60 The Shadow

Here I stand on a sunny winter day and glance at the image of brilliance that the white, fine gravel at my feet, returns. Next to me a tree casts its shadow diagonally. In the early afternoon the shadow becomes longer, but it is still possible to recognize in it the original figure. As in a distorting mirror, the feet seem large and the head small. The bag hanging from my right creates an asymmetric impression that can be interpreted in a thousand different ways. The left hand is bent and is only partly seen. The right hand holds the cell phone camera at eye level. It looks short and strange. Fat at the beginning and thin at the end.

Little, dry brown leaves are scattered over the gravel. Also a few cigarette butts. The light is brighter on the upper part of the picture, as if the source of the light is coming from somewhere behind the head, or with a little imagination, as if I am looking into the light in the depth of the picture. The leaves around the head seem to paint a curve around the shadow. As if they had arranged themselves in that way due to an electrical field that the image creates.

The soft shadow of the foliage in the upper left hand corner seems like the shadow that emphasizes the sharp contours of the tree trunk and the image in the middle of the picture. The laws of perspective have accustomed us to see the little head as an object that is far away, but if we ignore them, for example by partly closing an eye or observing from a distance, the image contracts and new possibilities are provided.

The shadow both reveals and hides at the same time. It leaves much room for the imagination. It is possible to see many things in this picture of an individual raising his hand to his head.

59 The Mazda Sinking - The Driver Unharmed

Thursday morning, while I was brushing my teeth, my cell phone rang. At that hour it could only be my wife. No doubt she remembered something she forgot to tell me before she left for work. While driving, everyone calls everyone. You are waiting for the traffic light to change and see other drivers holding lengthy conversations with people unseen.

But no, that wasn't the case. This time it was something different. "I had an accident", says my wife. "I am ok. Nothing happened to me, but the car is in a ditch. I am standing in the pouring rain and waiting for the tow truck. I have already ordered one. Come and keep me company until it arrives". I got ready quickly and went. On the way from Gan Shmuel to Hadera, next to the turn to Kfar Yuliana, close to the strange, elongated square that marks the entrance to the city, I saw our car stuck in the mud. The water had already entered the car and reached the front seats. Indeed, nothing had happened to my wife. Luck. She lost control suddenly and started sliding (on the evening news I heard mention that all the cars of this model were recalled for the correction of a production error that was liable to cause loss of control). Opposite her a bus was approaching dangerously close. In attempting to avoid him, she turned in the direction of Kfar Yuliana, slid, went off the road to the left in front of the bus and fell into the ditch.

Everything happened slowly, she says, almost like a slow motion movie. The car struck a mound of earth in front of the ditch and almost stopped, but then, slowly the front part slid down and the car slipped into the water.

We waited about an hour before the tow truck arrived. We stood in the pouring rain. In the meantime a police car and an ambulance arrived. Drivers who saw the accident had apparently notified them. There was no need for them. The ambulance team saw that no one was injured and went on its way. The police waited until the tow truck had picked up the Mazda and left. Two hours after the accident we were in the garage. One more hour and we were home. Everything happened quickly. Now all that remained were the procedures – assessment and insurance. The water caused serious damage. The car was a total loss.

But this evening when the news on the television spoke of the defect that was discovered in all the cars of this model, my wife became very excited. Is it possible that that was the cause for what had happened? Tomorrow we shall try to find out, if we can. The car is already in the hands of the insurance company.

58 The Birth of Youth

When the State of Israel was two years old and the Kibbutz was at the peak of its glory, Yohanan Simon made this painting for the dinning room of Gan Shmuel's High school. No sooner had the state come into existence than kibbutz children were its 'princes' of nature and freedom. The community of the 'Kibbutz Children' which was a kind of autonomous youth utopia was intended to create the 'New Man', who was to be the exact opposite of the Diaspora Jew. Influenced by the ethos of the European youth movements as well as progressive educational ideas, the educational institution was established as a world in itself, almost completely separated from the cares of adult life.

