Sukkot, Part II

Sukkot continued and we continued to enjoy ourselves. Wednesday we rented a car and traveled a bit north of our home to a place called Park Utopia. It's the project of Kibbutz Bahan--a nature park/garden. First is an indoor orchid park and outside there are mazes made from shrubbery, a butterfly garden, a topiary garden and much more. It was nice, but not great. From there we headed toward Netanya and ended up at an amazing restaurant in the industrial zone--always the best place for good eats. Bat HaIkar (the Farmer's Daughter) is a restaurant specializing in freshly grilled skewered meats. The highlight however was the homemade pita (plain or with zaatar or with tomatoes) freshly cooked in the taboun oven and the 26 (literally!) salads that covered our table upon arrival. Josh actually wrote down every single one, so for your reading pleasure (and perhaps to inspire a little jealousy:):

1. egg salad
2. cole slaw
3. spicy tomato salad
4. roasted eggplant
5. spicy roasted eggplant
6. babaganoush
7. techinah with onions and peppers
8. tabouleh
9. broiled potatoes
10. tomatoes and basil
11. spicy carrot salad
12. corn and mushroom salad
13. cabbage with parsley and cucumber
14. salsa
15. roasted peppers
16. olives and pickles
17. red cabbage with mayonnaise
18. green cabbage with vinegar
19. beets
20. chopped liver
21. deep friend eggplant and peppers
22. sweet potatoes with onions
23. israeli salad
24. rice
25. mashed potatoes
26. pickled vegetables

With a little hummus, mmmmm...

From there we headed to the beach in Netany

a to enjoy the last sun of the day.

On Thursday, we decided to stay closer to home and went to the Soreq Cave. Very cool (see pics). We picnicked in

the nearby JNF forest and then headed over to a local beach.

It was covered in sea shells, so in addition to enjoying the waves

and the sand, Sidney collected a ton of beautiful shells. Not sure what we'll do with them, but...

Friday was again the evening of a festival, Simchat Torah. We had a lovely celebration at our synagogue followed by a festive meal in the gymnasium. Not sure if I've mentioned...our synagogue

meets in the local elementary school. We have our services in a 4th grade classroom and social events in the gym. Many synagogues function in such a way as the primary function of a synagogue here is for services--the other roles that such an institution would fulfill in the U.S. are accomplished through other parts of society. In any case, the dinner was lovely--almost 200 people came. The next morning we returned for what is the longest service of the year. Outside of Israel, the holiday is two days long and has two names--Shemini Atzeret and Simchat Torah--the prayers are split between two days. However, here the holiday is only one day, so everything is squeezed into one service. In honor of Simchat Torah, every adult member (those over bar/bat mitzvah age) was called up to the Torah for an aliyah. This was accomplished by splitting into four groups each with its own reading to expedite things. While this was going on, the kids received a bag of goodies. I think that Sidney had more candy yesterday than in the rest of her life combined. Not sure if that is more of a comment on the amount of candy or my craziness regarding processed sugar, but still. After everyone had an aliyah we took a break for a large potluck kiddush and then returned to services for a single communal Torah reading. Josh had the first aliyah at this reading and then they did a special blessing for our family as new immigrants. People got up and danced and sang with us to officially welcome us to our new community. It was really nice and a little overwhelming. We then continued with the regular prayers and at some point the kids were treated to popsicles. Israel really is the land flowing with sweets and treats.

I assume that the conflicts in Jerusalem over the last week have also been widely publicized outside of Israel. They stem from a fear on the part of Muslims that Jews are going to storm the al-Aqsa Mosque and Dome of the Rock and take over the Temple Mount. These fears are really unfounded as religious Jews won't even step foot on the Mount for fear of accidentally stepping on the holy sites; however, extremist leaders choose to spread this fear and hatred for what can only be personal and political motives. Any Jews who want to go up to the Mount are most likely tourists who are interested in learning about the exquisite Muslim sites. It used to be a common point of cultural exchange; I remember going with my parents to see the Mosque and the Dome of the Rock when I was here with them as a child. But everything is different now, I suppose. Last week a friend's son wanted to go to the Western Wall during one of his days of vacation. Muslim worshippers had been throwing rocks down from the top at those praying at the Wall, and his mother thought it too dangerous. She tried to explain what was happening to her seven year old. "Why are the Jews and the Muslims fighting?" he asked. "Because they don't know how to share," was her response. Hmmm. Do we ever really learn how to share? What should we have to share? I thought of the Church of the Holy Sepulchre where the various Christian groups have worked out a rotation to share the holy space. Could that be a model? I thought of our sharing problem again on Saturday. Part of the liturgy is a prayer for rain at this time of the year, the beginning of the "rainy" season. This country, this area, which has suffered drought over the last several years, causing dangerous drops in the Sea of Galilee, the Dead Sea and the aquifers...we need rain. And to make peace, to have enough water to share in order to make peace, we need rain. May God bless us with rain...and with peace this year.

