Newsletter #13 - Late January 2000

Shalom from Israel, y'all!

Did last Christmas really happen? It's so downplayed in Israel, I keep forgetting it's already gone by!

Yesterday it snowed quite a bit in Jerusalem - enough to close roads! This is somewhat unusual. It is raining around Tel Aviv, enough to flood roads (this is quite normal). But, we surely need the precipitation!

Our American Ambassador, Edward (Ned) Walker, has departed. My co-workers tell me that the new (actually, returning) Ambassador, Martin Indyk,will probably come up to Herzlia to visit our office. Kevin met him this week at a "town meeting" at the Embassy.

Last month I bought a real Israeli outfit from an Israeli chain called Flowers. The clothes are designed and hand-colored in Israel. Many of their clothes are velvety, fancy-wear for special occasions. The saleslady claims that New York women often shop there, because they can't find such unique clothes in NY, or the prices in Israel are cheaper. I had the skirt shortened by a Honduran neighbor whose daughter works for the American Embassy. Since the mom only speaks Spanish (most of which I've forgotten since my school days), the daughter had to translate. The daughter told us her family was looking for a Spanish-speaking church so her mom could get something out of it. We knew of a one in Tel Aviv, so the next day, the Honduran family followed us to the Spanish church. The singing switched back and forth between Spanish and Hebrew. The preaching was in English with Spanish translation. The Honduran family loved it! The mom began prophesying to the whole congregation in Spanish. I think she was saying that Jesus is coming back very soon. A lot of people in the congregation started weeping and kneeling on the floor. So, you never know what will happen when you invite people to church!

The pastors (or "messianic rabbis") are Baruch Bierman, from America, and his Chilean-born wife, Dominique. They are friends of Mike and Barbara Richmond's family. Dominique spoke at Mike's funeral service. Later, we invited Baruch to dinner because his wife was out of town. They have both led very interesting lives. They have been missionaries to the Philippines and to China. Dominique has published several books and CDs. Baruch is an ex-rabbi. Even though he is now a Christian, he eats "Biblically" kosher (as opposed to rabinically kosher). This means no pork and no seafood, but it's ok to eat dairy with meat in the same meal. At home they don't have separate ovens and utensils for meat and dairy. We took him to the Israeli version of TGI Friday's and he loved the steak - said it was a good as at TGIF! He hopes to try their New York style cheesecake next. Israeli cheesecake is pretty light and fluffy, not thick and heavy like New York-style.

We learned that there's at least one thing religious Muslims and religious Jews have in common - their diet. When visitors come to our office, it's always safe to take them to a kosher restaurant. That way, everyone can find something suitable to eat! Kosher food is not necessarily healthy. There is kosher junk food, as well as kosher additives, preservatives, and artificial ingredients!

Our landlord hired a work crew to try to repair our heater (five days with no heat downstairs), patch up our roof, clean up the mold in our house, and locate the mystery leak that is ruining our neighbor's house downstairs. Usually roof repairs aren't made until after the rainy season ends in March. Flat roofs just don't work well in Israel because of the heavy downpours in the rainy season. In addition to owning our condo, our landlord, Mr. Kovo, owns a non-kosher deli in our neighborhood. Kevin says anyone who sells pork must be a great guy! We have been told that Mr. Kovo is the largest non-kosher meat distributor in Israel. He offered to put us up in a posh hotel until the repairs were made, but Kevin wanted to be here with the repairmen. Mr. Kovo felt so bad about all the mess and inconvenience we've experienced that he gave us a huge basket of goodies from his deli - preserves, wine, chocolate, tea, plus some stuff that we can't figure out what it is because the labels are in Italian and Hebrew. He also gave us money to pay a maid to clean up the mess left by the workmen. So far, things seem to be fixed.

Several American friends have asked us if there is a noticeable difference working and living among Israelis. Well, there's a definite communication barrier between me and some of my contractor counterparts. Usually the contractors hire an American or an Israeli who speaks excellent English for their Contracts Department. However, this is often not the case with the people with whom I interface. Sometimes my assistant has to speak to them in Hebrew, because they say they're confused and don't know how to answer my correspondence. Sometimes during audits I am provided with contractor documents partially written in Hebrew, or dated using the Hebrew calendar. Another difference is the Israeli bluntness. Israelis may answer the phone, "Yes?" If I ask them a question, they may answer, "Of course. That's a stupid question!" This is considered normal conversation - in this culture it's not being rude. Some Americans actually prefer the Israeli bluntness to the American tact, because you always know how the contractor feels about something, instead of finding out a month later that he's upset.

