#yerushalaim

Jerusalem has been a Jewish city for well over 3,000 years, more than 1,000 years before the birth of Christianity and 1,500 before the birth of Islam. To claim otherwise is nothing short of absurd. We will not allow our history to be rewritten by the UN, the EU or anyone else, regardless of their dubious motives.

I'm at the train station right now. It's fascinating the type of panic that sets in when you are lost and confused about what's exactly going on.  

The train is red, like a dull long metal chocolate wrapper thats grown tarnished over the years. It's not like the new light rail in ירושלים, all silver and gleaming, Shaped cylindrical like a rocket gliding to it's next destination. But nothing remains under the sun, and I expect it too will one day tarnish. I'm a little nervous I'm waiting at the wrong רציף but this isn't a big deal because whatever happens, l find my way and figure it out. I'm a little upset because I thought tomorrow was Yom Yerushalaim, not today, and I wanted to be there for it. But only a little. It's a privilege to be here either way.

I just got in the train and it's so cool!! I recall reading a book where it described a train as having stops in places where people would give you oranges- this, for some reason, made me feel very excited regarding train rides. Why, I don't know. But either way, I'm on a train and very happy and grateful to be looking out at the Israeli countryside- what an opportunity!! When the train doors close it sounds like the elevator on star trek- "whooooshfff!” I'd better say tephilat haderech now. 

Sometimes when the train curves I can see its front, and I am reminded this is a train ride and I feel a bit giddy- I wish I had a conductor hat or a whistle or something, despite the lack of social convention involved in  displaying or using either of those within the quiet setting of a train.

There’s a man here that is speaking a mixture of Hebrew and Russian. It's curious to hear a mixture of Hebrew and Russian being spoken on a phone. Russian sounds like bubbling water and tastes like stilton cheese while Hebrew feels like a smooth skipping stone and tastes like dark chocolate. It's harder to describe what hebrew feels like because I’m not listening to the sounds, but trying to decipher the words. 

 So I'm looking out the window-( what better way to spend Yom Yerushalaim than traveling there and surveying Israel ?) and I see two HUGE plantations/houses, filled with (I think) geese!!!!  

I'm now In Beit Shemesh.

As I videotape this journey it occurs to my mind that this opportunity- to just see a bit of eretz yisrael is suh a huge gift, amazing stupendous breathtaking gift. I feel so very blessed.

The pictures I take cannot fully reflect the beauty of sun dappled hills and crags, covered with trees, some sprouting broccoli like out of the mountain. But it's all of the little things too- a stream, secretly flowing between the trees, a bunker, covered in roots, decrepit and abandoned, nestled in the forest among pink flowered vines and towering forest. It's inspirational, electrifying- it makes me want to weep an laugh and shout an sing, merely because I've been given the opportunity to look upon this wonderful aspect of creation. The firs, bottom branches sloping downwards, an the top branches desperately reach for the sky. They lean, almost held my and invisible string, horizontally off the mountain's slope. There is a dirt path between these two mountains- I imagine myself hiking upon it, maybe using the staff we got together that also can be used as a flute. I can imagine the ache in my muscles as I smilingly explore this region, actually experiencing this nature with my other senses, not just my eyes. And yet I wonder at ancient times, where splendor and singing could be heard throughout a united nation, where someone could lose a donkey and wander throughout these hills to find a prophet, or a group of prophets singing and playing music to Hashem. I wonder at a beauty I never had the opportunity to experience.  

I see little boxes- houses appear in mountains now, not just trees and I think we must be in/approaching Yerushalaim. I also know the agricultural formation to the mountains here- like stairs, so I think maybe we are approaching.  Yerushalaim - how very very very joyful!!! I was right- almost time to step off!!