Lag BaOmer part 2: bonfire! archery! cake!

So, what is Lag BaOmer? The Omer period, the 50 days between the holidays of Passover and Shavuot is a sacred time of year for religious Jews, in which many activities such as weddings are forbidden. It commemorates the 50 days the Israelites wandered in the desert before receiving the commandments.  Lag BaOmer, the 33rd day, is an exception, and it’s considered an especially auspicious date to get married, and to give your son his first haircut.

Lag BaOmer  commemorates the death of Shimon Bar Yochai (Rashi), one of the great rabbis of old.  Many religious people celebrate by visiting Mount Meron, to Bar Yochai’s tomb in the North of Israel. Other sources say it commemorates the failed Bar Kochba revolt against Rome.  This is the war of the Masada story, and the one that led the Romans to ban Jews from Jerusalem.

Noah told us a nice story he learned in school about Bar Kochba and a green donkey.  He decided, as an adult that he should learn Torah, but was afraid that people would laugh at a grown man in a school full of children.  His wife, who was very wise, told him to plaster grass all over a donkey.  They took the donkey to the market, and everyone laughed at it.  The next day they did it again, and only half the people laughed.  On the third day, they took the donkey to the market, and nobody laughed, so that’s how bar Kochba learned to get over his fear of mockery and go learn.  Noah told the story very well.

One thing that everyone agrees on is that Lag BaOmer is a day for bonfires.  Noah’s class organized a bonfire for 5pm on Saturday. Everyone had to sign up to bring something.  I didn’t notice the signup sheet until late, so all that was left was cucumbers, but it’s okay, because I know a place that sells them.

The other tradition, somewhat strangely, is archery.  This is either because (a) the Rashi was so holy that no rainbows appeared in his lifetime, rainbows, of course being a sign that the world’s people are being sinful and need punishing or (b) because the Jewish rebels used bows and arrows.

At the appointed hour, we brought our cucumbers to Noah’s bonfire on a scrubby vacant lot within walking distance of our apartment. It’s hard to get used to how much trust and independence five and six-year-olds are given here. People are much more laid back about letting children near a fire than in the US.  It took some self restraint to keep myself from taking on the role myself. The parents cooked potatoes in the fire, covered in foil and threaded onto a long piece of clothes-hanger wire.  Perhaps the wire was clean–the potatoes were tasty. There was corn and hotdogs, marshmallows for roasting, cake, and most of Noah’s class and their friendly parents.

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Lag B’omer part 1: boats! ponies! fish!

Sarah is hard at work on an NIH proposal and is having trouble keeping up the blog all by herself, so she’s asked me to come out of retirement and tell you about our Lag BaOmer.

Noah’s class had a bonfire for Lag BaOmer, so we needed to stay close to home Saturday. We decided to start the day with one final trip to Akko for a boat trip on the Mediterranean. Google said that there are boats that take twenty minute tours that leave whenever they fill up, so off we went.  As soon as we got to Akko harbor, there was a man with a megaphone pointing people to a rickety old wooden motorboat painted red and blue, 10 shekels a head, for a 20 minute cruise around the walls of the old city.   Well, the water was choppy, and Noah didn’t take it well and spent the ride in Sarah’s arms waiting to throw up over the edge.  In the end, 20 minutes is fast, and we got off before any damage was done. And doesn’t the word “tour” usually imply that someone is going to say something about what you’re seeing? Walking around the harbor, we saw that, perhaps, we got on that boat too fast.  There are at least two more licensed-looking boats that you can take, one about the same size as ours, and another that could hold a hundred or so people.  Next sabbatical…

However 10 shekels per person left us with enough money for a pony ride, from the boy walking around the town with a pony.

Fortunately, Noah does not get pony-sick

Did Jonah sail from Akko? Noah did.

Old Akko is still an Arab town, and walking around, you really feel like you’re in a foreign country as you never do when you’re in Jewish areas.  We ended at Uri Buri, one of Israel’s top seafood restaurants.  At first they turned us away for lack of a reservation, but as we were debating what to do, came out and said we could stay if we could be out in 90 minutes.  No problem, and so good.

Delivery

I just ordered 2 pizzas for delivery in Hebrew! By myself!

Yom HaZikaron & Yom HaAtzmaut

Last week was a week of national holidays full of celebrations & remembrances: Yom HaZikaron (memorial day), Yom HaAtzmaut (Independence Day), and Yom Huledet shel Roy (Roy’s birthday).

As with other holidays, the city starts getting ready weeks in advance.

Decorations at the zoo...

along the highways,

and lit up on buildings.

These were taken around our neighborhood.

Memorial Day has a completely different feel here than in the US. Since almost everyone has served in the military here, its an important part of their life stories and most people know someone who served in a war, or who was killed, either in war or terrorist attacks. In the US its easier to ignore the meaning of Memorial Day because its only a small proportion of the population who currently serve and whose friends & families are directly affected. Here most of the population has shared in the responsibility of defending the country, whereas at home, the demands placed on non-military citizens are minimal; certainly real sacrifices are made only by a few.

