iron arm in Middle East and make war with it's neighbors. Rather, the neighbors decided for whatever reason that they wanted to provoke Israel. It's like kicking a sleeping dog. If after kicking the dog a number of times, it gets pissed off enough to bite a chunk out of your leg, well - which of us would say it was fair to put the dog to sleep for reacting violently?

And Israel isn't exactly a poodle. If you're going to kick Israel, you shouldn't be surprised when the jaws of a relentless pitbull lock into you. For centuries - Israelis (Jews) have been malnourished puppies left to shiver out back in the snow. Hence, they've developed a certain streetsense which seems entirely foreign and "disproportionate" to the well-fed and over-groomed in Europe. Give that pitbull a box to sleep in, and his experience with frost will incite him to defend that box against all odds.

At the same time, my balanced libran sensibilities can imagine the other dogs in this overpopulated desert ghetto we call the Middle East. It's not hard to sympathize with the neighbor's dog - also huddled in the cold - who gets the brave notion to risk all for a chance at his neighbor's cardboard shelter. Being that I am a human - a human with four siblings - I also know that we would all too often risk everyone being sent to bed early with no desert than see a brother or sister get away with some punishable dinner table offense. So it makes sense to me that someone could become charged with righteous jealousy and irrational malice which would rather blow itself and a busload of "siblings" to Kingdom Come than grant them a moment of psychological security.

Is it right?

No.

Do I understand it?

Certainly.

Should Hezbollah have decided to rain rockets down on Tiberias and Haifa?

Umm, no.

Is it a mystery that they did?

Umm, again, no.

Is all of Lebanon card-carrying supporters of Hezbollah?

No.

Should we assume that they are if they don't pack their things and leave to...wherever people leave to when their mailing address suddenly implicates them in plots of world terror?

No.

Are there innocent people who are unfortunately trapped under a flag they don't necessarily back?

Yup. (I need only point to so many stars and stripes to illustrate that the people under the flag aren't necessarily holding it up.)

Is backing down and saying, "they get the point; enough is enough" going to suffice?

The archives of MaAriv, HaAretz, and The New York Times are filled with enough articles to expose such a proposition as tragically naive.

Would it be vastly hypocritical for a nation to withdraw its support and revert to a policy of drooling indifference which in recent times replaced its motto "In God We Trust" with "We War Against Terror and Evil-Doer Idiologies"?

I think so.

Would turning a blind eye to Hezbollah expose a split personality among those who made deposing Saddam Hussein an international priority in response to an attack from Bin Laden?

I think it probably would.

Can we continue to police the globe without taxing them to pay for it all?

Stupid question which even non-regents highschool economics could equip one to answer. Of course not. We can't police a village without taxing the people who live there. Yet somehow we think we can continue to provide international security pro bono. I mean, maybe if we sell enough of those magnetic yellow ribbons we can? Or is that just Canadian optimism?

What do you think? What do you think? Inquiring minds want to know.

Ummm...

While I'm not going to change it, the first line of my last post is rather obscene if not read with the innocence of Laura Ingalls Wilder.

Apologies.

O : )

Tomorrow...

is the oral exam. And - I'm gonna suck.

Hebrew has suddenly taken a turn down an impossible road. And my brain is basically shutting off to new stuff. Although, as anyone who has learned another language will tell you, when you get diliriously tired, drunk, or just stop caring - the lack of inhibition actually peels away the skin of ineptitude that makes you think you know nothing. You start to actually talk naturally and it freaks you out to hear yourself...then you fall flat on your face in a pathetic stutter, just like a kid who starts to rejoice a bit too soon at the realization that they can ride a bike without the training wheels. But the good news is that somewhere, deep inside, with a little bit of vodka, you really can do it.

I mean - if you had been with me a few minutes back and seen how a simple yoghurt parfait purchase went down, you'd have said, "Sam, dear, give it up." To which I would have said, "Friend, sweet, supportive friend, I got my f*ing yoghurt, didn't I?"

And then there was this point earlier where we were doing dialogues in class and my partner (who is czech and sounds like a manual can-opener when he speaks) and I were talking to one another staging Grandparents explaining how they met and fell in love to their grandchildren...and stuff just came flowing out of my mouth really smoothly really accurately and even my instructor was pretty impressed. (Mind you, when your instructor is shocked when you do things well, that is at once a compliment and an insult.) Of course, that was the very moment of pride where I looked over my proverbial shoulder as if to say "Look at me, I'm doing it!" - and in that same moment...

WHACK! Right into a linguistic tree!

But there are only a few more days of class - so I just have to press on like nails.

Anyway - I'm still looking to change my flight, but as it stands, Delta is only waiving their fees for flights through July 31st. Mine is August 15th. So, I'm gonna wait to see if they extend things into August before I make any move on changing the ticket at cost.

Of course, you - the members of the Shmuelliott Fan Club - will be the first to know. Promise.

I am going to go study a bit and think about what all I need to learn before my exam tomorrow. The written exam is a three hour deal on Monday, so, we've got that to look forward to as well, folks.

Oh - on a lighter note - I had a terrible dream last night of planes flying over the University and bombing everything. I remember looking up and seeing the tower fall and well, it was a pretty scarey dream. Everyone was trying to hide underground and stuff. The only consolation is that no one besides the United States has the kind of Airforce that could break into Israeli airspace for any length of time.

That's just to say that beneath all of my confidence that I am safe here, there's clearly a part of me that isn't totally sure.

But - I did make a little friendship with the kitty from the cupboard. He lets me pet him now.

So...there's that.

Out on the town...

Today was a really great day. I overslept because my alarm was set for Sunday when classes start later. My roommate left early this morning, so he was around to wake me when the alarm didn’t go off. Anyhow, I used the providential opportunity for another of my fieldtrip days. There is so much to see here and so little time left really, so I really want to be sure to see the things I want to have seen before I have to go. Today I was able to check a few off my list. Really, just a day of wandering around a city like this is indescribably fascinating. Even when you set out with a list of things to see and do, you can’t help but get distracted along the way or find yourself off discovering things that you didn’t even know existed.

