Independence Day in an Israeli Way: Israeli Melting Pot

I stumbled upon songs of this young artist, Idan Rachel, in a very unexpected way and fell in love with his music. And then I spent a few hours the other day to research about his music and his philosophy behind the music he creates. He claims to be a proud Israeli and brings musical inspiration from his neighbours and friends in streets of Tel Aviv - Ethiopians, Sudanese, Yemenites, Lebanese and many more. Check him out! You won't regret. You can google him, youtube him or iTune him. Just to make your work easer: The Idan Raichel Project is the full title.

Singing the songs of streets of Israel, the Israeli melting pot.
That's what he's after. He's not a political activist or social justice worker, but a beautiful musician who pays attention to his surroundings with his deep sense of musical harmony and beauty. He does not hide his political convictions (when it is necessary), but that is not what he is after when he produces these beautiful songs with his friends. "They are our neighbours, before they are our enemies," says in his interview with Riz Khan in Al Jazeera a few years ago (watch the interview clips here).

Today was Israel's Independence Day and there was an article by him in Haaretz. It is very informative in understanding what significance the Independence Day brings to today's modern Israel, to many young educated people like him.

Idan Raichel (Source: Haaretz) 

 Inspired by his article and music, I went out to the famous Hecht Park by the Mediterranean Sea, about 20 minutes driving distance from my place. First thing I noticed was the flag - Israeli flag everywhere.

People may associate Israeli flag with Zionism, the Jewish nationalism, and Jewish identity. However, what I discovered today is a sense of pride and belonging in a different way. What is being celebrated today is the Independence of the modern Israel, a liberal democratic state, a young nation of people with many differences. It started with a day to mourn and commemorate for the dead yesterday (Remembrance Day is the day before Independence Day) and a day to celebrate the freedom and independence today.

The fact is that every Jew in this land is a hyphenated-Jew. They are all from somewhere else, to say the truth, as the singer, Raichel points out. Perhaps Zionism, or Jewish nationalism, was the language that was born out of the 20th century's modern political mind, as the modern state of Israel was understood and misunderstood about their racial, socio-religous and cultural unity of being Jew, and the Jewish nation.

Raichel has beautifully articulated the Israeli melting pot through his music and perhaps the reason I think he won in the (political) game in this 21st century's multi-ethnic, multi-cultural Israel is that he peacefully brought out the biggest common ground of Israel: Diversity and it is about being Israeli "here and now" in the land of their own. 

I'll just quote him here:

I (Raichel) tried to explain how our great joy, a joy that doesn’t know left or right, rich or poor, native-born citizens or new immigrants, is about one thing − celebrating the fact that we are here. .... We have sacred and secular here: We have old and new, Hebrew and Arabic, Russian and Amharic, Moroccan and Yemenite and more. In this country we live and celebrate independence, and democracy. (click here to read the full article in Haaretz)

In the 21st century's post-modern global political environment, politicians and political scientists have much work to do in defining what a nation is constituted of when the currency is diversity, not unity.

A Minority Report: When the Passover is Over...

I was away from Israel for two weeks for some work and I arrived at Ben Gurion Airport on the first day of Passover and that meant I missed the famous sedar supper night just by ten some hours. I knew it was an important evening, not to be missed, but the difference in airfares between the two kinds of people who cared enough to be there for Passover and who didn't was nearly two thousand dollars. I chose a quiet and cheap re-etnry to the country on the first official holiday of Passover. There was no lineup at the immigration, it took just two sentences between me and the immigration officer, something like this:

Officer: Hello. What is the purpose of your trip?
Me: Tourism
Officer: Enjoy!
Me: Happy Passover! 

Quiet Morning at Ben Gurion Airport:
the sky blue banner sign says "Happy Passover!" 

Without entering religious history and theological arguments, one must know at least this one thing that Passover comes with a lot of food rules of DO's and DON'Ts. You can't eat anything that has yeast. Better to play safe with the flat bread called Matza.

My first Matza!

Supermarkets have certain food sections covered during the Passover

This year it so happened that the Easter weekend fell right at the end of Passover. I went to Jerusalem with a friend visiting from Canada to feel what it might have been like being there when it all happened a little less than two thousand years ago. The Old City is divided by four different religious quarters (Jewish, Muslim, Armenian and Christian sections). When we walked around the Old City during Passover, and also the Easter weekend, I found so refreshing to see the quirky sense of humour that is so poignant in this multi-cultural, multi-ethinic and multi-religious city.

