Surprises, Big and Small

Last night I went to my first Israeli wedding. (Practically family: the bride is the daughter of Nisim and Malka. Malka is my sister's husband's sister.) Bonus, Aharon, my brother in law from Toronto was here as well.

With my brother-in-law, Aharon

Nisim kindly arranged for a ride for me to the wedding with a couple who lives close by the apartment. So I immediately noticed the first difference with Jewish weddings in North America: the invitation said "Kabbalat Panim (reception) at 19:30 and Chuppah at 20:30." But the couple, who are friends of the  bride and groom and ought to know, said they'd pick me up "between 19:30 and 20:00."  Yes, I stressed about that, but there was no reason. The ceremony didn't start until 21:05 (yes, I checked).

When we got there, the "Kabbalat Panim" was in full swing with 450 guests attending. The wedding took place at a location about 30 minutes south of Tel Aviv on the freeway, at Moshav Bet Oved. It is a pastoral farm, described as “in the shade of an ancient pecan grove.” It is beautiful, with extensive grounds and a huge swimming pool (looked like a country club to me).  Lots of food stations throughout the grounds with delicious and very original finger foods (my favourite were the grilled meat balls with a cinnamon stick, served inside a small glass with a choice of sauces).  

Since I knew very few people, I busied myself sampling all the food stations. Some stations needed repeated samplings.

Wedding location (stock photo, the real thing had 450 people)

And here is a similarity with Jewish weddings in North America. Lineup for the many food stations: 10-deep. Lineup for the wonderfully stocked open bar: none.

Everyone was very casual and relaxed (I saw some people writing the wedding cards and stuffing the envelops with cash right there and then). Even Malka and Nisim seem totally cool.

There were dinner tables and chairs set throughout the grounds and the beautiful Chuppah was situated at the end of the property with only seating for maybe 100 people. When the time for the wedding ceremony came, the music changed to a loud and lively melody. Suddenly pretty much all  guests (the only exception were a few people already seated at the dinner tables; "It's probably their third wedding this week" explained my brother in law) rushed towards the isle and started hollering and whooping, welcoming first the parents of the groom with the groom, and then the bride with her parents. No bridesmaids or anyone else. It was all very informal and very warm and very engaging and very, very happy.

The crowds

The happy couple Amir & Michal, and Malka

Under the Chuppah, the orthodox rabbi performed the traditional ceremony but with a very modern twist, singing the prayers to a tune I didn't know. Only the groom gave the bride a ring, not vice versa.  The couple faced the guests, who were all standing and clapping and singing along. The rabbi was on the side facing them (and just like in North America, the photographers were all over the place).

As soon as the groom shattered the glass, a crowd of probably 200 friends and relatives rushed the Chuppah to hug and kiss the couple and congratulate them as well as the family. No procession out, just everyone hugging everyone.

Afterwards, there were no speeches (Rafi, imagine that!) just great food and what looked to me a rocking dance floor, which was blaring with popular songs and all the young people dancing. There was no dancing the Hora. They don't need that here; they are here.

The bride and groom looked stunning, and most of the female guests were dressed to the Ts.  Now I know 'when' women here wear the nice high heel shoes I see in store windows but which I hadn't yet seen on anyone’s feet (I have hardly worn my high heels; I am going back an unrecognizable person).  Most of the men didn't wear a kippah or a jacket, for that matter.

At around 11:30 I started thinking I had no clue how I was going to get home (the couple who drove me there told me they would stay "until the end" and since I didn't know what that meant, and I had planned to go to Jerusalem in the morning, I declined their offer to take me back).

The wedding party was in a rural area, 30 minutes south of Tel Aviv. Luckily my brother in law arranged for guests who were leaving to drive me to the taxi station midway in Bat Yam, where they live, and from there it was just a 18 minute cab ride home.

Is Tel Aviv, as Tel Avivians believe, the center of the universe?

As my adventure draws to a close, I need to make sure all the “musts” on my list get crossed off. One of the few things still missing was a visit to the Israel Museum in Jerusalem, and today it was it.

Some people here believe Tel Aviv is not the center of the universe. They believe Jerusalem is. My childhood friend Nurit (who lives in Jerusalem, of course) sent me proof.

Here is a medieval map showing Jerusalem at the center of the world

And here is a satellite view. No more proof needed.

Nurit picked me up from the bus station at 10 am, same as she did early in March. What a difference two months make! Rather than rain and cold, it was gorgeous (if not perhaps a "tad" too warm at 34 C; but who am I to complain?). 

From the bus station, we drove straight to the Museum where we were met by Nurit’s father, Zeev, who is a docent and gave us the VIP treatment.

