Pesach in Israel with Alfredo

Well, Pesach in Israel is certainly a GREAT experience for any Jew-everywhere you turn there is something to eat that is Kosher for Pesach! It's AMAZING!

Aside from that, I had a wonderful seder that was half Israeli and half American in Tel Aviv, near the beach. We sort of just went around the table and read each in English or Hebrew- as we preferred. It went much more quickly than reading it in BOTH languages! HAHAHA! In any event, it was delicious food and wonderful company and I was very excited to be having Seder in Israel. It was funny, though, because even the Israeli's say "Next year in Jerusalem!" and the Americans thought that was interesting because we are in ISRAEL!

In any event, Alfredo got in in time for the Seder and then we spent a couple days at the beach in Tel Aviv, went to Cesarea, spent a night in Haifa, went to other ruins on the way to camp on the Galilee, saw Tsfat and then drove from there all the way down past the Dead Sea to too a small town in the desert called Mamshit, near Arad, to stay at a Bedouin tent. The drive through the country from north to south was so amazing...probably one of the most interesting experiences I have had in Israel. Everyone who comes here witnesses the difference from north to south, east to west, with every form of land imaginable. To drive it yourself, in one day, was really cool! As we were driving we had the Jordanian border, the fence separating the countries, on our left side and the Judean Hills on our right. We drove from the Mountains of Tsfat through the Yisreal valley, through the Judean hills to the Dead Sea and the Negev. Alfredo told me it was one of his favorite memories, that and spending Shabbat in Israel, seeing the Western Wall on a Friday night. After staying in the desert we went to Masada, the Dead Sea and Ein Gedi before going to Jerusalem for the weekend. Next, we spent a day and a half on the Kfar where I live just so that he could see it and we could relax before he went back to the grind of work (yes this rigorous itinerary was what he called a vacation!).

It was an interesting experience to see Israel through the eyes of a first time visitor, of a person so curious about Judaism and Israel. In fact, it affirmed my belief that Israel is a magical place, filled with endless possibility and a power in the land, a place where miracles have and continue to happen. I told him about how being in Israel makes me believe anything is possible on one of his first nights and I think he was sort of like "oh, ok" but by our first night in Jerusalem he too understood what I meant. He was very moved by the Western Wall on Shabbat, and by the beauty and history he found here. As he told me, there are remains of cities here before he ever knew there were remains to be found and people from more places than you can ever expect. And this is why I wanted to spend an extended period of time here, to experience this and to understand it as more than a tourist. To explain these words in an action, when Alfredo wanted to put a note in the Wall on Sunday (because he had not done so on Shabbat), I joined him in doing so. What is surprising to me and maybe to many of you is that I cannot count the number of times I have visited the Wall before, and I have never left a note. To me, I finally realized that I do believe in its power, the strength of this country and the miracles that can happen!

Through Alfredo's visit, I realized that I have become more than a tourist here. I think that I know this land pretty well both from north to south and east to west and also from inside out, as much as possible as an outsider. But more than that, I have found a connection to this land more than just as a Jew, but as a believer that this land is truly beyond your wildest dreams, further than expectations and filled with endless promise.