I landed (joyfully) at Ben Gurion after a few hours delay, excited to meet Eliad Eliyahu at the airport for a late lunch. With the minor insignificance of my luggage not making it to Israel (first time for everything), I can't really complain. Eliad and I sat down to a heartfelt reunion over Aroma salads. He shared about life in Akko, the challenges and opportunties, the meaning of his work, the daily realities faced by hundreds of thousands of Israelis. The sharing was heavy, tinged with an uncompromising hope informed by the reality that our enemies are real, their intent clearly stated, and their capacity to do harm unknown. For my part, I educated Eliad about the Grateful Dead and the state of American Jewry. We agreed that each of us, all of us, has a part to play in helping our people respond to the moment. Eventually we started making music, working on our next song: Dance Again. We roamed the airport a bit trying to find a quiet place and eventually made a demo recording that we can reference moving forward. Then he took the train back to Akko and I took the train to Jerusalem.
I walked from the Jerusalem train station to my hotel: A Little House in Rechavia. In a truly "Israel Moment" the hotel front desk called to ask me if I could assist an elderly lady in lifting her heavy luggage up to her room. I was happy to oblige as the hotel is really more of a B and B than a full blown hotel.After checking in, I headed back out to find an "adaptor" and wandered back to the shuk to pick up a light dinner.
Walking around Jerusalem you can't take a single step without being reminded of the hostages.
I got an early night's sleep, woke up, and headed to Hartman where I currently am writing these words.
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