Jerusalem, We Hardly Knew Ye

The past three days (one day removed) marked what will probably be my last trip to Jerusalem- by many accounts the world's holiest city. I had two big ticket items on my agenda: to go up to the Temple Mount and to check out the Israel Museum. Both goals were accomplished and were as amazing as I had hoped.

On Monday morning, Elan ( a buddy who I stayed with in Jerusalem) and I went up on the Temple Mount, located behind the Western [Wailing] Wall in Jerusalem's Old City. The complex is currently controlled by Islamic religious authorities and admittance is limited to certain hours of the day. Currently, the Temple Mount (30 acres in size) houses the Dome of the Rock - a structure that is built around the rock that Abraham supposedly brought his son Issac, at the behest of God, to sacrifice, and the Al Aqsa Mosque, the third most holy site in Islam after Mecca and Medina.

Thanks Elan!

The Temple Mount originally housed the Great Temple (the holiest place for Jews), built by Solomon in 960 B.C.E., which was destroyed by Babylonian invaders in 586 B.C.E. The Second Temple, was built under Persian occupation- beginning in 540 B.C.E. and then vastly expanded between 37 B.C.E. and 4 C.E. under Roman occupation by Herod, who's father was a Jewish convert. Upon completion it was the most massive religious complex in the Eastern Roman Empire (Frommer's). The Second Temple was famously destroyed during the years of Jewish rebellion against Roman occupation in 66 C.E. resulting in the destruction of the Second Temple in 70 C.E.
In the 7th and 8th centuries, respectively, under Muslim rule, the Dome of the Rock and Al Aqsa Mosque were constructed.

That's the briefest possible way to describe some history about the Temple Mount. Let's just say it is incredibly important, controversial, and I'm leaving out lots and lots information. The Dome of the Rock is marked by it's amazing gold-gilded Dome, seen from many points in Jerusalem. I heard the Al Aqsa Mosque once had a gold dome as well, but the dome was not maintained.

Currently, non-Muslims are not allowed entrance into the Dome of the Rock or Al Aqsa Mosque because of the political situation, but in the past, visitors had been allowed inside and were even allowed to take pictures.

Approaching the Dome of the Rock.

A very impressive site.

On the grounds of the Temple Mount.



Al Aqsa Mosque- notice the crescent moon on top (symbol of Islam).

One of the amazing views from the Temple Mount looks out onto the Mount of Olives. In the foreground you see the Church of All Nations. To the left of the Church is the Garden of Gethsemane (Olive Tree Garden) where Jesus supposedly prayed the day before his arrest and where the apostles buried the Virgin Mary. In the background you see the Russian Orthodox Church of Mary Magdalene, built in 1888.

Monday afternoon I headed to the Israel Museum. Unfortunately, the majority of the Museum (including the permanent collection) is closed due to an expansion and is only set to reopen in 2010. Even still, the museum was one of the coolest places I've been in Israel. The first thing one sees upon entrance is a 1:50 scale of Jerusalem in the years before the destruction of the Second Temple (seen in the image as the largest structure in the model on the right). The model is a really interesting and well-researched piece that has been changed and added to as more is revealed about Jerusalem in the early part of the Common Era.

Second Temple Period Model.

The museum also features a great sculpture garden with large pieces of artists from around the world.

Mike D should recognize this piece. After Robert Indiana's "LOVE" piece was a success (in English) he was commissioned in 1977 to create a similar structure in Hebrew for the sculpture garden. Love in Hebrew is "Ahava."

This is a Pablo Picasso piece which I cannot for the life of me find the name of online. The piece is a tall concrete structure with two panels each featuring a face. I'm not going to go into great detail about why the piece was so cool, but believe me, it was.

A couple of mummies that were found in the area of the current Gaza Strip. They were about 3,500-years-old.

Friends in New Orleans will find this particular piece interesting. The Fleur-de-lis, seen here, was actually an ancient Jewish symbol before it converted to Christianity (take that Wikipedia!).

The most incredible attraction at the Israel Museum is the Shrine of the Book- the location of the Dead Sea Scrolls visible to the public. The Dead Sea Scrolls are the oldest existing copy of the Hebrew Bible aka the world's oldest preserved Monotheistic text! The scrolls, dating to roughly 2,000-years-ago were discovered in a cave about 30 km from the Dead Sea by a Bedouin. Prior to the discovery of the scrolls in the 1940s and 50s, the most ancient Jewish texts only dated back to the 9th century.

