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The Darga ravine
Judean Desert |
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| Ze'elim Ravine Judean Desert |
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| Mount Yaeer Judean Desert, the kind of mountains we were climbing |
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| An artist I met in Israel, stay tune, more to come soon |
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Cantor - Boaz Pnini |
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Israel Ramble letters
A moment in the Judean desert
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Shimon Schoken
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Dear friend,
Now that you have had a chance to
watch this I would like to tell you what I see in it. The courage to follow ones heart, inventiveness, taking risks, telling it as it is, not avoiding tough questions, the connection to the past and the future, doing the seemingly impossible, not resigning in difficult times, seeing beyond the obvious and this is what I love about Israel.
Photos featuring the Judean desert.
Shabbat Shalom and enjoy your weekend,
Boaz Pnini
Bridges 2 Israel
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Why would you ever want to leave that place?!
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Judean desert typical vistas
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The Judean desert will always be an important part of my life, we shared an important moment in time. When I was in my twenties, I went with a group of 30 or 40 young adults into the wilderness of the desert for 6 days.
Pitching our tents near a large water hole, where we took our morning swim and showers and washed the dirty dishes everyday. We were crammed 5 people into a tent.
During the days we will go on long hikes, over steep mountains, where we had to watch the rolling boulders dislodged by the people ahead of us. These boulders could literary kill you, coming from hundred meters above, rolling down, zigzagging in full speed. When a bolder gets dislodged, everyone freezes and watch and try to dodge. One of us got hit in the head and had to be evacuated carried on someone else back. Water was scarce.
We took our hikes early in the mornings when it was still chilly from the night before. Still half asleep we went through arid, cold heels before approaching the mountainous area. most overwhelming was the absolute silence, which made all the inner talk so loud. In the desert, you cannot escape yourself, your own thoughts, your own feelings. They shout so loud against the quietude of the desert, you have no escape from yourself which is probably why some love it and some hate it.
We made our own food and have camp fires, singing and having deep conversations into the night. The stars seem so close, bright and plenty, not having any city lights around.
On the first few days in the desert the inner tumult is excruciating at times but then there is a calm that is very rare and you never ever want to leave. Driving back into Tel Aviv area after being almost a week in the intense desert quiet, no cars, no contact with civilization, no noise was a grand shock, how could people live like that?! You are asking yourself and then adjust, but the memory of the desert quiet is etched. Your life has been touched and changed in a small big way forever.
Boaz Pnini
Bridges 2 Israel
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Philosophically speaking - fear not
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Around the age of 7 or 8 I was called by my classmates, with a mix of scorn and admiration perhaps - "profsoff", which is a hybrid word from professor and philosopher, so I guess that gives me some permission to keep at it.
We can get very worried about what we read in the newspapers, and I have been laboring to find answers myself.
Often what we read and is talked about everywhere are not the real dangerous things. When I reflect on the last 20 years and even 60, the big disasters were almost never anticipated, they were brewing under our noses and suddenly erupted like a volcano catching everyone by surprise.
And for that we have to thanks the media which is making so much fuss about those things that they eventually never happen. Somehow the incessant media coverage render them impotent and already discounted. The question is what is going under our radars that will surprise us all tomorrow. In Israel we say "a barking dogs does not bite". It is a bit like when a person is talking forever about what they are going to do they end up not doing it.
Another point is if we are being scared into viewing the world with fear, then we hold that and nothing different is allowed. For something new to happen, someone needs to have a fantasy in the right sense of the word, just like Simon Schoken (see above) If we cannot fantasize about peace, how can it come?!
So fear not everything you hear everywhere, but what we don't hear about that is a coming,and even better - fear not.
When I am in Israel, I almost never feel afraid, maybe because of the sense of belonging and peace that abounds, and the certainty that people give each other.
Boaz Pnini
Bridges 2 Israel
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The Hebrew corner
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We have a Israeli Hebrew expression "The cemeteries are full with irreplaceable people", which is saying.. Although each one of us is unique and there was never and will never be anyone like us, at the same time we are also all replaceable
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Lake kineret corner
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Do you know that in an average year the kineret rise in more than 5 meters, at the same time we draw more than 3 meter worth of water out of it, so how come the kineret is not completely full yet?
What is your answer? My answer in the next issue.
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