Transitions and Endings

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My year in Jerusalem is almost over; I am heading back to San Diego on the last day of the month. I'll tell you about two concluding trips, a day of goodbyes, a list of things I will particularly miss about this year and a final word.

Two Concluding Trips

The Jerusalem Fellows took an end of the year trip to the north; our theme was transitions. Our first stop was a medium security prison near the Golani Junction. The prison houses about 1,000 inmates, about 50% Jewish and 50% Arab. All the inmates were male; apparently there are only about 150 women inmates in the entire country. I wish I could have brought my camera in to show you photos of the prison and what we saw, but we were only allowed to bring in a notebook and a pen, and they took the pen apart to make sure it was a pen. We visited the educational branch, where the inmates have the opportunity to learn basic school skills; many of them are functionally illiterate in Hebrew, although some of them can read and write in Russian, Arabic or English. The most important thing that they learn, however, is about boundaries and self-control. We also saw this in the drug rehabilitation wing, where we spoke with two inmates, one of whom worked up through the program to the point where he is now a counselor for other prisoners. He hopes to be released in six months.

Since we were thinking about transitions, it was interesting to consider the tools the prisoners receive to help them transition into prison life and then to prepare them for life on the outside. I was discouraged to hear that the recidivism rate is 68%, which is pretty typical for western prisons. However, the rate drops to 30-35% for those who participate in the drug rehabilitation program. I was impressed by the passion and the commitment of the prison staff and also by their expressions of respect for the inmates. On entering the prison, there was a large sign that said, "A person is created in the Image of God and he has intrinsic value. He is important because he is human." I haven't been to a prison in the US; I wonder if there is similar signage.

We were supposed to meet with a Carmelite monk at a monastery on Mt. Carmel, the place where Elijah had his famous show-down with the prophets of Baal. Alas, the monk was called to Rome and was unable to meet with us. However, we did go to a park called Ramat Hanadiv, which is a memorial garden for the great benefactor, Benjamin Rothschild, who helped support the first immigration of Jews to Israel in the modern era. The gardens are manicured and lovely and surrounded by a large nature preserve that is wild and also lovely (and maintained by goats to keep the fire hazard down). Here the transition was more gradual, with the visitors' center and educational gardens for handicapped adults serving as the in-between space between the gardens and the park.

We also visited a national park where both Neanderthals and Homo Sapiens lived in caves, possibly at the same time, since there are burial sites that include the same cultural artifacts. There were also Natufian burial sites; Natufians were the people who first moved out of caves and began a proto-agricultural life, settling in one place, harvesting wild seeds, if not planting them, and domesticating dogs. It was very exciting to see the caves and the burial sites and to imagine ancient people slowly moving out of the caves into the world outside.

One thing that I have been thinking about in regards to transitions is that they very rarely have the firm borders and boundaries that we saw in the prison. Endings are more likely to bleed or blend into new beginnings in slow and sometimes almost imperceptible ways. The prayer book describes God "rolling light away from darkness and darkness away from light." While there is indeed a time for every purpose, that description of rolling seems right to me.

The second trip was more fun and less thematic. The group of Israelis and non-Israelis who participated in the dialogue program decided that we wanted one more outing together. We went to the Elah Valley where David fought against Goliath and had an interesting discussion about how we understood that story as kids and now as adults and how the story is used politically. We also did some crazy cave crawling; during the Bar Kokhba Revolt against the Romans in the mid first century, the Jews connected underground storage areas and turned them into lethal hiding places from which to attack Roman legions. There were some places that were so narrow that we had to snake along on our bellies around corners and in the dark to get to the next open space. It was intense! And in the open spaces, there are little niches carved out where people put their oil lamps to give light; you can still see the 1900 year old smoke stains on the walls.

A Day of Goodbyes

Our last day of classes at Mandel was on Thursday. We did a series of evaluations of the programs and then we joined the Israeli Fellows for a good-bye activity. The highlight was going to an Idan Raichel concert at the Sultan's Pool, a remnant of an ancient water system just outside the walls of the Old City. Idan Raichel gathers together musicians from a variety of backgrounds, including, most famously, Ethiopian singers. There were about 20 musicians - horns, strings, oud, drums, piano. The songs were in Hebrew, Arabic, Amharic and Spanish. The juxtaposition between the walls of the Old City and the modern musical technology was wonderful.

Jerusalem

What a gift this year has been - to live in this glorious, heart-breaking, enchanting, ancient city! Here is my top ten things I wish I could take with me:

*The gradual quieting and serenity of a Friday afternoon as the city prepares for Shabbat
*The muezzin calls echoing across the valley
*The shepherd bringing his goats up the wadi outside my balcony
*The hustle and bustle amid the olives and baked goods and fresh produce at Machaneh Yehuda market
*The light that turns the stones white and gold and rosy and brown at different times of day
*Cafe hafuch (coffee with milk) and limonana (lemonade blended with chopped mint leaves)
*Going out for brunch on Friday mornings and eating all kinds of salads and dips and cheeses and breads
*Suddenly realizing that this is where a particular story from the Bible took place
*Everyday Hebrew in its terse, layered depth
*Riding the bus with a bearded Chasid studying a book, a Muslim woman in a headscarf, a soldier in uniform with his gun, an Ethiopian student, a Philipina nurse and a Russian teenager rocking out to his I-pod.

A Final Word
I am so grateful to those of you who came on this journey with me through reading my blog. Thank you to those who left comments or who wrote me separately. One of the pleasure of the year was rediscovering my love for writing. I am considering starting a non-travel blog when I return to San Diego. If you are interested in hearing more about it, please let me know.

And in the meantime, may your own journey be blessed with insight, wisdom, growth and peace.

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