Erev Passover (eve) always includes a fast for first borns in memory of Pharaoh's decree to throw first borns into the Nile. The fast is bypassed if you learn a little bit of Jewish law early in the morning. This year, though, was also a special occasion known as Birchat Hachama, or the blessing of the sun. Every 28 years, it's apparently an anniversary of the sun's creation, so it's cause for a little celebration. I woke up late, so I didn't eat much except for Dorothy Brook's famous mandelbroit, but I did go to the Western Wall. It was okay, nothing special, and I believe I missed the festivities because all the roads had been closed, according the Taxi drivers.
The Passover Seder for me was spent in a wonderful settlement called Kdumim, about 10 miles from Nablus. It was my first trip into the Shomron (West Bank) region, and the scenic views almost prevented me from falling asleep (I packed my bags for Italy before I left, and didn't sleep much). Mind you, I traveled with two very interested non-Jews, Will and Chandler, who had been in the country for a long time and were always looking for new experiences.
We arrived at the settlement, and our host, Na'ama our counselor (RA, or madricha) from the Hebrew U. program picked us up. We got a tour of the house, and a special concert by Chandler on his bagpipes. Good Morning Nablus!
The Seder itself ran about 4 hours, form a quarter to nine til about 1. It was a small group of my my counselor's family and extended family, but it was very cool experiencing an Israeli Seder with discussions and stories all in Hebrew. For example, we talked about how matzah may have been the only bread the Israelites knew how to make when they left Egypt, rather than there not being enough time for them to make normal bread.
The next morning I slept more than I had in at least a week, and we took a walk around the settlement. I got the feeling that this area probably looked a lot like the major Israeli sites in the "undisputed" territories did, about 70 years ago. There were also a few memorials for Arab attacks and shootings. It's important to note that on the entire bullet proof bus ride through the West Bank, we were never more than 20 minutes from the major cities. We drove the perimeter.
Thursday night, I packed up and got a full serving of Israeli home hospitality, as Na'ama's mom prepared a bunch of Passover snacks for me to bring on the airplane, such as carrots, apples and dried fruit, macaroons, and charoset. I was even offered a backpack that I'm taking with, because it's much bigger and easier to transport. So while Will and Chandler headed with Na'ama to Mount Gerizim to witness the ancient Passover sacrifices as done by the Samaritans , I took the only bus back to Jerusalem, to pick up my clothes and head to the airport, about 3 1/2 hours of riding in all.
So here I am, Friday morning 4am, sitting in Ben Gurion Int'l airport, about to fly to Istanbul and then Rome in time for the weekend. I lost my mind a long time ago, and feel like I'm leaving very unprepared, sort of like them Israelites. I just called the States to say hello to my family doing the second Seder. At least they have an order to their night right now (Seder means order).
Also, here is Will's side of Passover in Kedumim:
Pesach (Passover) in the West Bank
Pesach was amazing! We got back to Jerusalem on Monday night from our Galilee hike and crashed. The next day, we turned around and met up with an American Jew named Ira to head to our Israeli friend Nama's house in Kdumim to spend Pesach (Passover) with her family. This to me was one of the most interesting trips ever. Kdumim is what we in the West call a "settlement". As the Egged bus entered the West Bank (Samaria is what the Israelis call it), I just had a strange sinking feeling. This is real. I'm finally visiting an Israeli settlement. The bus snaked in and out between the hills. Everything was segregated. Jewish town here, Arab town there.
You can tell the difference in several ways. Jewish towns are typically built on top of hills for protection, and they also have large fences or walls around them with a large listening post tower in the middle of town. The Jewish houses are usually crowded together in a very uniform way and look very nice with the trees planted in an ordered way. Arab towns are obvious from far away because of their many minarets showing you where the mosques are.
The bus route took us through a small Arab town, literally through a market street. It was really awkward, you're on this giant green Israeli bus right in the middle of a bus street full of Palestinians. No matter your political persuasion (let's say your the most left-wing anti-Zionist on earth), you feel really worried that you are a target. Everytime a boy carrying a package or a car gets too close, scenarios go flying through your head. What if we get surrounded by a mob and all lynched? Would they believe that I'm an American and not an Israeli? You are on an Israeli bus headed to Israeli settlements in the West Bank, guilty by association. But once again, the fears are more founded in Hollywood movies than reality.
The bus stopped at several settlements. One of them, Immanuel, was a small Orthodox settlement that really was extremely run down. My comment to Chandler was that if all the settlements in the West Bank were like this, then it would be easy to move them out for peace. But they aren't all like that. Kdumim was much larger, more developed, and spralled across the hilltop landscape. It would be very hard to remove this town, much less larger ones like Ari'el.
