Reflections upon my recent trip to Israel and

Many people have asked me how is my recent trip to Israel. This is my sermon I gave a couple weeks ago describing my trip.

This year’s RA convention in Israel exceeded my expectations. My first class was with Rachel Korazim, the best poetry teacher I’ve ever study with and I’m happy to remind everybody that on January 12^th she will be teaching a class to our congregation via zoom. You shouldn’t miss this great opportunity to learn with this wonderful teacher.

She taught us some poems written in the wake of October 7^th,  שבעה b’October. Of course שבעה means seven, but at the same time we also hear the term for the first seven days of mourning, שבעה.

The first poem we studied encapsulated my visit. Michael Zats is the poet who wrote the poem named Illusion in English or אֲחיִזַת עֵינַיִם in Hebrew. אֲחיִזַת עֵינַיִם means something is holding your attention while something else is happening.

 

מַדְהִים

אֵיך הַכֹּל נִרְאֶה

זֵהֶה,

גַּם

כְּשֶׁכְּלוּם

לֹא נִשְׁאַר

אוֹתוֹ דָּבָר

 

Amazing

How everything looks

Unchanged,

Even

When nothing

Remained

The same.

Israelis may look normal, but they are now different after the October 7^th attack just like life looks the same after we get up from shiva, but everything is different.

Each of my  tiyulim, bus trips, began with a tale of destruction and ended on a hopeful note.  On my first tiyul, we traveled to the Gaza envelope. We visited kibbutz Aza and met with a survivor who guided our tour. Before we began the tour we introduced ourselves and shared what we might expect from the day’s trip. Seeing all the destruction and hearing about all the atrocities committed by Hamas, I simply said that I probably would need a hug.

After leaving the kibbutz, we visited the Nova Memorial established by the families. The government has not contributed one red cent towards it. You walk around this vast field  and see pictures of all those people who were viciously murdered in the most horrendous ways. Under their pictures, their loved ones wrote a short obituary how special each and every one was. Seeing all the destruction and hearing and reading about all the loss of life was terribly heartbreaking. As the group was gathering, I was just sitting all by myself absorbing the monstrosity of what I was witnessing. My group leader saw me and gave me that hug I needed 

Our last stop was at Kibbutz Sa’d. We met with the head of the Israeli Vegetable Growers Association who happened to live on the kibbutz. He told us how he organized the irrigation of the crops in all the settlements and kibbutzim in the envelope after the war broke out. His greatest fear was the crop die for lack of water before they had a chance to flourish. This part of Israel could be called the bread basket of the land of Israel.

Not only do the Israelis need their vegetables, all their dairy cows need their fodder to produce milk. During the cease-fire in November, he convinced the Army to allow him to plant wheat. They gave him and all the settlements four days to plant as much wheat as they could. In those four days with the cooperation of his counterparts in the area as well with some Bedouins, they planted 15,000 acres of wheat. Seeing in March all the wheat they had planted as a sea a green, gave them the hope they needed to carry on.

On the second day’s trip I visited a couple archaeological sites. We visited Tel Lakhish. It was the second largest city after Jerusalem, and mentioned 22 times in the Bible. The Assyrians conquered and destroyed the city.  Sennacheriv later devoted a whole room in his "Palace without a rival", the southwest palace in Nineveh, for artistic representations of the siege on large alabaster, most of which are now on display in the British Museum.  This is the only case where we have an outside source corroborating a biblical story.

Our day ended in a youth village called Neve Hanah. Courts have mandated that troubled youths between the ages of 5 and 18 whose parents are unable to raise them be sent to Neve Hanah. We went there because a Conservative rabbi adds a layer of yiddishkeit for these children.

There are 6 houses where the children live. Neve Hanah wants to create a home like atmosphere so the children aren’t segregated by age, but live in a multi age house. There are house mothers and fathers as well as other support staff to help the children with their homework.

These children come from homes that are so supported by welfare, that these children don’t have role models concerning the value of work and money. To remedy this challenge, there is a bakery on-site and any child who wishes to work there may do so. They earn 1 shekel above their age until Israeli law mandates they earn the minimum wage. I bought dessert for my hosts there and asked the baker where did he learn how to bake such delicious goods. He told me at Neve Hanah.

These children were at home for Shmini Atzeret/Simkhat Torah. The director told us that shortly after the war broke out, these children, already traumatized, were traumatized even more by the war. They called and said they wanted to go back to Neve Hanah where they felt safe. The director called the Army and asked permission to pick up the children. The Army said absolutely not for it was too dangerous. The director only did what he had to do. He and some other volunteers defied the army’s orders, risking their lives and went to pick up the children. On the first day alone they returned 31 children back to the youth village. He told us that he had to do it because they were his children.

He said look at the children. If you look at depressed people, they shuffle their feet, they looked down, and their eyes are glassy. He told us to look at the children and see how full of life they are; how happy they are. And let me tell you we saw them outside playing after finishing their homework and you won’t see a happier group of children.

The Kibbutz Sa’d member, director, the rabbi, and the children of Neve Hanah inspired hope in me.

With this hope in my heart, I pray that the war will end soon, all the hostages will return home, Israelis will rebuild their lives, and one day there will be a true peace between the Jews and the Palestinians.