Shalom friends,

Grand is a grand word. It’s good to feel grand and to hear kids call you grand. I feel blessed to hear this from my grandchildren and to hear  other children, like the ones I’ve just finished guiding for a whole week through Israel with their parents and grandparents from Holland, calling their grandparents oupa and ouma.

Their parents had become attached to Israel when their parents brought them here as little kids as they were now doing in turn with their children and as, probably these children will do when they have children. One generation after another becoming attached to the Holy Land.

There were kids aged 2 and others aged 11. One place after another they followed me and heard their parents explain where they’d been before they were born.

They were like the disciples at the at the foot of the Mt.of Beatitudes, listening to grandma reading the sermon on the mount, as if she was Jesus or as if they were the Children of Israel standing at the foot of Mt. Sinai listening to God ordering them to obey the Ten Commandaments. They ran through the maze of alleyways of mud brick houses followed by goats, sheep and a little black, fuzzy haired, new born donkey and it’s mother, as if they were living in a Jewish village of the Galilee of Biblical times on their way to the Synagogue, now reconstructed to resemble one of those days, to hear  me read the Torah as if I was the town rabbi of two thousand years ago.

I even rescued the youngest child from the goat who was only trying to give her a welcome nudge. The kids had never seen anything like this in their lives, certainly not in Holland which isn’t anymore the rural place it once was.

Even the three and four year olds happily slogged up the stairs of ancient Megiddo’s Gate to visit the stables where Ahab had kept his horses before charging through the Jezrieel Valley chased by the prophet Elijah all the way from Mt. Carmel.

I had never seen anyone lolling on the salty waters of the Dead Sea the way those kids did even in the hot “hamsin” weather and even after traipsing around Massada concentrating on every word I said about Herod’s palace, the roman ramp and the great war against the Romans.

My own grandchildren of course had visited Massada some months ago but they weren’t as happy in the heat as these Dutch kids. I think it’s because such heat is a novelty to them, while for my kids it’s commonplace and they can’t wait to get out of the heat and into the coolness.

Every time I spend time with kids it’s hard to part from them. It’s like that with my own grandchildren and less so with other kids. Kids get attached to people they like, who treat them nicely and are kind to them. It’s just one of the those things that there’s pain when the time comes to part. Nevertheless I love seeing families with small children encouraging them to form attachments with people outside the immediate family, like the Arab storyteller in the Biblical Village or the girl soldiers who enjoyed playing with the kids at the Wailing Wall.

This last weekend was open house in Tel Aviv, which means you can see famous people’s houses from the inside. This is so popular that they do it twice a year in Tel Aviv and Jerusalem. Ettie and I and her cousin Ayala and her husband, Boaz, visited the houses of general Isaac Sadeh in Jaffa and Ayala Zach’s house in Ben Gurion Blvd then we followed actors dressed as characters who lived in Tel Aviv in the gay 1920’s when the high society of Tel Aviv sat in sidewalk cafes sipping tea and nibbling cakes. Today one can still find this phenomenon in Dizengoff str. only these days many more people partake of this pleasure and not only the high society which has been replaced by students sitting by their computers connected to WiFi.

I loved the simplicity of the furnishings in both the houses we saw. It showed me that these famous people had spiritual interests beyond themselves and more precious than material possessions. Ayala Zachs had devoted her life to art in the young state of Israel, collecting paintings and sculptures from all over the world and donating it to the Israel Museum in Jerusalem. Today her well planned simple, beautiful house is a venue for lectures and other cultural events, like concerts, of Israel’s Open University. Isaac Sadeh’s house was the same, only located in Jaffa on the edge of a sand dune which he had turned into a garden of wild flowers, leading down to the sea. The view was the thing in this house, the furniture was threadbare and inspired me to think that one of Israel’s great military leaders made do without luxuries. It contrasted with the main reason for people becoming soldiers, to plunder the enemy in the process of making war. This general in fact was the one who introduced the principle of using the weapon for war and not for killing innocent people and taking their possessions. Of course he didn’t invent the principle, the Bible did, in the book of Joshua during the conquest of Jericho, where Achan was stoned to death as punishment for taking plunder, something which Joshua had expressly forbidden. (Jos 7)

I soon had enough of the insides of houses and broke away from the tour especially as I was hungry and especially because one of my favorite Schwarma places on the corner of Dizengof and Fishman strs. was at hand. Afterwards I joined the party for a a light lunch in a small garden restaurant in Mapu Str. near the beach.

We arrived at Ariel and Lilach’s apartment just in time to find Ophir and Alon after their  Judo class. Each time they go there they become a little more serious about it. They shout friendly greetings to each other in Japanese, before locking into combat. Now Ophir has a yellow belt and Alon a purple and yellow one.

Wishing you a great no newsday

Yours truly

Leon Gork

Take a look at this website to see all houses, parks and other amenities on show in the open house days of Tel Aviv

http://www.batim-il.org/ToursEng.aspx?batim=&tp=2