Saturday, the day of sabbath. Shabbat Shalom! Thursday evening and Friday mid-day cars fill the streets as people try to reach their destination before 4pm on Friday. Israel is hushed and sleeps from sundown Friday to Saturday night as shops close and people no longer drive. Each week, a day is dedicated to pure, unadulterated relaxation. Society actually condones not doing anything all day, what a wondrous place. Traditionally, this would also mean stopping the use of electronics and the turning off any device or producing any work for any creature or potential work for yourself (ie no horse back riding and no bicycle riding, in case the bike breaks and you have to work to fix it). A sabbath day was just what the doctor ordered on my part! These last few days have been a whirlwind of sights, smells, and events. 

Beginning from Wednesday, my last blog, I had slept nearly 12 hours the day after traveling. Wednesday night was jetlags opportunity to give me a good ole fashion suckerpunch. No matter how comfortable I was, I couldn't sleep. Finally at 8am, I dressed and by 10am Yardena was ready to take me to Rosh Hanikra Grottoes, a cliff off the Mediterranean sea located at the border of Lebanon and Israel. Thousands of years of storm, salt, and water have modeled this chalk rock paradise. The crystal and sapphire blues from the water emphasize the white pigment of the rock that it beats into submission. The contrast is awe-inspiring, and makes me envision a yacht sailing this coast, it’s colors complimenting the scenery. The dissolved white rock exposes black bits of shell and mineral that either we forced into place or are now being slowly exposed. A cable car from the top of the cliff lowers down to the entrance to the tunnels. Within them you can see that water is the most amazing, majestic, and powerful force in nature. During the British occupation of Israel the site was created into a railroad track that also went through rock. Lebanese sabotage discouraged its use until it was declared a historic and nature site.  An ancient legend describes a young girl despaired over her upcoming arranged marriage. For liberation, she jumped into the sea from the cliff’s edge. To this day her sighs can be heard riding the waves into the tunnels.

Although excited and refreshed by the beauty of the Grottoes, my exhaustion would not be abated. On our way home we stopped at a shop for lunch, where I ate my weight in fish, hummus, salad, and other delicious plates. My body led me to bed, once we arrived home and I slept for some time.

Friday I learned more about the Moshav and the farm that Yardena and Shookie own. Yardena showed me some new developing homes that were very similar homes in the United States. “America is here!” she declared. I laughed, because it was true and sad. America is what so many people and countries compare themselves too. Now, here in the Moshav, houses that are atypically big for the area and have a very different design from the cube-style that is already present are being built. Erez, Shookie’s son from a previous marriage, showed me the sheep and the neighbor’s cows and chickens. The conditions were less than idea, and most definitely not organic. I was happier being a vegan when I saw how things were done. Now, don’t take this the wrong way, it wasn’t obscene, but I not ideal. I thought to myself, if this were an ideal situation every person would own one cow for milking, a few sheep for wool, 2 goats for milk, a few chickens, and then grow all their own vegetables. Perhaps just an ideal for me. Later, Saul and Orly came over to take out an ATV looking car around the fields. The landscape at the base of Karmel mountain, which is in the bible, is breathtaking. It is scattered with olive trees, wheat, vegetables, and oren trees. The sky was blue and the ground was lush. After our drive it was nearly the beginning of Shabbat, and in the distance the cars were lined bumper to bumper trying to get to their destinations before sundown. Orly and Saul planned to go to one place that Shabbat does not touch, Tel Aviv. A friend was having a birthday celebration, and they wanted me to join. At first I was apprehensive, even though I had become somewhat accustom to people speaking Hebrew instead of English. I went anyway. Anything that is scary is worth trying at least once!

Tel Aviv is like any major city, tall building, restaurants, high fashion, and taxis everywhere. The friends slowly came together, and without them noticing they all became so loud that they only way to talk to the people next to you would be to yell. I felt lost in a sea of screaming Russian monkeys. Yet I was not left alone in my own thoughts for too long, after dinner the mingling began and I discovered that nearly everyone could speak English. The other interesting dynamic was that everyone there was either married or engaged (excluding myself and one other). In Israel, Orly explained to me, the order of becoming an adult goes like this: first, grade school; second, high school; third, army; forth, one-two years to work; one year to travel (usually India, South America, or Australia); fifth, start a four year college. By the fifth stage the women are 28 and the men are 30. So, I was by far the youngest, but I was also one of the few with a degree already and not hitched. I had never ‘gone out’ with a married couple, let alone two married couples, two fiancées couples, and one serious relationship couple. We went to a club, where garden lights covered the ceiling and were turned on and off with the music. Also there was a DJ, lasers, and many many people. As I first entered, I laughed out loud, yet the blaring house music made it impossible to hear the sound, so I only felt the vibration in my vocal chords. There were hundreds of people just standing, like sardines in a can. No one was dancing, bobbing maybe, but not dancing. It was hilarious. Especially because if you watched carefully you would see all the young men watching women like hawks. I could hear the narrator of Planet Earth in my head, British accent and all, “Here the male awaits the female approach. He watches, hoping to catch her eye. Alas, the female blatantly ignores his desperate stares to subtlety show her disinterest… Oh, it looks like this male thinks that bobbing will attract her eye…. And she… No, this male will not procreate today.” We had more drinks, ‘danced,’ and somehow when we left it was 3am. We walked back to the original apartment, but lost some drunkards on the way, one of which was our shelter for the evening. Unable to find this lost soul in the city that never sleeps, Saul, Orly and I decided to make the drive home to sleep in the beds most familiar to us. By 5am I was in bed.

Now, Shabbat, the day of rest and sleep. Hallelujah!