The Aleppo Codex (which has as cool a history as its name would imply) is also displayed in the Shrine of the book. Written in the 10th century, the Codex is considered to be the most authoritative Jewish text in the tradition of Masorah - the way that canonical Hebrew texts were copied and passed down. One of the reasons the text is so cool, besides its historical and religious importance, is that it was plundered during the first crusade and brought to Egypt, then it was brought to Aleppo, Syria in the 1400s, then in 1947 Muslim rioters burned down the synagogue where it was believed to have been held. It was smuggled back into Israel in 1958 (because it had been taken out of the synagogue only days before the rioting) and has been made public and studied ever since.

Unfortunately, but understandably, pictures are not allowed inside the underground, temperature-controlled Shrine, but I did take a couple of pictures of the cool architecture above ground on top of the Shrine.

Under this dome are two of the (arguably) most significant pieces of Jewish religious history.

From another angle. The colors and shapes of the building are based on the imagery of the Scroll of the War of the Sons of Light Against the Sons of Darkness ( a manual on conducting war- very end of days). It is believed that when writing the scrolls, the scribes viewed themselves as the Sons of Light and the others (even some Jews) as the Sons of Darkness.

This trip would have been perfect had I not gotten food poisoning from that shawarma or hot dog, or something else. We'll call it "Sam in Egypt" bad. At least it wasn't "Pavel in Egypt" bad. Also, it's looking like this will be my last post in Israel (wow!) because the rest of my trip is going to be away from a computer in the North. I'll try to keep twittering some updates and pictures in the meanwhile, but otherwise my followup and catchup posts are going to be in Needham, MA (yay....).

I went to the North....

And all I got were like 70 insect bites!

[I was going to insert a picture here of my back, but decided to spare you the gory details. I counted like 40-50 bites on my torso alone.]

I have to say I am impressed with myself. One night in Tzfat and two nights in Qasrin without a traveling disaster spells success (for disaster see Sam and Justin in Jerusalem). Tzfat, a city dominated by Orthodox Judaism (the birthplace of kabbalah) and one of Israel's four holy cities (don't get caught here on Shabbat!), was my first stop. It's a bit tough for me to describe how my family in Tzfat is related to me because we are related through marriage and not blood and it involved my great grandmother, but, nevertheless, like all of my family in Israel they were awesome. I arrived in the afternoon and at a little before sunset we set off for a walk near their home. Tzfat is 837 meters above sea level, making it Israel's highest town, and is surrounded by some of the most beautiful terrain in Israel. Unfortunately, a hamsin was blowing through and the visibility was rather poor on the mountains, but on a clear day you can see Lebanon, Syria, and Jordan from points up in Tzfat.

Mila, Isaac, and me.

Everything looks awesome in Sepia tone.

During the war with Lebanon in 2006 a lot of rockets were fired at the Galilee. Tzfat has several major and active military bases that were clearly the target. Upon recommendation from my family I did not take any pictures, but there are areas with dozens of satellite dishes directed north towards the Arab neighbors intended to pick up transmissions. Much of the area is also fenced off for security reasons. There was one point during our 7 AM walk the next day that Issac brought me to a tunnel that had been built into the mountain and is currently being used by the Israeli Defense Force (IDF).

Tough to see, but the trees to the left are sparse because of fires started by rocket fire. Luckily, Tzfat was mostly spared from Hezbollah rockets.

Sitting on the patio after lunch.

The following are a few landscape shots I took while walking around Tzfat's nature.

I went into "downtown" Tzfat my second day. The city is pretty small and the population is primarily elderly or religious. I had been here on birthright and sure enough saw another birthright group walking through the streets. According to Frommer's, Tzfat's "known history began in 66 AD," so you can say it's been around for a bit. Though it was a popular tourist attraction in Israel's early days, the 1960s brought the development of the tourism industry in Israel; coupled with a strengthening religious community that staunchly observes Shabbat and rules of Orthodox Judaism the town is now a touristic afterthought. Attractions are now pretty limited to the old synagogues, Artists' Quarter, and Jerusalem Street- the main thoroughfare through the town. Don't get me wrong though, it's a really cool city with winding streets and alleys built on the side of a mountain where one can feel the history oozing out of the old buildings.

This stairway, built by the British, divided the Arab and Jewish parts of town until the War of Independence in 1948 where a battle ensued, ending in Arabs fleeing the city. Fighting in this city started, literally, the day the British withdrew [Iraq, January 1, 2012 anyone?].

View from the highest point in the city (this was a hike!).