Today - I made it a point to go scope out the Mount of Olives. It’s literally the next “mount” over from Mount Scopus where the University is, but it’s not exactly convenient to get to because the area between here and there is predominantly arab/muslim. Not that that’s a problem in and of itself – at least not for me – but there are those that would say it’s a safety concern to just set off in that direction on foot. So…I took a cab. Ordinarily that’s not much of a story, but this particular driver didn’t exactly speak English very well, so we had a fun time sorting out where I wanted to go and how best to get there. I picked him cause of all the many sketchy cabs around, this one was a VW Passat. And I’m not a materialist or anything, but if the price is the same, I’ll take the upgrade.

Well – we got off to a rough start. He didn’t exactly know where he was going – or so he pretended. And I was getting anxious as the cab just seemed to jet off in the direction of the Wall - the Palestinian territory wall. I made a few stark gestures toward my map and we turned around. I think he got the point. As soon as I saw a wall with the inscription “Hortus Gethsemane” – think horticulture, you’ll get it – I knew we were where I wanted to be, so I got out. So I got to see what remains of the grove of olive trees which is some 2,000 years old. Eight of the trees are verifiably as old as the time of Christ and are certain to have been among those there the night of the arrest. There is also the grotto, or cave, which is said to be the place where the disciples slept while Jesus prayed. Who knows. Nearby is also a nice tomb of sorts that the Russian, Armenian, and Greek Orthodox Churches claim was the resting place of the Virgin Mary. Enjoying the thick smell of incense, I gave it a respectful protestant nod and moved on.

I hung out for a while on the Mount of Olives among the stones which collectively make an enormous cemetery. Very ancient. I was there for noon time prayer, so the chants from the Minarets of the Al Aqsa Mosque on the temple mount across the way echoed among the stones lending a mizrakhi chill that is the Middle Eastern answer to bagpipes in November fog. I also visited the “Tomb of the Prophets” which tradition holds is the burial place of Malachi, Haggai, and Zechariah. While it’s not likely these catacombs actually hold the remains of Hebrew prophets, it was a fascinating place. It’s run by the Russian Orthodox Church and isn’t really well known nor is it on the way to anywhere. So, there’s just this long walk up a hill which leads to a drive way with a man and his flashlight. He is all to eager to show you what is just down a dozen or so unimpressive steps. It’s pitch dark except for a few small candles – the air is moist and stale. It feels like something out of Transylvania - only with a touch more Old Testament. Seriously – this place was cool. Not much is known about it except that it’s a series of underground “galleries” which branch off from what was once a rather large cistern. In all likelihood is was an early Byzantine crypt. He shut the flashlight off so I could get a feeling for how it would have felt to go down in there without more than a candle. It was surprisingly beautiful with all kinds of the mysterious shadows and dark hollows. The only thing that wasn’t so cool about it was the fact that the little place that I get coffee from always gives you a chocolate with your coffee, and I had put it uneaten into my pocket. In the heat, I managed to make what might just be the world’s first chocolate covered cellphone. I realized this when I reached my hand into my pocket while in the Tomb of the Prophets. The odd point here is, when I got the damn piece of chocolate and put it with my change into my pocket, I had a fleeting inner voice which said, “Don’t. It’ll melt.” Off I went, ignoring my inner prophet, to bury him among friends.

What else…um…lots else.

I could tell of my conversation about Chicago versus New York City with the little Arab grave digger boys, but I need to get to bed.

Only not before I confess to eating McDonalds today. And, AND, not only did I eat McDonalds, but I ate cheese on my burger! *gasp!*

I just had to. The art of eating meat with cheese here is akin to underage drinking back home. There is a certain evil satisfaction we humans derive out of doing anything that’s not allowed. Seriously, if they made laws that said you HAD to stay up late and you HAD to sleep in, we’d have entire subversive chat-room cultures of the radically healthy, wealthy, and wise. Besides – the girl at the counter knew to ask if I wanted cheese cause my Hebrew stinks of American, and that means that even if I were totally Jewish, I’d be a Reform Jew at best. So when her volume dropped to a whisper and a wink as she mentioned the cheeseburger option (not on the actual, visible menu), I was totally in! Civil liberties never tasted so good!

Soldiers with automatic weapons in McDonalds while kids race Happy Meal toys on the tile – that’s a whole ‘nuther bedtime story! But before I go, there was a cute little girl with curly blonde hair eating french fries and sucking her thumb at the same time. I had an optimistic inner-laugh at the universals of childhood!

Over.

Out. Pictures here.

WWJD?

Hmmm...what can I share? There isn't much new to report except that I didn't do badly on the killer test last Thursday. I got it back today - 87. Generally, all of my grades are 88s to date and this one is one point less - actually had an 88 written on the top and then revised to an 87. So. I can totally live with that seeing as most of us wanted to slit our wrists after that exam. Looks like I may actually pass Level Aleph after all. Yay?

Yay.

So we just got about 150 students here from Haifa who were relocated because of the deadly fireworks they are having up north. I guess there were three bombs found on people in Tel Aviv this weekend - one on the beach, of all places. So far - nothing's actually happened. Things still feel incredibly safe here - as they always do the afternoon before Kristalnacht. I registered with the consulate yesterday just cause I thought it might be a wise thing to be accounted for somewhere other than Travelocity.

I've had the opportunity to chat with a few of you on instant messenger, and I have to say, it's a very small world and technology has made the Atlantic Ocean little more than a physical inconvenience.

What else can I say? I think I need a nap before I make some attempt at studying and doing some homework. There's a British war cemetery down the street from me that is rumored to be home to the peacefully resting soul of one Mister Harry Potter. Perhaps I'll walk down and weave through the stones till I find him. That'd be a really nice picture to have.

Other than that - I need some coffee. I had meat today. So, that makes me feel less like an extra in a documentary on the Irish potato famine. Um...sometimes I feel really stupid for being in such aN historic city and keeping a schedule comprised of dorm to school to computer lab to coffee shop to dorm. I mean, really, as someone pointed out to me yesterday (Cory), when one is in Jerusalem, one must ask the eternally critical question: WWJD?

What Would Jesus Do?

My guess is that right now, he'd probably take a nap. Any objections?

Pictures

Tel Aviv & Jaffo
Israel's Manhattan and Jaffo, one of the world's oldest cities.

