Pictures this morning

We got to the Fuchsberg Center a half hour early this morning for group and individual pictures of the Legacy Heritage Fellows. We are starting to talk about the end of the session and I just don't want to see it end.
This morning in Ulpan we read a story about the changing face of the modern Israeli. The original settlers cut themselves off from the rest of the world. Although they were almost all European immigrants, they thought of themselves as "born from the sea." They shed the studious image of Torah scholarship in favor of the strong farmer and soldier. They did not recognize any differences among themselves and maintained a single image of the Sabra. The Eichman trial marked the change in Israeli society. For the first time Israelis were able to place the blame for the Holocaust where it belonged and not on their European ancestors. Interest in researching their family trees was revived. They sought an answer to the question of who were my grandparents. Moreover, they started recognizing the value of their diverse society. The thinking person rose to the level in society previously held exclusively by the laborer.(I hope you remember that we read this whole story in Hebrew!) It was my reaction that this was a very good change. The laborer was perfectly suited for bringing the nascent country to maturity. Now, however, a widely diverse nation of talented people can compete globally.
The passion whith which Michal, our Ulpan teacher, spoke was evident today more than I had ever noticed. This is not an intellectual exercise for Israelis but rather a matter of survival. It should touch us all because I firmly believe that the futures of Israel and of the Jewish people are firmly bound together. Do you know that within the next ten years, the majority of Jews in the world will live in Israel.
In our Midrash class we read a series of Midrashim that told of God's creation of the world and stressed that he created the world after looking in the Torah much like a builder consults architectural plans. Also, that God created the world all alone with no help, even from angels. The Midrash proves this by asserting that angels were created either on the second day when water was created or on the fifth day with the creation of the birds. The Midrash proves these assertions by bringing quotes that associate angels with either water or flying. Regardless of which day it was, it most certainly was not day one proving that God was acting alone. All this is important because ultimately the creation story is used by the Jews to respond to their neighbors in Canaan when they are accused of stealing the land (who would have thought that would ever happen?). The Jewish people can answer that the One God made the universe and He can decide who lives where. This story is echoed by Rashi in his commentary in Beraishit.
In our last Teaching Israel class we got to summarize our personal feelings about Israel. We had decided that in order to bring other people closer to Israel, we had to come to terms with our own feelings first.
When I started thinking, I realized that for me, my attachment is all about the little things. For example, just last night we took a cab from the Kotel back to the apartment. As we had four people, I sat up front with the driver. He asked me a question that I realized had been asked many times. The driver asked me how long I was staying here. When I told him that I was here for a month, I also said I was studying at a yeshiva. Then he wanted to know which one. I told him and coincidentally we were just about to pass the Agron St. address. Here's the point of it all: Where else would a cab driver want to know about your yeshiva? How is it important to him, and to so many other strangers, how long I am staying. These are the kinds of questions family members ask eachother --not cab drivers. One of my classmates told me that Israelis were nosey --but in a good way. There is a closeness among these people that shown itself in subtle ways. Even the rudeness, the horn blowing, and the cutting in lines are things that you would never do to complete strangers. That's because there are no complete strangers here. No, the people on the street are not all my friends. But they are not strangers either.
Roz is up north with Sandra and Moshe so I have some time to reflect and to write.
I called Rabbi Moshe Aranov who co-officiated at our wedding and has retired to Israel. I am not sure he recognized who I was. His wife passed away and he sounds a bit depressed about his own failing health. It reminded me of the Adon Olam which we sing wth so many unusual tunes. This week we learned that although it begins by talking about our universal and infinite God, it ends with a personal God who is there when we feel alone and afraid. Along with the Shema, it is recited at bedtime and with a person near death.
I made my supper and enjoyed it on my mirpeset listening to the periodic roar of the number17 bus and cooled by the evening Jerusalem breeze.