Since our March return to Israel and my last written post , life experiences in Israel as in the world entire. unfolded in "April Fools," more surreal, bizarre flare,.not just over one day, but during the entire month...
Despite the so many deeply bereaved, who lost their love-ones , on the Oct 7th Hamas' massacre , and the heartbroken despaired families of hostages, whose hope to see their relatives be delivered from captivity to redemption, was shuttered, this recent Passover, and the distressed displaced in the thousands, a thirst for life normalization, fountain-ruptured in an uncanny vitality, especially in Tel-Aviv.
The devastating news on the calamities at Gaza battlefield, or at the northern border ,
compiled with news on the Gov. mismanagement at the international political arena,
as well as inept or destructive sabotage of the hostages' release deal,
didn't halt the dweller of this "city with no intermission", to go on, with life in full volume.
Nor the historical direct Iranian retaliatory attacks against Israel, on April 13th, by the IRGC, in collaboration with the Islamic Resistance of Iraq Lebanese Hezbollah, and the Yemeni Houthis, with 300 drones, cruise missiles, and ballistic missiles. had deterred the city's residents off the streets.
Most of the missiles were intercepted by the long-range Arrow air defense system. mostly downed outside of Israeli airspace
and thus triggered contempt images and videos among the Arab world that despise Iran
Neither, the tsunami rise in global antisemitism nor news broadcasted by all medias outlets, about the pro-Hamas riots and altercations with Jewish students at US degenerating Ivy League campuses, interfered or stopped the daily vibrant routines.. in TLV - the city where "business continued as usual"
A Jewish student was blocked from entering UCLA campus by pro Hamas
fellow student supporters supporters
And despite all this mayhem, and these poignant rhetorical questions addressing the inverse world, by sane ILTV encore,
Tel Aviv's life has been lived to its fullest
This year's annual PAPAYA Night Run (4/17) through the TLV main streets, in both directions, attracted 25,000 participating runners from all over the country .
The sight of the cheering spectators and the runners electrifying energies, were truly amazing.
Tel-Aviv Cafes were full to the bream with bubbly youth. Reservations at restaurants were hard to get.. Congestion at Dizingoff street and the shopping malls..were as usual, full,
Zehu Ze
Entertainment places, theaters, and concert halls.. tickets were all sold out..
A huge performance the a popular TV Comic/singing assumable "Zehu Ze" made up of 5 revered actors all men in their 65+, who excited the mixed all ages audience , at the Cultural Center by Habima
Concurrently, the "Kidnapped Square" and "Kaplan Street" were mobbed, on weekends with thousands angry protestors, including us,
Witnessing tearful hostages' families, at the end of their wits, calling–out to the "Crime Minister" - Bibi to step down - and chanting "You are the Head, You are to be Blamed"only made me wonder, what fuels, this unbelievable spirited vibrancy, strength and endurance.
A Human Chain initiative , in support of bringing the hostages back was formed
Family members of hostages gathered on beaches along Israel’s coast .
The formed human train stretched from Habonim Beach to Rishon Lezion, some 85 kilometers (52 miles), in a call for the government to secure a hostage release deal. On Tel Aviv’s Gordon Beach, protesters held surfboards to extend the chain.
Facial Images of the hostages and posters against callous Gov members, were staring from all around, posted on boards, fences, buildings and Dizzingoff round square.
David who got involved with the "Yom Kippur Veteran " protest group , has been volunteering in assemble and disassemble the group's demi Tank on display every weekend at the protest location, Strategizing the next step to bring about the yearned change to the country., and get it back on sane tracks,, is the ultimate activity of the group.
Furthermore cultural initiatives keep kicking at the town's open spaces
Several new Art Pieces were added in various locations around the city.
Iron Installation by Michael Gross at the
Tel-Aviv Museum's outdoor square
David and Polla Ben-Gurion. Wolf Lamb by Yael Bartna Shira Zlewer on Ben Gurion St next to Habima
Pieces of light
Passover April 2024
This horrendous April's Passover, wasn't "celebrated" only conducted by our family
in Jerusalem, at our eldest daughter _Keren and her husband Elie, place.
Three days prior to the Seder meal, I made my pilgrimage to this somber "holly city", of over Million inhabitants (twice the size of TLV) and so completely different from the secular hedonistic Tel-Aviiv.
.Jerusalem was successfully "conquered" by the ultra religious, that now consist a majority in a town, and its outdated black wear, dominates the city's streets
Leaving "Tel Aviv's freedom" for "bondage" , my days in Jerusalem were spent preparing and cooking in Keren's kitchen, for the 10 of us, 8 family members and 2 Americans, Elie's non Jewish guests from work who participated at the Seder.
