48 Today – 51 Years Ago

On this day 51 years ago I sat in an air raid shelter (in the picture I am sitting in the upper left hand corner, a lively, curly headed boy in shorts and a sweater that my mother knitted and listened to a story that Malvina told us. What stories did we hear at that time? Who knows. But I do remember from about that time the story of "Little Hunchback Horse". I remember that we sat between the bushes when the shelter was being dug and the gigantic bulldozer uprooted bushes near us. Afterwards, when the building of the shelter was completed, we ran from the children's house to the little wooden bunks under the ground to see how long that took. And all the nights of the Sinai War we slept crowded together there in three tiers. In the evenings, together with our parents, we listened to the 'central radio' (the loudspeaker connected to the only radio set in the kibbutz) and heard an authoritative voice talking about the battles that were taking place.

At that time children from the nearby air force base were added to my "group". And one night Benny Peled came to us in his flying overalls and gear to visit his son Yoram.

At the top of the picture, opposite me to my right sits Yaron. Under him Malvina is reading us a story. And next to her is Hagit (looking at the camera). Below her is – Amos. Above him, standing and leaning on the wooden pillar is Ishai. And to his left (next to me) is Bina. Under me you can see Gilead's head. In front, before Malvina sits (with his hand under his chin) Yair. The rest I can't identify with certainly.

In the course of time Ishai and I became pilots in the air force. So did Yoram, Benny Peled's son. Ishai's plane was shot down at the beginning of the Yom Kippur War in the Bardawil region of Sinai. For some time he was considered missing in action until we learned that he was a prisoner of war in Egypt. Today he is an El Al pilot. Gilead was killed toward the end of the war in the Golan. He did not have a permanent assignment when the war broke out; he was in an 'officers pool'. A group from that 'pool' joined a force that fought in the Golan. He was in a jeep when he was hit by a shell.

Yaron, Hagit, Bina, Ishai and Yair continue to live on the kibbutz to this day.

47 Saturday Morning at Sdot Yam Beach

More than a year has passed since the first column of "Pictures from my Cell Phone" appeared. I started it with one of my favorite places to which I return time and again – the beach of Sdot Yam. I photographed the sunset. When I look over my photo collection from that period, I see that I shot dozens of pictures of the sun setting in the sea. This is for me the most beautiful hour on the beach. How good it is to feel the slightly warm breeze and walk barefoot in the shallow water at sunset.

But lately I have devoted the last hours of daylight before Shabbat to my bicycle trips and here I am at the beach in the early morning hours. There are still only a few people here. The sea is stormy and the water almost reaches the sun sheds in the photo's right hand side. Two or three brave swimmers are in the sea and a father and his son are riding the waves in a canoe that isn't seen in the picture. The man on the left hand side is watching the canoe which just now reached the buoy in the center of the bay.

As yet the paddle ball and soccer players have not arrived. The peace and quiet of the sea are almost dream-like. But in another moment a huge wave will sweep over the dry sand at the pictures base and drive me away to a spot some ten meters from the sea. I read the final pages of "Disgrace" by Coetze. What a powerful book, what a wonderful author. I try to discover the meaning behind his subtle hints. Why the black neighbor is called Petrus (the name of one of the first Christians)? Why is the name of the young attacker Pollux (a name from the Greek Mythology)? Why was the episode at the University of Cape Town told before the story of the rape on the farm? What is the meaning of the first chapter that stands alone? And what are Byron, the great English poet and his abandoned lover Theresa doing here?

It is already warm. I shake off my thoughts and jump into the cool water – and clear my head of all this.

46 "Living" Water

On a trip to the north I got as far as "Selukia Spring" in the Golan Heights which provides water for one of the water bottling firms. I drank to my heart's content of the sweet, cold water – it was a pleasure. But at the pumping station "Sapir" near the Kineret, I heard that bottled water is no better than the water that flows from all the taps in the country; the only difference is the taste, because of the chlorine that is added to the water that reaches our homes.