Jaffa Gate & Arab Shuk
Where the bomb was recently found on the 25 year old boy in a routine security check - I mentioned this in a previous post with link to article in J'salem Post.

Yemin Moshe
Very wealthy neighborhood in Jerusalem - first neighborhood outside of the walled city and the first to have public sanitation. People who lived here survied a cholera epidemic which wiped out much of J'salem. There's also a picture of what is said to be King Herod's tomb. It's has the roll away stone like the Garden Tomb which the Anglican's claim is the tomb owned by Joseph of Arimathea and used to inter the body of Jesus. I hope to make it there before I leave.

* Notice the picture with the new wall seperating the Palestinian territory (at the very top) and Gehinnom, A.K.A. "Hell" at the bottom

Sinatra Cafeteria
This is the cafeteria at Hebrew University, Mt. Scopus Campus where I sometimes eat lunch.
As mentioned in an earlier post, this was the site of a suicide bombing in 2002. The displaced tree is a memorial of the blast which killed 9 and injured 80. The bomber was a cafeteria employee.

Catching up...

Today - early-early in the morning - 2:30 - after no real sleep, we boarded a bus to go out into the desert to see the sunrise over the Dead Sea - which is, of course, what normal people do when they run out of masochistic things to do like homework and exams in a language that's roughly 3,000 years old. It was surprisingly worth it. The sun was a National Geographic golden-orange as it slyly rolled out from behind the desert. For a moment, I thought to myself, if I hadn't grown up watching the Smurfs on Saturday mornings, and if I lived among the dusty backdrop of Middle East without a Regent's Diploma, I too might be induced to worship such a mysteriously beautiful citrus disc. And then, after all of three minutes' pause, my twenty-first century American sensibilities returned. I snapped a few frames with the Canon to preserve some evidence to counter the attention-deficit which would soon forget the compelling sight, and - with a roll and some chocolate milk from a bag - I trudged up the side of Masada to look at how people stacked rocks for Herod.

Very interesting.

The view from up there is amazing - one of few truly valid opportunities to use the word "awesome" without being the least hyperbolic. Still. I couldn't help but wonder why in G-d's name people without bottled water and refrigerators would think it was a good idea to nestle down up there overnight - let alone centuries.

People are weird.

And then there's us... We don't live up there, but we fly from all over the world to lose a night of sleep to climb up there so we can look down. Granted, if when we looked down, it registered that the ordinary life over which we lose sleep - the cable bill, the price of gas, the next American Idol - was just as small as the Roman ruins below which struggle to form a modest square in the dirt after two thousand years - well, that would redeem the sunburn acquired in the process. Unfortunately, in the presence of the rubble of a long-dead, paranoid king's cottage in the desert, we board the bus to head home and worry. I mean seriously, if we can't marshal the manpower to raise a city on a desert mountain, what are we so worried about? Who's gonna remember my credit rating or GPA if we can barely make out an entire city after so much time? For all of his greatness, Herod would be sad to know that his temple came crashing down in 70 AD, and Masada is now a place where people enact his abridged biography with cheesy scripts and a British Accent. Afraid of losing his power, he killed his own family, and now after the dust has settled, he wears a plastic helmet and brandishes a plastic sword before an audience of Jewish teenagers on an expensive field-trip. Honestly, I will put forth my best effort, but I'm not going to act like it's the end of the world the next time I get an A minus.

The Dead Sea? Quite possibly the strangest experience of my life. You're in water. Standing straight up. Not treading or kicking. Standing. In water. And your feet aren't touching the bottom. You lean back like you're in a LazyBoy, feet up, and there you go. You're sitting in water. No floaties. Nothing to inflate or strap to your body. Just you. And really, really salty water.

It's probably more accurate to say: Just you and really, really watery salt.

Surreal.

And you look out over the water and there's Jordan to the East of you...and to your left, mountains and palm trees. It's like your life has suddenly become a felt-board Bible story from Sunday school.

We also went to Ein Gedi, which is an Oasis. A real Oasis. The Essenes used to live there.

Streams in the desert. Waterfalls and greenery.

Oh...waterfalls, greenery, and guinea pigs the size of small dogs hopping around in the trees.
(see pictures of Rock Hyrax)

The next time my life gets stressful, wherever I am, whatever I'm doing, I am going to remember that somewhere on this planet, over here in Israel, there are big teddy-bear rodents rolling around in the dirt, spralling on the rocks, and drinking from a waterfall.

Just when you think you know the world you live in...

You really don't have the first clue.

Right now, while you're reading this, there's a whole community of humpback whales catching krill by swimming to bottom of the ocean and making "nets" of bubbles and swimming straight up to the surface with their mouths open.

The largest mammal lives on krill...

and penguins. The penguins of the world are doing something right now. I don't know exactly what they're doing, but they're doing something.

They don't just exist when we think about them. Even though that's pretty much how all of us understand the world to work. The people we know - our family - the dog we left at home this morning...what are they doing when we're not with them?

Probably not just waiting in freeze-frame to be a part of our lives again. At least probably not.

Pictures of Dead Sea & Masada

Update, random thoughts...the usual.

things are still very much ok here - no worries really.

you can read in the blog the extent of my personal concerns and the actual situation in J'salem - there was one close call with the bomb found at Jaffa Gate - there will be others eventually: where, when, who...no one knows..and it's all very unlikely to affect me directly. if for some reason it does, well, we have to accept that that's what's meant to be.

i can't say enough what a really eye-opening experience this has been. the language learning has been only superficially central to the whole experience, but the questions raised, the old answers which have been dispatched as irrelevant, and the emotional quandaries that won't submit to prose...all have made this venture phenomenally worth the worry and frustration which preceded it and which to some extent will persist until i am home again

at this point, i am likely returning on the order of days after the program ends rather than remaining until the 15th of august

that is rather disappointing to me for a several reasons but appears to be the most reasonable concession to safety and sanity. i remind myself that the ancient character of this place testifies to the possibility of coming back again sometime. it is - quite literally - not going anywhere.

anyway - your prayers and support are certainly appreciated - though - living here has led me to wonder just who or what in fact any of us are praying to. if i come away with anything it's the hope that there is in fact a God and the belief (contingent on the latter) that if He is, He is one God. Hear, Oh Israel, the Lord Our God is One

Not one of several or many - the. The one, singular God of all of us - not submitting to the economy of a particular people or their creeds and comfortable traditions. And all this bickering and craziness over land which none of us can legitimately claim as our own will at some time yet "future" seem like so much vanity to the shame of many who have dedicated the whole of their lives to making loud assertions to the contrary. For each rightful claim, there is always one to precede it and memory can only go so far back. But as far as memory can go, we apprehend a truth which is bitter to those that make a profession of grabbing sand. Whoever has it now, took it from someone else. Whoever it was taken from, would like it back. And whoever has it now, will not have it forever.