Nama's family was super nice. None of them were native English speakers, so we were in for a Hebrew immersion experience (which by the way was amazing). Nama had quite a family gathering and we were a neat extra part. The most fun person staying in her house was a 7 yr old named Amit (his father was in the hospital, deathly ill). Amit didn't speak any English and was really shy at first. An hour later, he was attached to us and constantly badgering us to come play with him, which Chandler, Ira, and I all did at various times.
We helped set up for Pesach and then got dressed for Shul at the Synagogue. This was only my third time at shul and only my fifth or so time inside a synagogue. Amit had the option of either sitting up with Nama and the girls or sitting with us. Of course, by now, he was a part of my leg, so he was not going to leave us. He sat next to me and the service started. So there I was, with very little experience with Jewish services, trying to keep up with a prayer book all in Hebrew, with the service all in Hebrew, with a 7 year old Jewish boy to my left asking me what page we are on and what's going on and how much longer. So, I did what any good Christian man would do, I guided Amit through the service as best I could. I dunno what I would've done had Ira not been on my right telling me what page we are on and where on the page! But how comical it was that here I was this Christian guy helping a Jewish kid through a Jewish service, all in a foreign language!
After Shul, we did Pesach dinner which started at 8pm and ended around 2am. There are lots of prayers, songs, and five different courses. At one point, we ate part of the roots of a fresh horse radish to remember the suffering of the Jews in slavery. I hated that stuff. It was so horrid. I could still taste it the next day.
Pesach day is like Shabbat: no lights, no cars, etc. So basically, you sit around the house and don't do much. We played סיכון (Risk) for a long time. I wandered in the kitchen from time to time. The cabinets are taped with signed that say "kosher" and "humitz". The ones with "humitz-infested" foods were not allowed to be opened.
After sunset, we could use cars again so we drove down to Shechem/Nablus to Mount Gerizim where the Samaritans do their passover. But their passover is done the old fashion way: they actually slaughter sheep! So, it's Chandler, a bunch of Israelis, and I walking on the top of this mountain through an almost deserted Samaritan village late at night and the fog is so thick that you couldn't see much farther than a block. I see this scary looking gate with a spike-topped fence. This was the slaughtering grounds. There were smoldering pits where they had put the sheep (we missed the slaughtering) in the ground cook. They were pits of mud with smoke billowing from them (not to mention the fog around us) and giant stakes stuck in the ground (which impaled the dead sheep). Further back from this were men clad in all white, stained with blood and mud, sitting around a fire singing songs in ancient Hebrew and Aramaic. The ground was stained with blood and mud everywhere.
We went up from the slaughtering grounds to the ruins of the Samaritan temple on the summit of the mountain. The massive stone gates were ominous looking especially considering they led to an endless staircase. We were literally level with the fog, so we were starting to get wet. The fog was so thick that you could hardly see and there were no lights past the gate, so only the full moon lit the area. The temple is surrounded by a security fence because it is a condemned building.
Nama found a hole in the fence and so we all snuck into the temple courtyard. It was the creepiest place I've ever been (creepier than the Red Basicila ruins in Bergama, Turkiye). I kept imaging zombies to jump out and eat me. Chandler and I climbed up a broken part of the inner wall and got on top of the inner wall trying to see into the center of the temple. It was too dark and there was too much fog. Plus we didn't have a flashlight and it was just super creepy.
We went back to the slaughtering grounds. The Samaritans were all gathering around the smoldering mud pits. Then they started to dig and began pulling out whole cooked sheep impaled on the sticks. It was crazy. There was so much smoke and fog. Everything smelled like burnt flesh mixed with mud and blood. Each Samaritan family took a sheep and ate it. We left because it was really getting to our stomachs and it was almost 1am.
I learn more from experiencing real religion than ever reading about it in a book!
Hag Samaech!
Will
You can tell the difference in several ways. Jewish towns are typically built on top of hills for protection, and they also have large fences or walls around them with a large listening post tower in the middle of town. The Jewish houses are usually crowded together in a very uniform way and look very nice with the trees planted in an ordered way. Arab towns are obvious from far away because of their many minarets showing you where the mosques are.
The bus route took us through a small Arab town, literally through a market street. It was really awkward, you're on this giant green Israeli bus right in the middle of a bus street full of Palestinians. No matter your political persuasion (let's say your the most left-wing anti-Zionist on earth), you feel really worried that you are a target. Everytime a boy carrying a package or a car gets too close, scenarios go flying through your head. What if we get surrounded by a mob and all lynched? Would they believe that I'm an American and not an Israeli? You are on an Israeli bus headed to Israeli settlements in the West Bank, guilty by association. But once again, the fears are more founded in Hollywood movies than reality.
