My next post
will include some reflections posted by my mother on Facebook. She generally posted bits and pieces as comments on my posts etc... I will edit them a
bit but left most intact to share how she felt to be there.
Many people long to go to
Israel for various good reasons. The cost is always substantial but the rewards are
immeasurable. She has only been there twice, once in 1977 for my Brothers Bar Mitzvah and once this summer to celebrate the Bar Mitzvahs of my son and nephew. Yet as a survivor of the horrors of Europe in WWII, she held the dream of Israel in front of her like a light in the worst of the worst.
So here it goes...
There
is an energy, an "aliveness", within Israel, that goes to the soul.
People walk everywhere from dawn till all hours of the night; with cafes and
stores and music and spontaneous dancing, and lots and lots of food everywhere.
The
people here come in all shapes and sizes, all colors, all nations, all
religions, and all sexual orientations. And everyone has an opinion and
their attitudes seem sometimes hard; but if you are in any apparent need, the
hoard immediately parts the waters and individuals insist on helping you and
making everyone listen and help.
There is JEWISH security everywhere, Israeli flags flying
proud everywhere, most signs in three languages (Hebrew, Arabic and English)
and sometimes in Russian and French, etc.
I miss the Israeli flags. And the energy of Israel and of
Jerusalem at night. And the walks at night in Netanya. The boys were
transformed, at the Kotel especially. This was certainly a life-affirming and
connecting place, God-given. A miracle unfolding.
When Jordan
spontaneously sang in the rotunda of the Chagall Windows, it was like the sound
of angels; and then he sang the Shem in various octaves. Our children are the
heritage of this new and old land; of a future.
The young people are beautiful, and confident. And of
course, the history of the buildings, the sites, thousands upon thousands of
years of Jewish history protected and preserved by the Jewish soldiers, made
available to ALL.
When you touch the heritage site stones, there
is an instant energy - My hands got red and hot by just touching the container
of David's Tomb.
We went to a huge waterpark, seemed like billions of people,
all running about in joy; Jew and Arab alike, many languages, and of course,
food; AND one family, came over to us in sympathy and insisted we have
watermelon slices, and bottles of water - they were French.
Innovations and advancements are everywhere, pink and yellow
flowers EVERYWHERE, the land green with trees and cultivation and
protected by watchtowers - across all the borders - turning from lush green
land to brown desolation deserts of the surrounding enemy.
This is a tiny nation of innovators and people who
love life to its fullest. And these words cannot but "touch" the
miracle of this tiny land of and for Israel, brought back to life by the Jews
who never left Israel; and the rag tag remnants of European horrors; and the
Refusniks from Russia; and the million escapees from the Arab lands; now
reaffirmed by those who are cognizant enough to leave Europe before it is too
late; and the American and Canadian Jews who are leaving here now also.
I miss the energy of Israel. The Kibbutz,Yad Mordichaim
that began the reclamation of Israel soil, and that fought the first fight in
'48, I have the book and this lives with me.
I KNOW this to be true; that all the efforts by all
the nations,,. by friend and foe alike; to give away Israeli holy soil will NOT
be allowed; there is now a Force, that will reconstitute Israel. A destiny
arrived. Love
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