I wear a ring which says in Hebrew "Love your neighbor as yourself." That pretty much sums up all I am willing to take with me after years of sifting through many of the world's faiths.
I want to cry when I consider how those words take on the whimper of a lost child in this city...world.

I contemplate often - again - a future in ministry, but as soon as the thought gathers, it gets the wind knocked out of it in a forecast of futility. I wonder, what could I possibly do, say, or be which has not already been and failed here among mankind? I wonder, how could I help point to what I can't see myself, or speak for the Voice I have no confidence I can actually hear beyond the random clatter of my own mind trying to console its lonely self. Can anything in the name of religion undo the world of harm which has been done in the name of religion? Can even faith, if not religion, be helpful - having been the inspiration and momentum of milenia of religious discord and "loving" injury?

Misinformed and misinforming - mistaken and misunderstood - we have tried in God's name to secure a better world, and in every instance we have had the same effect as the warm-blooded fingertip which aspires to catch a snowflake. Sometimes I wonder if the better ministry - the gift I could give to the world - is not to cool my blood like so many others hoping to catch the glory of a moment with beauty unharmed, but to stay inside - and accept the chasm between me and that dream, admiring the snow from a distance.

I simply don't know. What I do think I know is, that in spite of the wisdom which has taught me not to make promises, I would like to come as close as I can to promising without swearing I won't disappoint that I won't add to all the confusion with opinions and ideas dressed up like Truth, or piously perpetuate others' pain and my own while calculating an eternal reward, and I can't see any logic in destroying creation for the Creator's sake. So, I hope I can craft of these and Micah 6:8 a life which defies religion.

I would rather find myself staring blankly at Him after the fact in all my nakedness and say, "I wasn't really sure, so I kept my mouth shut and tried to make friends with people who could just as easily have been enemies."


"He hath showed thee, O man, what is good; and what doth the Lord require of thee, but to do justly, and to love kindness, and to walk humbly with thy God?" Micah 6:8

Yawn...

I am so tired at the moment. I am also very anxious for the Ulpan to be over. I've kind of reached a point where motivation is generally low - there just seems like there's always so much work. It's very exhausting. Though, it is really cool that despite my hesitance to speak much, I certainly understand a LOT of Hebrew. It's an amazing thing to sit through entire lectures of rather sophisticated content and to understand nearly everything. It's reminding me a lot of the stages I went through with German. It's kind of unfortunate that unlike Germany, I will not be here long enough to graduate from this phase of language acquisition to the next when you just suddenly spout language like crazy - like kids do once they've started to really talk. But, I seriously don't know how I would feel about being here for an extended period of time. I definitely will want to come back at some point - learn more - see more - do more.

I went to Tel Aviv and Jaffo briefly the day before yesterday. Tel Aviv has a totally different feel to it than J'salem. Tel Aviv certainly felt much less psychologically suffocating. People there are not as religious making it far less stuffy and tense. Still - as metropolitan as it is, it remains very Middle Eastern in ways which betray one is not in the proverbial Kansas anymore.

Jaffo was an interesting little place to visit. It's a much older city than Jerusalem, if you can wrap your mind around such a possibility. The area is reputed to have been settled by one of Noah's sons after the flood...etc...etc...etc...then Rameses came along...then this group and that group and the British and the Turks...and Napoleon...everyone seems to have come through there at some point and leveled the place to leave his own mark. So, I joined the list.

I didn't really leave anything behind or make a mark per se but I did have a beer with two blonde sisters from Panama. Honestly, each of you pause a moment and think, when was the last time you associated with a Panamanian? Have you in very fact ever met someone from Panama? Ah-ha! I thought so!

That is one thing that should be said about Israel: you can meet people from virtually all over the world here. Whereas the typical American can chart foreign origins a few generations previous to themselves, we are pretty well blended and unexceptionally bland in terms of raw, first generation cultural migration. The diversity here is - while very Jewish to be sure - nonetheless very international - and prompts one to consider the linguistic and cultural heterogeneity of Manhattan during the latter 19th and early 20th centuries.

I have pictures to post of Tel Aviv and other things, but I don't have the cables, etc. with me today to upload things...so another time. Until then, close your eyes, and imagine whatever you wish to the dinging sound of the Trolley as it rolls off behind the cozy nook into the wall behind Picture-Picture.

As far as safety - things feel totally normal. "Totally" being used here as a relative term.

The other night was the first time I got nervous on a bus here. I almost got off (of the bus). It wasn't really that I was in any danger - that I know of - it was mostly psychological. The bus stop I got on at had a plaque recalling a bus-bombing that happened at that same stop in 2004 killing a bus-load of people. It just felt like getting on a rollercoaster after reading an article about how one of its trains derailed not long ago killing all thrill-seekers. I couldn't imagine myself wanting to ride such a ride under those circumstances - taking such a risk, yet here I was dropping five and half shekels for a ride home.

I vacillated between calmly calculating the unlikelihood of something like that happening again - at that stop - on my bus - and feeling really irrationally paranoid. The bus was crowded, and it was a line which routes through Me'a She'arim (an ultra-orthodox neighborhood where people still live like they did in the middle ages). It's a bit unnerving to ride a bus with so many obviously religious Jews, because that is precisely the kind of bus that would make a great target. It has happened that Palestinian suicide-bombers have dressed as Hassidic Jews to board buses under the typical RADAR of the most tenured Israeli. Still, I thought of all the people on that bus - the people who ride it every day - the bus driver who has no doubt tired of playing through various tragic scenarios in his head and has come to accept that at each stop, he may in fact make change for a passenger who takes more than a seat.

