Construction near us

The area around us is really beginning to build up. There are currently at least a dozen houses under construction within a short distance from our house and at least 5 or 6 others that have been completed withing the last year or 2.

Now, they are preparing the land just across the street and down a little from us. Our neighbor, Mordechi, says that they are building 8 duplexes. Since the hill slopes down from the street, they have been digging out a lot to make level plots. Probably these will be 2-story buildings with entrances at street level to the 2nd floor. The first floor will be a basement on this side but will be ground level at the back. At least that's what I think they'll build.

To prepare plots around here, they have to do a lot of digging, and the ground is very rocky (and red). So they bring in one of those big earth movers with a huge scoop that runs on tracks (like a tank) instead of wheels. We call it "The Monster". They parked it up near our neighbor's house, to the west of us. Then, each morning, they opened its huge "hood" (presumably to check all the fluids etc.), started it up, and drove down right past our house and around to the work site, which is east of us. After working all day moving dirt around, they drove it back up to its nightly parking place.

This morning has been quite rainy, so I was surprised to seem them start it up. Then, they only drove it to the end of the road, just north of our house and stopped. An hour or 2 later, I found out why. Its work here must be finished, because they drove it up onto its flat-bed truck carrier. The Monster is now on its way to its next job. We're going to miss her (I say "her" because the Hebrew for "The Monster" is המפלצת HaMifletzet, which is feminine.).

The rain is supposed to clear by tomorrow, so they'll no doubt be back at work on the construction. We'll see very soon what form these new building will actually take. Obviously, the construction slump in the States has not affected us here at all!

Purim at EVS

Last night, we went to the Purim party at EVS (Emet v'Shalom, our synagogue in Nahariya). We hadn't even decided for sure whether to go until earlier in the day. The weather has been quite stormy, and David had not been feeling so well recently. In the end, though, David was feeling better, and there was a good lull in the weather, so we decided to go. David wore a funny rainbow clown wig. I wore black jeans, a white long-sleeve thermal undershirt, my black leather biker's jacket, sparkling dangly earrings, and a genuine Hasidic black hat! Not surprisingly, my costume was a big hit! Our friend, Cynthia, who hadn't even planned to attend but changed her mind, didn't even recognize me at first.

The party itself was nothing terribly special, although they did have nice falafel with all the fixings (salatim, the so-called "salads"), and oznei Haman (hamantashen, literally "Haman's ears"!). We were glad that we had gone.

The supermarket security guard

This evening we did our usual weekly shopping at our favorite supermarket. As we were going in, the security guard (all large stores here have security guards) asked us about how to pronounce "color". Of course we told him.

When we were coming out of the store, we greeted him and helped him with some additional English words. He told me that he wants to learn English because all the rest of his family is in America or Australia. I noticed that he was writing the pronunciation in Arabic letters, not Hebrew. So I told him that after I learned Hebrew well, he could teach me Arabic. He then told me that he also spoke Aramaic!

After some further conversation, I found out that his family was originally from Iraq but had moved to Lebanon. While there, they had helped Israel in its fight against Hezbollah and the other enemies there during the time when Israeli troupes were still in southern Lebanon. I had known that when Israel withdrew from Lebanon completely in 2002, we had allowed our allies (mostly Meronite Chrisitians, I think) to move to Israel in order to avoid retaliation. But this is the first time that I had met one of these people personally.

So, just another one of those cool, only-in-Israel stories!

Golan trip (Gamla and Har Bental)

Today is a beautiful, warm day here, so we decided to take a drive to the Golan. Our first destination was Gamla National Park. We had hoped to take a tour of the ruins of the ancient city (destroyed by the Romans in 67 C.E.), but apparently they no longer offer vehicle tours down there and thus the only way would be to hike down and, more worryingly, up again! Since we weren't willing (or perhaps even ABLE!) to do that, you'll just have to settle for this picture, taken with the maximum zoom on my camera:

There were plenty of other lovely things to see there, though. Here's a gorgeous white flower of a kind that I'm not sure I've seen before:

Here's a close-up view of a bee enjoying a yellow Bishop's Weed flower:

Here's a caterpillar that was hurrying across the paved path. We saw several of these:

We see a lot of these small birds all over the place in the North. This one was hanging around the eating area near where they sell snacks:

