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Published: November 29th 2009
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Israeli National Park mascot
I think he's an ibex, but I'm not sure... Happy Thanksgiving to you all! This was only the third Thanksgiving in my life that I spent away from any family, but it was still an opportunity to give thanks and to enjoy good company. So without further ado:
Living We Jerusalem Fellows decided to do a potluck dinner together in honor of the holiday. We had fake chicken posing as fake turkey (which was surprisingly tasty), but other than that, we managed to have all the trappings: mashed potatoes, sweet potatoes, gravy, cranberry sauce, apple and pecan pies. (The apple pie was my grandmother's "secret" recipe - it was not as good as hers, of course, but still very good!) We ate way too much in good American tradition and listened to Arlo Guthrie's recording of "Alice's Restaurant." It was also amusing explaining to our non-American colleagues exactly why we celebrate this holiday.
Part of the fun of preparing for Thanksgiving was finding the various ingredients. There is one grocery store in my neighborhood, the Super Deal, which isn't exactly such a great deal, but makes up for it by having all kinds of stuff you can't get in regular Jerusalem grocery stores, such as canned pumpkin, coconut
Beit Shearim
Going down to one of the hundreds of burial caves milk, sushi seaweed and salty tortilla chips (complete with the salsa). I went shopping on Wednesday and had fun smiling at the other English speakers buying nutmeg, sweet potatoes and pecans.
A few words about shopping in general: you can go to Machaneh Yehudah, which is about 20 minutes away by bus. But it's a bit far, so I tend to stay in my neighborhood. There is a fruit stand where the owner already knows me. He asked me today why I didn't buy a pineapple (the last two Fridays I bought pineapple to bring to a friend's for Shabbat) and gives customers he likes samples of melon, guava, and persimmon. Next to the rows of fruit, familiar and exotic, in the front of the store, he has a setup where you can get fresh squeezed juice from pretty much anything you want.
I also love going to one of two bakeries to buy challah. One is in an old building, where you have to duck down a few stone stairs into a narrow alley before emerging into a small crowded room filled with the smells of bread and cinnamon and chocolate. They have really good sweet whole-wheat
Inside the burial cave
This was one of the poorer ones. The fancy ones were huge and cavernous with dozens of sarcophagi. challah and salty cheese borekas (a small pastry filled with various things, including spinach, mushrooms and cheeses.) The other bakery has a long row of chocolate rugelach, cinnamon rolls, a baklava dripping with honey. There are always a couple of happy bees browsing among the pastries.
I forgot to bring my camera today, but if you are interested, I'll post photos of these places next time.
Learning One of my fellow Fellows is a French/Spanish guy (who was a bit mystified by Thanksgiving) named David Stoleru who is interested in preserving and reimagining Jewish heritage sites in Spain. He took us on a field trip to think about how Jewish heritage sites are presented here in Israel. We went to a place up in the Lower Galilee called Beit Shearim. Its heyday was during the Roman Period. Apparently in those days, everyone wanted to be buried in Beit Shearim; people had their bodies shipped from all over the Jewish world - Greece, Turkey, Alexandria - to be buried in one of the hundreds of burial caves there. Why? Because Judah the Prince, the rabbi who redacted the Mishnah around the year 200, was buried there. (Apparently, even in
The view from Beit Shearim
From our picnic spot- just before the rain had us beat a hasty retreat back to the bus. The building is the grave of a sheikh. death people cared who their neighbors are!)
So we went to look. There was a large hill and honeycombed throughout were openings, high and low, which led to burial caves. Some caves were enormous, room after room after room, with high ceilings. Others were narrow and claustrophobic. There were super fancy sarcophagi with carvings and Hebrew inscriptions and then there were much smaller niches in the walls for poor people. It is surprising, given current burial customs, that Jews used to bury their dead in caves, although, of course, the first Jewish burial we know about was for Sarah, in the Cave of the Machpela in Hebron. As a history buff, I have always been interested in cemeteries, so it was very interesting to go crawling around these caves.
It was also interesting to think about what these ancient cemeteries mean to us once we no longer have any direct personal connection to the people who were buried there. We looked at some texts from the period of the Mishnah to learn a little about burial customs and Judah the Prince. I have had the privilege of visiting family graves in Europe that date back to the late
Thanksgiving table
We had such a festive gathering! 1700's. These graves didn't feel that different. I know the names of my relatives but not much more about some of them. But I still feel a sense of intrigue and curiosity about their lives and a sense of connection, no matter how remote. I am also curious about how David will transform how people experience Jewish cemeteries in Spain. Stay tuned...
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Marjory Kaplan
non-member comment
Gratitude
Hello Lisa, For my Thanksgiving gratitude list, I'm adding your blogs. Thank you so much for keeping in touch with your friends and sending us these wonderful accounts of your adventures. I could smell the challah baking in the old building! Much love, Marjory