Tzfat was a great combination of city, nature, and homemade meals. Mila (who I had seen in 2001 in St. Petersburg, Russia) and Issac were great company and hosts. A lot of our conversation was political and religion-oriented and with permission from them I'm hoping to make a blog post devoted to those conversations (maybe in my "trip review" segment when I get home).

From Tzfat I set forth to Qasrin- the "capital" of the Golan Heights, captured from Syria during the Six-Day War in 1967. Qasrin, from the estimates I got there is home to about 7,000 people. Alec, Lena, and their son Grigoriy are related to me through my grandmother. Alec is my maternal grandmother's cousin which makes him my first cousin twice removed. Alec and Lena have been in Israel since 1992 and in Qasrin since about 1993-94. I have to be honest, Qasrin kinda sucks. There's really no other way to put it. It is the biggest city in the Golan and you can tell it was built by the government. The whole city looks one big subdivision in the middle of nowhere. When I wasn't hanging out with my family I spent a lot of time walking around Qasrin and let me tell you I 'm pretty sure I saw everything--on my first walk. Tzfat's main attractions, which have a slight degree of cool are an archaeological site with a 1500-year-old synagogue (according to the brochure: "Jewish life on the Golan blossomed during the Byzantine period (400-700 C.E. Katzirin existed alongside twenty five Jewish villages built near springs [in it's current incarnation Qasrin is 32-years-old])." There is also an industrial zone with a winery (Hey, Frommer's--it's not that cool of a tour), and an olive oil factory.

Oh yeah, and I checked out the (probably?) only bar they have. It's called the Golan Brewery and they actually brew their own beer there. Beer was decent, but not worth 30 NIS. Almost 8 bucks for a beer is what I would pay in Boston or NYC, not in Qasrin, population 7,000.

I think the buildings look like pseudo-futuristic structures. Like what people in the 70s though buildings would look like now. Thank God they don't.

Views from the family's balcony at sunset.

Artsy picture from same spot.

This is a microcosm of the ridiculous Israeli signs everywhere.

The ruins of the ancient synagogue on top and a painted glass view of what the synagogue may have looked like (this was cool--you look thorough the stone circle through the glass at the synagogue from 20 meters away).

Lena, Alec, and me on their balcony.

Last Israel Itinerary

Dear Sir or Madam,

Well, I only have fifteen days left in the holy land. Today I planned out how those fifteen days are going to look like.

On Tuesday I leave for the North - to Safed (Tzfat, Zefad) in the Galilee and Qasrin (Katzrin, Kasrin) in the Golan Heights. [Israel has a funny habit of transliterating Hebrew cities into multiple English spellings so that on your way from Ra'anana to Kefar Saba (Kfar Saba, Kfar Sava) you could see road signs with several different versions of the city.

I'll be spending one night and day in Safed visiting family friends. Like many of you recall, Safed was one of the first stops on my birthright trip four years ago. If I recall correctly [you may need to check a source outside of Wikipedia for this one because I'm not sure] Safed is a city of historic Jewish importance. Currently, a large elderly and religious population resides there.

After the 3+ hour bus ride to Safed, I take another (2,3?) buses to get to Qasrin in the Golan. The city is considered the capital of the Golan even though only an estimated 5,000-10,000 people reside there. Here I hope to stay for two days and two nights with my grandmother's cousin, his wife, and their son. I am, of course, excited to see family and friends of the family I have never met, but also to experience the beauty Northern Israel. From the pictures I put up four years ago on Webshots [Wow, haven't been here in years] one can see that Northern Israel is bucolic (take that SATs/high school English), with pastures, rolling hills, and lots of vegetation.

Following my adventure through the North, I am making one last stand in Jerusalem [Strength and honor!] staying with Brandon, one of Justin's good buddies from back home. There are still several major things I have not done/seen in Jerusalem such as going up to the Temple Mount (where the Dome of the Rock and Al-Aqsa mosque stand--the third most holy site for Muslims after Mecca and Medina). I also hope to see the Israel museum, which is supposed to be one of the best in the country and get up to the Mount of Olives where many significant Rabbis are buried and where Jesus allegedly ascended to Heaven.

Post-Jerusalem I take two days off and then Friday the 19th Benji and I rent a car for three days and "freewheel" (as Frommer's describes it) around the Sea of Galilee. We don't have any concrete plans yet, except swimming in the Galilee and this walking trail called the Jesus Trail which supposedly recreates how he would have walked from Nazareth to Cana (first day which is free and what I am interested in) and further on as well. I have noticed that as a Jewish guy (keep it on the DL) with no real interest in Jesus I've done a bunch of Jesus-related stuff here. Regardless, the guide for the trail is free and the countryside is incredible.