I thought of each of them and tried to find the most appropriate rank and file in which to place myself with relation to the others on-board and the risk - real or imagined. I took my seat, and like the rest of them, I watched the door, inspected each new passenger for abnormally baggy or unseasonal clothing, and comforted myself with the fallacy that I would know a suicide bomber when I saw one. You kind of plug your ears and hum fuzzy logic to drown out the ridiculousness naivete of such a notion. But that's what people do here. That's how you continue to get to where you're going. That's how you continue to allow yourself to have places to go.

It's funny, but accepting the real possibility that this may be your last bus-ride, your last anything - accepting that life does not consist of hiding out until it's "safe" and recognizing that death is something one needs to be prepared to accept whenever he boards a bus in Israel. Or Manhattan - or Rochester - or gets in a car - or eats a steak - or takes a new medication - or invites someone home from the bar - or crosses the street. You have to live smartly, no matter who or where you are. You shouldn't take risks recklessly when they can be intelligently avoided.

BUT, you can't plaster yourself into a room watching the security level bounce from yellow to orange and back again and call that life. You have to nod respectfully at the plaque that says, "This could be it. Are you OK with that?" Then, with mere seconds of subconscious deliberation, the next foot follows the first and you purchase your destiny for five and a half shekels.

That's how you get to Point B instead of nervously chattering on the bench at A.

That's how you go on living.

We all do it. Everyday. Israel just paints with the stark colors of Warhol and brash impulsive lines of Picasso. In Rochester, our good fortune dabs out lilypads of the very same truth with muted blues which melt into greens. Still everywhere - whether we put them there or not - there could be plaques to remind us that we have only the nearest Now and whatever illusory security guards our permanence, it is little more than a house of cards.

And the rockets' red glare...

To be honest, I skipped class today. I decided that I wanted to go see the Dead Sea Scrolls while I could, should something happen which requires I leave earlier than expected. So I did. I had a great day! The Israel Museum and the Museum of Bible Lands were truly phenomenal. I can't even get into all the amazing things I saw today. The collection of artwork that Israel has is truly impressive. So many VERY famous sculptures and paintings...Rodin, Moore, Chagall, Cezanne, VanGogh, Warhol, Monet, the best of the best...

And as far as archeology is concerned, there's no place like Jerusalem! I saw the only piece of archeological evidence for Roman crucifixion...namely, a segment of bone from a man's heel with an iron nail in it found in an ossuary here in J'salem. Stuff from Caiphas, Pontius Pilate, King David and Solomon...not forgetting the Shrine of the Book where the Dead Sea Scrolls and the Aleppo Codex are housed. The Aleppo Codex, for those who don't know, is considered to be the most accurate extant text of the Hebrew Bible from the Masoretes on which all Bibles worth their salt (get it? Dead Sea!) are based on. The Dead Sea Scrolls for those who don't know corroborate the accuracy of today's Bible. Before their discovery, the earliest texts of the Tenakh were from 900CE making our Old Testament archeologically younger than our New Testament.

Anyhow, after that I wandered up to the Knesset which is the Israeli equivalent of our Capitol Building slash White House. There, quite in concert with Sam's bizarre life of coincidence, I was able to be among a small handful of lucky people who happened to be in the right place at the right time and saw the Israeli Military Generals and Prime Minister get out of their tinted-window cars and hop into camouflaged helicopters. Oh yes. You don't have to say what we already know. I am special.

On a less happy note, today in J'salem they apprehended a 25 year old Palestinian at the Jaffa Gate who had a rather large explosive in his bag. It's the first time in a while that a suicide bombing has been attempted. Fortunately, with routine security in just about every place you can fit more than two people, they found it before he got to where he was going.

SoOo...looks like J'salem is not completely in the clear. The coming days will tell whether this attempt was an independent one or something more orchestrated. Mind you, I rode the bus right at the Jaffa Gate today...just typing that out makes me feel like I need to really process that whole thing later tonite. I don't exactly feel moved by any of that...but maybe I should.

On a much lighter note, I feel I must again take this opportunity to profess and confirm that Israeli men make me want to be cautious about which bus I board lest my life end without one. Sigh.

Not the Israeli men with wide-brimmed hats and black coats with tassels, but the ones with deep mysterious black eyes, espresso colored hair, and olive skin...

...features which, in spite of the Good Shepherd's holiness, have mischieviously fueled conflicting passions for Jesus as centuries of nuns (and priests) pressed their sexual frustration into each bead as they prayed for merciful relief from their human nature. The bronze Judean still gazes innocently at His secret admirers from over the altar. Sigh. Sigh squared. Although, I think we can all agree that Jesus needs a haircut. Right?

Exactly.

Peace from the City of Peace. Out.

Pictures from today.

*waves*

No real need to post anything - but want to keep people informed as to situation over here, since I get quite a few worried e-mails each day.

We had a University-wide assembly today to hear from some people with connections to the military and the press...the message is pretty consistent: people in Jerusalem are safe. People on Mt. Scopus in Jerusalem are really safe. Mt. Scopus and the Hebrew University have historically served as a fortress in times of war because it isn't a very accessible place from outside. In fact, the University of Haifa is sending its international students here for the remainder of the conflict. Israeli military expect this will be well under control in no more than four days. We'll see. Remember, Israel's military rivals any of the grassroots warfare of the surrounding nations, and their Airforce is the best in the world. They are currently cutting off all kinds of infrastructure which would make further attacks nearly impossible. Now, should domestic enemies decide to take advantage of the preoccupation with Hezbollah, well....that could be a problem. There haven't been any incidents yet.

I know CNN and other press is probably making this sound like a real mess here...it is. Relative to Rochester, it is. But not here where I am - not yet. In Haifa, in Tiberias...sure, but both are well north of here. The people in Haifa are down in their shelters...FYI we have shelters here - they are everywhere, so should something happen, it's not like back home.

The provost reminded us that never in Israel's history has travel to the outside been cut-off, so if we need to leave, we can and will. Things have been much worse than they are now. It's important to remember that we are talking about rockets which have a very limited range. The danger in Jerusalem remains suicide bombings in crowded public places like buses and cafes. We've been told to stay clear of places that seem crowded. Bombers want to take out greater numbers of people and security in crowded places is also more difficult. So, keeping that in mind, one can remain fairly safe by avoiding what a bomber would consider a good target. Much of Jerusalem is just as valuable to Israel's enemies as it is to Israel, so the chances of reckless bombings or rockets is really slim.

