I am sitting in the central square in Brussels on my way to Berlin, having just had a fantastic Belgian waffle and hot chocolate; I thought I would spend a few minutes catching up this blog on the past few months. It is freezing here in Belgium, and I’m not quite prepared for the winter.
The purpose of this blog is to share interesting stories and provide my own perspective on life in Israel as well as general musings about politics, Jewish life and whatever else interesting happens.
Yes, it’s a little self-centered, but no one’s forcing you to read it…
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Life since the summer has been interesting. I’ll spend less time talking about my job for now. That has been interesting and challenging, but sometimes gets in the way of life.
Every now and then we have to stop and realize where we live. I’ll give an example.
On September 12th we experience a pretty full spectrum of Jewish life in Israel as we attended two weddings. (But, you can’t dance at two weddings at the same time??? Or can we?) Preston and Suzie’s wedding (a friend from the army) was pretty traditional and took place at “Kinor David” just outside the walls of the Old City. Traditional atmosphere, excellent food and Scotch, but of course festivities ended early as it was Friday (not to worry they partied on motzie Shabbat).
We departed Jerusalem and changed worlds completely. Traveling straight up the Jordan valley road, we made it all the way to Kibbutz Shamir, where Mara’s friend Guy was to marry Gali. It doesn’t get much further North than Shamir as you can peer into Lebanon from the Kibbutz. In complete contrast to the previous wedding, this one was at 6pm on a Friday evening, with a Reform Rabbi (Samuels). Virtually no kippot, jeans and a very chill atmosphere. I have to say, that to my intrigue Guy and Gali really put their heart and soul into making a tekes that they were comfortable including playing around with the traditional nusach, adding and subtracting here and there to make a really beautiful huppa.
After the huppa, there of course was no Kiddush or motzi or any of that kind of thing. A fascinating example of the Kibbutz movement (as one stream of Judaism) embraces certain traditions while rejecting others.
Mara and I stayed over at the kibbutz, and went out for a tiyul the next day.
OII*
On our way back to the kibbutz I decided to pick up a soldier and help him make his way. It was Shabbat, and obviously no buses. I pulled up, he got in, and then I asked him for his ID. “Happily,” he replied, “but shouldn’t you ask for ID before the guy with the gun gets in your car?” he said with a wink. “Good point,” I replied recognizing him as Bedouin career soldier.
As we drove and looked out at the Golan heights horizon. Our uniformed Bedouin passenger launched into an unsolicited stump-speech on the importance of keeping the Golan, and how those “Arabs won’t stop at anything to get all of Israel.”
Wow. Crazy world.
*Only in Israel
