The Shore, Shabbat, and Life these Days
Thursday March 5th I headed to Haifa on the northern coast of Israel, overlooking the Mediterranean sea. This was a trip arranged for a learning tour coming from Canada to see the work of MCC. I wanted to tag along to see Abuna Elias Chacour, Archbishop of the Melkite Church in the Galilee, whose quote inspired the title of my blog. His story is about how he was displaced as an Arab boy living in Palestine at the time of the war in 1948 and then he became a priest and worked tirelessly for ecumenism and peace/reconciliation. He has written great autobiographical books, including Blood Brothers and We Belong to the Land. Chacour is amazing in person truly, he was articulate and witty. The tour was continuing on to Nazareth, whereas I had to go to work the next day, so I stayed behind, by myself. It wasn’t my original intention, but I didn’t have any choice, so I decided to see the town. There are some beautiful Baha’i gardens that contain 1400 steps up to the Shrine of the Bab, the grave site of their dead founder and spiritual leader. Every member of the faith should make a pilgrimage and climb the stairs in their lifetime. Read up on Baha’i.
Haifa’s a mixed city with Christian and Muslim Arab Israelis and Jewish Israelis. It is the major port for Israeli imports/exports. They are renowned for their seafood so I wound up finding a restaurant that was recommended by the guidebook. Sadly, as a single woman, I felt quite awkward in this sit-down joint and then they proceeded to bring out like 12 different fancy salads, complementary with the meal but usually split amongst the table. I had an amazing shrimp and mussel dish with fresh lemonade. Divine. I took my awkward self out and made my way to what I thought was the bus station but which was actually Haifa’s train station. The bus that goes direct from Haifa back to Jerusalem was difficult to reach, and I wound up taking a real train to the bus, catching it, and then riding 2+ hours back to Jlem and then another bus to the old city and another bus to Bethlehem. 6 odd hours later, I arrived back home exhausted.
Friday (the 6th) was a working day and afterwards a friend I met in the Fall at this Israeli-Palestinian peace meeting invited me to attend Shabbat with him and his roommate, the two of whom I hadn’t seen since that meeting. They live in West Jerusalem and are something like modern Orthodox Jews. I was fascinated by the opportunity to experience Shabbat because I have never gone to a synagogue before or participated in any Jewish customs. First I arrived in the neighborhood before sundown so I would not be hampered by the turning of cell-phones and the closing of stores and ending of bus service that is the preparation for Shabbat. My friends busily cleaned up the apartment and put finishing touches on the meal (preparation of food is one of the parts of “work” not permitted during the day of rest). Also they turned on the lights they would need for the next day and set the timer on their oven so it would turn on itself to warm food for Saturday.
I went with my friend who is a guy to his congregation, but because men and women worship separately, I found myself alone in the back of a packed service, fumbling through the English-Hebrew Prayer Book my friend so thoughtfully sent with me. Everything is in Hebrew all around the world in the services, but many congregants are apparently from English-speaking countries originally so the women were helpful to me. We actually only stayed for the last hour of the program which ordinarily is two or more hours long. The community is said to be very unique because even as Orthodox Jews they allow women to participate extensively in the service and try to be egalitarian in their style. Feminist Orthodox…highly intriguing. The place is called Shira Hadasha and their website is this: http://www.geocities.com/shira_hadasha/
After the service I walked home with my friend and there were 10 of us together for the Shabbat dinner, I the only Gentile amongst them. They were most interested to hear about my time living in Bethlehem and I enjoyed learning more about life in Jerusalem in the Jewish community. The food was excellent and there was homemade challah bread, red wine, and the boys made salads, soup, chicken in rosemary wine sauce, and apple crumble. I was so impressed by these guys–I don’t have many male friends in the States who could accomplish such a wonderful meal all by themselves! We discussed a little politics but mostly other things such as the gift to humankind of Wikipedia…and Lithuania…etc.
On Saturday (the 7th) I was up bright and early to go to Akko/Acre with a crew from Bethlehem Bible College. We borrowed a van and headed off on the 2.5 hour journey, west to Tel Aviv and then north past Haifa. Unfortunately, we were lost in Jerusalem from the start, but then finally found the town. It was flat out gorgeous, terrific weather in the 80s and sunny, with a strong breeze off the Mediterranean. The sea was marvelous to gaze into and we spent a while strolling before heading into the Old City, mainly populated by Arab Israelis now. The city has a long, long history, as it was an ancient port that was revived by Crusaders, conquered and utilized by Ottomans, then by the British Mandate, and which has played significant roles in the state of Israel’s history. It also is spiritually relevant to the Baha’i faith.
We visited the Citadel which was a fortress used by Crusaders and Ottomans, and Britain and Israel. It is a very strategic location with beautiful stone structures that would probably have been highly useful for defense. There was also a mosque that I visited named Jazzar mosque after the tyrant from the Ottoman Empire who ruled ruthlessly (and I think he was insane too) killing many people. “Jazzar” means butcher. It was a beautiful mosque. Then we saw a small Israeli modern art museum and an ethnographic museum on the peoples living in the region during the British Mandate period. I was most disappointed not to get any fish while I was there, but maybe I will return one day. Everything is so expensive there, and it’s a huge tourist market for Israelis Jewish and Arab, and for foreigners like us 
Life has gone on and on, with work ebbing and flowing, high tides of social activity and low points of rest and anti-social behavior on my part. Stay tuned for the next installment of exciting-days-in-the-life-of-Kim.