Humour is always a great gift to deal with tension between differences and chaos rising from confusion. One of the great gifts I've been discovering from Israelis is this multi-faceted way of life: Go with the flow, ask for why if you dare and laugh at yourself if you can. 

Sayed Kashua's column is my favourite section of Haaretz newspaper. He makes you laugh with his voice of an educated, articulate middle class Israeli Arab man trying to make his minority existence known in the nation with Jews of all spectrum: from secular to ultra orthodox as Jews themselves label. Here's a quote from his recent post about Passover in Haaretz:

“Listen,” I said to my wife as we sat down to eat hummus in Abu Ghosh, like all the Jews. “We have to find Passover rules for ourselves.” ..... 

“Rules like that,” I said to my wife, “small but meaningful rules in the process of consolidating a people and building a nation.”

So here's my attempt to find "rule-breaking rules" on this fascinating season of the year that I found myself in the Old City of the 21st century cosmopolitan Jerusalem. 

Middle-eastern staple: Pita - fresh out of oven (of course, this is baked with yeast!)

Kosher Slurpee available.

Who can beat the Arab coffee?

Dress code for the Holy Rock Cafe is behind the sign (located in the Muslim quarter)

Austrian Beer at Austrian Hospice on Via Dolorosa for a change?

Damascus Gate: entry point to the Muslim quarter of the Old City.
This is the most famous and busiest gate of all gates in the Old City.

Market outside Damascus Gate in Arab area of Jerusalem

How much is this tire worth? Chicken or Beef?

Maybe goat for Sunday night

Muslims everywhere outside Damascus Gate

Jewish boys from an Orthodox Jewish community outside Damascus Gate
walking toward the Gate to go to the Western Wall.

Grief. Shock. Confusion.

All these were jammed in this small, complex and multi-faceted city when it all happened nearly two thousand years ago. The way of Messiah was, and still is, perhaps too grand for human ways of life to cope no matter how many multifaceted ways we have developed so far all around the globe: He bore our sins on the cross and walked the way of suffering and death on this narrow path of Via Dolorosa. Then the body disappeared on the third day. What bigger event is there in history than this?

I could almost hear the buzz and whispers about this shocking event in this city on the first Easter Sunday night as I took my camera out to take pictures of these amazing views of this fascinating city, Yerushalayhim. On this night of great confusion and chaos, I hear no laughter, but only the silence of a great sense of awe and wonder, and fear to some degree, looking for the way of Messiah because the earth was put back to peace, alignment, and order with its maker on that weekend.

Via Dolorosa, viewed from Ecce Homo Guest House rooftop

Mosque, Temple, Church - all in one shot

I saw the workers changing the banners at the Ben Gurion Airport two weeks later when I went to see off my friend going back to Canada. Now the Passover is over and the next celebration is the Independence Day of the modern Israel. 

Happy Purim!

Esther makes into the title of a book in the Bible. Along with one other book title, Ruth, Esther is one of the only two books in the bible with the title named after women.

Ruth is a destitute who barely makes her living by gleaning in rich man's field. Ruth, a foreign widow, was brought into the family of God by the grace of a man of Israel. On the other hand, Esther, a Jewish orphan girl, is the winner of the beauty contest for a new queen of Persia in 5th century BC. Esther goes to the King Xerxes, while hiding her Jewish identity and name, Haddasah. She eventually saves her people in the foreign land through her royal position.

Although there is no mention of God in the entire book of Esther, this drama of God's salvation is depicted well through the dramatic and yet fatalistic plots by Haman, Mordechai's unbending faith, rapid transitions of Esther's social status and the vastness of wealth and power of Persian King, Xerxes and so on. It does seem fitting for a serious prose-poem which depicts a heroin who saves a holy nation that would otherwise have periled in the hands of the devil.

Today I read the book of Easter all over again, and it however felt like a comedy, reading with the Jewish traditional celebration of Purim in mind. How does it read like a comedy?

You should actually read the story, instead of giving Esther the place of the main character, with the main character of the story being Haman and his unsuccessful plots and the timings of how they fail in the story, thus the name Purim (Hebrew word meaning 'lots,' Esther 3:7). First, Haman makes a mistake of advising the King to give a reward to Mordecai's good action, then he goes around escorting Mordecai in the king's honor and glory which he specifically recommended to the king, thinking that was for himself! (6:1-11). Second, Haman builds a gallows to hang Mordecai but it is used to hang his own head (7:10).

