Joining the Palo Alto Seven in Jerusalem

Palo Alto Seven Member, Diane Goldstein
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The Florence Melton School in Palo Alto and the Melton Israel Seminar in Palo Alto is funded by the ALS Jewish Community Center, and the Jewish Community Federation of San Francisco, Marin County, and the Peninsula.

Monday, July 9, 2007.  The Palo Alto Seven arrives in Jerusalem.

Palo Alto Seven Arrives in Jerusalem and Study begins!

The intensity of this study seminar is reflected in the fact that it is now Friday afternoon, July 13, and, only now, do I have an opportunity to share our experiences of the week.  We eat; we sleep; we move from place to place in Israel, studying, experiencing, reflecting.  Lots of complicated questions with no easy answers.  Our heads are full, and we are tired but happy.  Boot camp for the soul.  You may have visited these same places in Israel, but, believe me, not like this.  It is a difficult thing to explain, but studying in Israel on the Melton Israel Seminar is a unique experience and a gift.  I urge all our Melton students to give themselves this experience, some time.   An experience of a lifetime.

Palo Alto Seven Member, Elise Rosen-Levin
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We begin on Monday afternoon, July 9.  The Palo Alto Seven (Sharon, Randi, Diane, Ted, Elise, Melissa, Marion) converge on the Inbal Hotel from various corners of the world.  The Inbal Hotel is one of the finest hotels in Jerusalem, conveniently located near the Windmill.  I am pleased that this will be our base, and that I can unpack and settle in for a full week.  We will travel around and study, but we will not have to pack and unpack until Saturday night.

Palo Alto Seven Member, Melissa Rogoway
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My relatives from Tel Aviv drive me into Jerusalem on their way to visit the Western Wall tunnels with their other guests from the U.S., and they drop me at the Inbal on their way to the Old City.  Some of our group have already arrived early, and they have gone up to Mount Scopus with Hayim, our teacher, to learn about the history of Hebrew University in Jerusalem, and to get a bird's eye view of Jerusalem from Mount Scopus.

This afternoon program at Hebrew University with Hayim is excellent, and I had had an opportunity to participate in it in 2005 when I attended the Melton Directors Conference at Hebrew University so I am able to come in a bit later and still not miss anything.  I need shekels, and I know that on this study seminar there is no time for shopping.  Best to get these things done before the program officially begins.   I check into the Inbal, walk to a nearby Change Place in the German Colony at Emek Refa'im and Rachel Imenu to change dollars into shekels.  Although at home in Palo Alto I rarely use cash, here in Israel with all my small purchases, the shekels seem to flow like water.  On my walk back through the German Colony I stop to browse for long Shabbat skirts at a clothing shop, (Rendezvous), and I end up doing my Israeli clothes shopping, on sale.  Chik, chak.  Two skirts, a blouse, and a cotton jacket at very reasonable prices.  Then there is just enough time to get back to the Inbal to catch the bus for the opening dinner of our seminar.

Palo Alto Seven Member, Marion Rogoway
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Our opening dinner for the seminar is at Beit Maiersdorf, the Faculty Club at Hebrew University in Jerusalem.  And at the conclusion of the meal, we start our studies, Zechariah, Chapter 8, Verses 4 - 5, about the Messianic Age in Jerusalem to get us thinking and asking questions of ourselves of what it means for us to be in Jerusalem.  Without telling us explicitly, it is clear immediately that this is a seminar of questions, not answers, and struggling with the tension of opposing ideas.  A good warmup for the week.

Palo Alto Seven Member, Randi Brenowitz
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Then we meet all members of our larger group.  We learn that there are two sub-groups on this July Israel Seminar of about 25 participants each.  Our 7 Palo Altans will join up with about 16 Melton students from San Diego and a couple of New Yorkers.  And Hayim Aronovitz, Melton teacher extraordinaire from Jerusalem and head of the Israel Seminar program, will be our fearless leader.  So after dinner, we receive a complete binder with all our seminar materials, including a Melton backpack, and "tushions", since soon we will be sitting on the ground and studying in hard, rocky places.  So now we begin by sitting in a circle and introduce ourselves.  We had all submitted brief "official" biographies which everyone had in their binders, but now we are asked to share something about ourselves that even those who know us here in this circle will be surprised about.  My surprise --  I am the shyest person in the universe.  Yes, even my friends are surprised.  :-)

Palo Alto Seven Member, Ted Schachter
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And then, Tuesday morning, July 10, we begin 3 very intense days of study.  Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday.  Welcome to Jerusalem and the Melton Israel Study Seminar.

On Tuesday, July 10,  we begin at the beginning, in the sweet shade up near the Haas Promenade and overlooking the City of David.  On the way, we begin by studying maps, getting oriented to the land.  We look at the mountain tops, the ridges, and the valleys.  Once we get to the overlook, we study the binding of Isaac, Genesis, Chapter 22, and we discuss whether we think that story happened on what we call Mount Moriah, under the Golden Dome or not, paying attention to the details of the story and the details of the contours of the land.  We get a sense of walking through the land with our father, Avraham.

