Another trip to Agamon HaHula

On Wednesday this past week, it just so happened that I had no classes scheduled. So we decided to take our friend, Cynthia, to Agamon HaHula, which we had promised her some time ago that we would. This is really not the season, since nearly all the migrating birds have long since headed further north. But it was still very beautiful. The sun was warm, but there was a perfect breeze to cool us without making us cold.

Here's a nice picture I took from there of Keren Naphtali ("Horn of Naphtali"):

The Grinding Machine

There has been a lot of construction going on in our neighborhood lately. The biggest project is the one across the street from us and down a little, where they are currently building 3 buildings which apparently will each have 4 apartments. They have also leveled 3 additional lots and have begun drilling foundations on them, as well. So, there will be 3 more buildings, although I don't know yet how many apartments each of them will contain.

Earlier this week, they unloaded this strange machine on a track vehicle. At first I didn't know what it was, but it wasn't long until we found out. It's a machine that grinds rocks into gravel. In this first picture, you can see the rim of the big bin that the rocks are dumped into:

In this 2nd picture, you can see the machine in action. The "monster" has just dumped a load of rocks into the bin. On the right side, you can see the belt where the grinding machine is dumping the gravel it has produced. Behind the grinding machine, you can see a big pile of white gravel that it produced earlier. Finally, on the far right side of the picture, you can see Har Khermon (Mt. Hermon), the highest point in Israel, in the distance.

Israel's 62nd Birthday and Us

Today (Tuesday) is יום העצמאות Yom Ha'Atzma'ut ("Independence Day") here in Israel. So we are celebrating Israel's 62nd birthday today. Most businesses (including Berlitz!) are closed today, except for some restaurants and, of course, gas stations.

Every year, Yom Ha'Atzma'ut is preceded immediately by יום הזכרון Yom HaZikaron ("Memory Day"), when we remember all the many people, soldiers and civilians, who died in Israel's wars and terror attacks. It's a very solemn day, since nearly every family here has at least one loved one whom they are remembering. The only programs on TV are those showing grieving

families and telling about their loss. Men are at least as likely to be seen openly crying as women -- army buddies comfort each other with warm hugs.

At the end of the day, to mark the transition from "Memorial Day" to "Independence Day", every year there is a huge nationally televised ceremony held on הר הרצל Har Herzl ("Mt. Herzl") in Jerusalem. The proceedings start solemnly, with bugles heralding the entrance of important dignitaries. The Speaker of the Knesset (the Israeli Parliament) gave a speech. With much pomp and circumstance, the ceremony continues. Each year, Israeli citizens from diverse backgrounds are chosen to light 12 torches, symbolizing the 12 tribes of Israel. Each person gives a short speech, always ending with ולתפארת מדינת ישראל ultiferet m'dinat Yisrael "and to the glory of the State of Israel") just before lighting the torch.

The ceremony then progresses to a joyous celebration of "Independence Day", with live music and elaborate professional dances. The theme this year was the 150th birthday of Theodor Herzl, the real founder of the State of Israel, even though he died more than 40 years before it was actually achieved. At one point, people carrying flags formed a picture of Herzl's profile on the large open area!

Today, David and I decided to take a drive to the Lower Galil (the more southern parts of Galilee), trying out a couple of roads that we had never driven on before. After traveling through the part of עמק יזרעאל Emek Yizre'el ("The Jezreel Valley"), we passed through Afula and took the highway from there to נצרת Natzeret ("Nazareth"). We had never been on this beautiful 4-lane highway before, and part of it is apparently quite new, since it's only shown as dotted lines on my relatively recent map. The new part is very dramatic, too! It rises on a bridge across the face of a canyon and then enters a tunnel (actually TWO tunnels, one for traffic in each direction), after which it follows another narrow valley up to Natzeret. Here's a picture of the bridge:

My 2nd Drasha in Hebrew

Last night, I delivered my 2nd drasha (sermon) in Hebrew at our Reform congregation, Emet vShalom, in Nahariya. Rabbi Israel Horowitz had asked me a couple of weeks ago to do it. If you'd like to read it in the Hebrew original, I posted it on my Hebrew blog at this address (I don't think it will be a clickable link here -- you'll probably have to copy and paste it):

http://harpatkaot-beretz-haniflaot.blogspot.com/2010/04/blog-post.html

Here's my English translation of it:

Shabbat Shalom!

This week's Torah portion is Shmini. In this portion we read about many sacrifices and about the precise procedures that the priests followed in order to offer all these offerings in the tabernacle in the wilderness. We also read about the strange death of Nadav and Avihu, sons of Aaron who offered "foreign fire" before Adonai. After that, it is written: "And fire went out from before Adonai and consumed them and they died before Adonai"! Perhaps even worse than this, Aaron was not allowed to mourn for these sons of his! It's very hard to understand stories like this!

In the haftara, there is a similar story. This happened after King David had established his capital in Jerusalem. He decided to bring the Ark of God to Jerusalem, to a place in the capital of the kingdom. King David arranged a big party, with all kinds of music and dancing, and all the people went up in great happiness. But, apparently, the road was a little rough, and the Ark almost fell from the new cart on which it was riding. A man named Uzzah touched the Ark to prevent it from falling. We might think that he would be thanked for this. But the exact opposite occurred! God killed him immediately, right on the spot!

When we read things like this in the Tanakh, we today may feel that we live in a completely different world from that of the Tanakh. But, as I thought more about this, I realized even now things happen that we can't explain or understand. Perhaps our world is NOT so different.

There is also a story of hope in this haftara. King David wanted to build a house for Adonai. Nevertheless, God wouldn't let him build the Temple. But King David did receive a very good promise. Adonai promised him that his kingdom would be forever and that his son would build the Temple of Adonai in Jerusalem. And until this very day, whenever we celebrate a simcha, we sing "Siman tov umazel tov umazel tov usiman tov ... David, King of Israel, lives on!" And, at the end of every Havdalah ceremony, we sing, "with mashiach, son of David."

Shabbat Shalom!