How did they manage to convince us to refuse to drink tap water and to consume only bottled water which is a thousand times more expensive? It is indeed true that chlorine somewhat spoils the taste, and the neglected pipes in many places in the country (among them those near my home) cause dirt and rust to enter the water. But it would have been possible to overcome these difficulties by improving the local water infrastructure or by means of filterization. If that is so, why don't the authorities deal with the problems of the local water systems? Apparently for the lack of funds.

And what is even more frustrating is that the money we pay the water bottling companies would easily suffice to solve the problem if it was used to improve the water infrastructure. I read that in California people have begun to drink tap water again for environmental reasons. Why don't we follow in California's footsteps? The water from the Selukia spring is wonderful, that's true. But in order to drink it at home or in a restaurant would require a large distribution network which would pollute the environment. And add to this the problem of plastic bottles.

After all this, let's return to the spring. Although the little spring in the picture is man made, it is impossible to remain indifferent to the magic of gushing clear, pure water flowing between basalt rocks. Note the clean, dry rock on the side of the spring and observe the fresh color of the wet rock.

45 Gan Itin

A two minute walk from my home, on an elongated shaped square which had been a bit rundown, a beautiful playground appeared: 'Gan Itin'. In the afternoon hours children, parents and grandparents meet to enjoy happy hours and adventures (for the children) and peaceful contentment (for the adults).

When they come close to the playground, the children let go of the hands of the adults and run ahead enthusiastically. But when they reach the first amusement device and see an unfamiliar child, they stop and wait. Curiously they watch the other children and look back to see if their mothers or grandfathers are not too far away. With a little encouragement they climb carefully, still intensely watching the older child as he slides down the slide and they freeze in place as he finishes doing so, dashes by them, climbs up again and overtakes them on his way to slide once again. Finally they get up courage and approach the slide, they slide down – and suddenly wide smiles appear on their faces and they run for another turn, shrieking for joy and calling out to each other. The mothers on the benches easily converse with each other or nurse their babies and only rarely do they become tense when they seem to detect a dangerous move.

When I look at the beautiful play facilities and the happiness of the playing children, I remember another day in the 1950s, the day the Kibbutz put up a park of such facilities for "Children's Day". In those days we hardly knew what a playground was. Our games were simple but very imaginative. Sticks, stones, old screws and pieces of wire were enough for us to play with. But the day that the slides, the ladders, the carousels and other wonders appeared in the Kibbutz, young and old alike – all were overwhelmed by excitement. At first we couldn't believe our eyes as we saw all these wonders but until the allotted hour we were not allowed to go near them. And then, suddenly everyone went wild on merry-go-rounds, swings and see-saws. Even when it grew dark we couldn't tear ourselves away from the new marvel.

When I look at the jubilant children in "Gan Itin" I am reminded of that feeling of wonder on that distant day. What an adventure a merry-go-round is and what happiness is a slide.

44 Jonah in the Belly of the Big Fish

Again we met, a group of friends, and discussed the "Book of Jonah". These get-togethers have already become a Yom Kippur tradition. The hosts choose a subject related to Yom Kippur and each participant draws upon his own world in order to contribute to the discussion. Here are some of the things I said as well as some after thoughts.

It is almost possible to understand the story of Jonah without recourse to God. Jonah is a man with a mission. Is there anyone who does not know a person who believes that he must do some great deed and whose entire life revolves around delaying his commitment or making any progress toward doing so. Jonah flees from his life's mission; he wants to forget it or at least to distance himself from it. But mortal danger at sea is responsible for an upheaval. The story of Jonah's slumber on the ship about to sink is wonderful and without explanation. Perhaps there is a hint here that the story or at least part of it is a dream. And perhaps the sleep is a sort of meditation, a mystic concentration before leaving the body on the way to other worlds. That is also an explanation of Jonah's "existence" in the body of the fish, that is, a sort of dream or mystic experience.

In any event Jonah's experience at sea is a revolution that changed his life. He fled to the sea as a hermit flees to the desert; nevertheless something returned him to his life's mission. What was that something?

