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

Aliyah anniversary and weed whacker adventures

Today (28 December 2009), we celebrate the 4th anniversary of our aliyah (immigration to The Land). On one hand, it's hard to believe that that much time has passed, but, on the other hand, that day 4 years ago when we arrived here seems far away, in the distant past. So much has happened on our adventure, and some many more things seem ready to happen in the future. We love it here, and we are continually amazed by the people, the beauty, and just the general feeling of really, truly living in the Promised Land.

A couple of weeks ago, we had gone down to the hardware store in Khatzor and had bought a Hyundai (same Korean company as the one that built our car, too) weed whacker (well, actually the box says "grass cutter", in English). We had not yet gotten around to putting it together and using it yet, however, partly because the weather has mostly been much too wet and partly because we have been too busy. But, today the weather was dry (and has been long enough for the weeds in the yard not to be too wet), and I'm on vacation, so we had no more excuses.

I put it together without too much difficulty, but I discovered something peculiar. The handle was clearly turned 180˚ from its correct position (and this was NOT something that I had done!). After feeling rather discouraged, we pulled ourselves together and drove back down to Khatzor to see what they could do for us, especially since I had carelessly thrown away the receipt.

As we as we arrived, we saw the helpful (and cute!) young man who had sold it to us. Without any questions he proceeded personally to work on it until he was able to figure out how to get it turned around to the right position. Score one for both good customer service and the Israeli can-do attitude.

When we got home, I got back into my boots and old jeans, and started whacking the weeds in the yard by our front door. After only a very few minutes, however, the thing broke. Actually, it was a piece of plastic that broke. It's a circular piece that can be tightened and loosened in order to change to length of the pole. But when it broke, it could no longer be tightened, and this allowed the pole to break separate into 2 separate pieces, making the machine useless.

After another bout of discouragement, we hopped back into the car and drove back down to Khatzor once again. This time, Eliran (the cute salesman) was not there at first, but another guy (older, but also easy on the eyes!) helped us. We had to wait a while, and Eliran also returned during that time. Finally, the other guy taped the piece up as a temporary measure and told us that he would order a replacement piece, which should arrive in a few days (I'll take that to mean 2 weeks, since most Israeli time estimates need to be doubled!).

Of course, as expected, the tape didn't really hold it together all that well, but I still did manage to get maybe a third of that one yard trimmed in some fashion. By then, my back was about to go out, so I knew I'd better stop anyway, before I got seriously into trouble.

So, there you have it -- another excellent adventure in Israel. Although we often complain about customer service here, there are also times like this when it's just about unbeatable. And, did I mention the good scenery? ;-)

Hosting prospective עולות חדשות olot chadashot

This week, some friends of friends contacted us. They are a couple from Long Beach, and they are planning to make aliyah (immigrate to Israel) in the near future. They were already in the country on a pilot trip, so I immediately invited them to come up and visit us here in Tsfat.

So, shortly after noon on Friday they arrived here from Tel Aviv in a rented car. The fog was so heavy that they could barely see the road once they started up the hill above Rosh Pinna, so I had to guide them by phone through the final turns. But they made it, and all of us were delighted!

We took them to prayers in Nahariya with us Friday night. Everyone was very welcoming, and we all had a wonderful time. Today, they took us to breakfast in Rosh Pinna, and then we took them on a grand tour of the extreme North. They are now seriously thinking of settling in Nahariya, which I think will be perfect for them. We are looking forward to them being here in Israel for good, because they have already become great friends!

Roof lakes

The rainy season is here in earnest, and Israel has been getting quite a bit of much-needed precipitation. But this also means the season of leaks.

About a week ago, we came home and discovered that there was a wet spot on the bed. I looked up, and there was the source: drops of water on the ceiling preparing to fall. It didn't take long to find the source of the problem. When we went up and looked at the upper balcony (which is the roof of the bedroom), we could see that it was flooded. David volunteered to go out and unplug the drain. Luckily, it wasn't too difficult, and soon the lake was running down the drain pipe.

This made me wonder if the leaks in the upstairs ceiling might have a similar explanation. Sure enough, on Wednesday I was able to stand on a chair on the upper balcony and thereby get high enough to see the roof. There it was: a 4-5-inch-deep lake! And, more rain was predicted to start within hours, with menacing clouds emphasizing the threat.

Fortunately, we had enough time before my next class to zip down to Khatzor, to the large hardware store, and buy a ladder and galoshes. When we got back, David wanted to be the one to get up on the roof and fix the problem, but it proved to be too difficult for him to get off the ladder and onto the roof, so I made him come back down, I put on the galoshes, and then I got up there and waded around. I was sure that I knew where the drain was, but I could not see it, even though the water was crystal-clear. Finally, I kicked around in the area where it was supposed to be, muddying the water considerably, but clearing the drain. I knew immediately because I could hear the water begin running down it. Within hours, this lake, too, was drained. And we got it all down before that rain started!

So, we finally beginning to be able to take care of some things in the house ourselves, and we have a nice ladder to get up onto the roof, too!