The written Hebrew language does not use the Latin characters. It's written phonetically. Hebrew is read from right to left, starting at the top of the page and at the rear of the document. However, numerals are read from left to right, the same as English. Many of the vowels are left out - they use mostly consonants, so you have to guess at the vowels. Also, some of the characters used in handwriting are different from the typewritten ones. The Hebrew characters are squarish and totally different from Arabic, which is loopy and resembles Gregg shorthand. Kevin has learned all of the Hebrew characters. I am concentrating on vocabulary words. So, sometimes, by working together we can actually understand something. The Government would probably pay for me to take a beginning Hebrew class, but I've been working too much overtime to take advantage of it.

Kevin and I are trying to see as many of Israel's national parks as possible, so we bought annual park passes. It is still warm enough outdoors to pack a picnic lunch. We visited Tel Megiddo (Hill of Megiddo), which is the Armegeddon of the New Testament book of Revelation where the final battle of the world is fought. The Israeli Government was concerned that cult members might try to commit suicide at Megiddo over the New Year, to hasten the coming of the Messiah, but fortunately there were no incidents. There is a Megiddo kibbutz composed of Holocaust survivors located nearby, but otherwise Tel Megiddo has been abandoned.

Standing on top of the hill, looking down on the peaceful farmland in the Valley of Esdraelon (Jezreel), it is very difficult to picture a battlefield - although it was many times in the past, right up through World War I. Megiddo was situated on a major route through Israel known as the Via Maris, or Road of the Sea, which stretched from Egypt to Syria. Archeologists in digging downward have uncovered at least twenty layers of different civilizations dating back 6000 years, with the Bronze Age cities at the bottom, up through the Iron Age cities toward the top. Megiddo is first mentioned in the Bible's Old Testament as being a Canaanite city conquered by Joshua and the Jews when they entered Palestine (some of today's Palestinians claim to be descendants of these early Canaanites). It was later fortified by King Solomon. At the surface, you can see the remains of ancient gates, walls, a grain silo with two circular staircases, and the chariot horse stables of a later Israeli ruler, King Ahab. He was an Israeli king married to Jezebel, who popularized a pagan religion called Baal worship that involved child sacrifice. You can also walk through an elaborate hidden underground water system dating from around 850 B.C. Such systems were necessary in the fortified cities because during wars, it helped them withstand sieges.

Another national park we visited was Ashkelon. Our church in Florida calls one of their buildings the "House of Ashkelon." Our church's Ashkelon used to be owned by Al Capone for use as his country club. Israel's Ashkelon used to be ruled by the Philistines, as one of their five chief cities. This desirable ocean-front property has also been ruled by Egypt and Greece, Rome, the Byzantines, and the Crusaders! It's set up as a picnic area and playground, but you can wander around and see remains of ancient walls, Turkish wells, pottery shards, capitals, and marble and granite columns lying all over the place. There are a few well-preserved Greek statues, such as Nike, goddess of victory and smelly athletic shoes. One Nike actually stands on a round world (coincidentally half the size of a basketball) that is held on the shoulders of a kneeling Atlas. There was also an "amphitheater" on the park map, which turned out to be behind a chain link fence, with modern bathrooms, aluminum bleachers and a "well-preserved" concrete floor!

The third national park we visited was Beit-Guvrin/Maresha, two ancient cities that were occupied by many different people groups over the course of time. Maresha is mentioned in the Old Testament of the Bible. This area is filled with limestone caves. The occupants quarried the softer limestone from underneath a harder top layer for building, then used the caves for water reservoirs, barns, storerooms, and burial caves. Tourists are advised to stay on the paths, otherwise they might fall into a hole! There is a lot to see in this park, but it was about to close for the day, so we just hit a couple high points. First we saw the "columbarium" cave. Long ago, pigeons were raised for food, religious sacrifice, and to use their droppings as fertilizer. In one cave, over two thousand "pigeonholes" were cut into the sides of the cave for them to live in - and they still do! You climb down steps into the cave and are immediately surrounded by cooing and flapping sounds, with pigeons swooping in and out. We also went into a burial cave dating from the 2nd century B.C. The inscriptions and paintings on the cave walls were recently restored.

As we left the park we drove by the spot where David, the shepherd boy, was supposed to have killed the Philistine giant, Goliath, using a slingshot and a stone. Kevin collected several stones out of that streambed and shipped them to some of our friends in the States.

I donated money to the Jewish National Fund for a tree to be planted in the Jerusalem forest in memory of my father. You can also have a tree planted in honor of living persons, so I bought one for Kevin. You get a certificate showing the person's name in Hebrew and in English.

Until next time,

Kevin & "Elisheva"