Day 13

Day 13- Ben Gurion’s Dream

Shabbat shalom!Our group was well aware that this was our last day of
sightseeing together so it was a bittersweet day, starting with a view
of amazing works of God, followed by the incredible ingenuity of man,
and ending with welcoming Shabbat.

We left Kibbutz Lotan which we appreciated as an amazing idealistic
communal kibbutz. We drove north through the mountains of the Negev to
the bottom of the Ramon Crater ( Machtesh Ramon). The Negev between
Lotan and the crater was very barren because it received so little rain
even by the definition of desert. Sometimes the only precipitation was
winter snow from the high Negev mountains, as high as those in the Galilee.

One of the touching moments on the drive occurred as we were singing
Naomi Shemer’s “Jerusalem of Gold”. Eli, our driver for the whole trip,
had fought in the 6 Day war in 1967 and since Shemer added a verse to
celebrate the winning of that war, he said it always brought tears to
his eyes. It reminded us that the history of the State of Israel is
young but intensely impacted so many. (Interesting to us was that later
at services, the congregation sang it to honor her yahrzeit.)

The Negev is sparsely populated with dramatic wide open spaces. Our
first stop was to view the amazing natural crater with its spectacular
cliffs around the rim. Muki explained the theory of the geological
formation of the crater over millions and millions of years. Most
craters are formed by meteors hitting the earth, or by volcanoes, or
glaciers or rivers. Makhtesh Ramon came from a different process.
Horizontal layers of microscopic shell fish were deposited over millions
of years. Eventually the layers were compressed into flat limestone. The
volcanic pressure from below pushed the layers up, forming sharp peaks.
Rain falling on those tall peaks ran off, washing away and eroding the
mountains with canyons. The process of the flash floods and sand filling
in occurred again and again so the sides of the canyon would collapse,
leaving a huge crater. It is possible to view geologic layers on the
sides of the cliff—a window into geologic time. There are lots of
fossils in the sedimentary rocks left by the marine animals dying and
then the pressure smooshing them into rock.

We climbed a set of stairs up the side of the crater to the top of
Carpenter’s hill, called that because the rocks look like wooden posts (
or bricks ). Muki read from the Bible and had the group listen to the
wind and hear “the still small voice.”

When we left that site, we saw wild ibex standing on its hind legs
eating leaves on a carob tree. Our bus then drove further north and we
learned we were passing through the wilderness of Zin, where our
forefathers spent much of the 40 years they were wandering. Frequent
road signs: Beware of camels near the road.

Our next stop was to honor the story of David Ben -Gurion, the first
Prime Minister of Israel who had such a big influence on the founding of
the State. We went to the Ben-Gurion Burial National Park. to the graves
of David and his wife Paula Ben-Gurion.

As an aside--Unlike American sites, the Israeli sites have the parking
lot many hundreds of yards away from the site and out of sight and sound
of whatever you are going to see. This one was a particularly love
entrance with the rocks and trees from the desert flora. If there were
such a thing as a desert Japanese Garden, this was it—a great sense of
slowing down on the passage and turns in the path to new views until you
came to the grave on a plaza overlooking the crater with further views
of all of the Negev!!

David Ben-Gurion is one of the great personalities and certainly one of
the most influential people in the founding of the State of Israel. Muki
had us focus on his natural nation building instinct by learning that
his grave not only had the dates of his birth and death ( 1886-1973) but
also the year 1906 which marked his Aliyah to Palestine. Upon his
arrival, David Green took the name of David Ben-Gurion, a new family
name, to show that he was changing his identity, language and that
indicated his part in the Zionist revolution. As evidence of how
important this new kind of identity was, many of the people we recognize
as giants in the history of Israel also did the same ( Peres, Meir etc)
and Ben Gurion only put people in his cabinet who had changed their
identity!! Muki shared with us that he too had changed his first name
when he immigrated from South Africa based on an experience when he was
visiting as a teen and the group had created new names for each other.
So instead of Mark, he is now Muki, still Michael as his Hebrew name.

We also talked about Ben- Gurion’s Dream—that the Negev had great
potential for Jews to live and build there and relieve the density of
the North. What other saw as wasteland, he saw as potential. The current
vision also has added that whatever building has to respect the fragile
ecosystem. So when we headed further to Beersheva, where the major
Israeli University bears his name, we learned this is the fastest
growing area of Israel and that the University and hospital, which when
founded were second rate, now are very respected. It was obvious when we
stopped in a mall to eat in the food court that we’d left the open
spaces, the quiet winds of the wilderness for the hustle and bustle of
this modern city. Shocking! Despite all the Hebrew we’d learned on the
bus, the purchase of lunch required the quick intervention of Muki,
Daniella and Rabbi Spilker!

We got back on our bus for the last long drive to Tel Aviv where we
started our trip. The vegetation increased the closer we got . Tel Aviv
flora looks like Los Angeles. We had a hard time getting our heads
around the fact that it was almost erev Shabbat, another week had
passed. We attended services, along with several other Reform
congregations at Beit Daniel, the Center for Progressive Judaism in Tel
Aviv and Jaffa. The Executive Director talked with us before services
about the issues facing Progressive ( Reform) Judaism. David and I both
commented to each other on how the Reform movement had grown in Israel
since our first trip here with Rabbi Lerner 23 years ago!! Just as
example, the Education Department of the Daniel Centers run 3 Elementary
schools (including 1 in the poorest area of Jaffa), and 16
Pre-school/Kindergartens in the Tel Aviv Jaffa area..Just from the
services we have attended this trip, it is obvious that there are native
Israeli rabbis in the movement (as memory serves, there were only 1 or
two 23 year ago and.a rabbi from St. Paul had headed the World Union for
Progressive Judaism then!) The service used familiar tunes, but for us
the choreography was quite different as was the order of the service.
The sermon, for example was before the Sh’ma and the congregation stood
for candlelighting. The sanctuary was full with about 400 of us—half
visitors. Rabbi Galia Sadan was considerate in providing an English
translation of her sermon, The male cantor (yes there are still male
cantors!) had a gorgeous full, deep voice and again I was struck with
the power of all the male voices in the congregation. Following Kiddush
in the social hall, we took the bus to the Mishkenot Ruth Daniel in
Jaffa where we dined in the rooftop restaurant with Rabbi Sadan members
of her Kehillat Beit Daniel. So each of us had a chance to talk with
Israelis.

It was beginning to sink in that our trip was nearing the end because we
said L’hitraot to Daniella , the youth worker and Eli our bus driver.
Ken and Bobbie Glick were leaving the group tonight as well.

If you have been following this blog, you will know that “next week
in St. Paul”. While we are sad to disperse our group, we do look forward
to sharing our adventures and learnings with you. We know we will be
reflecting on all the varied experiences for a long time. We have so
appreciated the thoughtful planning of this trip on which Rabbi Spilker
brought us to many places where he had personal connections to share
them with us. We’re tired, happy and looking forward to a restful
Shabbat on the beach!

Mary Ann and David Wark