Noah’s school held a tekes (ceremony) on Sunday which we attended.

All of the children wore blue & white...

the building was decorated...

each class presented an art project, there was singing...

and Israeli dancing!

There was only a half day of school on Monday and no school/work at all on Tuesday so that people could participate in and attend the various ceremonies and special events held all over the country. We went to a small memorial service Monday afternoon a couple of neighborhoods over that the mayor of Haifa was participating in. There were some prayers and a reading of the people from that neighborhood who had died. We didn’t stay for the whole thing because we didn’t understand everything that was going on and Noah was getting antsy, but we wanted him to understand why he had an early day and show him what was going on throughout the country. Noah’s teacher told him that he could see soldiers on TV, so we let him watch a bit. Most channels had no programming at all out of respect and throughout the day the state channel broadcast profiles of soldiers who had died. In the evening there is a ceremony broadcast nationally from Har Herzl in Jerusalem that is a transition from the solemn Yom HaZikron to the festive Yom HaAtzmaut. We were told that everyone watches it & then goes outside to celebrate. In Haifa, there were music festivals in several neighborhoods & fireworks, so as soon as the show was over we ran outside & saw a fireworks show right above our heads. One of the music stages was at the bottom of the hill where our neighborhood is, so all we had to do was go to the edge and look down & we could watch the whole thing.

And it was Roy's birthday! Maybe those fireworks were actually for him.

Noah decided that we needed to bake Roy a chocolate cake with strawberries, so "we" did.

The next day we had the whole day off and there were so many things going on.

First, we went to the Haifa port, where the navy had ships on display.

Then we went down to Tel Aviv and caught part of the flotilla that sailed down the coast.

We went to the Namal (the old port), which is now a boardwalk lined with shops & restaurants.

There was a pottery activity - Noah made a candlestick on the wheel.

And a juggling/acrobatic act which Noah thought was fantastic.

Another pleasantly re-imagined former working waterfront!

Dinner at HaBonim Beach

Hello friends & family! How was your weekend? We had a lovely weekend in & around Haifa. We went back for a 3rd time to our new favorite beach at the invitation of our friends Osnat & Gilad. This time we went in the early evening and had a picnic dinner. So beautiful & relaxing.

Noah & Gali happily played in the sand for hours. You can see campers in the background.

Osnat V'Sarah

Gali v'Osnat

Osnat v'Gilad

We built a campfire on the beach as the sun set. There are half-drums strewn about for your fire-building convenience & the snack shop sells firewood.

The next day we went to the Haifa zoo. Noah has been so good about going along with our plans and what we want to do the past year, that we let him choose the activity for the day. Noah took scores of photos, but I’ve never been into taking pictures of animals in cages. They did have free-roaming peacocks and roosters roosting in trees, which I had never seen before (roosters in trees, I mean. I’ve seen peacocks). It was a small, but nice zoo with a small prehistory museum with displays of prehistorical archaeological discoveries along the Carmel coast near Haifa. They even had some big animals like Syrian bears, Bengal tigers, & lions.

Happy Mother’s Day to all you mothers!

What Noah is thinking about: Still battles

Noah is still thinking about battles these days, but he’s been influenced by our recent trips to old fortresses and is conceiving them in much more detail.

Update: After a 3 month hiatus, Noah has returned to blogging with 6 new posts.

A Fulbright Shabbat

Last week we hosted an unofficial Fulbright Shabbat dinner for all of the 2010-11 Israel Fulbrighters. Since public inter-city transportation does not run on Shabbat I invited the out-of-town’ers to stay over if they had no way back home. So, it turned into a Shabbat dinner/slumber party. We had 21 guests, not counting infant twins, and 6 overnight guests (+ the infant twins) from Rechovot and Jerusalem. It was a grass-roots affair, with everyone contributing – we are lucky that we only have friends who are excellent cooks.

cooking for a crowd - everyone helping to prepare the vegetables for the grill

enjoying our feast!

We made sumac chicken, turmeric rice, and grilled mushrooms, eggplant and sweet potatoes. I had a pumpkin pie in the freezer leftover from our Thanksgiving in February party. Our guests brought the most amazing salads and desserts. With the leftover fruit salad & challah, we had french toast with fruit sauce (and pumpkin pie) for breakfast in the morning. Thanks to everyone for coming and for being such awesome guests and especially to Molly & Tom for being such masterful grill-masters.

Regular Pesach in Israel

Did you know that during Pesach in Israel it is almost impossible to buy chametz? Bakeries close down for the week and grocery stores cover their chametz aisles. I believe this is usually the cereal aisle:

You know how in America people fill their shopping carts with soda & pop tarts when there is a threat of a blizzard? Here, the non-observant fill their carts with loaves of bread in anticipation of Pesach. Interestingly, even non-religious Israeli Jews tend to keep Pesach, even if they don’t keep other hollidays, so its mostly non-Jews (and non-Israeli Jews) who are stocking up.

