Dear friends,
Each week or two it seems like we enter a new phase of the war. Meanwhile, we wait and pray that this latest round of talks will succeed so that our hostages can come home. It’s been 315 days. Enough already. Please, please, please may this happen.
The atmosphere in Israel reached a fever pitch about a week and a half ago, and then again on Monday of this week, when the politicians and defense officials and media outlets were all proclaiming an imminent attack from Iran. So far none of that has happened, and there are pundits who assume one or more of these scenarios: 1) Iran will just let Hezbollah do its dirty work; 2) Iran would like to walk back from its threat and will use the truce negotiations as a way to do it; or 3) an attack will still happen, and it’s anyone’s guess as to when.
I’d say it’s a fairly even split among my friends and co-workers between those who have been freaking out about all of this and those who haven’t. I have a co-worker who was considering flying her entire family (of 6) to Cyprus and getting an Airbnb for a month until things calm down (she didn’t) and another friend who didn’t leave her house for a day or two. But I’ve been going to work, the parking lot by the train continues to be full, the pool is filled with hundreds of kids. The restaurants are busy, there are plenty of people out biking/running/walking in the mornings, and the beaches are packed. In short, in the center of the country, it is business as usual, or as “usual” as it’s been for the last 10 1/2 months.
Palmachim Beach at sunset, August 15, 2024
Normally in August, Israel empties out a bit, so that’s one thing that’s not happening, due to all of the cancelled flights. (I was supposed to leave for Slovenia yesterday for a week’s vacation — cancelled. Thousands of others are in the same situation). To be honest, we’re not too broken up about our cancelled vacation. We’ll get there some day, and we (by “we” I mean Israelis) have way more pressing problems than cancelled vacations…
What am I doing instead of hiking in Slovenia? More of my “usual”: working, writing, exercising, volunteering, going to the pool or beach as often as possible, attending our local hostage rally on Saturday nights, and so on. I’ve learned a new Hebrew word - בציר - batzir - which means grape harvest. The harvest is in full swing here and I’ve volunteered a few times at local vineyards and plan to go again. I go early in the morning and it is quite pleasant. Really the best antidote to everything else going on. BTW, according to Sefaria, the word batzir appears seven times in the bible, the first one in Leviticus 26:5.
וְהִשִּׂ֨יג לָכֶ֥ם דַּ֙יִשׁ֙ אֶת־בָּצִ֔יר וּבָצִ֖יר יַשִּׂ֣יג אֶת־זָ֑רַע וַאֲכַלְתֶּ֤ם לַחְמְכֶם֙ לָשֹׂ֔בַע וִֽישַׁבְתