| ‘A Day-away’ Events: Torah to The People: Ezra And The Jews of Shivat Tzion
The moving words of Ezra, while trying to convince the exiled Jews to come back to the Land of Israel, the prayers of Nehemiah as he is about to approach the king, and the reenactment of Sinai, in the form of a new covenant of accepting the Torah, all intertwined with the words of a magical storyteller, carried us back over two thousand years to begin our journey into the world of Ezra the scribe.
Prof. Albert Baumgarten then opened up the gates into the actual text of the book. He showed us how influential those times were, and how they affected the entire course of Jewish History. We grappled with the texts ourselves, as we tried to understand both sides in the controversy surrounding the foreign wives.
We were then guided into the mysterious world of a far-off culture, as we trailed through the galleries of the Bible Lands Museum. We were given insight into the Persian culture and the kings whom Ezra and Nehemiah worked with. We gained a deeper understanding of the development of the Hebrew alphabet, and how the conversion to the universal Aramaic script contributed to democratizing of the Torah.
By this point the smells and tastes of ancient cookery led us down to the tent, where we tasted the delicacies of the biblical kitchen. The tent was bursting with spices and herbs, colors and smells, which we savored as we ate.
We concluded the meal in a more modern environment, and over tea and cookies, discussed many of the similarities and differences between Ezra’s time and our own modern return to Israel. We reflected on our own decisions to return to the land, and imagined what our personal spiritual pilgrimage would consist of.
We then boarded the buses on another journey, to a gathering place for ancient pilgrims. We enjoyed the beauty and serenity of ancient Eretz Yisrael as we walked through olive trees and heard the flowing of the spring.
Our ears were treated to the notes and strums of ancient instruments accompanying the beautiful words of the Psalms, which helped us imagine how the Levites felt as they returned to their work of rejoicing in the newly established Temple.
We then each ventured on our own little journey and with our own hands we created, as our ancestors would have. Some of us chose to discover the secrets of the many herbs that grow around us, while others listened to the fascinating tale of a modern exile and return from Kibbutz Kfar Etzion, as told by Aryeh Routtenberg.
Rabbi Daniel Landes then helped us learn from the great leaders we had encountered. What could our leaders today learn from them, and what should they do differently?
We concluded the day with talk of the spices and produce of our beloved land, and while we ate, drank and rejoiced, we listened to the magical sounds of the harp, baked our own delicious bread and took home a memory of an ancient Hebrew alphabet.
We left with a deepened understanding of this complex and charismatic leader and lover of Torah, of his counterparts, of the world his people lived in and the gifts they all bestowed upon the Jewish nation.
This “A Day Away†was produced as a fundraising event for the Pardes Institute of Jewish Studies in Jerusalem.
CONTACT US TO PLAN ‘A DAY AWAY’
|