NOTE: This blog post was started a few days ago, but the hectic nature of the trip, while leading it and parenting prevented me from being able to post it until now….
We’ve made it to Jerusalem, not far from where Rachel and I lived 19 years ago when we studied at HUC’s Israel campus.
Getting here, we explored the North of the country, staying extremely active and bringing the group to sites I’ve been with groups before, such as excavation site Tel Dan, rafting down the Jordan river at Kfar Bloom, jeep tours of the border with Syria through the Golan Heights … but there are the places and people you don’t hear about unless you get off the beaten track. We visited a joint Jewish-Arab venture to empower Arab women through making olive oil and zatar. Women who otherwise would be only in their homes, not able to contribute to the family’s well-being and stuck barely getting by on her husband’s income are gaining tools to work and support their children and themselves in ways we all wish to be able to do. The Sindayanna Center of the Galil (Galilee region), near Kafr Kanna, took us in to learn about how their partnership is working and gave us a little zatar mix-making workshop. It was educational, inspirational and tasty!
We also went to an animal rescue, where we not only got to pet wolves and feed recovering animals, but we spoke with a former special ops warrior turned animal rescuer. He shared with us that he could no longer breathe in Tel Aviv, so he moved north, meet a blind horse who taught him about riding and about life. He has since dedicated himself to animals - he taught us how he communicates with them by observing their behaviors and interacting with them in kind. To care for the animals, they hire individuals who have special needs or are recovering from traumas, and so the people and animals help one another. One inspiring story was of a goat who broke her neck in a goat farm. She got it stuck in wire fencing … And it is probably the reason she’s alive. This group took her in, helped her to stabilize, and though her neck is still severely distorted, she has since become a mother and son to be grandmother due to their loving care.
Finding the restaurant that Rachel and I both live in Jerusalem, T’mol Shilshom, requires one to duck through a small opening in a wall, into n alley courtyard before finding it. If you weren’t looking, you’d easily miss it - it’s where we met up with Danielle Wolff, who grew up at Or Shalom and is now starting her first year at HUC to become a Jewish educator.
Through these winding paths, we get to know the people and the land in deeper ways, we find inspiration we didn’t know we needed, and we bring complexity and nuance to our understanding of a region and a people. I was able to have some wonderful conversations with our bus driver, Yakov, about politics and demonstrations in Israel. We might not have seen eye to eye, but we could each understand where we are coming from, and we could still be in relationship and connection and even kinship. We shook hands with respect and heard where we each stand - neither one with a party-line, but each of us with our own nuance and perspective that doesn’t fully align with the loudest political opinions. We wrestled, not to defeat, but to understand - and it was a good reminder of something I want to bring back home with me. It’s important to get off the beaten track, literally and figuratively. I want to spend more time wrestling with people, those I may not always see eye to eye - but not to defeat, rather to draw closer, to understand better and to be in connection with, rather than opposed against.
No comments:
Post a Comment