Rugie - the family free spirited beloved dog, was especially grateful and happy with the leftover quantities bestowed on him, at this special night...
In addition to the acquired special Hagada published by the Hostages families, and the Seder orders/instruction booklet, with relevant interpretative remarks, which Elie so kindly prepared, the talk I compiled for this year's so sad occasion, shared the following:
PASSOVER - PESACH is a Jewish national liberation holiday, in which we are reminded of and highlight the biblical stories of :
the Exodus, the Parting of the Sea, the Ten Commandments, the 40-year-wandering in the desert, and that of attaining Sovereignty in the Land of Israel, 3,600 years ago.
This 2024 Passover is like no other in recent history with Israeli hostages still in captivity for over 200 days, and Jews world-wide are fearful for their lives.
The Exodus story being re-told diminishes the idea of POWER and emphasize the power of IDEAS
The tension between Liberty/freedom and Security is from time immemorial, an existential fluid reality which the Jewish tradition, captured so vividly in the Passover tell
For that reason, we are directed to remember and retell the story, to the next generations, as well as to re-enact that updated experience version, every year, around the Passover table within the family gathering, known as Seder Pesach - putting matters in Order, and calibrating our perceptions and values.
Our forefathers when enslaved in Egypt doomed to forced labor, couldn't be the masters of their time, body, or destiny, and were denied the freedom of movement, national religious practices, and multiplication choices,
However, the Security of predictable basic survival diet of water, zucchinis, cucumbers, and watermelons, provided by the mighty Egyptian Empire, as is mentioned in the biblical story, was comforting,
Following the Exodus, the Israelite gained the freedom to become the nation Moses inspired them to be, no longer enslaved to a human tyrant, and free to choose serving a higher entity, worshiping the Torah's Mosaic laws and attaining a piece of land.
Yet, when wandering in the desert , the Israelite complained and transgressed
They lost the Security of food provision.
It was no longer assured they would have water, bread or meat about which they complained they were lacking, and whined to go back to Egypt.
They were also not ready to combat and self safe-guard against their enemies.
Even prior to the particular Hebrew Exodus story, this duality and its universal tension experienced by humanity, was revealed in the 2 universal stories of Creation about a Family and a Community. told in the book of Genesis,
In the first story
Being placed in the Garden of Eden - Adam and Eve had all their survival provisions secured, within the closed off Garden and its "forbidding rules"
Yet the compelling "appetite for free choice" is revealed in Eve Picking up the "forbidden fruit", despite the consequences of being banished from the Garden, out to a free but insecure unpredictable world …in which laboring for survival was demanded.
In the second story
The unlimited freedoms which were in practiced within Sodom and Gomorrah, facilitated a life infested with "Vile & Violence". There was no security in such a land . Coincidentally the Hebrew world “Hamas” used for Vile -is pronounced like the Terrorist’s name Hamas..
Such lawlessness, and unrefined freedom is what ultimately brought about the demise. on the land.
Likewise reality triggered the story of the Deluge- and a re-start of humanity.
Societies after the deluge, were organized by totalitarian rulers, and domineering empires with armies, that provided the natives with more security in food and personal safety, but at the same time curbed humanity freedoms, by turning people into subjects
The call for freedom from slavery, as told in the Exodus story, and the loss of Security in the desert, gave birth to the belief in an higher entity as to mitigate and navigate the tension and fluidity between the urge for freedom and the sense of voided security.
Thus the story of the 2 tablets of covenant illustrates that polarity yet, again.
Moses disappeared for 40 days on the mountain leaving the budding free nation to its own vices.
In a constellation where there was a void in leadership, security, and limiting guiding laws ... the stiff concrete "Golden Calf" and its false sense of security was erected.
Thus the Divine guiding Tablets offering freedom within secure limitations, got broken,
Another "man -made" adjusted Tablet-set, replaced the first broken one.
Furthermore, the historical 2 previous UNITED Hebrew Sovereign Free States, the one of -David/Solomon kingship (900 bc) and that of the Hashmonaim kingship (200bc )
were a repeat of the same existential tensions..
These 2 kingship both lasted LESS than 100 years before disintegrating.
United kingdom ( 75 - 880 -800 BC)
Hashmonaites - ( 77 - 140-63 BC)
In the first United Kingship -A loose federation of 12 Hebrew tribes, each free to conduct its own particular political affairs, called for instituting a king to rule over them, when their SECURITY was compromised by common external enemies.
