Bumbamella!

So I already told ya’ll about my proud Israeli activity of hiking during chol hamoed. But my Passover vacation adventures did not stop there…

Bumbamella!

Bumbamella is a shanty festival that is held every year on the Mediterranean coast between Ashdod and Ashkelon – south of Tel Aviv. It is a three day festival of music, yoga, beach, camping, chilling out in the water…amazing… It wasn’t totally ideal – it was disgustingly littered with hardly any room to walk by the end without walking through trash of some kind – but I think that was because of the Israeli tendency to leave messes while they hike and camp rather than any mentality at this specific festival. There was also an average age of about 17…but so it goes. The music was a great spread – funk, reggae, Israeli pop, techno, folk…I got to use my new tent for the first time – thanks for the b-day present pops! I left with a good tan, sand in everything I owned, music flowing through my head, and a new appreciation for what it means to be “chiloni” in Israel. Direct translation: secular. Real translation: ?

America is a very religiously charged place – in some ways. Most people believe in God, pray regularly and go to a place of worship at least one a month. What does it mean to be secular in America? Wikipedia says that “secular” is the “state of being separate from organized religion”. Most parts of life in America are secular – are separate from an organized religion. Our courts, our laws, our rights, our legal status, our marriages – all of this is independent from any organized religion that we belong to or do not belong to. In America one leads a secular life and a religious life. For sure they do not exist in separate vacuums, but they are largely separate. Also, in America a person can choose to have absolutely no connection to religious organizations, rituals, communities, etc. A person can lead a completely secular life.

To say that Israel is a religiously charged place is a wild understatement. Everyone here is part of a religious society – people are defined by their religions (of course there are other defining characteristics as well). Religion has its hand in everyone’s life – it is in places you eat, food at the grocery store, immigration law, marriage and divorce courts, the national anthem, the school system, the history, the land – it is inescapable. Yet there are many Israelis who never choose to set foot into a shul, EVER. Most Israelis place themselves under the umbrella of the word – chiloni – translated directly, as I said above, as secular. But in Israel this means a very different thing, I think, than it does in America or any other democracy that separates between church and state and is not defined by a single nationalistic/religious group. Israel is Jewish. Its authors and musicians reference Jewish ideas, quotes, values, books, etc. Its calendar is the Jewish calendar. Its majority culture is a Jewish one – however one defines their Jewish culture. Its language is a Jewish language. Its people are a majority Jewish. Its army has kosher food. The examples are endless. You can’t escape religion here as a Jew – it is pervasive. True, you can choose to have nothing to do with organized religion here, but you can not avoid it as a part of the society and culture of Israel. An American Jew can easily live their entire life free of Jewish institutions, organizations, practices, and communities, culture. Here that is by and large impossible.

At a shanty festival, heavily commercialized and pop culture influenced as it was, there were religious and secular Jews mixing together enjoying the beach, the water, the music, the camping – so many Israelis who are secular came to shabbas services, lit candles, listened to stories the yeshiva bochers told, ate matzah, sang songs, talked with their religious hosts…but the really cool thing happened Friday night at a Moshe ben Ari concert – he is very popular in Israel and the beach was overflowing with eager energized listeners. As he introduced one of his band members he said his name and then described him as “ish tzadik b’dorotav” – “a righteous man in his generation”. These are words used to describe Noah in the Torah. You cannot escape religion here, it is pervasive and is there to greet you around every corner. I love it…most of the time. My conclusion about being “secular”? It’s a whole different ballgame here in the holy land…




a thirty foot high moses...black and chillin out in the "freedom area"





ashram area of the festival




i don't even have an explanation for this one...






my friend Ilana and i getting some sun before we went to play in the waves.






a guy from Brooklyn that I met on the beach - complete with two stars of david on his chest with the words "never again" written above...interesting cat.

my first hat.

i've knit my first hat - which i am very proud of! 100% wool hand spun in Israel. heaven to touch. I had to learn how to knit in the round and do something called magic loop. it was pretty easy i have to say...and there isn't much that puts me in a chill mood like knitting does...except a loving hand on my back...but many of you already know my weakness for simple lovin':) and this hat is like lovin for my head. the first of many...

stay tuned for more tomfoolery...

Im that much closer to being israeli...

No, don't worry, I haven't filed papers with the Israeli government to become a citizen of this crazy place that i love. but i did take a hike on chol hamoed (the time between the first day of pesach and the last day/seventh day of pesach). The problem with hiking in Israel, which is beautiful and has many many trails in any number of different terrains and difficulties - is that most Israelis don't know how to clean up after themselves. at all. it is a painful sight to see anywhere, no less here. but for me there is this level of being baffled that doesn't come on quite so strongly in other places. the people who live in this country finally have a place where they have the ability to build a state of their (our) own and they show that appreciation and love for their country by leaving bags and bags of trash behind them in what would be otherwise totally beautiful trails...it gets me every time...the frustration never lessens....i just can't get used to it. not that i should, but there are many things here that you either have to get used to and accept as part of living here or you are going to go a little nuts. i haven't figured out if Israeli’s lack of recognition of their individual and communal ecological footprint is going to send me out of the country dazed and confused and disillusioned....i hope things change...

