Masada

Los Angeles
Just because I'm home now doesn't mean the ripples and reflections from the trip end. Our last days consisted of Shabbat in Hashmonean, Masada and Ein Gedi, and my visits and meetings at Yad Vashem.

Saul kicked my tush at Masada. Meaning, he took one look at the cable car, a tiny bucket dangling from two threads, and remembered that his friend Harel advised him to climb the snake path, and told me that's how he wanted to get to the top. Which generally is fine with me, because my self-flattery suggests I am in good shape and can handle any challenge. Hell, maybe we should even start jogging as the commando units do on the morning of their graduations...

Cut to 10 minutes later. "Gee Dad, you're really sweating. Breath through your nose more so the air doesn't dry out your throat."

Cut to 10 minutes later, maybe a bit more than 1/2 way up. "Saul (pant, pant), it's time for a 5 minute (pant, pant) rest."

I tried to argue that I was carrying the pack, and that made me hotter... I asked Saul to carry it for the last quarter of the route. We rested another few minutes when we got to the top, but the key is we made it. And I resolved to fix my rowing machine and get back into shape the minute we got home. (Which I am doing, but that is another story.)

At the top Saul and I opted out of the audio guide. Audio Tours always make me feel guilty. They provide far more information than I can ever recall. Yet if I don't get them I feel I am missing out on the opportunity to get the inside story. We self-toured. Not until I met with Yehudit Inbar, Yad Vashem Museum Director, did I have my guilt assuaged. But that is for another posting.

As it was at Beit Shean, the self-tour was a great experience. Again, Saul and I guided each other. I shared with him what I remembered from previous visits. He asked questions that forced us to investigate the site together. Questions such as, when we looked at the rough walls of the synagogue, 'Were the walls this rough when it was in use?'

Cut to the upper palace, where we could see the remains of tiled floors and plastered walls. Or the bath houses, where we could see the creature comforts installed into the rooms.

Perhaps the most interesting exhibit was the interactive model showing how Herod installed numerous systems to trap and save water. Saul took charge, pouring water over the leaden model and watching how it was trapped in gutters and channeled to cisterns.

We moved to the northern palace, Herod's summer home, built below and in the shade of the summit. A very boisterous Israeli group overwhelmed us, both with their numbers and their noise. It reminded Saul too much of the annoying kids on the bus ride from the Malcha mall. Time to descend.

I wasn't prepared for Saul's response: let's take the cable car. Which was fine by me. I was ready for the cardio challenge of the downward climb, but knew it would be even more punishing on my knees.

As we descended quickly (3 minutes from top to bottom), I watched the fortress city recede above me. I learned that residents there even grew crops; with proper water management, the community had significant levels of self-sufficiency. Interestingly, Masada's martyred ghosts did not call out to me at any point during our visit. I thought about them, recalling how I first learned of Masada through a feature film treatment a friend of my parents' once wrote. But I wasn't affected by the tremendous self-sacrifice that occurred.

I think Sderot and Operation Cast Lead ("OCL") had something to do with it. The mood in Israel was not one of sacrifice and victimization. Maybe I couldn't dwell on sacrifice as the ultimate Jewish resistance, because Israel freed us from that trap. I guarantee that conclusion was not on the audio guide.

The Way Things Work in Israel

Tel Aviv
This blog begins a couple of days ago. When we arrived in Tiberias Saul was exhausted and over stimulated from our long drive and sight seeing. He napped and I went out for a bowl of soup. I made friends with the proprietor, Mickey, who’s family had been in Israel for generations.

I was having a great time and eager to plan the next day. Saul nixed everything I proposed. Then he started looking at the map of Israel and grabbed the guide book. While I ran another errand (the face soap adventure – see above) he compiled a list of the things he wanted to do. Among them: visit Sderot to demonstrate our solidarity.

I told Saul that if he was serious about visiting Sderot I would leave immediately. He was serious. So I had to admit to him I was speaking slighlty hyperbolic. It made no sense to drive from Tiberias to Sderot. My immediate task was to plan our visit to the Golan.

So the truth is I didn’t work on the Sderot visit until this afternoon. But I had something up my sleeve: before I left Los Angeles, I asked Gil Artzyeli, Los Angeles Deputy Consul General of Israel, for some contacts that could help me arrange a visit. So at 5:45 pm I started with the first name on Gil’s list. By 9 p.m. I had been invited to meet with the Mayor of Sderot and to visit Barzili Hospital in Ashkelon. When I told Saul we would meet with the Mayor he was thrilled.
And in between, our architect, Hagy Belzberg, called up to let me know he’d followed up on my ask for help meeting Moshe Safdie. Safdie is a personal friend, and Hagy arranged for me to speek with Moshe Safdie, the renowned architect whose accomplishments include the Yad Vashem re-design. Did I mention Hagy is also an Israeli?