Sukkot, National Festival, Part I

This past weekend began the holiday of Sukkot, a week-long festival celebrating the harvest. I always felt that it was difficult to understand why any holiday should be a week long when living in the States. It wasn't until I spent the holiday here 11 years ago that I understood the point of such a length. Sukkot is a great time to be in Israel. You really get a sense of what a week-long festival means. Schools close, most people take off of work, and the whole country is on vacation it seems. Little huts (sukkot) can be seen on many of the porches--regardless of whether the residents are religious or secular. The park is filled with parents and their children. Tourist attractions are mobbed, and the hiking trails are well-trod. Kosher restaurants throughout the country erect sukkot so that you can sit in one even while dining out. Really it's just fun...and the weather is amazing--no huddling in your winter coat dodging rain drops.

We brought our sukkah from the States and were even able to clear the last few things off our porch in time to erect it for the holiday. We brought many of our decorations from the states, but I was charged with the task of getting a few more and of getting new lights as the ones we had were not compatible with the electric here, so I hit the shook last week at the height of Sukkot shopping. The variety of decorations is unbelievable and cheap--everything is made in China and probably will have to be replaced next year but will see. The fashion in sukkah decorations here is cheap metallic/tinsil. Very Christmas tree--in fact, I think that's the intended use for most of the decorations available. I got a few things to hang and then got some great lights--banana and strawberry shaped. Very cute--already half broken, oh well.Friday night was the first night of the holiday and the first night that we sat in the sukkah. Although the night was comfortably cool, it was a little warm in the sukkah. The next day we had Yossi, Jen, and the boys as well as three of Yossi's students from the program that he runs over for lunch. It was stifling hot in the sukkah; although it was completely in the shade. Yossi pointed out to us that we had a sukkah intended for use in the U.S. The "windows" of the sukkah were covered in plastic, intended to keep out the cold and rain. Here in Israel, sukkah windows are made of mesh to allow for air flow. In our American sukkah, we were essentially cooking, so after Shabbat, Josh took a razor blade to the thing and removed the plastic windows altogether. Needless to say, air is now flowing--much better.
Saturday afternoon, Josh took Sidney on our synagogue's sukkah hop for kids. Four families opened their sukkot to the children of the community...and took the opportunity to load them up with sugar. Crembo (chocolate covered marshmallows and graham cookies), shluk (Israeli equivalent to the freeze pop), chocolate cookies, and more shluk rounded out the stops. Josh likened it to trick-or-treating without the costume.
Sunday Sidney woke up not feeling well, and by noon had broken out with a fever. By four her fever was about 102 F and didn't seem to be responding to medicine, so we decided to call a doctor. One problem: We have yet to get her a doctor. I got a recommendation and made a call. The office was closed. In fact all doctor's offices in the city were closed--they only work mornings during the holiday week. So we called the HMO hotline to find out what we needed to do. They gave us two choices: take her to the emergency medical facility or get a private doctor to come to the house. Both seemed like overkill since her fever wasn't rising. We figured a call to the medical facility might be sufficient but no one answered the phone. I was getting frustrated and bit nervous and called a friend to get advice. Here's what we were missing: Our HMO hotline also has an option of 24 hour phone consultation with a nurse--just what we needed! Called them and waited on hold...for 23 minutes...until I gave up because Sidney's fever had already started coming down. At least, we'll know what to do next time.
Oh yes, and all this was happening about an hour before we were expecting 15-20 guest for an open sukkah party. Turned out great. Sidney was better and we got to see lots of old friends from Camp Ramah: Ronnie, Minda, Tova, Jen + kids, Hillary, Alex, Sima, Guy and Dror.
Monday we went to Jerusalem, to the Israel Museum where they had special activities in the Art Garden. We went with Jen, Nadav and Eitan. The kids chose to work with clay. They were charged with sculpting the clay like one of several fruits on the table. After taking on several different fruits, Sidney finally settled on making pizza--one of her favorite things to make with clay. We then stayed for a drumming performance and the kids got to try their hands at the various rhythm instruments. It was a fun event.

Today we did a great thing that I highly recommend to anyone touring Israel. The absorption department of our town scheduled a great activity open to all new immigrants of our town--A trip to Neot Kedumim, a Bibilical nature reserve. They have plants and animals as well as agricultural tools that are described in Biblical texts. It's a really cool place.When we first got off the bus, we were greeted by a deluge of rain. For about 5-10 minutes, it poured. We were soaked. It was interesting to see the reaction of the children in the group. In the States, they would have cried or complained, but here everyone was perfectly happy; it was as if they understood the importance of the rain--and anyway, five minutes later the sun was out, it was hot, and everyone was dry. In any case, we did a short hike through the preserve, stopping to learn about different plants native to the area and present in Biblical literature (figs, dates, wheat...). Sidney got to try her hand at grinding wheat flour. She made Za'atar from the hyssop plant, perfume from myrtle leaves (hadas)--and even hand weaved a basket. We got to taste date honey--the type of honey described in Biblical sources. They also had a special display of many different types of sukkot. It was a fun trip. We took lots of pics!Tonight, my cousins Ravit and Ariella came to visit. It was so nice sitting with them in the sukkah enjoying the evening air. Looking forward to more sukkot adventures tomorrow. We'll let you know what they are.