April.....the month of Visitors, Reunions and the message of Massada

One week after ulpan the onslaught began..............I mean that in a good way!! First, Grandma and Grandpa Sherman arrived for their three week visit. The kids were so excited! Darrell's parents had always been such an integral part of their lives and that was one of the biggest losses of their move to Israel. Darrell called from the gate that he was driving in with them and we all ran out to greet them as they drove up. It was wonderful to see them and to see how happy they were to see the kids and the kids them. When we arrived inside, Grandma, who is one of quick movements and little patience when it comes to gift giving, quickly opened her Mary Poppins bag and began to distribute all the goodies to everyones delight (except Sara that is, who was not so content with her days of the week underwear). Two days later, Cory, Francine, Michael, Eric and barmitzvah boy Jonathan arrived and went straight to Tel Aviv. I drove up on the Sunday with everyone minus Darrell and Avital to visit them at their hotel. Another wonderful reunion which filled my heart to see the cousins all together. Probably the hardest part of aliyah is leaving everyone behind, and to see everyone back together and picking up right where they left off was almost a relief.

The Cory Shermans were up North until Erev Pesach while I continued to prepare for pesach. We were all planning to be together at the hotel for the seder but I still had to prepare for shabbat and second day not to mention the cleaning. Israel , in all its brilliance,lets the kids off school atleast a good week before the chag, a real treat for parents getting ready for the most labour intensive chag in the year, especially for those not working in education. We celebrated our first Pesach in Jerusalem,with our family, and ONE SEDER! Driving into Jerusalem from Gush Etzion you could feel the added security and had to leave early to get there before yom tov, it was funny , I said to Avital who was with me, I feel a little uneasy about being in Jerusalem over chag. We chuckled because usually people feel the same about coming out to us. The seder was nice, hotel, chazzan, not really our speed but sometimes you have to do these things to be with family. That was great, to look down the table and see everyone together. The chazzan and his little singin' son was nice for one maybe two songs but it became a little bit of a show. The food was unbelievable, it almost felt sinlike eating food that didn't taste like pesach food! For me the most amazing part was being served and getting up and walking away from the table at the end of the seder. We stayed in Jerusalem for second day and it was really odd..........seeing all the chutznikim walking around in their yom tov attire and us jumping in the car etc. Thursday night, my father in law took all of us and Francine's family out to a barmitzvah celeberatory meal at Normans SteakHouse. It was too weird, being in a regular restaurant, eating very delicious regular food, on Pesach. It was weird and great at the same time..........only in Israel!

We headed home on the Friday to get ready for Shabbat, and the Cory Sherman gangs visit. It was nice to show them our home and our neighborhoods and I think they enjoyed. They did the lonetree thing, derech avot, our new house of course,the shul , it was nice! Next time they won't get away with not staying for Shabbat!!! Motzei Shabbat was a party organized by the barmitzvah tour group. It was nice, Sara danced up a storm! It was nice to see the Balitsky contingent.....Esti, Michael and Naama and again to just be with everyone again. The Shermans Sr. went off to Haifa for a couple of days, with the Balitskys. During the week we joined up with Cory , Fran and gang here and there with their touring. We took a day off of family to join up with the Kandler family, and I don't mean just the seven of them. We joined Orit and her extended family for a day south, you know past Chevron. This was the first time I had driven south of tzomet gush without bulletproofing and while I was nervous and not so happy about it, it wasn't horrible and I quickly settled into it. Still it isn't something that I will choose to do on a regular basis. We went to Carmiel a small yishuv where her now married brother is living. The kallas family lives there and showed us around the dairy, which was so fascinating. We stopped for lunch in a beautiful forest nearby and I chuckled as we Shermans pulled out our matzvah, cheese, jam, fruit and whatever regular stuff we threw in our bag as the Kandler/Cohen gang pulled out tupperwares filled with delicacies and real food and of course it all seemed so effortless and run of the mill. We went on to the dead sea where we were treated to snapelling "a la dubi". It was a fun and Israeli experience in that it was not a organized group thing. I don't know if Israelis appreciate that we North Americans normally don't just go into our machsan and pull our snapelling equipment out and go off with the kids to you know.....snappelon some cliff ! The Cohen family was so friendly and we felt welcomed.

Thursday bright and Early Darrell and Yonatan set out to Massada to climb at the wee hours and meet up with us later on for Jonathan's barmitzvah. We also set out early but not as early! We arrived at Massada at 8:00 and met up with the Sherman/Taras group. Up we went in the cable car , on our exit from the car we bumped into Yonatan and Darrell who had a great hike up and were waiting for us. The barmitzvah took place on the edge of the mountain in a special patio made for this purpose. It was beautiful and Jonathan of course did a beautiful job. Emotion was overflowing of course, first of all for the joy and pride in the moment itself..........standing on Massada and watching Jonathan lain was just overwhelming. But also, the absence of Francine's dear father was felt so acutely here and not just by Francine and her family but by all of us. Tommy zichrono l'vracha was a huge lover of Israel, Judaism and the Jewish people and so loved being in Israel..........he would have been so proud, happy and joyful to have been with Jonathan at this moment and those who knew him felt that incredible loss again. At the same time, I suppose, it helped to make Tommy's presence felt and the continuity of him in his children and grandchildren. The fact that they chose to come and celebrate this milestone in Israel meant that Tommy and his values are being carried forward to the next generation. And for that we are so proud of Cory, Francine, Michael, Eric and Jonathan!!!! Their tour guide gave them a little shpiel about the message of Massada. He spoke about how it represented an important idea for the Jewish People. How we are responsible for our destiny, that no more would we just surrender to our fate as determined by our enemies. It was about believing in ourselves as Jews and fighting for ourselves and our rights. He referred to the swearing in process in the army which takes place at the bottom of the mountain and the connection betweeen the two. That we also have to be willing to sacrifice for our people and country because we believe in ourselves. It was very emotional! He talked about how when you come to visit Israel you don't leave as the same person as you came and how important it is for all Jews to atleast visit Israel. It is true and made me think about what happens to people who come and stay what changes do they experience and does it stable out? In fact, I already felt that I as an individual had changed since we came, not drastically, but inside I somehow am not the same person that arrived last July. And so ended the barmitzvah celebration and with that more goodbyes again! We once again stood together hugged and cried and said goodbye at the bottom of Massada! We stood and waved to their bus as they headed down to Eilat and got into our car and went to the dead sea to spend a glorious day with the kids and Darrell's parents.

Grandma and Grandpa Sherman stayed another week or so until the end of April. They became more adventerous taking, buses into town and even lifts. They went to the Begin museum and explored the city a little bit. It was wonderful to have them. I think they saw Israel in a completely new way than they did on past visits on tours etc. and we hope they were pleased with our new lives here!

Other events over pesach time were the Goldberger barmtizvah at the Kotel, the Hanachat Tefillin Of Noah Schwartz and Daniel Turk. The Shumachers came out and spent a glorious day with us in Gush Etzion including, lunch at the winery and an omega/zipline ride across a huge valley..........no just the kids did it! It was wonderful being with old friends and great to share our neighborhood with them. Then more goodbyes and now I had one week to get some kind of order and routine in our lives before my mother arrived for her six week visit. The month had been wonderful, but I was exhausted beyond and we were all in need of some more regular routine! So we said good bye to everyone and settled back down to regular living here in Israel, if there is such a thing!