Palo Alto Seven Member, Sharon Lenox
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We also have maps which show the development of the city of Jerusalem through the ages, starting from David and continuing through the 19th century.  And we have a chronology of Jerusalem from 1900BC through 1987, a complete snapshot of Jerusalem history.

And we talk about the importance of water in this climate.  Just talking about water seems to make our tongues cleave to the roofs of our mouths.  It is very hot, even in Jerusalem, and I am happy that, like the first doctor of Tel Aviv who was famous for his parasol, I too have a parasol, as well as sunblock, and a sun hat, and a shirt with sleeves to protect me from the sun of the Middle East.  We think about water and how it flows downhill, down through the Jerusalem water system from the top of the city to the bottom and down, down, down to the Dead Sea.  And we think about the Foundation Stone on the top of the mountain.  In Hebrew the Foundation Stond means stone of drinking, the Source of life.  And what does it mean to be in exile, separate from your source, by the waters, but this time, by the waters of Babylon, and we sing from Psalm 137.

Hayim teaching
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Then we go down on the bus, down the hill and we approach the city from the south side, as the pilgrims did.  The bus, climbing the hill, making aliyah (going up), just as pilgrims did as they went up to the Temple in ancient times..  Except we are grateful that this trip down and then up these steep slopes is being made by the bus.  And as we go, we continue to reflect on the land and the flowing water, and Torah as water.

We enter the Old City walking, entering through the Zion Gate in the Jewish Quarter, and we stop to study at the Tomb of David, unpacking the multiple layers of meaning, and we begin to think that the past is not dead; it is not even passed; the issues remain with us today and we try to make sense of them in our narrative.  We reflect on the City of David, established by David as the capital city, owned by no tribe.  And we think some more about water, how it may be that David took advantage of the water system to seize the city from the Jebusites, David the boy from the small town of Bet Lechem.  And then David buys the land at the very top of the city, paying full price, just like Avraham did for Sarah's burial cave so there will be no dispute about ownership, which will be the site for the Temple.

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And then we study more about David from 2 Samuel, Chapter 6.  David, warts and all, a complex, rich personality.  We read the familiar story of David attempting to bring the sacred Ark to Jerusalem, and then his subsequent success in bringing the Ark, along with the troubling story of David and his wife, Michal.   Is David really buried here at David's tomb?  Do we even care whether that is true or not?  In any case, we choose to study about David, here in the place where David is honored.

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We have lunch in the Jewish Quarter, and then we stop at the Kotel briefly for prayer, for those who choose to do so.  As we re-convened, a young woman noticed the words Palo Alto on our nametags, and asked us if we knew Yosef and Dina Levin from Palo Alto.  It turns out the this young woman was the roommate of the Levin's daughter, Nechamah, in school.  It was nice to make that connection to home so close to the Kotel.  Truly it is a very small Jewish world!

Then we continued to tour the Western Wall Tunnels to experience the Kotel in another way, underground.  And, here, if we like, we have another chance to pray at the Kotel in another way.

We exit the the Western Wall tunnels in the Arab Quarter as a group, escorted by security guards, one in the front and one in the back.  Most of us have never been so far into the Arab Quarter, and it is interesting.  However, as happy as we are that we are being taken care of and that we are safe and secure, still we are uncomfortable that this security is necessary.

We are a quiet group as we continue on to the Jerusalem Archaelogical Park on the south side of Temple Mount and we experience the stone stairs.  Hayim convinces two boys from a Young Judea group to race up and down for us so we can see the irregularity of the short stairs and the broad stairs, and the implications for those who ascended those steps in ancient days.  Then we study about the Temple Mount.  What was the choreography of entering and departing from the Temple, where did the Sanhedrin sit.  We read Psalm 122, which was sung in ancient times ascending the steps, and Psalm 126, and the last of the Psalms of our canon, Psalm 150, and then we read about the differing views of Hillel and Shammai as to when a child is obligated to go up to the Temple.

And then we read Tosefta Menachot 13, and Talmud, Gittin, 55b-56a, and the sins of the people which the rabbis tell us were the reason for the destruction of the Temple.  Of course, we know that the Romans destroyed the Second Temple, but what have we done to ourselves?

And then we read the story from Avot de Rabi Natan about the escape from Jerusalem of Johanan Ben Zakai and his success in obtaining Yavneh (Jamnia) from Emperor Vespasian to ensure the continuation of study in the face of the destruction of Jerusalem.

We are very tired after a hot day walking in the Old City under the sun, but the day is not yet over.  Some of the Israel Seminar participants are going to the Israel Museum in the evening to see the Shrine of the Book, the second Temple Jerusalem model and a symphony concert.  But Randi Brenowitz, COO of the JCC, has arranged a group dinner for the Palo Alto Seven with Sarah Sless of the JCCA, the American JCC office in Israel.  Sarah is very hospitable, arranging for us to eat at Beit Ticho, a lovely restaurant in Jerusalem.  And we are delighted to meet other fellow Palo Altans who are also in Jerusalem at this time.  We meet Neal Levy from the Israel Center, and Rabbi Josh Zweiback and his wife Jacquelyn Hartigan, from Congregation Beth Am who join us for drinks.  Again it was nice to renew our Palo Alto connections here in Jerusalem.  It is a very small Jewish world!!