SPIRITUAL JOURNEY TAKES A DETOUR

I need to write this paragraph now while it is fresh in my mind. Initially when I decided to come to Israel I was told by a friend, unless you want to see just another European city avoid Tel Aviv. Which made sense and so my goal was to live in Jerusalem. But finding housing there was a bit more complicated, especially considering that there are many distinctive neighborhoods from very religious to very dangerous and I became confused. That’s when I turned to the Yiddish word, “Beshert” which kind of is a combination of “destiny” and “good luck”; it might even be a variation of the Arabic word “enshalla.” I decided to let God decide where I should live or in this case his/her agent Craig’s List where upon I found an apartment listing in Tel Aviv for May 6^th the exact day I was to arrive. Last week I found a listing in Tel Aviv beginning on June 10^th, the exact day the first apartment expires. So I took it. For those of you following my blog, Tel Aviv is a spiritual place more in the model of Sodom and Gomorrah than Mt. Sinai.

There is an interesting Hebrew expression for people who are traveling to Jerusalem, they are said to be “going to the ANSWER” and for those who are leaving Jerusalem they are said to be “going to the QUESTION.” I’m not sure I know where that leaves me except I find myself constantly having to “go to the BATHROOM” an issue that I wrestle with a lot here in Israel. I mean, how can you have a fresh juice bar every twenty feet on the street and yet no visible signs of a public bathroom. If this is the question God has posed for me then it seems to me that I can search for an answer here in Tel Aviv just as easily as anywhere else. I am reminded of a sermon I once heard at the First Presbyterian church in Berkeley. There was a Pastor who said he was laboring away on his ministry in Calcutta and not feeling like he was “making a difference” so he asked God to show him the place where he could better use his talents and you know what God said in his/her infinite wisdom, “Go to Berkeley.” Cool advice, don’t you think? Makes you pity the poor schmuck who asks God the same question and unfortunately gets the cyclone ravaged area in Burma as the answer. Anyway, so I am here for awhile in Tel Aviv and as the saying goes, when you are given Jaffa Oranges, make smoothies.

Today was a slow “shopping day.” Because tomorrow is the Sabbath, everyone around noon must do last minute shopping because the stores close at about 3:30. Even though technically one is only shopping for one storeless day, people act like Hurricane Katrina (or when in Israel we prefer to say “Armageddon”) is coming at sundown. There is the most incredible shopping frenzy at the markets. I found myself buying a packet of new sox, a new shirt sleeve shirt, a book and a bunch of pastries eaten on the spot, all because the stores were closed tomorrow, but none of which I had any urgent need for (except the pastries). Curious!

I’ll let some of my pictures and their captions tell my story today, but I want to describe an image I saw while waiting for the bus, I couldn’t get my cell phone out fast enough to take the picture. There were a lot of cars on the street and a cute young woman was riding her bicycle in and out of traffic. One hand was on the handle bars steering, one hand was trying (unsuccessfully) to keep her dress from blowing up over her face, wedged in her neck between her head and her shoulder was a cell phone on which she was talking furiously and as she passed me all I heard her say was, “but I think he really likes me” (what's not to like, I thought) and then she was gone weaving deftly in and out of traffic. She should have been in a Sprint commercial.

Real Jews teaching less real Jews how to put on traditional garb and pray, these guys are everywhere. Generally speaking Jews are not evangelical and in fact Rabbis are supposed to try and talk potential converts out of being Jewish, but I think it’s OK for a Jew who believes a lot to teach a Jew who believes a little, thankless of a job in Tel Aviv as that might be.

A bronze statue on the street of a guy hanging out with (live) old man sitting beside him also hanging out.

Table filled with old tools at the antique market, there were rows and rows of these tables.

This woman suddenly appeared out of a fashionable store in her formal gown and then spent about 15 minutes trying to figure out how she was going to get all of that puffy stuff inside the tiny little car her date had driven up in. It was funny to watch and about 10 people immediately started taking cellphone pictures of her; she was really embarrassed.

A scene from in front of the huge, packed Carmel Market filled with musicians and thousands of Birthright travelers who are pouring into the City for their 10 day free tour of Israel. The guitar player on the right looks like an Israeli with his hair in dreadlocks, then there is a young girl who was zoned out, then an American hippie on drums and finally an African man doing some kind of percussion with his mouth.