Language

One word of warning, I am not guaranteeing the correct spelling of all these words. In some cases they are probably more phonetic than otherwise. But I did want to give you a flavor of some everyday Hebrew terms.

Shalom - Yeah, I know, everyone knows this one, meaning "peace". But it gets used very often in everyday conversation to the point where it means "hi", "how are you", "welcome", not just "peace".

Bokur Tov - "good morning"!!! and the correct response is Bokur Or - basically "back at ya"

Haval Al Hasman - "what a waste of time" - spoken with a lot of hand gestures and inferring a lot of sarcasm

Lila Tov - "good night"

Eza Balagan - "what a mess" - also a lot of hand gestures and sarcasm:)

Aliya - "ascent" - refers to a person's first visit to Israel/Jerusalem. Since Jerusalem is built on a hill, the word implies a great deal of physical and spiritual effort to make the journey, climbing the hill, that sort of thing. In many ways, this is my favorite expression. Reading the Psalms now makes so much more sense when you see the words "I will go up to Jerusalem to the house of God.

Obviously we were exposed to a lot more than these few words but I found these to be the most significant. In general, however, language was never a problem while we were in Israel; most people were fluent in Hebrew and English. Quite a difference from here in the USA where we seem to insist that visitors ought to speak "our" language and not that we should have to learn theirs.

I Want To Go Back

You know, I have travelled a bit in my life - England, Wales, Rome, Florence, even India. But this is the first time I have ever felt such a strong pull to return somewhere - to Israel. Granted I wouldn't mind re-visiting any of these places, but there is something different about the Holy Land.

Yes, we visited a lot of places in just one week. But it's not about wanting to see places I didn't get to; nor is it about merely re-visiting the same site. This trip was a spiritual, emotional, physically-demanding, social adventure. And, in a lot of ways, I feel like I have only just scratched the surface of the experience. It's like an onion and I have only just peeled off the first layer. Often, when we visit a place for the first time, we are overwhelmed by the sheer immensity of the experience - the Grand Canyon, Yellowstone, St. Peter's Square. That certainly happened for me, especially at the Wailing Wall and the Church of the Holy Sepulchre. But when I returned, there experience became much more individual, more personal. I was able to focus on the people and the emotions going through my head and the experience became a much deeper one.

The pull to return to Israel is almost palpable; I am not sure if it's "want" or "need" or a little of both. But I've been waking up lately just literally missing the place, longing to touch the Wailing Wall again, to walk through the market and, yes, sample a few more rugellachs, hee hee.

Geography

For years now, actually decades, I have been teaching New Testament to high school Sophomores. For that same time period, I have also been using the same book - Jesus of History, Christ of Faith. And, as much as I really like the text, I have always lamented that it takes 6 chapters before you really get into the story of the Gospels - the opening 6 chapters basically set the stage with background on the time period, lifestyle, political situation, etc. I have always believed the background info was important but I was impatient to get to stories in the Gospels.

Now after a week in Israel, it all becomes crystal clear and I have a much deeper understanding of how all that background info makes the stories in the Gospels more meaningful. For years, I have taught, from the text, that the geography changes from north to south. Boy, does it!!! The northern part of Israel, the Galilee, is lush and green, full of life and vegetation, hillsides and valleys full of grapevines and olive orchards. And the further south you go, the closer you get to Jerusalem, the more desolate it becomes. Green hills are replaced by rocky barren lands. And as you continue south, down along the Dead Sea, it just gets hotter and more barren and lifeless. Don't get me wrong, there is a wealth of trees and plant life around and in Jerusalem and west of the city towards the Mediterranean. But you also realize that the only reason this is so is because every plant, every tree was painstakingly planted by hand. Man has made a garden out of a desert. So if you ever hear of someone saying they donated money to plant a tree in Israel, believe them. It's true.

And as far as the Jordan River is concerned, it looks nothing like a river. It does connect the Dead Sea and the Sea of Galilee but it is barely a stream. In most places you could jump from one side to the other and not get wet. And if you waded across, you wouldn't get your knees wet most of the time.

Random Thoughts

Well, it'a not like i will forget this trip anytime soon so I plan to add in random thoughts and memories as they come back to me:)

Water conservation - given the nature of the climate and geography, it is amazing to me all the little things they do in Israel to conserve water. Leftover water from meals goes right to the plants and flowers. Every building, not just every home, every building in Israel, has a water tank on the roof along with a solar panel that then heats the water - saves electricity too. Guess we aren't as advanced as we think. Also every toilet has two buttons - I think you get the picture - the point being you automatically save water. How come we cant do that here??