Yes -- or should I say, "ken" -- I'm in Israel! I arrived yesterday afternoon, about 3 p.m., and was met by my student/friend Noam Bahat, an Israeli who started at Hampshire last fall, and is back in Israel for the summer, staying with his family in their small community, Nirit, about 20 minutes outside of Tel Aviv. As it turned out, I arrived on the very same day his younger twin brothers, Asaf and Yotan, were having their bar mitzvah party -- although they do not turn 13 for another few months, the family decided to have it now before Noam goes back to the U.S. for school. So, after a quick shower and change of clothes to wash the grime from a night and day on an airplane, I ended up in the middle of a party of about 100 people. It was on the deck of their house, which is up on a hill overlooking a vista toward the West Bank -- very lovely, with bright pink flowers and vines on a trellis, they had set tables with candles all over the deck and backyard for the party. Given my extremely limited Hebrew, I wasn't able to join conversations much (you can only say "ken" and "lo" so often before you start sounding like an idiot), but everyone spoke at least a little English, and Noam's aunt and uncle Naomi and Natan especially took me under their wing, and she did lots of translating for me into my ear. They were lovely; they live on a kibbutz way down in the south, which they immediately invited me and my group to visit, although I don't know if we'll be able to make it there. Next time, perhaps. Anyway, I thoroughly enjoyed the party, even as a mostly silent spectator; Noam's sister had made a slideshow of the twins' growing up which was shown to everyone and gave me a glimpse of his family at all stages. His parents are also very friendly and kind -- it's an extremely homey way to start my trip!


Today after hanging out over breakfast, Noam and I took a walk up a hill near their house, where we saw lots of the cactus known as "sabras" growing (this is what the term "sabra" comes from; I never knew that) and other desert-like plants; also visited an orchard that is tended by a Palestinian farmer where almond trees, pomegranite trees, olive trees and one other -- now I can't remember which -- grow. That was very beautiful. From the top of the hill, you can see out over the green line to the West Bank, complete with a view of the separation wall and of various settlements that are spreading out there, as well as, if you turn your head slightly, of Arab villages. It made me aware of how close and constant is the presence here of this "other land" -- very different from living in the U.S., where it's all "us" right up to the Atlantic and Pacific Ocean (I guess maybe people in Texas and Arizona feel this way about Mexico). Noam and I had an interesting discussion about what it means to be "Jewish" if you are not a religious Jew, but I'll have to report on that another time -- now other members of the family are arriving and it's time for aruhattshurayim (my no doubt weird transliteration of how you say lunch in Hebrew). L'hitra ot!