VAT in another sense

Many of us on this last Emeth trip to Israel had a firsthand experience with VAT, the tax that you pay up front and then get back at the airport. But I’m talking about a different VAT…..that is Value Added Travel when you are fortunate enough to have the opportunity to be on a trip to Israel with Rabbi Steven Sirbu. For our family, it was most extraordinary. The itinerary was perfect for us, having been in Israel twice but decades ago. We made the decision to take our ten year old granddaughter, and while the pace was rapid, the Rabbi was so sensitive to the kids on the trip, that they were able to take it all in stride. For me, it is virtually impossible to isolate a particular event, city, experience  as a favorite. But high on the list, was our granddaughter calling her parents and telling them that Israel is paradise. As we venture back into our day to day routines, waiting anxiously for the pictures to be done, the beautiful feeling of having traveled with acquaintances from Emeth, who became Emeth family in a few short days, guided, encouraged, nurtured and taught by this unusual, caring  and knowledgeable Rabbi, continues to expand. We highly recommend the VAT-Sirbu experience! It will change you forever.

 

Micki Grunstein
Vice President Operations and Administration
Peoples Education
299 Market Street
Saddle Brook NJ 07663
201-708-2321

 

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Third time's the charm

This was the most amazing trip.  I was the only one of the 20 congregants that had traveled twice previously to Israel with Rabbi Sirbu.  Some places we visited were repeats (The Old City of Jerusalem, Yad Vashem, Caesaria, Tsfat, the Golan Heights, Masada and the Dead Sea) but I discovered more with each visit.  Muki, our tour guide, was such a wealth of information and history that it was never difficult to listen to him. We had an additional tour guide in the Christian Quarter of the Old City and we all learned so much from her. And the new places we visited, Qumran (site where Dead Sea Scrolls were discovered), Akko (ancient Crusader city), Haifa, Sderot, Beersheva, Capernum (where Jesus was said to have stayed) and the Hula Nature Preserve were wonderful. And we got to see how "up close and personal" Gaza is to Israeli borders.  the morning we visited Beersheva, there was a missile attack there earlier.  Scary but daily events for Israelis.

Incredible to me is that I said Kaddish for my mother on her yahrzeit at the Kotel.  Cried the entire time.  So moving.  And I ran into my opthalmologist on the top of Masada!  He was traveling with Rabbi Frishman and the Barnert Temple group.

And I loved the synagogues we visited in Haifa, Nahariya and Jerusalem and sharing a meal with the congregants.  We were able to find out so much about Israeli life on a daily basis. And were so graciously welcomed at each one.

The last Shabbat afternoon, I visited the Israeli Museum and the 2 hours I spent there barely touched the surface.  It certainly warrants another visit....

I look forward to my next visit...

Elinor B

Third Time's the Charm

In 2005, we had Qumran on the schedule but we didn't make it there.  In 2007 we had Qumran on the schedule but we didn't make it there.  We finally made it today.

What is Qumran?  Qumran is the place where the Dead Sea Scrolls were discovered.  The site has been excavated and the ruins tell us about the life of the Yachad community, who composed the scrolls and hid them away for nearly 2000 years.

The Yachad community was a monastic group of Jews who had fled to the desert to escape the corruption of Jerusalem and lead a life of simplicity and ritual purity.  According to the scrolls and corroborated by the archaeology, the community was highly structured, with men entering the ritual bath twice a day, eating communal meals in silence, and building the infrastrucure required for life under these difficult conditions.

After hearing the story of the people who wrote the scrolls, who lived there from approximately 10 BCE to 70 CE, Muki recounted for us the story of the discovery of the scrolls, which were found by chance in 1947.  How lucky we are that the scrolls were discovered...and that we finally made it to the site of the discovery.

A Group Picture at Masada

We got together again for a group picture overlooking Masada. For this photo we donned our group T-shirts.  You can't really tell from the picture, but they have an Israeli flag and a flag with the Temple Emeth logo on them.  Thanks to Temple member Peter for designing the T-shirts.

View of the Old City

On our lunch break Tuesday in the old city, I took 7 people with good knees to the tower above the Lutheran Church in the Christian Quarter. We ascended the 178 narrow spiraling steps and were rewarded with some breathtaking views of Jerusalem. (I figured I owed this to them after our first view of the city was so misty.)
This photo faces to the northwest. The two big domes in the foreground are the Church of the Holy Sepulchre.

At the Western Wall

The Western Wall attracts visitors of all backgrounds. this picture shows Orthodox Jews (like the one seated in the plastic chair) who have come to pray, and tourists who are wearing the white kippot. In the middle, trip participant Jeal (wearing the blue cap) is looking out as he touches the wall. If you look closely you can see notes tucked in the crevices of the wall.

The Temple Mount

Our group had seen the Christian Quarter and two or three sets of ruins and had lunch before we finally got to go to the Western Wall, "the hub of the Jewish world." This photo, taken from the last outlook before we descended to the level of the Western Wall plaza, shows the dome of the rock above and the Western Wall below. You can see the beautiful weather we had on Tuesday.

You Have Mail, God

At the Conregational Meeting on February 10, we collected notes to be placed in the Western Wall.  We finally arrived at the Wall this afternoon.  Before we were given about half an hour of free time at the wall, I took out the bag that held all of the notes.  I warned participants how scornful it is to unfold the notes and read them, then I held open the bag and each person took out  two or three to insert into the crevices of the wall.

Prior to that, I sat down with 11-year-old Naomi and 10-year-old Elizabeth and we wrote notes of our own so we would be prepared when we got to the Wall.

So, Temple Emeth members, rest assured that your notes have arrived.  And to the Holy One Blessed be God: please check your inbox.

Everything in Jerusalem is Complicated

Our morning in Jerusalem started with the history of Christianity in Jerusalem.  The strongest presence in the Old City and in the country is the Greek Orthodox Church.  Their symbol, a T interlocked with an O, can be found in numerous places in the Christian Quarter of the Old City.  There is also a Greek Catholic and an Armenian Orthodox Church.  These three denominations--along with Franciscan Roman Catholics and others--share the Church of the Holy Sepulchre, but they do not get along at all, except when they are forced to.  Case in point... they cannot agree on who gets to clean the first stair of a staircase that ascends from the courtyard in front of the church.

Later in the day, Muki brought us to a lookout on top of a public roof in the Old City in Jerusalem.  In the U.S., there is no such thing as a public basement or a public roof, but Jerusalem has both.

As Muki put it, "The Status Quo in Jerusalem in Holy."  Everything is complicated here.

Our 1st Group Photo

Temple Emeth Group arrived in Jerusalem on Monday. This our 1st group photo taken from the Mount Scopus ridge.