Jews laugh at the failure of the devil's plot to eat up Jewish people. That's why it is a comedy and I think that's where Jewish people get their sense of humour.  So, this is how Jewish people celebrate the Purim mainly in three ways.

First, people wear funny costumes as they gather in groups.

Second there is the public reading of the story. This is a fun reading I have discovered. Whenever the name of Haman is mentioned (54 times total in the story), people make noise to blot out the name and they use graggers, tap on the table, or use other objects to make as loud noise as possible.

My Jewish friend Leon wearing Poncho and shaking a gragger 

Third, there is no Jewish celebration without food. Hamantashen, which means Haman's pocket, is a  sweet Jewish pastry with fillings of poppy seeds or dried fruits. It seems quite easy to make. If you want to try to make some, here's a recipe.

The story of Esther to me was only an ancient story of a heroin's action to save her people, but it came as a whole new meaning to me last night. The story continues even in the modern history for Jewish people as I sat at the dinner table with many Jews from Russia on this occasion as some of the old people went through the great suffering of Holocaust of the 20th century as some of them survived and returned to Israel. And they know how to endure such great suffering and how to carry on with life. That's the Jewish sense of humour that I learned from the newly discovered comedy of Haman in the book of Esther.

Celebrating Purim and Birthdays in the Congregation

Three Big News in Israel While I Was Away

I continue to wrestle to understand this one question: What make Israel Israel? 

Or if I break up the question to a few more questions, they are more like these: 

• Who are Israelis today? Does Jews mean Israelis? What about Arabs who are Israeli citizens? 
• How does the ancient history of Israel shape the identity of the modern state Israel? 
• What does 'nationhood' mean to Israelis in this liberal democratic political system of statehood? 

The best way to find out these things is to go and live among people, there's nothing better than this, so here I came, all the way from Vancouver. Then I was away just for a couple weeks in January to visit my homeland, Korea, while Israel had a few big news during this time! 

First of all, there was this great flood, the worst in decades in the country in mid January, which also brought some snow in Jerusalem. People seem to be happy that we have more rain this year than other years in the past as water is one most precious resource here in the desert land. See the snow covered Old City, Jerusalem in the photo below from Haaretz.com

Source: Haaretz.com 

The second big news here was the national election which brought Netanyahu back in the driver seat of the bus, though it is way too complex for a foreigner to understand how the composition of coalition is taking place. Read this article about Netanyahu's labour of building his coalition if you are one of those people who have natural eyes to understand power structures.  

Source: Haaretz.com

The third news was Israel's attack in Syria just a few days after I came back to Haifa. It didn't rise to be a bigger concern like the earlier war in the south with Gaza last November, which happened just a few days after I arrived here (read the story on this blog about that war). The issues between Israel and Arab states in this part of the world continue to fascinate me as we entered into this new millennium and the new century just 13 years ago and now a year short of 100 year anniversary of the outbreak of WWI: the war between empires, which as a result shaped the geo-political map of what it is the Middle East today.

From the end of empires and imperialism into formation of modern state, nation-building. Israel continues to offer many things to ponder.

Night View of Haifa Port and the Mediterranean Sea

Hello Friends! 

I am back here after many weeks of silence. I will start posting some stories now and I can't help but bragging this beautiful view to Haifa Port and the Mediterranean Sea from my apartment that I enjoy every night as it rains less and less as days go by.  

After Sunset

Night Is Falling

Dark Sacred Night in Haifa

Mary's Little Town of Nazareth

Last Thursday (December 20th, and that is 20/12, 2012!) was the coldest day since I arrived in Israel a month and a half ago. It also happened to be the heaviest stormy and rainy day this Israeli winter. Though it was inconvenient to have that kind of rain and storm, it is so beautiful in this desert land because it is the season it is green everywhere.

View from the highway near Nazareth

To celebrate the season of Advent, though it doesn't seem to be such a big deal herein Israel, I went to Nazareth in that rain and storm last Thursday.

Why Nazareth?
First, it is only about 30 Km from Haifa, and I could just hop on a bus and get there in an hour. Bethlehem, the little town of David where Jesus was born, is more than 3 hour trip and it is very touristy tonight and this whole week (so... why bother?).

More importantly, Nazareth is where the Angel appeared to Mary and told her the big news. In fact, there are three accounts of annunciation in the New Testament of Bible, including one to Joseph, Mary's then husband-to-be. But Mary gets the spotlight and that's the case with the archaeological significance in the little town of Nazareth.