Anyway - those of you who worry (mom, lois), are going to worry no matter what I say, but I just want to be honest about what it's really like here - the un-newsworthy - the boring fact that I slept last night, got up, took a shower, went to class, got a test back (84), ate lunch, checked e-mail...just like thousands of other Israelis in Jerusalem, and very likely will do the same thing tomorrow.

Don't worry. Being here, now, is a big part of why I came here.

I wanted to see how other people live - and I am.

Yad VaShem - A Place and a Name

Ok. Quick update. First off, for people like my mom who are getting worried about me being over here right now - seriously - things are okay where I am as of yet. If things change, I'll come home. At this point, I am considering abandoning the initial plan to stay on two more weeks and travel a bit. Most of the places I want to go aren't safe. Haifa has had some bombings. Tiberias, Capernaum, and the Sea of Galilee area are being hit with rockets...so, I don't think it would be wise to go anywhere North of here. Now, South? That's the Negev. A big ol' desert. Not really anxious to go there. Eilat, the very tip of the South? Nice beaches, dolphin sanctuaries, etc. etc...but again, nothing I absolutely have to see. About the only place I'd care to spend some time is Tel Aviv, but I could forego even that. I'll be going to Jaffo and Tel Aviv on a day trip this Tuesday anyway. This Thursday and Friday, I'm going to Massada. As much as I really do like it here, I would like to be home. I miss it.

The other day I went to Yad VaShem, the holocaust museum here. It was a really nice museum - only a year or so old. But hold onto your seats for a classic weird story from the stranger-than-fiction life of Sam...

Back when I lived in Germany, I went to visit a few of the concentration camps. One of the camps I went to was in Poland - Majdanek - which is about a kilometer just outside the center city of Lublin. The camp wasn't really a formal museum at the time and most of it had been left untouched over the years. There wasn't a guide, nor were there little placards to explain what we were seeing. We just wandered about a run down concentration camp. There were still rooms of shoes and personal effects from the people taken there - still heaps of ashes in the krematoria. Definately not like Dachau near Munich where things are "restored" to sterility befitting a museum.

There was a point during our informal unguided wanderings of the camp where my friend Ellen and I sat on a twisted piece of metal (see picture above) on the edge of the woods on the periphery of the camp. It was kind of lodged in the dirt among weeds under some pine trees. We had no clue what it was, just that it looked strange and kind of rocked like a see-saw when we sat on it.

(Yes, we were see-sawing in a concentration camp. Don't judge. It's a weird place to be - when you take pictures standing next to a sign that says "Krematoria" do you pose and smile? look sadly at the ground with your hands in your pockets? stare contemplatively off into the distance? Yeah. There isn't really a protocol for such a circumstance. It's just odd all the way around. You find yourself yawning in a spot near a wall with bulletholes in it or your tummy grumbling beneath tree with only one limb left and you wonder...what happened here and why in the eerie shadow of man's darkest moments in history do I feel hungry - bored? So, to break the awkward displacement of your soul while standing on earth hallowed by another's torturous death and feeling little difference between that spot and any other where you might have a picnic, what do you do? Naturally, you see-saw on the piece of twisted metal before you. Naturally.)

OK, back to the story...

After returning to the states from my year in Germany, my family and I went to the Holocaust Memorial Museum in DC when I was visiting prospective colleges of which the American University in DC was one. The museum was still new then and somewhere among the exhibits there, with a halo of halogen, was this same piece of funky metal on display. I remember being really shocked to see it again. It's certainly not the kind of thing you expect to develop an on-going relationship with - yet there it was like a kitten that followed you home.

Finally, I got a proper introduction. A little plaque to the side explained what it was, and to paraphrase, it was a truck chassis which was used as an impromptu grill to burn remaining bodies with when news told of camps westward being liberated. Had I known, I probably wouldn't have seed and sawed on it.

Anyway, one transatlantic reunion with such an artifact was certainly a bit odd. Now - years after - I met up with my metal friend once again, here at Yad VaShem in Jerusalem! As soon as I saw it about a hundred yards off from where we entered the Toblerone Bar shaped museum hall, it was like spotting an old highschool buddy. I grabbed my roommate and told him - "When we get to that thing, if the sign on it says it's from Majdanek, I'm going to have a story to tell you." Sure enough...

It's things like that that make me suspect that under all the seeming chaos, Life, at least my life has a rhythm - an order - a purpose. And if mine, then all. How else could one account for such synchronicities?

After that, we went to Mount Hertzl where many famous Israeli leaders are burried - it's like the Arlington National Cemetery of Israel. We saw the tomb of Yitzchak Rabin who was assasinated by a right-wing extremist Jew at a peace rally in 1995. We also saw the graves of Golda Meir and Theodor Hertzl among others. Very interesting. Then we sat on the grass and listened to a young (25) Israeli read some emotional things he wrote the day Rabin was assasinated. Very moving.

Um...not much besides.

The Caves of Judea and a Kibbutznik Millipede.

Hello everyone. Thought I'd give a brief update. Yesterday I went on an excursion to the hills of Judea which is Southwest of here. Basically, Jerusalem is surrounded by Palestinian territory except to the West, so you go West then South. For those of you who don't know geography very well, Israel is about the size of New Jersey. We went up to the top of a big hill yesterday to a forest ranger post where they watch for forest fires, and you can see from one side of Israel (the Mediterranean Sea) to the other (Jordan). It's actually really bizarre to say you can see across an entire country from one high spot like that. It's also a little sobering to realize that we were standing on the border of the West Bank looking East to the Gaza Strip. So - all those places in the news are quite literally a stone's throw away. The University issued a statement to calm our families that we are well out of harm's way. Security has escalated somewhat, and they intend to bring in some "experts" at the beginning of next week to discuss in greater detail with us (students) what is going on nationwide and to advise us concerning travel plans, general safety, etc. I can't explain how odd it feels on one hand to be going about life very much as usual here - normal classes - normal activities, but at the same time watching the news and seeing what is going on literally an hour and a half away. It's like living in Rochester and knowing that there's a war on in Buffalo. Some people are a little concerned. Basically, I'm taking my cues from Israelis. When they get nervous, I'll get nervous.