Also, the musak in the grocery stores plays almost exclusively Pesach songs. So, while you are buying your matzoh, matzoh meal, prunes, apples, and wine, you can hum along to “Chad Gadya”, “Echad Mi Yodea?”, and “Avadim Hainu”.

Masada & Bedouin tent in the Judean mts.

After our dip in Yam HaMelach, we left the area and drove up into the breathtaking Judean mountains

where we were to spend the night in a Bedouin tent. This one was more interesting than the one where we had stayed in the Negev. We had a private sukkah this time

but a shared outdoor living space. Those "lumps" on the ground are the edges of a pit where we sat with cushions. We were able to hang out there & talk while Noah slept in our hut.

There was a beautiful dining room where we sat at low tables on the floor on cushions. A special Passover menu was served and there were baskets of matzoh available. How accommodating of the Bedouin!

Another cool outdoor living-room area.

We stayed at the Bedouin tent complex the night before so we could get up early the next morning and go to Masada. This is the view from the western approach up to Masada looking across the hills back towards the Dead Sea. All that land used to be underwater...

We made it to the top!

Ruins from what was once one of Herod's palaces.

View from what was once the 3rd floor of the palace looking down onto two lower floors. The palace was built right into the side of the mountain.

Remains of a mosaic'd Byzantine church on Masada

Noah really liked standing in the ruins of the fortress pretending to be a soldier firing arrows on all of the enemies (other tourists climbing Masada) below. We hiked back down and ate the end of our matzoh granola. Thus, ended our Pesach vacation in the Judean desert – from the lowest place on earth to the top of Masada and everything in between. We hopped in the car & began heading back to Haifa. We were a little worried about whether we’d be able to find a place for lunch because it was the last day of Pesach and even the grocery stores were closed. We did see one place open in Arad, the last town in the desert before heading north into a kind of no-man’s land north of Beersheva, but Pizza Tokio did not sound appealing, so we decided to take our chances and skip it.

Good thing we did because a little while later on the side of the highway, I spotted a handwritten sign saying גבינת עיזים (goat cheese) followed by another sign for mahlabi, so we pulled off and saw an old man with a flag waving us to turn left under an overpass through a very narrow bridge.

As we drove through that little tunnel, we saw the herd that would be providing our lunch.

We had stumbled upon an oasis-an outdoor restaurant serving saj, malahbi, labaneh, olives, hummus, etc.

right there under the trees in the olive grove!

What a spectacular & serendipitous way to end our vacation!

Yam HaMelach & a bris!

When we were planning our Pesach travels, we knew that our trip would be around Deborah’s due date, so we wanted to go somewhere where we could get to Jerusalem easily if necessary. Excellent planning because we woke up the next morning and went to Jerusalem for a bris! Warning: indulgent amount of family photos ahead…

Introducing Shlomo Yehuda Labe! Baruch Haba!

Cousins!

Doesn't Deborah look great?

Big sister!

Noah was so excited to hold the new baby.

Yitzchak whispered to the baby, "Don't cry, baby. Let me see how you cry, baby. Don't cry, baby."

When the Worenkleins headed back to their Pesach resort, we returned to Ein Gedi. This time we wanted to hike the less-traveled canyon, Nachal Arugot. Apparently it is not as well-known as Nachal David, which was actually preferable for us because it was less crowded and less “trampled.” Turned out to be one of the best hikes we’d been on this year!

The stream of Nachal Arugot comes down from the Hebron Mts. in the Judean Hills

The trail runs through the canyons

and at times narrows so that we were hiking just at the edge of a gorge the stream cut at the bottom of the canyon.

Parts of the trail run through the stream itself - sometimes we were hiking in knee-deep water, which felt great.

"Arugot" means "garden beds" because of the plant life supported by the stream. Here the trail cuts through reeds.

After our hike, it was late afternoon and we were ready for one last adventure of the day. We went to the northern section of Yam HaMelach to take a dip in the sea. The Dead Sea is the lowest place on earth (423 m. below sea level) and the highway descending from Jerusalem has markers showing how far below sea level you are at that moment. The previous day we had gone to Ein Fashehah nature reserve which is a collection of natural springs that have been turned into wading pools, mostly for children. When we arrived, Noah complained that his new sandals hurt him, so he took them off & Roy carried him to the park. Somehow the new sandals, which were all of 5 days old, got lost in the shuffle. When Noah stepped into Yam HaMelach, he jumped back out again because the salt stung too badly where the sandals had rubbed. The sea is about 33% salt (about 8 times saltier than the ocean) and used to cover much of the Judean Hills, which is why they have such stunning formations – they used to be the sea floor.

Floating in Yam HaMelach

Roy's turn...