Someone in the group asked why Jonah of all people was chosen for this mission (to call upon the people of Nineveh), and my answer is simple. A man's mission is his, and only his. Jonah's Nineveh is none else's Nineveh. Perhaps in the belly of the fish Jonah read the story "Before the Law" by Kafka and realized that his Nineveh is his entrance to the Law that was intended only for him and would close when he died. And he did not want to die like the villager before the closed entrance. Perhaps that understanding caused his drastic change.

And one more word about false prophecy. The fear of being a false prophet is mentioned in the story as a reason for Jonah's reluctance toward assuming his mission. But the one who alarms and warns and in that way is able to change and postpone a catastrophe – and his grave prophesies do not take place – perhaps he is the true prophet.

43 Paradise in Heaven and on Earth

In the period between Rosh HaShanah and Yom Kippur, when the Day of Atonement is approaching and Jews reflect on their deeds in the past year and resolve to mend their ways, many of them quote the traditional poetic description to the effect that He who dwells in Heaven judges mankind the way a shepherd judges his flock and decides who will live and who will die, who by water and who by fire – and they ask for mercy so that they may have a good life that ends in paradise.

Paradise – the image of good, of plenty, the wonderful and the miraculous – has assumed many forms also in the descriptions of this world and one of them is the name of the lovely flower that blossomed this week in my garden. Two beautiful flowers of the "Bird of Paradise" grace the entrance to my house and another two are about to bloom in the next few days. There are those that seek paradise in heaven or in the mythological past, and others who are content to make do with what they find in this world – the revelation of beauty and glory.

The images of paradise in the heavens and on earth can be stretched a bit more to ask the question whether it is preferable to seek beauty and goodness in distant worlds or on earth, even near our own home; and should we rely on the powers of the Almighty who would mend the world as He would or should we aspire to improve the world with our own meager resources. To this question is added yet another – whether it is even possible to repair the world – that is to say, ourselves – without the idea of a Perfect Being that everything is directed towards and judged by.

These days, between Rosh HaShanah and Yom Kippur, one could consider the question, where do we stand in the continuum between the sky and the earth, between paradise and the 'Bird of Paradise', between the record in the 'Book of Life" and the ability to enjoy the world around us and to concern ourselves with improving and beautifying it.

42 New Moons of Chaos

On New Years day (Rosh HaShana) the twelve months cycle ends and we are accustomed to enumerate the months of the year and assign them symbols. Look at the beautiful image in the photo. It is part of a page of a Hebrew manuscript from Poland from the year 1640. The heading reads "Moladot Shel Thohoo" (Moons of Chaos) and on the relief itself, in the right hand column, is a list of all the months of the year. But what is the meaning of all the rest? What do the other three columns signify? And what are the "Moons of Chaos"?

Wise men debated the question whether the age of the world dates from the creation of man or from the creation of the world. After all, according to the first chapter of Genesis, man was created on the sixth day of the creation of the world, and according to tradition – on Friday the 1^st of Tishrei (the first month of the year). It follows therefore, that the world was created on the 25^th of Elul (the last month of the year). It must therefore be that the world itself was also created on the 1^st of Tishri. The logical conclusion is that the world was created a year before the creation of man. Due to these considerations we have two chronologies for the world: a chronology for the creation of man which wise men called the "chronology of man" or "chronology from the beginning of time", and a chronology for the creation of the world which wise men called "chronology from the beginning of chaos" – since that was the beginning of the chaos from which the world was created. The chronology referred to in the Talmud is the chronology of man but in the course of time the chronology of chaos was adopted by Judaism.

The tablet in the picture, therefore, is the exact account of the birth of the months. The three rows to the left of the names of the months indicate the birth of the months (new moons) according to the day of the week, the hour and the part of the hour (the hour in this system is divided into 1080 parts). These calculations were extremely important in order to determine the Hebrew calendar and the leap years, and heated disagreements over these matters were not unusual.

The eventual victory of "Moons of Chaos" over the "chronology of Man" is interesting – victory whose meaning was a decision in favor of the concept that does not place man in the center but assigns him a more modest role as part of the world. Although man is the crown of creation he is not the measure of all things.