Dining, Donations, and Digging

As I've mentioned, the food -- especially the breakfasts -- in Israel is just wonderful.  I always look forward to so many elements of my visits to Israel... among them, the opportunities to enjoy combination of the varieties, colors, and tastes of foods I might not otherwise find so readily at home.  So, here are a few pictures of what I'm talking about...

And if it would help, here's a video of the whole smorgasbord...

The question I'm often asked:  Do all Israelis eat like this every morning?  The answer:  ABSOLUTELY!!!  As long as they stay in a hotel! 

As we began our journey out of Jerusalem, we made a few wonderful stops along the way, including a visit to the Knesset -- Israel's parliament.  Unfortunately, no photographs were allowed.  Therefore, I have none to show you.  If you'd like to see what it looks like (inside and out) you can most assuredly find some good shots (taken both legally and not-so-much) through Google.

However, I do have some great photos of our visits to Hadassah Hospital (including the famous Chagall windows crowning the magnificent synagogue inside the main hospital building) and an Ethiopian Absorption Center just outside of Jerusalem.  At both of these locations our group was proud to donate dozens of hand-knit childrens' sweaters, scarves, hats, and mittons made by members of the Stitches of Love group through Jewish Family Services.  Making the presentations were our very own Jessica and Deb (not using last names here on the blog!).  Attached below are some pix of the donation events at these two locations:

Following our visit to the Knesset (including lunch in the SAME dining room where the "REAL" members of Knesset eat --- everyone say "OOooohhhhh!!!!!") we spent time helping the Israeli Archaeological Department sift through ancient rubble which had been removed from within the walls of the Old City, under the Al Aqsa Mosque at the site of the Dome of the Rock.  This is really a very long, unfortunate, set of circumstances having much to do with a project by the Muslim community to gain a stronger foothold into this piece of real estate by secretly constructing a new mosque deeper into the Temple Mount area.  All the dirt they removed in this very quick project (a few years ago) was literally discarded into a heap just outside the walls of the Old City.  Of course, given that this area was also the site of the ancient Jerusalem Temple, there is strong belief that many important Temple artifacts were likely in this rubble.  So...  let the digging and sifting begin.

After a presentation by the chief archaeologist of the dig-site, we gathered around individual work-stations and sifted through buckets of debris.  Each of us found small shards of pottery, glass, mosaic tiles, and tiny bone-fragments.  But Kelly was the big winner!!!!  All sifting came to a standstill when the head of the dig called us to gather around a show-table.  Kelly had found a rather sizeable piece of pottery from a 2nd Century Roman oil lamp.  We could easily see the intricate design which adorned the rim of this lamp.  The place was "abuzz" with excitement, as this was considered a "significant" find:

Here are a few other "eyewitness" accounts of the activity:

Out of Jerusalem we went... dusty and shmutsy from the sifting... but very happy to have had the day we had.  Many then got to enjoy a 2 1/2 hour bus ride up to the North -- through barriers and checkpoints.  At one point, two soldiers with VERY loaded weapons boarded the bus to walk up and down the aisle -- just to read our faces and make sure there wasn't anyone on the bus that wasn't supposed to be there.  Really a perfect example of the sobering reality of life in Israel... but at the same time rather comforting to know how vigilant the Israeli army is at doing its job so well.

We checked into our hotel at Kibbutz Lavi in the North, then enjoyed the lighting of our Chanukiyah in the main corridor (with about 50 other chanukiyot), ate a delicious buffet dinner, then a few of us sat in the bar and enjoyed an hour of conversation with our bus driver, D'ror.  We spoke about being a secular Jew in Israel, learned a little Hebrew, and just had a great time sharing cultures.

Another great day...

Rabbi Jeffrey Astrachan