We went into Judea and saw some nifty caves. Caves used by the Jews in the Bar Kochba rebellion against the Romans - like - lots of years ago. I still can't get over how rich with history everything is here. The caves aren't in some well marked tourist park where they are well travelled and selling postcards on the way out. We went to one first and because there were people there already, our guide simply took the bus a little further down the road. You then just walk out into the fields and there are caves pretty much every dozen steps. It's not hard to see why the Dead Sea Scrolls could be more or less stumbled upon by some farmers. The only people around were Arab shepherds. The Jews lived for about two years in these caves like little gophers and would pop up long enough to wreak havoc on some Romans with Guerrilla warfare and then dodge back underground into a network of tunnels. This little system apparently worked well enough for them to mint their own coins and such for this underground Judea of theirs. Neat-o, eh?

Afterwards we went to a kibbutz, swam in the pool, looked at their cows, then ate cows in form of hamburgers. Actually, until last night when I had an ice cream bar after the hamburger, I had unintentionally and effortlessly eaten Kosher since getting here. It's actually hard not to eat Kosher here. Downtown, many restaurants are split into two sides: one dairy, one meat. You have to decide before you go in what you intend to eat. Now, in Tel Aviv, where things are a bit more secular, you can order ham at some places. I know this because my roommate had a seizure over the fact after visiting some of his relatives there last weekend. Pork is available in Israel, but the pigs have to be raised on platforms such that they never touch Israeli ground. Obsessively fascinating, don't you agree?

Pictures of the hills of Judea, the caves, and some cows from the Kibbutz.

Oh, and a millipede. And a cell tower made to look like a palm tree.

Look for the guy standing up in khaki shorts smiling to his right, your left. That's my roommate. No, he does not look menacing, as indeed he's not. But, we definitely see the world differently. He just completed his PhD and has a position as assistant professor at Columbia. BUT, like some doctors I know, he's decided he wants to go military. He's decided he wants to join the Israeli Army. SoOoOo...

Tomorrow I am going to Yad VaShem which is THE Holocaust museum. I'm told it will be among the most memorable experiences in Israel. I'll let you know. After seeing the camps themselves in Europe...well, we'll see.

Hope you are all well stateside. It's beautiful and endlessly eye-opening here, but I do miss home. Az, Jalla. Bye. Az, Jalla-bye.

This just in...

Last night I went downtown to see a movie. When it comes out there it will be called The Bubble...it's an israeli movie (in Hebrew) It's one of Ethan Fox's films - he's a pretty provocative director who makes really good albeit controversial films.

The movie is a bit heavy on the gay theme which I don't mind, but there are a few of you out there that would find parts uncomfortable - guys kissing, girls kissing...etc. with a very liberally inclusive etcetera. It does a really good job of showing life among young adults of Tel Aviv with all the conflict between various social groups, coming of age, and a romance which crosses the Palestinian/Israeli border, suicide bombings, yadda-yadda...very worth seeing..may not be out until i am home..but look for it. I highly recommend it.

The latest news ie. more israeli soldiers taken, israel invading Lebanon...etc. Not the best of news and as tensions escalate, opinions surface. I am finding it very difficult to deal with the vast extremes in perspectives. No one wants to budge. Each thinks he is exclusively right. When good defenses become brittle, people just get loud, and the loudest one wins. My roommate continues to be one of those for whom there is no question on the issue: Israel is always right no matter what it does or how it does it. It's very frustrating how much people assert Israel is a definitively Jewish nation, yet no one - absolutely NO ONE can produce a universally applicable definition of the Jew. The non-practicing jew born in the US to a Jewish mother has more claim to the land here than generations of people who have built their houses and tilled the land. And the Rabbis keep ammending who and what is an acceptable jew under the Law of Return.

On another note, with the WorldPride event coming up here Jerusalem, which I had really hoped to attend....may not be safe to attend. A few days ago someone posted a bill in the Mea Shearim (ultra orthodox neighborhood) which will reward 20,000 Shekel (or some such sum) to anyone who kills a participant of the gay pride parade. Last year three people were stabbed.

So. My trip into the city last night was so beautiful - reinspired me to want to be here. But - the news - the spirit of hatred and destruction which runs unchecked over here is really disconcerting. We have no idea how fortunate we are in the US - even under the Bush Administration. America has many many problems and bears much of the responsibility for many ills abroad, but for as long as we live in the relative safety and psychological freedom we do, we ought to appreciate it - really appreciate it.

It won't last forever. It can't. History is a solid record of the fact that the Have's will eventually trade places with the Have-Not's. It seems so much of the rest of world fights to the death to have what many of us take forgranted. True, people did at one time fight to the death for our country's establishment, but how many of us would? I really can't say whether or not I would. I really can't say whether I would, like so many young people here, risk my life as a security guard so the people in the cafe can drink coffee with some peace of mind. Yet, I certainly expect that sort of thing. I certainly expect to be safe everywhere. American's will litigate at the first sign of a breech of security. Here, security and peace of mind aren't exactly enduring. People enjoy it for a time, but always there is this sober understanding that at any moment everything can change. As inconvenient a concession as that may be, it's probably more realistic and more healthy to keep a light touch. Of course - the hysterical paranoia of post-9/11 Americans engaging in a war on terror is equally unhealthy.

But - right not, as I type, there is a crowd of thirty some students out side the computer lab glued to the newscast waiting for the names of the soldiers - wondering if it's anyone they know.

With that, I am going on a caving trip in the judean hills this afternoon...and have a test tomorrow...no time to study for it..so...anyway..i'll post pictures of the caves soon.

Back to life. Back to reality. Love to all of you!

Something for my fans...

I'm glad to hear that so many of you like reading this. I'll work extra hard to keep it interesting. My biggest dilemma right now is laundry and the fact that I can't get reliable internet access off campus. I tried earlier to get online at the café just outside the dorms, but while I had a connection, waiting for each page to load was like waiting for water to boil and my battery died by the time I could post anything. So, I figured I’ll write in Word and cut and paste this tomorrow at school.