Finally, on Tuesday the 23rd (at 6 AM) I fly home. I'll certainly be in touch with everyone when I get home and in the meanwhile you guys can stay up-to-date with the posts and the twitter feed on the sidebar of my blog. Take Care; I'll be seeing you (plural) soon!

With Warmest Regards,

Pavel Leykin

T.I. said it best.....

"Big things poppin' and little things stoppin,

Ball on these suckas, shawty losin's not an option."

If you can't clearly make out what that nonsensical chorus in the rap song "Big Things Poppin' (Do it)" by rapper T.I. means then you must not know 'bout me, must not, must not know 'bout me. Wow, after reading this ridiculous rap analogy (is it an analogy?) I still have no idea why it's in the blog, buuuut there are large things happening....and small things stopping to happen...?

Sam, who last night stated that he hasn't made fun of me enough in his blog, just left for the U.S. of A. He had gotten to Israel a few weeks before me and left Israel a few weeks before I am set to jet. I don't know how he is going to survive his flight seeing as how we were out till 3:45 AM-ish last night and his alarm was set for 4:20 AM for his 8 AM flight. Aaand he is flying to Los Angeles to visit some friends, aaaand he has a flight to Philadelphia in 6 days from L.A.

If you haven't noticed from the blog, we have been together like Kobe and Shaq or Jordan and Pippen, except that we don't win championships, but that's the only difference. Because Sam's internship schedule was a "not going to my crappy internship" schedule, he was free to hang out quite literally whenever. So, now I will be flying a bit more solo, visiting museums, cities, nature, etc. now that my internship is finito, but I will also be traveling with Benji and others too.

In my last 19 days I still hope to see my family in Quasrin (in the Golan Heights), do another Jerusalem trip, check out some museums (I haven't been to any yet!), visit the Israel Philharmonic Orchestra (which is supposed to be really good b/c of the vast numbers of musician immigrants-mostly Russians), and much, much more! I'll also be updating the blog, which, by the way, I am really proud of keeping up with for this long (b/c I spend a lot of time on these posts even though it might not appear that way). So take that doubters...that means you Simon Cowell! [This image was used without permission, please don't sue me.]

Now, let me get to some blog content. For Sam's last night we went first to my bosses birthday party (Happy Birthday Noa!). It was another Tel Aviv rooftop party (not another one![sarcasm]) at the place of a friend of her's. Coming in from Ra'anana, Sam and I wanted to eat at the 14-Shekel restaurant where---guess what?! everything (except cheaper drinks) is 14 shekels. Aaaand the food is really really good. Unfortunately, because of time restrictions we met up with my buddy Brian and went to Noa's party.

Me and Noa on a rooftop, with Sam trying to sneak out of the picture in the back.


Me, Sam, and Julia, a coworker at Peres who is moving to Boston.


Welcome to the blog Sivan!


Brian and Sivan.

After the party, we went to the Namal (port), which used to be a decrepit piece of land until it was turned into a happening spot with bars, clubs, cafes, etc., to meet up with Holden, a friend of Sam's from back home Conch-aww-hawken (sp?), PA who had a night out on his Birthright trip. After a few drinks at the Namal we ended up at another bar where the Bartender took my camera and started taking pictures around the bar. I included her in my set of pictures b/c you can't just take my camera, take a picture of yourself, and not have it end up on the internet, especially if I don't know your name or the name of the bar I was in, or any idea of where the bar is (in Israel?).

Last drinks of the night with Benji and Sam.

Hey there, people we barely met at the bar.

Bartender.


We're heading for the exit.

What night would be complete without an uncomfortable closeup on Sam's face. (Thanks to Benji for this one).

Then it was really late and we took a 100 shekel cab ride home. The End.

Orthodox Briss 09'

Hey guys, as many of you may have read from the previous blog post I have a new baby nephew. :) My cousin, Alissa, gave birth to a healthy baby boy less than two weeks ago and the briss, held in a synagogue in the religious city of Bnei Brak, was this past Monday. For those you not familiar with Orthodox Jewish practices (like me until coming to Israel) here is the one key that I would say guides this particular lifestyle: you dress and act modestly.

