"One who saves a single life... is like one who saves a single world"
Stated by our speaker from Rabbis for Human Rights tonight. if you understand this and the idea behind it, i think you'll understand why i find it so right, in so many different ways. He also noted, if you continue to teach hate and inequality, you will never receive the change that should be strove for. More or less this is what he said and i found it to be really empowering. Yes, he was not an engaging speaker but he was passionate about what he was talking about and he made me feel like i needed to be dong more to help create a more equal society. Where does peace come in if not everyone is treated equally?? There is no peace if one party receives unqual conession compared to the next. For peace, i beleive there must be a way to meet the other in the middle but first one must find a way to undo the hate and strife that has already been done. or maybe make up for it?
and another point....To not recreate history, To learn from history, one must understand how that history came about. To conclude that... i need to learn more history.
I just returned from two weeks of traveling in and out of be'er sheva. With three nights in be'er sheva and the rest in other cities around israel. I stayed in 2 hostels, one backpacker tent in the desert (with no electricity), 3 nights on a tile floor. I feel like a drifter sometimes. Many israelis we have met find our constant traveling to be obsurd. Because yes a 2 hour train ride to the north is obsurdly far. Except yes... in a country that fits maybe 5 times in michigan, i guess i can see their point of view.
Theres a confession that i want to make. I think that i have fallen in love. No, not with a person but with Israel. If you are reading this, its ok to laugh at me. Except i think i might be serious about this. While on the bus to mitzpae ramon, i sat and looked out the window and i saw this site that i've never seen in my lifetime. Who could ever have thought the desert was a beautiful place, but it is. It was amazing and i couldn't help but think how lucky i am to be having this experience. how lucky i am to be seeing the things i'm seeing and will soon see. theres a lot to take from a new place, new people and a new culture and i've found this connection with this place that i've never felt anywhere else. Maybe i'm a little disillusioned because this isn't a normal lifestyle, but i feel very strongly about this...
With that, in these past two weeks i went from the north of israel and back down to the south with a lot of my new friends from OTZMA. We started in Jerusalem with the entire group for a seminar. One of my favorite ones to date because in one day we saw places from all the big religions in israel. you forget sometimes when your surrounded by all jews that your not the only ones. We live amongest so many more cultures and there are muslims and christans that live here too. In general i think its realy important to understand their pespectives too and not forget about them.
From there I went with becca, jamie, jess, kira, elisa and hillary to haifa for two nights. a lot of it was a bust, to say the least. Why? We got to the bahi gardens too late and didn't get to see them. the movie we came to see at the film festival lied to us and did not have english subtitles. that was fun, Polish movie with hebrew subtitles. At the same time, haifa is a really nice place and i can't wait to go back and see more of it.
The next 3 days and 3 nights after that about 20 otzmanikim took part in this student intiative in the north with 100's of israeli students. It was a really great opportunity to really volunteer and feel like i'm making a difference. I'm not going to lie , i haven't gotten a lot opportunity to volunteer yet here and its been a disappointed. I mean i came here to volunteer, and i've been getting impatient. the student intitiave was near the kinnert and we stayed on kibbutz levi. Where i had the fabulous opportunity to sleep on a tile floor for 3 nights. My body felt great after that. Two of the 3 days i volunteered around the kinnert, cleaning up trash and making trails and one day i worked in the forrest near the golan. In a matter of 3 days i really felt an improvement in my hebrew and i made some new israeli friends.
During sukkot break I also traveled to mitzpae ramon with kira, julia, dana and elisa. We stayed at a backpacker tent 15 minutes out of town in the desert. Orginall we were supposed to be visiting our friend warner there but he decided to end his stay earlier then we thought. The hostel , called silient arrow is without electricity and at about 5:30 or 6pm we found ourselves in the dark. I haven't had to be so creative with things to do in a really long time and it was really refreshing. Considering we were left in the dark with candle light we went to sleep early and woke up with the sun. dana, julia and I decided to do the 3 hour hike into the crater. Funny story is that 3 hours means a hour and a half. I really like the way people tell time here. never exactly on the dot, either too much or too little. The crater or in other words the "Maktesh." is something i'd do again, its the only one of its kind and enormous. We got lucky and were the only ones hiking on the green trail. The only thing that we we could hear was ourselves treking through the sand, me trying to rhyme and at one point the buzzing from the electricty line. it was GREAT!
On a side note i met a girl from huntington woods michigan at the bus stop in mitzpae ramon ....she graduated last year from berkley high school and knew my friends siblings. You know its not that big of a world when you can be half way across the world in the middle east, at a huge crater, and somehow run into someone from a square mile city.
Now i'm back in be'er sheva for the next maybe 6 or 7 weeks. Life is good. Ulpan still great and I am starting up volunteering again. I have new israeli friends and as long as you don't make me nervous i'll probably have a conversation with you in hebrew.
"All of life is two balanced scales, and you never know what kind of minimal act you may take to tip the scale one way or another..."
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