One of the most exciting elements of this trip for my daughters was the fact that our flight from Los Angeles to Paris was on an Airbus A380, their favorite plane.
Do my girls look excited?????
We were a little crazy in planning our trip. For some reason we thought it would be a good idea to begin our trip with an extended layover in Paris which would give us a chance to cross some items off the bucket list of our daughters. During our 12 hour stopover we left the airport, took the in to Paris and visited one of the most iconic sights in Paris, the Eiffel Tower, and enjoyed a cruise in the river Seine past some wonderful landmarks like the Louvre museum and the Notre Dame Cathedral. I especially loved seeing the l'Arc de Triumphed from the top of the Eiffel Tower. What a terrific way to spend Father's Day exploring Paris with my daughters and wife.
I can't think of a better way to spend Father's Day. It was a magical day. We did have the usual hiccups like missing our tour and having to find them on the way to the Eiffel Tower and realizing that the train station we needed to use to get back to the airport to make our flight to Israel was no longer in service... But we persevered and made it back to catch our second all night flight in as many days, this time from Paris to Tel Aviv. Needless to say we all slept almost the entire 4 and a half hour flight.
In prep for our trip we did a lot of readings helping us get ready spiritually to visit Israel. The main focus of the readings was to help us view Israel not as filled with sights, but rather filled with sites; sites that move us spiritually. The places and things we saw in Paris were sights; things that amazed us but meant nothing on a deeper level. The Eiffel Tower was awesome, but it did not fill us with awe.
This point was driven home as we stepped foot on our second flight. We were exhausted from our more than 24 hours without proper sleep and after running around Paris on Father's Day. All we wanted to do was to sit on the plane and sleep. As we prepared to leave the gate, we heard the pilot announce in French (we flew Air France) and then in English, and then a amazing thing happened. The announcement was made in Hebrew. I immediately felt my energy rise a bit as I realized that we were heading to a place that made me feel things in a deeper way that I have ever had before. A place that in an instant felt like home when I arrived two years ago. I felt this tears in my eyes as I listened to the indescribable beauty of the Hebrew language. At about 4:30 in the morning, after 4 hours of uncomfortable sleep the pilot came on and announced that we were entering Israeli air space in preparation for landing. My heart started to beat a little faster. I could see in both of my daughters the excitement building for their first Israel experience. Leasa grabbed my hand and said a silent shehechianu prayer. It was a perfect way to capture the moment, as I could not be more grateful for the place I was in at that moment, and we both truly thanked God for enabling us to reach this moment. Watching Leasa say the words of the shehechianu was one of the most beautiful things I have ever witnessed. Suddenly, it was like the four of us had slept 12 hours! We could not wait to get off the plane and smell and taste the Mediterranean air. As our plane touched down, many of the passengers (including my family) spontaneous burst into applause, acknowledging our gratitude for arriving safely.
After dealing with all the formalities of arriving in Israel we made our way to the hotel in Jerusalem. Driving through the West Bank is a reminder at how close everything is in Israel, and how fragile peace in this region is. We drove by security checkpoint after checkpoint, we drove by walls constructed to keep homicide bombers away from harming civilians. We drove by many Palestinians getting an early start to their day, crossing from the West Bank into Israel so they could go to work to provide for their families. It was a humbling drive as it reminds us of how living in Thousand Oaks is like living in a bubble. We truly have no idea what it is like to be an Israeli or a Palestinian. All we can do is support a process that leads to peace with every ounce of our souls. We arrived at the Dan Panorama Hotel in Jerusalem to a surprise, the banner hanging on the side of the hotel representing our trip!
After seeing this we realized that we did not want to go to our room and sleep. We checked in to this beautiful hotel, ate our first of many AMAZING breakfasts (these are truly not to believed!) and decided to try to stay awake by walking in to the Old City with Robert and Ilyssa, two travelers from the tour who arrived at around the same time we did. I got the same excited feeling when i led our group through the Jaffa Gate into history.
As we wandered through the streets I tried to give them a sense of the history of this place, how it is not a museum, but rather a living and breathing piece of our history as we interacted with those who study and pray there. We spent time at the Burnt House, a favorite stop of mine that really gives a sense of what life was like during the time of the destruction of the Second Temple. We also paid a special visit to the Kotel, the Western Wall.
As we walked down the path that leads to this unbelievable place I was reminded of how I felt the first time I laid eyes on this Wall. I remember my breath being literally taken away. It was the same reaction for me today as I took step after step back into our history, feeling connected to every Jew who has taken these same steps. As we gazed upon the Temple Mount and the Western Wall we were reminded how close these Jewish and Islamic holy sites are to each other and we had a different understanding of some of the conflict that continues to separate us from our Arab brothers and sisters.
It was a busy day at the Kotel. We saw countless bar mitzvah boys carrying beautiful Sephardic Torah scrolls around the plaza at the Wall. There was singing and dancing... It was almost distracting! But Robert put it best when he shared that as he approached the Wall he heard all of the activity around him, but as he laid his hands on these stones the noise faded away and he was alone with his prayers.
I had a similar reaction to Robert. I was nervous that placing my hands on this ancient stone once again would not have the impact it did two years ago. The truth is it had MORE of an impact, because it connected me back to that moment that has changed how I pray forever. I remember explaining in the last blog how I had never felt so connected and I had never prayed so deeply, and today my experience was just as powerful. Praying at the Wall has changed the way I pray forever. I can hardly wait to share this holy site with the rest of our tour tomorrow.
Here is picture of one of the many bar mitzvah celebrations we experienced today and we sang and clapped to the music. It was beautiful!
We arrived back at the hotel to find many other TAE travelers had arrived at the hotel in Jerusalem. What a nice welcome we had, embracing each other IN Israel after all of the planning and anticipating.
For dinner this evening we had the honor of dining with Rachel Dubowe. It was so great to see her and hear about all of her adventures as a student at the Hebrew Union College.
And after a full and wonderful first day in Israel, it is time for us to say laila tov, good night to you all. We will hopefully get a good night's sleep and be ready for a full day of touring tomorrow. I can hardly wait to show our group the Old City and meet Uri, our educator. All I can say to everyone is, you must come to Israel. There is no better place in all the world...
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