Shalom y'all

There we go, I figured out how to do the pictures a bit better. So here're a bunch. We've got one of us studying Torah and one of Joel climbing up one of the "horns of Heitim", a shot of the Kinneret (sea of Galilee), one of us jamming and a shot of our friend Ronny who went mountain climbing with us.






Ronny is a stray who lives on the kibbutz. Somebody dumped him here and they were trying to catch him so they could put him down. But he was so clever that each time they tried to get him he would evade them and hide. When we arived we immediately took a shine to him and he stuck with us at our little compound. When the kibbutzniks saw that we took care of him they decided to let him live. The end.

In other news things are pretty good in general. The teaching is challenging and the archeology is exiting. Last week we went to Tzippori which is 10 minutes outside of Nazareth. They have a whole lot of mosaics there at the dig many of which are breath taking. The disturbing bit is some of the content. Considering that it was a major Jewish center and that Rav Yehudah Nassi sealed the mishna while living there (he died there too) it is disconcerting seeing the Dionysian worship portrayed by their floors and the sun god portrayed in their synagogue.

I want to go now. Shalom.

First post on Holy Soil

So, here I am and as much as I'm sure some of you out there would love to know about what I'm doing there are surprisingly many things which draw me more than typing. So, that is why it has been two weeks in the Land without a single post. The basic scenario is as follows. I live on a kibbutz 15 minutes outside of Tiberius I mostly chill out and swim and eat grapfruit but there is some education going on. I'm falling in love with archeology, so the next 11 weeks promise great pleasure. Today there are an inordinate amount of helicopters we suspect that it is linked to an IDF assasination in Nabilus today, Guarding against retaliation. I'll just post a few photos for you and then get on with my life.

Looks like the photos are "sticky" you'll just have to wait.

This is it folks. The day after tomorrow is my flight to Israel. I just got off the phone with Lufthansa to confirm my flight. This is for real folks, two sleeps.

It's so fresh out. I'm enjoying the crisp fall weather. I guess Israel won't be too frosty but since I'll be there for their winter I'm expecting it to be pretty rainy. I'll be primarily based in Galilee which gets the most cm of rain in the country.
The main point of this blog is supposed to be keeping a log of my upcomming journey so as of tuesday it should be entering its telos. By the way my bro who's comming too keeps an online journal as well as Joel so you can get their sides of the story too.

I'm feeling rather jittery, this is exciting.

Space

I was reading some posts in the old blog and came across a C.S. Lewis quote about travel and space. I think it's a pretty decent quote and since I'm going to Israel in about six days I'll put it here:

The truest and most horrible claim made for modern transport is that it 'annihilates space'. It does. It annihilates one of the most glorious gifts we have been given. It is a vile inflation which lowers the value of distance, so that a modern boy travels a hundred miles with less sense of liberation and pilgrimage and adventure than his grandfather got from traveling ten. Of course if a man hates space and wants it to be annihilated, that is another matter. Why not creep into his coffin at once? There is little enough space there. C S Lewis, Surprised by

This concept has surfaced often in my relatively well-traveled life. The first time I heard it lucidly expressed was by my aunt a couple years ago in the form of a little story about a dude and a camel and another dude with a car.

weekend debrief

Weekend: over.
It was good, spiritually. In Medias Res came through town again. That band from Vancouver that plays in Saskatoon every now and then, they're so cute and quirky and I'm so patronizing and crosseyed. It's really weird, whenever they come through I get all juiced up and excited about life and it's like I can feel the Spirit of God inside me again.
Website: I M R
That afternoon (Sabbath) we read the stories of Sodom, and the binding of Isaac, and Elisha and the Shunamite woman.
That night at work I had to evict a couple because after several warnings they persisted in having sex loud enough to wake the kids in the room beside them. They were both women but thats not why they were evicted.

Started reading a new book called "I Saw Satan Fall Like Lightning" it's really good I''ll probably post some good quotes from it on here later.

I'm leaving in less than two weeks. When I tell people I'm going to Israel they ask if I'm scared of terrorists. I'm not. But I realized that I am scared, I'm terrified. But what of?

I feel like soft clay, and that's an uncomfortable feeling. Or maybe I was soft and I'm starting to dry out now. Either way, change is the point. My identity is shifting. How? you may ask.

I don't know. But I'm sick of religion. I've noticed that a lot of religious people say stuff like that . They say stuff like "God doesn't make people religious" they rail against "religious people", saying "God did not invent religion".
re-ligios the etymology is the same as that of "ligament" it has to do with connecting. So, re-ligios would be reconnecting i.e. with God. That's what I would have said to those who spoke against religion.

Newsflash: Etymology is so often used as alchemy, it isn't magic... even in Hebrew.

In other news today, I had a headache but it seems to be gone now. blah blah blah
Sorry to sound so jaded today, I think it might be that I'm exhausted.

what next? seriously.

Here's a clip about pro-lifers being beat up by cops etc.
I've never been much for this kind of thing but I think my bubble could be considered bursted now.