Day 5 -- There Are No Words
It's past 1am in Israel and I am still staring at a blank screen. As physically intense as yesterday was, we may have topped it with emotional intensity today. The staff sat together late into the evening marveling at the day and still, I'm having trouble finding the words. Breathtaking, perhaps? To protect sleep time on a day when we would need to load the bus and still arrive at our first destination on time, we held our Shaharit (morning) service on the bus. Several of us quipped that today's prayer was particularly moving. Nonetheless, it was true. Though participants remained in their seats in the interest of safety, trying to determine which way to face as the bus entered the various curves and traffic circles of the highway was dizzying. Carrying the Torah down the aisle and then reading from it supported vertically on the seats, as participants came forward to sit in adjacent seats when they were honored with an aliyah (being called to the Torah), all with the hills of Jerusalem speeding past outside the windows gave new meaning to the creation of sacred space. It was an auspicious beginning. We arrived at Yad Vashem, Israel's national Holocaust memorial and museum promptly at 9am (http://www.yadvashem.org/). There we were met by a specially trained guide who equipped us with headsets so that we could hear her narration clearly. Her eloquent museum guiding was matched only by the sensitive and insightful comments and questions supplied by our travelers. One noted that the triangular shape of the building led him to expect it to feel dark and narrow. Why was it so light? Our guide pointed out that the entire apex of the triangle was a skylight, reflecting the need to shed light on the events of the Holocaust and not keep them hidden. Participants were engrossed in the stories of the victims of the Holocaust as people, not as numbers. They were troubled by the ignorance which fed antisemitism and allowed it to spread. They were moved and attentive throughout a fairly lengthy visit. Every Taglit-Birthright Israel group visits Yad Vashem. But only one has the son of an artist featured there among their staff cohort. We were incredibly privileged to have Bruce Sharon describe first a poster designed by his father following the Holocaust which depicts the Biblical verse "Remember what Amalek did to you..." (In the Torah, Amalek attacked the Israelites from behind, preying on the weakest in their community.) This poster appears in the main museum. In addition, we were able to view a second poster in a special art exhibit entitled Virtues of Memory in the Yad Vashem Art Gallery. Bruce explained the multilayered significance of this piece as well. Before we left the gallery, the assistant curator appeared with a photographer and they took a group portrait of all of us beneath the picture. It was a tremendous honor. Our final stop at Yad Vashem was outdoors, at a cattle car cantilevered on railroad tracks off the edge of the mountain. Our guide shared the words of the poet Dan Pagis, whose piece Scrawled With a Pencil in a Sealed Cattle Car ends in as unfinished a fashion as the rail tracks suspended in the air. Participants shared their interpretations of both the poem and the cattle car, frozen in time. Our staff simply looked on in amazement. The afternoon was both a powerful contrast and an affirming response. We drove north to the city of Tsfat, home to both the mystic and legal traditions in Judaism. The old city of Tsfat has narrow, winding pathways built into the hillside. Its stones are an echo of Jerusalem, punctuated by paint trim in bright blue, a mystical sign of the sea and the sky. We visited the Ar"i Synagogue just before sunset, admiring its intricate ark and marveling at the shrapnel hole purportedly made during the War of Independence, precisely at the moment that worshippers were bowed at the waist, thus avoiding injury. A visit to the gallery of the artist David Friedman (www.kosmic-kabbalah.com) provided us with not only an insight into his technique, but a detailed understanding of the major symbols of kabbalah and their intersection with both math and science. After a bit of shopping time, our journey took us to our next home away from home, the Nofei Gonen Kibbutz Hotel in the foothills of the Golan Heights. Following dinner in the pleasant kibbutz dining room, we gathered to reflect on the day, using art and literary expression to articulate the impact of these two sacred, yet extraordinarily different, events. Each day is filled with indescribable wonders. It's hard to imagine that we are already half way through our travels. We're making the most of every minute and looking very much forward to all the adventures yet to come. Wishing you a week filled with meaning. Rabbi Elyse Winick