 

With Nurit's father, Zeev

The Israel Museum is the largest cultural institution in the State of Israel and is ranked among the world’s leading art and archaeology museums.

“Founded in 1965, the Museum houses encyclopedic collections, including works dating from prehistory to the present day, in its Archaeology, Fine Arts, and Jewish Art and Life Wings, and features the most extensive holdings of biblical and Holy Land archaeology in the world. In just forty-five years, thanks to a legacy of gifts and generous support from its circle of patrons worldwide, the Museum has built a far-ranging collection of nearly 500,000 objects, representing the full scope of world material culture.”

Of course the Israel museum is best known for the Shrine of the Book which houses the Dead Sea Scrolls, the oldest biblical manuscripts in the world, as well as rare early medieval biblical manuscripts and maybe also for the Model of Jerusalem in the Second Temple Period, which reconstructs the topography and architectural character of the city as it was prior to its destruction by the Romans in 66 CE, and provides historical context to the Shrine’s presentation of the Dead Sea Scrolls. 

Dome covers a structure which is 2/3 below the ground housing the Dead Sea Scrolls

Holyland Model of Jerusalem is a 1:50 scale-model of the city in the late Second Temple Period.

In our tour, Zeev focused on the archeological exhibit.  

The Israel Museum, regarded in the Top-10 in the world, is an independent institution that doesn't rely on government for funding. As a result, it is free to acquire and display what its Board wishes to, including all sorts of controversial displays. Interestingly, the Museum doesn’t specialize at all; it has no “theme”. The only criterion for acquisitions is the quality of the exhibits, and it has 700,000 items in storage.

Needless to say, we spent 4 ½ hours there, most of the time with Zeev giving us a private tour, and we barely, just barely scratched the tip of the surface.

A very remarkable thing with the Israel Museum is that, while it is small by comparison to, say, the British Museum (with 12 million items), it has the highest percentage of exhibits that are local to the land. 

Museum items actually document the Bible: we saw so many exhibits that can be verified by cross-referencing them with biblical stories and mentions. Some of the items on display are the precise items the Bible mentions (the *precise* items!). This is unique to Israel archeology, of course.

But that isn’t all. Many exhibits have Hebrew writing on them, the very same letters of the very same alphabet of current Hebrew. Any 5 year old here can read what it says on the side of af a 2000 year old urn.  Israel is actually the only “continuity nation” in that respect (the Egyptians of today, for example, aren’t the same as the ancient ones, nor are the Romans).

Is any more data needed to demonstrate Jews are rooted to this land?

After 4 1/2 hours at the museum (Nurit is a ruthless tour guide) we drove to a small restaurant in the heart of Jerusalem to meet up with Natania. She is off to  Budapest tomorrow and I am leaving in two weeks so I am not sure when we will see each other again.

From there I walked to the pedestrian street, Jaffa Rd., to meet with a business acquaintance, when I realized two things: my Blackberry battery was about to die and my iPad had not synched with the laptop so I had only a vague idea of where I was supposed to go.  I managed to reach my acquaintance with my last 10 seconds of battery juice, so I found him.

Whew! (Or so I thought)

After our visit at a nice shady cafe (did I mention it was quite hot today?), I headed to the wrong restaurant to meet with a friend's daughter. I only realized I was at the wrong place after a while (did I mention my iPad hadn't synched?) so I headed back to the original cafe to access the Wi-Fi (did I mention the Blackberry's battery was dead?) so I could re-read our email exchange and figure out where to go next.

I was actually supposed to meet her at a nice sushi restaurant on Jaffa 31. What I didn't realize is that the whole big building on the complete block is Jaffa 31 - including the shady and charming alley between Jaffa Street and Nachalat Shivah in the middle of it, where the restaurant is located. 

Eventually I found the restaurant and found S. and we enjoyed pretty decent sushi. Better yet, I met this really smart and charming young woman and enjoyed the visit with her an awful lot, all while enjoying my most-missed food staple from home.

Every day for almost three months, at least something surprises me here.   

Back on the bus to Tel Aviv, I was pretty tired. The bus was full and it was standing-room only. Someone offered me his seat. I was stunned. But took it

Added May 23, 2012

News Article:

Israeli archaeologists find earliest evidence of Bethlehem's existence in Jerusalem dig

“There’s a difference between reading the name of a city in the Bible, and reading that name written in ancient Hebrew script on an artifact.”   Ancient clay seal, dating to the First Temple period, bears the name Bethlehem in ancient Hebrew script; artifact located by researchers sifting soil removed from Jerusalem’s City of David.

Wow.