A basic component of the new youth world was wide open spaces. Going out to nature was one of the cardinal principles of the youth movement, and in the realm of the kibbutz itself, the daily life, shared by all, was extremely important.

All these things are depicted in Yohanan Simon's painting. The healthy, sport-loving kibbutz children reveal their bodies without any shame. They are not wrapped in layers of clothes and bent like Diaspora Jews, but exposed, tanned and tall. They leap high, dance, play music (and wave the red flag). Their activities take place outside in the wide open spaces, shaded by trees. No parents or teachers are present and they are engrossed in their youth world, creative and healthy. How much optimism, confidence and hope are in this picture.

From the original Simon fresco, Marko Santi created in Ravenna, Italy, this beautiful mosaic which now hangs in the lobby of the entrance to the auditorium of Pardes Hanah's Culture and Youth Center.

57 Earth

In the beautiful days that we enjoyed after the stormy, cold weather I take bicycle trips in the fields and between the orchards. During the cold and stormy week, when snow fell in Jerusalem and on the Hermon, I was sick with the flue. Since then I have not yet gone back to swimming, but I again take short bicycle trips instead of my daily 40 minute swim. Lately I bought a bicycle speedometer and found out that my short trip is about 10 kilometers.

In the hours before the sun sets, when the sun is low on the horizon, it is possible to see wonderful sights in the fields. Today, towards the end of my trip, I climbed trough the orchards of Kibbutz Mishmarot. The earth dries out quickly and the paths that were muddy a week ago turn sandy very fast. In the meantime the earth retains the marks that the tractors created in the mud, and in the low sun the cracks in the red sandy soil look like polished gold.

I stop and drink some water. I bend down to the ground and the gold color surrounds me. The path is very wide here. The earth looks like a little desert, cut off from the orchards that surround it. Look at this golden earth. Yesterday it was a puddle of mud and tomorrow it will be a pile of sand. Today it is a landscape of wavy gold.

56 Judaica Behind My Back

The library in my work room consists of two large sections and two smaller ones. One large section opposite me covers the whole wall. It is far from being in order, but there are still parts in which I can begin my search for a certain book. Kafka is below on the left and mythology is above him. English literature is up on the right, philosophy on the left, literature is in the middle, Judaica is to the right of literature and so on. Buried inside the library are two good loudspeakers which enable me to enjoy good music with whatever I do.

Attached to the wall on my right is a small section which is mainly filled by books on music. Its shelves are deep and it is possible to place two rows of books on them. In the past few years I have put together a large CD library and it now occupies the front row. The music books are therefore completely hidden by the CDs. At times, when I try to dig out something from behind them, I am thrilled to discover books that I had completely forgotten about and given up as 'lost' in the reaches of the library.

Next to the wall on my left is a narrow section containing Judaica books as well as children's books, tourist guides and books on various other subjects. However the most important section of my library is the one behind my back. It contains the reference books that I consult in the course of my work. I swivel around in my chair, extend an arm and almost without having to look, grab the book I need. That is the place for dictionaries (including the Dictionary of Biblical Hebrew by Menachem Zevi Kaddari), the Encyclopedias, the various Thesaurus's (including Thesaurus of the Hebrew Language by Nahum Stutchkoff) as well as Judaica books that I need most for my work. I edit many Judaica books.

The shelf I photographed contains the annotated Mishna of Kahati (with elucidations by Rabi Obadiah of Bertinoro) and the Mishneh Torah as well as the Guide to the Perplexed by Maimonides in three different editions (on another shelf I have the Eben Shmuel edition of the Guide with his comments) and also the Kuzari in three editions. On the shelf below it are all the books of the Babylonian and Jerusalem Talmud in a small edition. Today one can find almost all these texts on the internet. There the search is quicker and more efficient, none the less I still like to put out my hand, grab the book which contains the quotes I am dealing with, turn the pages quickly and verify the quotation of the book in my hand. A little act, almost automatic, but one that gives the feeling of being a Talmid Chacham (wise student).

