The Desert Speaks!

“The desert speaks,

It calls for you to be happy,

Reminding you that everything blooms,

Within you, in your heart.”

I spent this past weekend in the desert on a small Kibbutz called Kramim (Vineyards). The recent rain in the area has allowed for the potential life to sprout from the tough arid earth and cover the amber soil in greenery. The landscape was not a dry as I was expecting but the nourishing silence of the desert was there in all its wonder!

I heart the Negev because of its ability change overnight. It expresses its willingness to grow if only it had the resources. 

Sitting on a bus for two hours on the way there I find I always have these two options; either think about how everything around me is somehow connected to my life’s journey, or sleep and wake up on the shoulder of the person sitting next to me in a puddle of my own drool.

This time I chose the former.

I really feel that here there is so much opportunity to grown and bloom. The kibbutz I was on hosts a year long program which gives ‘post-high school, pre-army’ teenagers the chance to explore themselves and learn about their cultural, national and religious identity. So of course there was a lot of ideological discussions on everything from ‘education methods’, to ‘the need to settle the Negev’, to ‘how much alcohol teenagers should be drinking on their gap year’ (in hebrew, ulpan must be working, who knew!?).

It was really fantastic! A wonderful bunch of kids who helped me reaffirm my being here, and made me fear Israeli youth a little less.

Bless!

Semi Retraction

Re: my previous post I have also learnt throughout my week’s experience here that to be Israeli you also have to care a lot about your fellow Man (gender non-specific). You have to stand to let the elderly sit, you have to offer people you don’t even know lifts if they are standing in the cold, and most of all you have to make sure people are not only fed, but bloated and crying from internal bleeding from exploding intestines. This past Shabbat I was stuffed like a thanks giving turkey while staying at a family I adore. The experience as a whole affirmed the idea that Israel can be home.

In a small Israeli town called Tzofim, next to a bigger Arab town named Kalkilia (cheap oranges) I was introduced to the community as ‘the guy who moved to Israel’ to which people responded which varying degrees of surprise, shock and interest which obviously reflected their experience of Israel to date.

From one of the Bnei Akiva youth it was “Why? Because I want a reason to stay” from a middle aged man pushing a pram it was “why?! I came back from a trip to America wishing I was still there” and from an older man who had made aliyah 20 odd years ago it was “Why? I know why I came, I hope you know, because you’ll need those reasons to get you through the tough times”.

But at the end of the day I could feel that they all know why they were there, they look around an get a feeling of belonging that runs deeper than mere familiarity. Israel sends vibrations to their core which make them quiver and shake when they think about their relationship with the country, it’s both positive and negative.

I’m starting to feel it, but it could just be a bowel movement..

Shavua Tov!

(Pleasant Week)