Home Again, Home Again, Fiddle-Dee-Dee

 Ten days goofing off in Israel is merely scratching the surface. 

The first time you go to Israel, you really have to do the tour thing. For a tiny country, there is way too much to do and see. I'm past the tour thing. Now, the only thing I wanna do in Israel is hang out with my friends and do stuff I haven't done before.  

We drove north to Agamon Hahula which is right at the Golan Heights. This is the plasce to be for bird migration watching. Word is, it gets pretty crowded with lots of winged critters...as well as crazy kids on bicycles. We did see lots of birds, not as many as I 'd hoped, but it was a great day to hike, and hike we did. Last time I was up at the Golan was after the '67 War when things were still hopping and for reasons that escape me now, we went to the fence-line. We didn't go that far, but it's a strange sensation to know that on the other side of that hill is a buffer zone between us and Syria. All things considered, recent events and close proximity to Syria should be scary. It was not. 

Which brings me to the little red circles on the television. When you see a red circle in the upper right of the screen, it's not an advert or message from the cable provider. It's telling you missiles are being fired into Israel. The crawl on the bottom tells you where the target is, and you get to decide if you should be in the bomb shelter. Everyone knows where the bomb shelter is. You have to. You wanna talk about proximity? While I was there, missiles were fired on several nights. Iron Dome took care of most of them, but one did hit a house. Not a convoy. Not a military base. Not a checkpoint. A house. What would you do if missiles were being lobbed indiscriminately at your house?

Four days of Jerusalem was a good idea. I abhor the city a bit less now. I had visited Yad Vashem when it was new back in 1969, but it is much different now. I was a kid back then, now I am a parent and grandparent; it makes a difference. You look at the children and you see your own. Yad Vashem is graphic and terrifying all at the same time. You ask yourself over and over, why didn't they do something, anything, when Hitler delineated the beginning of the end? Knowing this was the week of the first yahrzeit of Tree of Life in Pittsburgh did nothing to mitigate the sense that We, the People are not doing enough to recognize, to grok, to fully grasp the magnitude of the changes we are seeing. 

We managed to wedge our way into the Church of the Holy Sepulchre which is a surreal experience at best. There is no organization, no map, no signs, just hundreds of people jammed into a small space trying to experience the place where Jesus died...all the while taking smiley selfies. That was weird. Trust me. 

my note is in there with others.

I did make it to the Western Wall after the  riots in the morning. I didn't know there had been riots. We couldn't figure out how to make the TV give us anything except NETFLIX so we were blissfully unaware it was Rosh Chodesh (New Moon). Had I known, I would've been there but alas.... I got my note into a crack, had a brief conversation with G-d, mostly one sided, and stood with my forehead touching the wall, feeling so small within the great machine of being a Jew. Explaining how small one feels to someone who has not stood there is difficult. 3000+ years of Jewish history and here I stand, having the audacity to think of myself as a stalwart link in this chain. 

And I'm okay with that.

The Wifely Person's Tip o'the Week

No place is perfect. 

Some places are good enough.

Other places are just plain special.

It's okay to like them, too.

Sunset in Herzliya.