anyway...to stop ranting now...i went hiking with two friends from mcgill - marni and liz. we took marni's car and made our way to a trail called mitzpeh modi'in - the high point/peak of modi'in. it is still beautiful and green in the area where in only a few weeks time it will be brown and dry. it was so nice to get out of the city and get lost in the trails...like it always is:) we brought our lunch of peppers, cucumbers, avocados, and watermelon with us and ate in the shade of some trees and then made our way back singing psalms from hallel (a special set of psalms that are said on holidays) and Israeli folk songs...

we made our way to tel aviv dropping liz off to fly back to america before she makes chetzi (half)-aliya (immigration) to canada where she is on her way to establishing permanent residency in that wonderful country i miss (and will be visiting in 5 weeks!). In tel aviv marni and i took a walk on the beach watching the sunset. it was a wonderful conclusion to our action packed day...enjoy the pictures (btw - i have several more posts to let you in on my passover break adventures...they were many and fun...keep a look out:) wink wink

sweet dreams when you get em...thats where i plan to be drifting shortly...

[PS - a comment was made about my last post that i could now invite "more orthofolks over as your guests". I just wanted to say that yes - i do love having people over to my home and feeding them good food. but, just to be clear, keeping my kitchen kosher is not so that more people who are orthodox will feel comfortable eating in my home, but so any person who is guided by traditional halacha (including myself) will feel comfortable eating in my home. they come in all shapes and sizes and by all means are not all orthodox. including myself. i have been Jewish label free for over a year now and I may continue this way - I kinda like the freedom.]

Is this the deep end, and have I gone over it?

Recently I had the opportunity to bring in questions to my halacha (jewish law) class. A special kind of class was arranged after we finished reading through relevant texts about how to kasher our kitchens (theoretically, as Pardes is non-coercive:). So, I came prepared. I have had a somewhat burning question for months now but held off until the big day…

My question regarded dishes that my great aunt Minnie, one of my namesakes, used and my family later inherited. The summer before I moved into my first apartment in Montreal I was rummaging around one day in my home in Syracuse and came across a set of dishes…they were ceramic and slightly asymmetrically shaped and have pictures of fruit painted on in loose shapes and warm tones – bananas and watermelons or something like that… I asked my mom if I could take them and after some bargaining she agreed. So I went to school, dishes with me, and I used them for the next three years. I did break a few over the years, and once even fed one poor soul shards of ceramic plate (unbeknownst to me or to him at the time) from one of the broken plates. He was not so happy with me, although I hope he forgives me now:) They are back in Syracuse now, I’m sure waiting anxiously for my return…along with the rest of my beloved inanimate objects (I had to leave many pairs of shoes at home when I crossed the ocean…a travesty, I know). Back to halacha class…

So a few weeks ago came the class where we were told to bring in personal questions about our kitchens. Now, we had learned in the course of our studies a few important laws that relate to my plates:

1) Jewish law has deemed things made out of clay (ceramics, porcelain, stoneware, etc.) to be unfixable, un-kasherable, un-returnable to a neutral state once they have been made “un-kosher”. For example, my mom told me that these plates, while not having been used for 30 years prior, were used for both milk and meat which makes them traif. In my own use of them I cooked with unkosher cheese for reasons I won’t get into here… Once these plates were traifed up, therefore, I shouldn’t theoretically be able to use them any more because they are not capable of returning from that state (unlike metal, for example, which can be returned to a kosher state).
2) If something is of great value (expensive, or an heirloom) then it can be kashered by following certain, pretty easy steps.

For weeks I felt like I was living in a cliffhanger of domestic enormity (note playful exaggeration). I knew that maybe I was being ridiculous. But it didn’t hit me until I was sitting in class that I may have reached the deep end…and may have already gone over its edge.

Do I really care if my plates are kosher by traditional halachic standards? Am I really sitting on the edge of my seat to hear what my teacher will say?

My teacher’s answer: yes you can kasher them. Leave them in a box for a year and don’t use them and then boil them…essentially that was his answer.

My answer: yes I have gone a bit over the deep end. But I like it here and I don’t feel like I have left the pool where I started from. What rabbis and Jewish texts have to say is important to me…but so is what my parents and friends say. And most of all what is important to me is how something makes me feel. I like kosher plates. They aren’t hard to manage and they make me feel close to a community that I enjoy belonging to. I am more aware of what I cook, how I cook it, what is in my kitchen. Granted there are a lot of things that could get me there but this seems to be doing the trick for now. I hope for a long time. I imagine a sign being up over my kitchen: “Beware: Crazy Lady Trying to Create Holy Space…And Tasty Vegetarian Food”.

By the way, I don’t bring up this perhaps trivial topic out of the blue…a lot of my time here I am forced to be very up front with myself and constantly re-evaluate how what I am learning fits into my life. That’s some of what I have so far.

Chag Kasher v’sameach – Happy Passover. I hope that wherever you are and however you are and if you are at all celebrating the holiday that it is meaningful for you and those you share it with.

And for all my non-Jewish folk – have one hell of a good day.

Much much much love.