The bus stopped at several settlements. One of them, Immanuel, was a small Orthodox settlement that really was extremely run down. My comment to Chandler was that if all the settlements in the West Bank were like this, then it would be easy to move them out for peace. But they aren't all like that. Kdumim was much larger, more developed, and spralled across the hilltop landscape. It would be very hard to remove this town, much less larger ones like Ari'el.
Nama's family was super nice. None of them were native English speakers, so we were in for a Hebrew immersion experience (which by the way was amazing). Nama had quite a family gathering and we were a neat extra part. The most fun person staying in her house was a 7 yr old named Amit (his father was in the hospital, deathly ill). Amit didn't speak any English and was really shy at first. An hour later, he was attached to us and constantly badgering us to come play with him, which Chandler, Ira, and I all did at various times.
We helped set up for Pesach and then got dressed for Shul at the Synagogue. This was only my third time at shul and only my fifth or so time inside a synagogue. Amit had the option of either sitting up with Nama and the girls or sitting with us. Of course, by now, he was a part of my leg, so he was not going to leave us. He sat next to me and the service started. So there I was, with very little experience with Jewish services, trying to keep up with a prayer book all in Hebrew, with the service all in Hebrew, with a 7 year old Jewish boy to my left asking me what page we are on and what's going on and how much longer. So, I did what any good Christian man would do, I guided Amit through the service as best I could. I dunno what I would've done had Ira not been on my right telling me what page we are on and where on the page! But how comical it was that here I was this Christian guy helping a Jewish kid through a Jewish service, all in a foreign language!
After Shul, we did Pesach dinner which started at 8pm and ended around 2am. There are lots of prayers, songs, and five different courses. At one point, we ate part of the roots of a fresh horse radish to remember the suffering of the Jews in slavery. I hated that stuff. It was so horrid. I could still taste it the next day.
Pesach day is like Shabbat: no lights, no cars, etc. So basically, you sit around the house and don't do much. We played סיכון (Risk) for a long time. I wandered in the kitchen from time to time. The cabinets are taped with signed that say "kosher" and "humitz". The ones with "humitz-infested" foods were not allowed to be opened.
After sunset, we could use cars again so we drove down to Shechem/Nablus to Mount Gerizim where the Samaritans do their passover. But their passover is done the old fashion way: they actually slaughter sheep! So, it's Chandler, a bunch of Israelis, and I walking on the top of this mountain through an almost deserted Samaritan village late at night and the fog is so thick that you couldn't see much farther than a block. I see this scary looking gate with a spike-topped fence. This was the slaughtering grounds. There were smoldering pits where they had put the sheep (we missed the slaughtering) in the ground cook. They were pits of mud with smoke billowing from them (not to mention the fog around us) and giant stakes stuck in the ground (which impaled the dead sheep). Further back from this were men clad in all white, stained with blood and mud, sitting around a fire singing songs in ancient Hebrew and Aramaic. The ground was stained with blood and mud everywhere.
We went up from the slaughtering grounds to the ruins of the Samaritan temple on the summit of the mountain. The massive stone gates were ominous looking especially considering they led to an endless staircase. We were literally level with the fog, so we were starting to get wet. The fog was so thick that you could hardly see and there were no lights past the gate, so only the full moon lit the area. The temple is surrounded by a security fence because it is a condemned building.
Nama found a hole in the fence and so we all snuck into the temple courtyard. It was the creepiest place I've ever been (creepier than the Red Basicila ruins in Bergama, Turkiye). I kept imaging zombies to jump out and eat me. Chandler and I climbed up a broken part of the inner wall and got on top of the inner wall trying to see into the center of the temple. It was too dark and there was too much fog. Plus we didn't have a flashlight and it was just super creepy.
We went back to the slaughtering grounds. The Samaritans were all gathering around the smoldering mud pits. Then they started to dig and began pulling out whole cooked sheep impaled on the sticks. It was crazy. There was so much smoke and fog. Everything smelled like burnt flesh mixed with mud and blood. Each Samaritan family took a sheep and ate it. We left because it was really getting to our stomachs and it was almost 1am.
I learn more from experiencing real religion than ever reading about it in a book!
Hag Samaech!
Will
Chandler and Amit
The Slaughtering Grounds
I'll let you imagine what happens here (btw - , yes, the blood flows in the trough)...
tastes like chicken (so they say)
Red - "chmutiz" infested
Black - "kosher"
Black - "kosher"
The amazing scenery of the West Bank/Samaria
Yeah... don't ask...
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