After we left Gamla, we continued north along the Waterfalls Highway and stopped at this one, called Ayet Falls. In this picture, you can see the waterfall and you can also see the highway right above it:

Further north in the Golan, I stopped to snap this picture. In the distance on the left, you can see Har Khermon (Mt. Hermon) with some snow still on it. Somewhat closer, on the right, you can see a row of power-generating windmills (which we have visited and I have written about previously):

At the same place where I took the previous picture, next to a road leading west, I saw this sign, a reminder of the military presence that is necessary in the Golan:

We finally arrived at Har Bental (Mt. Bental), one of the many volcanic peaks in the Golan (some of which, including this one, we can see from our house). Along both sides of the path from the parking lot to the top of the mountain, there are scrap metal statues by a Dutch artist. These little signs have always seemed just a little humorous to me. This is the entire sign; notice that it's only in Hebrew. What is the message that needs to get across, but apparently only to Israelis, you may ask? It's "Please don't touch!" I guess they're not worried about other people touching?!

Here's the overall view of the top of Har Bental. On the left, you can see the entrance to the coffee house. In the background in the middle, you can see Har Khermon with snow still on it. In the foreground, you see the bunker where soldiers can stay if they need to defend this mountain again. For now, though, it's open to tourists, and, in fact, I walked through it again today.

Looking east from Har Bental, one looks directly into Syria. Here's a view of the Syrian city of Kuneitra:

My first public speech in Hebrew

Last night, at our congregation, Emet v'Shalom, in Nahariya, I delivered the drasha (sermon). This is the first time I have ever done a speech in Hebrew. If you'd like to read it (in Hebrew), click here to go to my Hebrew blog where I posted it.

If you don't read Hebrew but would like to know what I said, here's my English translation:

Shabbat Shalom!

This week's Torah portion is Parashat T'rumah. The portion is full of exact details regarding the construction of the Tabernacle in the desert and regarding its furnishings and utensils. This portion is very important for anyone who wants to know all the details about ancient worship in Judaism. But for people who are not that interested in such details, there's not much that's interesting in this portion.

I also read the haftara, and I was not surprised that it described the construction of the Temple in Jerusalem by King Solomon. Of course, the Tabernacle built in the desert was the model for the Temple.

When we read these part of the Tanakh, we immediately understand how different the ancient Jewish ceremonies were from the ones we know today. We have no Temple, and we don't bring sacrifices. Instead, we pray many prayers, most of which were composed after Temple times. Maybe it would be interesting to think about how our ancestors felt when they performed these ceremonies. What connection did they sense to God? Was it similar to the connection we sense today? I don't know the answers to these questions, but it's interesting to consider the questions, I think.

Probably all of us have been to Jerusalem and have seen the Temple Mount. But it's definitely impossible to see the Temple itself! The First Temple was destroyed by the Babylonians, and the Second Temple was destroyed by the Romans. Nevertheless, it IS possible to see the foundations of a temple similar to the First Temple.

When King Solomon died, there was a rebellion, and the northern part separated from the kingdom and became a second kingdom. The king of this new kingdom was Jeroboam. But he had a problem. Of course he didn't want the people going up to Jerusalem, because it was the capital of the old kingdom, and so there was a danger that the people would want to become part of that kingdom once again.

So Jeroboam built two new temples, one in Bethel, which is in Samaria, and the other in Dan. We can assume that these temples were similar to the Temple in Jerusalem so that the people would consent to go up to them instead of going up to Jerusalem.

Today, it's possible to go to Tel Dan, which is not far from Kiryat Shmona. There, archeologists have found the foundation of this temple! I very much recommend this place to anyone who wants to imagine what the Temple in Jerusalem was like. Also, there are many springs there and thus a lot of water. Highly recommended!

Shabbat Shalom!

Snow on the Golan

It has been very cold here recently. On Thursday, we got a little snow in the middle of a lot of rain, so of course it did not stick. However, a lot of snow DID stick on the northern Golan. Here are some pictures that I took from our house this morning. First Har Khermon, completely covered with snow:
Moving a little further south, here are the twin peaks, Har Bental and Har Avital. We have been to the top of Har Bental (the one on the left) many times, but I don't think it would be possible today!