Though different sects of Orthodox Jews believe in slightly different interpretations of "modestly," it generally means the men wear black suits, shoes, full-brim hats, and kippas and women (always) wear skirts that go below the knee (most often to ankle) and stockings so as not to show leg skin (too hot for TV), tops that cover the elbows and chest, and head covering so as not to expose the hair.

In addition, men and women who are not married or directly related cannot touch each other. This also extends to married couples in public where embracing, hugging, kissing, and generally showing affection are considered inappropriate acts.

Orthodox couples are typically introduced through a matchmaker (like my cousin), they "date" for a few weeks to a month, which consists of supervised meetings where they get to know each other. Once they are satisfied with dating, they get married and pretty much as many babies as possible. The rule is generally to be fruitful and multiply up until you can no longer afford to do so.

I won't get into the aspects of the life as it related to the Torah and synagogue because so much can be written regarding the complexities of Shabbat and their relationship to Judaism that it's just not worth my time, buuuut I will explain the briss ceremony, which I had never been through and found interesting enough to write this post on.

Sorry about lack of pictures, but I didn't bring my camera. Next time I see my cousin I'll make sure to get the baby's picture and post it here.

I arrived at the synagogue with my aunt and uncle around 10:45 AM. The briss was supposed to held at 11 AM, but my cousin and her husband were running late, only arriving at 11:20 AM from Jerusalem. According to a certain rule (not sure if it's religious) the baby cannot be fed an hour before the circumcision and my cousin hadn't slept because the baby was demanding to sleep during the day and cry and eat at night. Soon after, the baby was prepped by being placed on a big pillow. Then, all of the men went to the front of the synagogue (women are not allowed in the front) and my cousin-in-law put on a Tallit, a prayer shawl, and read a bunch of prayers. There appeared to be a lot of call-and-response, as oftentimes something would be head by a Rabbi-like figure and all of the other men would repeat it or say something else in unison. [Really interesting fact: Yiddish is still alive and well because after the ceremony almost all of the Orthodox men were speaking Yiddish, rather than Hebrew, to each other.] After several minutes of prayer the baby was circumcised and quickly pacified. The whole process was rather quick lasting only 10-20 minutes. Afterwards, there were cookies available in the synagogue.

There were two circumcisions on the agenda for the day and after the second one we went downstairs to the reception area. Men and women sat on separate parts of the hall, separated by a removable wall, and had a great lunch that was punctuated by long bouts of singing and toasts on behalf of the fathers. I was not over on the women's side, but most of the kids were there running mad from what I heard.

Interesting to note: Though I was dressed nicely for the event and of course wore a kippa, I stood out like a sore thumb, and never felt that I got a dirty look for being secular.

Overall, a very interesting experience. I want to thank Zaev and Alissa for inviting me to the briss and I want to congratulate them on welcoming not quite two-week-old Zelman Moishe Epstein to the family.

Yom Ha'atzmaut (Israeli Independence Day)

I'm really glad I get to catch two independence days this year. This year Israeli Independence fell on April 29 (Wednesday) and like many Israelis we went out to a party the night before and made a BBQ at Hayarkon Park, a long stretch of green space in North Tel Aviv. My flat mate, Jack, invited a bunch of us to his boss' rooftop party on April 28. The apartment is near Kikar Rabin (Rabin Square--named after Israel's assassinated Prime Minister) in Tel Aviv's downtown with a great view of the city. The party had hundreds of people (very crowded) and a live band playing covers of American and Israeli songs.

Me and Jack at the rooftop party.


Me and Sam at the rooftop party.


The aforementioned rooftop party.

The next day Benji (my Swiss buddy) and I organized a BBQ at the park. Much like the States' everyone in Israel either goes to the beach or the park to grill kebabs, veggies, hotdogs, burgers, etc. The weather was phenomenal (typical Israel) and we got a big group of friends together.

Grillin' buddies.


More grillin'.

Friends pic 09'.

Big news from the family--my cousin just had a baby boy and the briss is on Monday. Congratulations to her and her husband, I'll hopefully be seeing them tomorrow to congratulate them in person.

Just had a great weekend in Jerusalem too. Did some serious Old City touring including the "scary" Muslim quarter that was not scary at all. (Don't believe the locals-I wouldn't get lost there at night, but it wasn't a problem during the day. Saw some really cool spots--the first Church ever (maybe) and Jesus' trail from judgement to burial (maybe) and Jesus' jail cell (maybe)...also snuck up onto the wall of the Old City at night and walked around (really cool). All the maybes are b/c none of the events are proven beyond a reasonable doubt, but you better believe that the people who have faith are really into it. That stuff is coming up.