2006_10_01_archive

Trip to Israel's north, September 2006

The day after my cousin's bar mitzvah in Israel last month, we began a

family trip to the north part of the country. Israel is pretty small,

so going to the north from the center (where my home town, Rehovot, is

located) only takes a couple of hours.

We drove up to Tiberias to see the kinneret (the Hebrew name for the

Sea of Galilee). It was great to see that after many years of relative

drought and resulting decrease in the water level, the kinneret was

back up to pre-drought levels. We ate at a wonderful little outdoor

grill right out on the water, called Decks. The grilled mallard breast

was fantastic.

Picture (by Alli) at Decks:

Israel September 2006 155

From there we drove up to Rosh Pinna, further north and one of the

first collective settlements in Israel. It's now a small town, not an

agricultural settlment as much. It's fairly high up on a mountain, so

there is a great view of the Golan Heights. We visited Kfar HaNasi,

where my little sister Ayelet is staying briefly before beginning her

voluntary Army service. We had dinner at a small, old, and famous

local eatery called Ja'uni (an Arabic name). We stayed at a marvelous

zimmer (a German word originally I believe, roughly translated as a

bed and breakfast in Israel) called Havaya BaNof that featured not

just exactly as many rooms as we needed (so our party took up the

whole place), but also a huge jacuzzi on a gorgeous deck overlooking

the Golan Heights. It was really great, highly recommended. The

proprietor is a great guy and he made us an awesome breakfast the next

morning.

Picture (again by Alli) at breakfast:

Israel September 2006 242

After that breakfast, we got back in the car and drove west through

Safed, on our way to Kfar Vradim. We went there to visit my other

sister's (Noa) boyfriend's parents. This is a settlement that was

built by Stef Wertheimer for the employees of his company, Iscar, that

was just bought by Warren Buffett. By pure coincedence, we were there

on the same day Buffett himself stopped by to visit the company's

headquarters.

From there, we kept on going west, until we got to Rosh HaNikra, the

northwestern most point in Israel, on the border with Lebanon. There

we took the cable car down to the grottoes and had a great tour --

it's beautiful.

Picture (by Alli, of course) inside the grottoes, and no it's not

upside down:

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Continuing on this long day, we drove down the coast to Caesarea, a

fun drive in itself. There we had a late lunch / early dinner on the

beach, overlooking the ancient ruins, before we drove a couple minutes

down to the old Aqueduct. We watched a beautiful sunset on the beach

and got some great photos, such as the one below.

After that it was another drive, back home to Rehovot after a

wonderful trip...

Picture, naturally, by Alli:

Israel September 2006 316

Posted by Yoav at 12:38 0 comments Links to this post

Tal's bar mitzvah

One of the main determinants of the timing for our Israel trip in

September was my cousin Tal's bar mitvah. This event occurs at a boy's

13th birthday and a girl's 12th birthday (when it's called a bat

mizvah), and has deep significance to jewish people. We wanted to

attend this seminal event in person. Mazal tov Tal, by the way!

Bar mitzvahs in Israel are very different from those in the US. In the

US it's a big formal affair, largely designed by and for the parents

and their friends. Sure, there's thought put in for the bar mitzvah

kid and his (or her, since in the US bat mitzvahs are largely similar

to bar mitzvahs) friends, but as much emphasis on the adults.

In Israel bar mitzvahs are more emotionally significant for the kid

and his family, I think. Everyone from the neighborhood, from school,

etc, tends at least call and congratulate the family. In the US if

of a sociopolitical event in the US, more religious and emotional in

Israel.

It's also simpler and cheaper in Israel: hardly ever formal, more like

a party for the kids where they can do whatever (pizza, burgers, BBQ

in terms of food, soccer, bowling, or some other informal sport for

entertaining) and adults are incidentally welcome as well. In the US

there's a lot of professional entertainment hired (band, clowns,

whatever), more money spent...

We had a great time at my cousin's bar mitzvah. Purely by coincedence,

the timing was such that his Torah portion was the same as his

father's, my uncle Ariku, a few decades ago. The setting was the small

sephardic synagogue in my home neighborhood, although we are an