55 Blooming and Sunshine on Tu B'Shvat

For years I pondered the words of the song "The almond tree is blooming and the golden sun is shinning", and I said to myself: how can anyone possibly think that in mid-winter the sun would shine and the almond tree would blossom? Regarding the almond tree I wasn't sure, there were always children who argued heatedly, and there were those who swore that they had seen an almond tree in blossom even before Tu B'Shvat. I found that difficult to believe but I didn't give the matter much thought. But what about the shinning golden sun? After all, everyone knows that on Tu B'Shvat and Purim it always rains. Always.

Today, not long before dusk, I took a bicycle trip in the fields. The sun was already low, close to the horizon. The sky was beginning to get cloudy. They say that it will rain tomorrow, as always on Tu B'Shvat. But today was wonderful in the fields. The air was cool. Silence. I rode and mused. I stopped twice to photograph the glorious landscape. The earth was dry and the paths covered by sand. Tomorrow the sand will turn into mud and large puddles will form, but not today.

Suddenly I stopped in my tracks. Next to me was a blooming orchard. I am sorry to say that I didn't recognize the trees in that orchard; I think they were not almond trees. But their vigorous blooming reminded me of the song and I said to myself: here I am experiencing the line in the song as if I had immersed myself into it. Because both are true, the sky is still bright and the golden sun is resting on the horizon. I thought of the skeptical child I had been and I told him: the song is right, the orchards bloom on Tu B'Shvat.

And when I spoke these words I remembered the Kibbutz holiday of bygone years. Young and old would go out together to the fields; there were ceremonies, the tree planting – everyone with a hoe and a little sapling in his hand. After planting we attached a note with our name on it. That was our tree and we were supposed to take care of it, to water it. Of course we forgot about them in a few days and most of the ceremonial plantings did not do well.

But the memory of our joint tree planting expedition remains something special. A week ago I saw the film of Ran Tal "Children of the Sun". One of the things I found that I could identify with was the film's emphasis on the kibbutz as a large family. That is nothing new of course. But in the past I found it hard to accept the idea. I thought that the kibbutz was too complex, too problematic and too difficult to be called a family. Today I am ready to agree that the kibbutz was a family – with all the injustice, anger, prejudice and little hatreds that exist in a large family, together with the great circle of solidarity and the beautiful, exciting holidays.

Take another glance at the magic blossom. Spring is not here yet, but the blossom is a promise of its coming. The trees start their yearly cycle: the blossoms will bring spring and the fruit will bring – summer. Happy New Year.

54 Treasures in a Nearby Orchard

In an orchard next to my house, which by now only hints at being an orchard – lying there, as if at an agricultural exhibition, are tools that have seen better days as well as old boxes, poles and pegs arranged in piles on an ancient wagon, of which only a rusty frame remains. And close to the fence that marks my yard stand two elongated sheet metal shacks out of which one can glimpse building blocks, rotting planks, old doors and ladders without rungs. I never looked inside these shacks. Our cats visit there occasionally and more than once have I heard hair raising war cries emerging from there. Who is fighting whom? I don't know. The cats, who at times return wounded from their wars, don't say a word. Perhaps the huge snake that we found in our garden one morning lives there.

Almost daily I cross this little orchard whether on my way to the bakery or the bank, the post office or the spice store. Today on my way home from such a trip, I discovered that the orchard owner had placed two rolls of wire next to the short cut through the orchard. But perhaps they have been lying there for years and I have not noticed them.

The sun shone directly on them and it was possible to see the bushes that were trapped within and had become entangled in it even before it was transferred here from a different place. Long greenish-yellow and yellowish-white stalks fill the insides of the wires rusting iron and create together one round mass that appears to be airy and spongy but is actually quite solid.

Look at this cylinder – this wonderful entanglement of stalks and metal. I photographed it close up so that the object fills the field of vision. Such images have been created on painting canvases by using many tubes of paint. And lo and behold – a man walks nonchalantly in an orchard next to his home and sees a treasure like this.