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!

Another trip to Gamla National Park

Today was another nice sunny day, so we decided to take another trip to Gamla National Park, over in the Golan. We invited our friend, Cynthia, to go with us, and all three of us had a great time.

Gamla National Park gets its name from a town from Second Temple times that was located there. The name comes from the word גמל gamal, which means "camel". In this first picture, you can see why -- the town was located on a hill whose shape greatly resembles the hump of a camel. In the lower left of the picture, you can see some of the town that has been excavated by archeologists. We had actually hoped to take a vehicle tour down to this spot, but it was too muddy today.

This second picture shows the lower Gamla waterfall. Not at all surprisingly, there is PLENTY of water here, since we had steady rain for about 4 or 5 days this last week.

Here's a zoomed view of the waterfall, using the maximum optical zoom on my camera.

Finally, here's a picture of a beautiful flower with an interesting orange bug sitting on it:

A beautiful Shabbat in Nahariya and M'tzuba

Today (Shabbat) has been another lovely, warm day. So we decided to take a trip to the northwest. We traveled the northern road, a nice route at any time but especially on a beautiful day.

When we got to Kibbutz M'tzuba, no one was there at Golan's World of Reptiles. When I called Golan, he didn't answer, either. So we called our dear friend, Cynthia, in Nahariya. When we got her, it turned out that she had been about to pick up the phone to call us!

So, we proceeded down to Nahariya, picked up Cynthia, and head up to the beach just south of Rosh HaNikra (the extreme northwest corner of Israel). After some time there enjoying watching the waves crashing against the rocks, we headed back to Nahariya and had a light lunch outdoors at a restaurant just across the walkway from the beach. It was a perfect day for outdoor dining and conversation by the Mediterranean Sea!

After dropping Cynthia off back at her apartment, we called Golan, and this time we got through. So, we headed back up to M'tzuba. Golan has the last of the snakes that he had, and he showed us several of them, as well as some other interesting snakes that he has. Also, visitors were holding a couple of snakes that we recognized as our former "babies". I was particularly happy to see that the two surviving "fire opals" (snakes that are both corn snake lavender AND Emory rat snake amelanistic) are doing well. As far as I know, these are the only such snakes in the entire world! I held both of them in my hands again today, the results of our breeding project that we started 6 years ago in San Bernardino! They are both gorgeous. The female is essentially a solid pinkish white snake with slight hints of yellow now. The male has a faint saddle pattern and is slightly less pinkish. He's also a year younger than the female. He has always looked as though something compressed him lengthwise -- his saddles are narrower than usual, and he's shorter and fatter than usual.

A nice trip back on the northern road completed this enjoyable journey. I didn't take my camera, so I don't have any pictures. But Spring is right around the corner. The shkediot (wild almond trees) all around here near Tsfat at now in nearly full bloom, about a month earlier than usual. Before long, there will be millions and millions of beautiful wild flowers, and I won't be able to resist photographing them. So, stay tuned!

A trip to Tel Dan on a beautiful day

Today was a beautiful, warm day in January, so we decided to take another trip to Tel Dan National Park. Here are some pictures that I took.

First, a view of the trail:

As you could see in the first picture, there were still Fall colors. The next several pictures show some close-up views of the stunning yellow leaves:




Nevertheless, Spring has also arrived. There were green plants everywhere. Here are a couple of especially choice views of the fresh green leaves:


Finally, a nice picture of David:

Vignettes from a Friday night at Emet V'Shalom

The blessings of an evening at our congregation are numerous, colorful, and diverse.

Let's start with the music:

- the spirited singing and playing by Israel Horowitz, our beloved rabbi, a trained cantor from Argentina

- a melody for "L'cha Dodi", recently introduced to us, written by another Argentinean cantor, a friend of Rabbi Horowitz -- a touch of the flare, passion, and even melancholy of that country in the Southern Hemisphere

- a Moroccan tune for "Adon Olam", with obvious stylistic connections to Arab music, the kind you can easily pick up from many local radio stations

Let's talk more about the people:

- Alice Nauman, an American of Polish descent, who delivered a very spiritual and impassioned drasha ("sermon") in fluent Hebrew. Afterwords, at the kiddush, I hear her conversing easily in Russian with some of the congregants; next week, she leaves to spend a couple of weeks in Austria, speaking in German about Israel

- Shimshon, a tall, strong, sturdy man who must be at least in his 80s (if not 90s), almost certainly from Germany, he probably arrived here before the Shoah (Holocaust) -- when he's present he reads the middle paragraphs of the "Shma":

והיה אם שמע תשמעו אל מצותי...

V'haya im shamo'a tishma'u el mitzvotai... ("And if you really listen to my instructions...") -- really, he doesn't merely read them, he declaims them, elegantly, in עברית נכונה Ivrit n'khona ("correct Hebrew", an important thing for his generation especially) -- the jarring jumping back and forth between 2nd person singular and 2nd person plural, a distinction lost 3 or 4 centuries ago in English:

ולימדתם אותם את בניכם לדבר בם, בשבתך בביתך, ובלכתך בדרך, ובשכבך ובקומך, וכתבתם על מזוזות ביתך ובשעריך.

v'limadtem otam et b'nekhem l'daber bam, b'shivt'kha b'vetekha, uv'lekht'kha vaderekh, uv'shakhv'kha uvkumekha. ukhtavtam al m'zuzot betekha uvisha'rekha. ("And you(pl.) will teach them your(pl,) children to speak of them, when you(sing.) sit in your(sing.) house, and when you(sing.) go on the road, and when you(sing.) lie down and when you(sing.) get up. And you(sing.) will write them on the doorposts of your(sing.) house and on your(sing.) gates.") -- words written and surely also later edited, in this very land (or not far away), at least two and half millenia ago, and yet easily understandable, in their original language, to any average Israeli -- and now to me, as well!

- the bar mitzvah boy, very typically Israeli, but his parents' names are .... Igor and Olga, a clue about where they are from originally!

- the multitude (probably a majority) of congregants from South America, most of them a decade or so older than we are -- some speak Hebrew, but many do not

- a gentleman from Moscow who attends virtually every week, who was formerly involved with the Soviet missile program (as I was formerly in the U.S. missile program -- what an irony!) -- now he teaches Russians in Israeli about Judaism, something they were forbidden to study during the dark Soviet years