Ah…and why did I not just go to school to post it, you ask? Shabbat. Yeah. Sabbath is, I am not kidding, a national holiday. As well it should be. If in fact holidays are holy days, and Israel is a Jewish nation, it makes sense that each Sabbath would be a national holiday. It’s just odd. Everyone in Jerusalem (who isn’t hyper-religious) heads to the beach in Tel Aviv. Of course, I’m splitting shekels as it is, so I stuck around here – with the Arabs and Religious Jews. Nothing is open. Everything shuts down at noon on Friday. Buses stop running. Restaurants close. It kind of sucks. The really odd thing is that when Shabbat ends Saturday evening, everyone comes out of their holes like they do in an ice storm when the power's out:


"Do you have power? I don't have power. Yeah, the lights just went out. When did they go out on that side of the street? Oh, same time? Cool. Guess it's pretty dark over there, right? By the way, I'm Jim. Yeah, I bought the house across the street from you two years back. Nice to finally meet you! You got power? Oh yeah, you said..."


And all these Hassidic families take their kids out for a walk in the city at 11:30 at night! It's so Hogwart's-ish! Kinda freaky. All these bearded people with long black coats and wide brimmed hats. Everyone speedwalking like the Middle East is running out of falafel. And there are all these schoolage kids dancing in the square downtown at like 1 and 2 AM! Then....Sunday has all the nauseating repugnancy of a Monday morning hangover. Back to work. Back to school. Whatever. So the weekend here is essentially Friday afternoon and Saturday, only people sleep through most of it, and cram all the weekendish stuff into Saturday night. It's just strange. Ok. Different. Either way, it takes getting used to.


So after spending a good portion of the day in my room reading – like a good little Jew – I decided to go for an evening walk. Sigh. Not so simple in Jerusalem. I got pretty lost pretty fast. People stopped speaking Hebrew. From the Arabic ja-hah-lal-lahing from the radios of passing cars, green striped vans (Palestinian buses) and the litter in the streets, I knew I had ventured into a probably not so very good area for a guy in shorts, flip-flops, and a University of Rochester T-shirt. Only, every time I tried to retrace my steps, I only got more and more confused. I started to get pretty nervous actually and tried calling a couple of you just to have someone to talk to. Of course, no one answered. *cough* I only remember feeling that insecure about being lost when I couldn't find my way out of the Bronx once. But I held off on calling anyone here cause I didn’t want to alarm anyone unnecessarily. So I strolled along and tried my best to blend.


If you know me, you know I can get lost pretty easily in my own backyard. I usually do great in big cities because of the landmarks and big buildings. It’s easy for me to navigate that way. Street names and cardinal directions don’t help. Well – I saw what looked like the tower of Hebrew University and started walking toward it. Only at some point I seriously felt that regardless of how much it looked like the same tower, there was no way it could possibly be that far away from me. So – I fought the urge – the part of me that says keep driving when I’m driving towards Brockport ‘cause it has that “State University feeling” when I’m supposed to be going to Geneseo...anyway...I turned around. Inside, I felt like I was kicking a dog, but considering my track record...


Be proud of me for going against my intuitions and turning around, cause in very fact – wherever that tower was was NOT where I wanted to be...it was in direction Ramallah and Nablus...not exactly where an American wants to be unless he's shopping for a fashionable black hood to wear on CNN. Needless to say – I did make it home. But on the way, I passed a Domino’s Pizza with a line of delivery Vespa scooters with Domino's Delivery lights on them like you see on the top of the '88 Ford Escort that comes to drop off your pizza. Very American, but very not American. That’s probably been one of the greatest parts of being here. Seeing the same old things in totally new ways. It’s like modern art. Like a weird impressionistic blur of East and West, Old and New. Like that cat where the last supper took place. Who on Good Friday imagines a cat hanging out near the table when Judas slips out?


I bought a coke today.


OK - lie. I bought two.

My first serious violation of the ATAWDWCASC Code of Conduct.*

The only thing worse would be eating three meals in a row at McDonald’s while on vacation in Montreal. (Lisa, I know. I know. “What happens in Montreal, stays in Montreal!”) The next worstest thing would be discussing geography with someone who was educated outside the US because…well, you tell me: a boy from London came by my room a few minutes ago and told of an encounter with an American who asked him if London was a lot like England. Yeah. Ummm, three Cheers for the Board of Regents!


Anyway, as I see it, when you buy really American things abroad, if you do it with the same savvy international curiosity as the natives and feign (convincingly) the same awe at the splendor of Beverly Hills 90210, then, and only then, is it ok. Especially when the coke can looks like this. It’s a multicultural experience. I know I keep showing you all weird stuff that’s typical of the US only marketed in Hebrew, it’s just that, I find such things paradoxical or paranormal or something. You just learn to live in a certain world where things look a certain way and you're mind becomes inflexible to alternatives. Imagine Wegman's wasn't Wegman's. What if it were Shlomo's? It could have been. And life would be just fine.


So much of our security is rooted in trivia and routine. Take away the comfort of the familiar, and we lose ourselves. Who are we if that's the case? So – I think that we should be forced to see such AAA's (Artifacts of Alternative Anthropologies) outside of the high school Spanish classroom...to remind us that there are alternate realities and parallel universes a mere plane ticket away. I mean, here the week actually ends on the weekend and begins on the first day of the week. Novel, eh? Why couldn't we count days from sunset to sunset like the Jews? Why couldn't Antarctica be the North Pole?


And yet - this beautiful coke can is also strangely familiar. Isn’t it comforting to know that ever since the coke bottle fell in The God’s Must Be Crazy the rest of the world has had the classic, original formula?


(Soundtrack: “It’s a small world after all”)


For those of you who want an update on the laundry, my walk was an attempt to find a laundromat, and I did. Only I don’t know where I found it. And should I try to find it again, I might die folding my boxer shorts. As my friends, you must know I was meant for more than that. So. I plugged my sink with a gym-sock and hand-washed some stuff in the sink with dish-soap. (Ah, the memories of Poland which tug at my heart…) But I do have cleaner if not clean clothes. So, Baruch HaShem to that!

Tomorrow's Sunday which means I have school. So I best get to bed. Layla Tov!

*American-Traveling-Abroad-Who-Doesn’t-Want-to-Confirm-American-Stereotypes