Israel 2014 Caesarea Edition!

We landed safe and sound at Ben Gurion Airport at 3:30 on Thursday afternoon. The kids were absolutely phenomenal from the moment we left Davis to the moment we arrived. They are really a pleasure to travel with.  One highlight from the flight was that a young Chabadnik named Zalman asked me if he could offer to wrap some of our boys in tefilin. I told him that as long as they could say "no" he was welcome to offer. At least half our boys took him up on this unique opportunity. Talk about something that only happens on flights to Israel!

Our tour guides, Yishai and Eran, were waiting for us with open arms. The words “welcome home” really rang true as we reunited with Morah Lahav who had to come to Israel a week or so ago due to the death of her father. Morah Lahav, her brother, Morah Orna’s brother and our tour guides welcomed us, gave us “bagele” (the Israeli hybrid of the bagel/pretzel) and we headed off toward Caesarea.

We arrived at the iconic aqueduct of Caesarea just in time to catch our first Mediterranean sunset. We gathered on the beach, listened as some of our Davis Decibelles sang “Eli, Eli” (which was written by Hannah Senesh in Caesarea) and then we sang a few other songs as we poured grape juice for a welcome “l’chayim.”

Before lifting our glasses and wishing one another L’chayim I shared a story that happened to me on the flight from Philadelphia. About 2/3 through the flight the woman seated in front of me turned to me and asked about our group. I told her a bit about Davis. In the spirit of making conversation she shared that she had grown up Reform but now identified as Orthodox. A few moments later she asked me if our girls had brought long skirts. I must’ve looked a bit confused because she then asked, “Well are you planning to visit any ‘religious sites’?”

Her question caught me off guard. Not visit any religious sites? Religious sites are pretty hard to miss in Israel!!! I reassured her that we would be visiting such sites with great enthusiasm and reverence! The assumptions behind her question definitely left me a bit stirred. 

A few hours later, while walking toward the passport checkpoint at the airport Ben N. asked me if I thought we were standing on holy ground. “Holy ground” is a recurring theme in Mr. O’Dell’s class. It's basically code for-- "Are we experiencing something real, true, and enduring at this time and place?" In classic rabbinic form I answered his question with a question: “What do you think?” We agreed that we didn’t know but that we’d revisit the question over the course of our trip. 

As we watched the sunset in Caesarea these two separate interactions finally made sense as a unified whole. The woman’s question and Ben’s question represent two ends of a continuum. On the one end holiness is reserved for certain specific places like the Kotel (Western Wall), on the other end it’s possible that any place, even the corridor at Ben Gurion Airport could be holy ground. I definitely side with the idea that holiness exists wherever we recognize it, name it, and grant it permission to do so (or surrender to it). But everyone has to find their own place on this continuum. 

71 students, 8 chaperones, 2 tour guides, 2 medics, and a few random Israelis who were watching on as we stood at the foot of the Mediterranean lifted our cups of grass juice in celebration of the fact that holy ground has as much to do with the feet that are standing on the ground as it does with ground itself.  Arguably all of Eretz Yisrael is “holy ground” and every site is a “religious one.” I’m not sure that’s one of the main points we’re trying to make on this trip, but I do believe that we are trying to help the kids understand the role that each of them plays in determining whether a moment is sacred or profane, transcendent or fleeting, precious or squandered.

So far we have every indication that the Davis Academy graduating class of 2014 will cover a lot of holy ground over the next two weeks. We look forward to sharing our experiences with you here and on Flickr.