shalom m'yisrael.... greetings from israel!!!!! Mel returns to her mass e-mail means of communication...

Date: Tue, 21 Dec 2004 12:57:42 -0800 (PST)
Subject: shalom m'yisrael.... greetings from israel!!!!! Mel returns to her mass e-mail means of communication...

Shalom L’Kulam,

I hope everyone’s finals went well and those who are on winter break are enjoying themselves. I know you all thought these e-mails were over—but here they are, back with a vengeance—Melanie’s e-mails from abroad.

The only question remains—without cow shit and without Jesus, whatever WILL she write about? I’m mainly writing to let you all know that I got here safely (for those who care) and I have a cell phone (for those who will actually call, probably none of you, but whatever).

My number is 011-972-50-7213582 from the States and 050-7213582 from Israel. So basically that was the important part and for the rest of you who aren’t as cool you can stop reading.

THE ADVENTURES BEGIN…..
My adventures began not more than a half hour outside of College Park, in Chinatown, D.C. when I realized I had forgotten my map to the Chinatown bus stop. No problem, I figured, I’ll just stop in the first sushi shop that I see and ask them. Of course, the sushi people tell me there’s four different Chinatown bus stops, each with a different company, and no one knows which is where, and I have only five minutes till my bus leaves. And so I begin a mad dash around Chinatown, with all of my luggage dragging behind me, frantically dialing every person in my cell phone who might be close to a computer.

After the third wrong bus stop and tenth phone call, Ashleigh finally pickedup and read me the address off of the internet. (P.S. Ashleigh you rock for saving my life). When I finally located the right bus stop, I found it next to none other than the Historic H & I Street Synagogue. Trust me to pick the bus stop next to what I am assuming is the only synagogue in Chinatown.

The travel adventures continued throughout New York, including trying to find my way around New York’s Chinatown at 11:30 PM by myself with all of my luggage (that was fun!), or taking a cab to the airport and picking, of course, the cabbie who had just started driving a cab THAT DAY and got lost for 20 minutes on the way to the airport. I have such luck with these things.

But how can I explain the feeling when I finally stepped off the plane, after 52 hours of traveling(way to go cheap flights with really long layovers and no where to go but the international terminal of the Madrid airport), and it hit me suddenly, “Melanie, you’re in Israel”? How can I explain the way everyone clapped when we landed, or the announcement “Bruchim Ha’baim L’Yisroel” (Welcome to Israel) that made me start to cry? How can I explain what it’s like to step onto an Egged bus and think “this is home” or the way I sang along to the music they played as the plane taxied into the airport terminal?

I can’t explainthat overwhelming rush of emotions that made me cry just to get off that plane, but if I could, maybe I could explain why I want to live here forever, why I want to raise a family here. I can’t explain why seeing Harediim (black hat Jews) on cell phones or kosher Burger Kings or dancing Chassidim with peis singing about Oman or Bamba or Bisli or Shoko B’Sakit(chocolate milk in a bag) anything and everything that makes Israel ISRAEL—I can’t explain why it makes me so proud to be Jewish and be in Israel, but it does….

My friend Josh, who’s apartment I am staying in for acouple of days while he is in the army, lives in an old neighborhood filled with hippies right near the big marketplace (Shuk on Machaneh Yehuda), one of my favorite places in the whole entire world. On the bus ride over (just kidding mom, I don’t take busses, you know that), driving down the familiar Highway 1, seeing the outline of ruined tanks that litter theside of the road from the War of Independence in 1948 that serve as stark reminders of everything we gave up to be here, watching as the lights from familiar hilltops glimmered through the night, I couldn’t help but think “Here I am—I am coming home…”

It was adifferent feeling of home than I get when I come backto Lexington after a long absence, it was… I’m not sure. I’m finding the longer I stay here and the more times I come, more questions I have, and less answers and explanations I can find.

Well, I really couldn’t let any e-mail from me becomplete without a few Jesus references, so those of you who were holding your breath don’t have to worry any more. I stayed my first night with my friend Tehillah, who did her Shirut Le’umi (national service, alternative to the army for religious girls) at myKibbutz last year. She works now at an organizationcalled Yad L’Achim (“Hand to my Brothers”) which is a Haredi organization which works against Christian missionaries in Israel. That’s right, my first day in Israel, I went to an organization dedicated to eradicating the presence of missionaries.

In Peru I would always think, “if only the Israelis could see me now…” Here in Israel, I suddenly found myself thinking, “if only the YMCA could see me now…” Sometimes, I feel like the bible itself is actually laughing at me when I get myself into these kinds of situations.

The way I understood the Yad L’Achim organization, neighbors and family members call in their concerns about a certain individual who they feel is at the risk of converting, and Yad L’Achim visits them and tries to convince them not to convert. While I was there, a woman called about her neighbor who is“reformit” (Reform Jew) and wanted to know exactly what that was. Seizing on this chance, my friend Tehillah offered to put “a real, live American” on the phone to explain this phenomenon. In my broken Hebrew (which hopefully will improve over the next few days,please G-d) I attempted to explain the basis of Reform Judaism, which I myself am not that familiarwith, explaining that it’s not all about the laws, that Reform Jews welcome people who celebrate being Jewish in all different ways, that it’s about your connection to your heritage and the culture of the Jewish people, etc. etc.

Finally after listening tome for about two minutes, she interrupts and says “So is being reform worse than being secular or being Christian?” I ask her to repeat the question, because I wasn’t sure I had heard right. She asks again. I know that this is probably not the right time or place to let my true opinion on the matter air, seeing as Tehillah’s boss is within earshot, but I can’t help myself. These kinds of views are exactly what lead to so many problems between the religious and non-religious Jews here in Israel.

“Look,” I answered, “they’re Jews and they are people too. It’s not up for you to judge who is better than who. If they can connect to Judaism in this way, why should someone say that their way is not as good as your way?” At this point Tehillah lunged for the phone and hastily apologized, but hopefully the damage was already done, and this woman, whoever she is, will think about whether or not she really has the right to judge her neighbors at all.

Tov, that’s all for now I’ll sign off here. I am now in Jerusalem, ir hakodesh, and tomorrow I volunteer with my friend Adi at a soup kitchen. Getting to Josh’s apartment was also an adventure, as I couldn’t find the keys he had buried in the flowerpot outside his apartment, and when I finally found them with the help of some Australians living downstairs, I spent half an hour trying to get into their apartment, the wrong one, before they kindly directed me upstairs. I wasn’t too worried since I had stolen a blanket from the airplane, if worst came to worst, I could have always slept on the street.

I’ve been in Israel for almost 24 hours now, and am so happy to be here. Mazal tov and congrats to Netanya,who is making aliayah (moving to Israel) on Sunday. I’m so happy for her and so amazed by her courage,although a little jealous I am not the first one of us to be moving to Israel. I can already feel myself getting sucked in, and I know getting back on the plane to go home will be the most difficult thing I have ever done.

As I told my friend Rachel when I bought my cell phone today—I am now one step closer to making aliyah. And maybe it’s a small, stupid step,but at least it’s a step in the right direction. May you all have a happy and sweet new year. Merry Christmas to those who celebrate it and good luck to those who still have finals remaining. To the Israelis—Nesiyanikim, kibbutnikim,v’chaverim—titkashru alayich! Ani mitga’gat otchemv’ayn li shom d’var la’asot! To everyone else—keep in touch, I miss you, and enjoy everything….
B’ahava (with love),
Melanie