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Blessings for safety and peace and health to all our brave soldiers and civilians on the home front. We pray for their safe and quick return, along with the hostages, alive and well.
Y’all are doing an amazing job refilling my cup of joe. Keep it coming!
Oh, and tell all your friends, too 🙂
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Live Fire and Taxidermy
During Hannukah last week, I took off a couple days for some much-needed travel.
Not exactly far, 40 minutes west of us, past Megiddo.
My Google Maps basically randomly popped up a kibbutz in the Eastern Galilee called Ein Harod.
For a small kibbutz, it has 2 (!) museums.
Some crazy Russian Jews at work, LOL.
We drove east past Afula, very close to the West Bank border.
As we drove by, I looked out to the right and saw a large smoke column arising a few kilometers south from us.
Mount Gilboa was on the left, in all its glory.
That smoke?
I quickly gathered, based on my pretty accurate sense of geography…
That’s Jenin burning over there.
Later that day, I confirmed that 3 days straight of fighting had happened there between the IDF and hordes of Hamas and Islamic Jihad, resulting in the massive capture of weapons, terrorists, equipment and intel, with tunnels uncovered, etc.
Maybe we’re still new here or not sufficiently cynical or careless enough, but it still feels eerie and bizarre to me that we’re basically a few kilometers away from war.
Not the same intensity or breadth as in Gaza, of course, but still, pretty fierce.
Israel is a deep land, to be sure, but still pretty damn small, just the size of New Jersey.
An hour’s drive to see our dear friend in Petah Tikva for her birthday is seen by most Israelis as some great achievement, as if we went “way out.”
Our friends in Highland Park, New Jersey were also always impressed when we made the “trek” down from Brooklyn, back in the day.
I mean, DUUUDE.
We go where we need to go for our friends, no questions asked.
But back to the Eastern Galilee.
So we drove past the formidable Mount Gilboa and into the kibbutz.
The first museum I wanted to take the kids to was a museum with some serious taxidermy.
Every kind of local bird and beast, but also some bizarre things I didn’t expect.
A bit of Mutter Museum in Philly, that sort of thing.
What exactly?
Well…
How about two-headed calves and sheep with 6 legs?
Yeesh, creepy.
But it happens sometime, I guess.
We looked around the beautiful kibbutz a bit more and went a few minutes more to the east to Beit Shean, right on the Jordanian border.
Excellent Moroccan home cooking.
Can’t speak highly enough of it. Couscous and shnitzel, with all the salatim.
The feeling of the town was somewhere between run-down and gloomy and somehow on edge.
Maybe it was just me.
Jordan isn’t really acting very nicely these days.
Earlier this year, a Jordanian diplomat tried to smuggle weapons and massive amounts of cash to West Bank terrorists through this or another border crossing using his diplomatic immunity and was thankfully arrested.
The illegal arms flow to the West Bank has been pretty massive, as the IDF has found while raiding Jenin and Nablus (Shechem) and other towns in the area.
Again, both are basically within earshot from where we were.
You get the sense that something’s about to happen, to blow up, something sinister, G-d forbid.
Weird, unpleasant feeling.
Hannuka went and passed. Lots of light and oil (G-d help me, a LOT of oil).
Lots of family gatherings and joy, thank G-d.
But the feeling of missed expectations was also strong.
No open miracles in the form of live hostages returned, unfortunately.
Sadly, three were killed accidentally by our own forces on the last day of Hannuka.
Hamas is still 300% to blame.
We may be mostly used to it, but the country is still extremely raw and on edge.
Soldiers are dying daily in Gaza.
The North seems a lit match away from a massive ricket barrage from Hizballah.
It’s not clear whether we’re in denial, used to a new routine, or what it is.
Last night, we stayed up late and called our deal friends in New Jersey.
We asked how they are, given the anti-Semitic flare-up in the last two months.
They’re obviously against sending their kids to these Ivies where anti-Semites are running wild and unobstructed.
Moving here isn’t an issue of heart or mind, just wallet, at this point.
Because whatever it is, in the end, when push comes to shove, we’re in our own country, with our own people, being ourselves to the greatest and freest degree possible.
The rest of the Jewish world seems to be catching up more quickly.
On the trip, when we drove past Megiddo, I mentioned the concept of Armageddon and where it comes from.
We talked a lot about geopolitics on Shabbat, since I bought an excellent game for kids (and adults, everyone LOVED it) called The World Game.
Geography was my first great love as a discipline, as soon as my Mom put up a world map next to my bed as a small kid.
Our kids LOVED it right from the start.
And it’s my excuse to play a game I REALLY love (to the exclusion of most other board games, for better or worse) AND teach kids about ALL sorts of cool things about each country and place and city and region, etc.
We may seem isolated these days here in Israel.
But at least we have each other.
And lots of plans to travel once the war is done.
We will NEED it, G-d knows.
Off I go, back home, amigos.
Have a great week ahead.
Practice safe geography and don’t go too close to Jenin or causing Armageddon now!
LOL.