That ruling arrangement UNITY, was short lived and ended up in a decision into 2 separate states:
Judah (384 years the 796 -422) ) and Israel, (200 years 928 -722),
later both followed by the 2 Exiles
The abuses of tyrant descendants rulers in a span of 4th generation, led to civil wars and to weakening of the united kinship.
The first pioneering Generation, that lived with no Free Sovereign state, but then gained one, knew not to take such a free- state and its wonder, for granted.
The Second Generation- born into a free state, starts losing the memory of not having a sovereign state, The initial wonder of living in a free state started deeming as was the need to cultivate such a wonder.
The Third generation born into the free state, already tends to forget that freedom and a sovereign state are a wonder.. Such a reality becomes trivialized.
The Fourth Generation, takes a free sovereign state completely for granted, and is infused with the illusion, that such a state of affairs is not questionable but is a solid firm eternal reality.
The perceptions of those 4 Generations, on the elusive concept of Freedom, corresponds with the 4 Questioning Sons mentioned in the Passover Haggadah
The Wise, the Wicked, the Innocent, and the one who no longer knows to inquire...
It took only 4 generations and hardly 100 years (actually only 75) of UNITED independent Sovereign existence before the fragile concept of freedom got forgotten, and the experience of in-fighting disintegration began and resulted in the destruction of the 2 temples, and a long loss of Jewish sovereignty, for over 2 thousand years.
In 586 BC - the destruction of the First Temple by Babylon, occurred
In 70 AD - destruction of the Second Temple by Rome,
In modern times, the independent sovereign national Jewish state of Israel was miraculously established again in 1948 after over 2 millennia in exile.
Functioning for 75 years as a free liberal Democratic entity, Israel is now hijacked by a disastrous leader and Gov. bent on curtailing civic freedoms, and heading on turning the country into a messianic theocracy, thus bringing the country to the brink of yet another civil war. and possible destruction.
Weakening the country' unity and compromising its civic rights as well as its internal cohesiveness and national security, ejected the public into the streets in protest demanding :
+to re-write the contract between the Gov and its civic society.
+ to re-start, and give a second chance to establishing a constitution which will protect the nation's liberal democratic freedoms, and full equality in civic rights and duties, to all factions.
This is our generation's struggle for freedom both from the threats of an internal failed leadership and from our external enemies, bent on annihilating the survival of the only Jewish Democratic Liberal Sovereign State, in this infested region..
In the spirit of the original Passover story, we are compelled to retell and re-enact the experience, as we have no choice but to win the battle in this history chapter of our times.
To illustrate also how this story became universal, it is well known that the US Founding Fathers were inspired by the Exodus story and the Mosaic legacy, in particular
Furthermore, in addition to the welcoming monumental Statue of Liberty on Liberty Island in New York Harbor, they deemed it appropriate to engrave the essence of the Biblical role model of liberty on the Liberty Bell:
The chimes of that Liberty Bell should be a wake up call to the entire Western civilization, as not to take our freedoms for granted, but to bravely stand up resolutely, against the threats shot by the axis of evil, that works earnestly and maliciously, to erase this precious fragile value, along with destroying the rest of the liberal nations.
May we have the wisdom of visionary leaders like Moses, and the courage of those who followed him, to guarantee and safeguard the liberties of our civilization.
+++++++++++++++++
Touring the Country
During the 8 days of Passover Holiday, we kept off the Hwys which get supper congested. Traffic jams are insane when schools are closed on Passover break, and multi-children families mob any free picnic areas, national parks or entertainment sites.
So once the Holiday break was over, we immediately took off to the road, Since access is closed off to the far North and South of the country, we headed toward the Menashe Hills, bordering on the Jesreel Valley, specifically to Ramot Menashe Park- Israel's first biosphere, UNESCO recognized since 2011.
This biosphere is a model of sustainable coexistence between man and nature in Israel, and a fantastic verdant escapism for the soul....
It covers 8400 Hectares of abundant vegetation, planted forests, natural oak forests, rare plants, grazing areas, fields, orchards, farms, villages, springs, flowing streams. and many open spaces. (Entrance is off Route 66)
On this pleasant cool day, the walk we took on the paved mark 1.9-km loop trail,
near HaZorea, and over some small bridges, under the shaded by the trees and along riverbanks, was absolutely wonderful.
It is a popular area for birding, hiking, running, dipping and exploring.
Few small caves, an old mill, and abundance of vegetation along with bus loads of school kids trailing after their nature loving teachers, was part of the scenery
The small waterfalls and pools, encountered from the terraces lookout, were filled with
school children delightfully splashing each other, as well
Walking time from the "Cherubim Parking lot HaShofet River" (by Waiz) is approximately a half hour for those who walk quickly and up to an hour and a half for those who wish to linger.
THE END