Modern Nazareth with its 80,000 inhabitants makes the largest Arab city in Israel. I found this Nazareth  Official Tourism website (http://www.nazarethinfo.org) and it was a very helpful "guide" to the city before I went there. A city on a hill (600 meter from the sea level), Nazareth's roads are narrow and hilly everywhere. I wondered about if John the Baptist was walking around between Nazareth and Galilee when he said, "every valley shall be filled in and every mountain and hill made low" (Lk 3:5) because Galilee is only 30 KM away from Nazareth and it is more than 200 m below the sea level.

View to the city of Nazareth from the highest point

Old narrow street up and down the hill

 Because of the significance "Jesus of Nazareth" brought to otherwise this little insignificant town, the past two millennia of history is dynamic but a little sad. Starting from Christian Jewish town in the early years, then Muslim rule, and the Crusades from Europe and so on. Much of the detailed account is documented on the website mentioned above. As I said, the magnitude of Mary's importance overpowers everything else here. It feels kind of nice to know what a faithful obedience at the age of 14 could bring to the rest of the history in the culture where traditionally women were (and still are in some  places in this land) viewed largely insignificant.

Facade and entrance to the Basilica of Annunciation (Mary's)

On the same compound of the Basilica of Annunciation, the Church of St. Joseph is tucked away in a quiet corner attracting far fewer people who bother to remember Joseph in this story!

Statue of the Holy Family, left to the humble entrance

Magnificent Interior: the Sanctuary of the Basilica
(A group of Nigerians were listening to the guide)

Simple beauty of the Church of St. Joseph

Altar in front of Mary's Cave where she encountered the angel, Gabriel
(at the lower level of the Basilica of Annunciation) 

This is the heritage built and kept by the Roman Catholic Church on the historical sites of Mary's home and Joseph's home (where Jesus might have lived in his early years). We are told that Mary encountered the angel, Gabriel while she was home.

When Greek Orthodox Christians started to come to Nazareth, they were only allowed to pray at "Mary's well," so they built their church of Annunciation there (about 1.5 KM away from the Basilica).

Entrance and bell at Greek Orthodox Church of Annunciation

Icon - Annunciation 

View from the entrance

Mary's Well

Miracle Child. 

That's what Mary is known for and that's why the little town of Nazareth has two churches dedicated to her name and her encounter with the angel. In the Bible, there are four stories depicting miraculous childbirths through the angelic encounters. Before Mary, there were Sarah and Hannah of the Old Testament and Elizabeth, Mary's cousin, whose story is closely linked to that of Mary's. The difference between the first three and Mary's is what this miraculous childbirth does to these women. Sarah, Hannah and Elizabeth had their dignity restored as their womanhood and motherhood was restored through their miraculous childbirths. They all received this miracle of childbirth in their advanced age, when biologically impossible. 

Unlike these three other women, for Mary, this miracle child meant shame and scandal, especially before her marriage, to herself and her fiancé as we see in Joseph's part of the story. And probably shame would go to her family and Joseph's in this little town of Nazareth. But her "yes" to the angel and to her God of mighty works and miracles, as she sings her joy (Lk 1:46-56, Magnificat), gave birth to a child who was not just a recipient of a miracle, but who is the Miracle Maker himself. 

The little town of Nazareth gave an example of ultimate obedience that human race can give to their Maker through Mary and her little baby.  

Happy Hanukkah!

Now, all the eight candles are lit on Hanukiah, or Hanukkah Menora as Jews have just celebrated the 8th night of Hanukkah tonight.

It is fascinating to think that light is celebrated in most religions as a powerful symbol of divinity, or a god. Hinduism has Diwali, the festival dedicated to the goddess of light.  Buddhists have something similar to that. Even in the modern secular civilization in the West, there is enlightenment. It is about equating light to the status of god or replacing god(s).

I love the fact that Hanukkah makes one point clear: God is the maker and the provider of light. He is not the light, but made and gave the light to us.

Here again, Haaretz offers a fun, educational and entertaining piece on how Jews around the world celebrate Hanukkah. Be sure to scroll down to watch and listen to the song at the bottom of the page!

This morning I went to a quite multicultural Shabbat celebration. Hanukiah, Menorah, and many other colorful, fun candles children made were a beautiful reflection of people who were there this morning from all parts of the world.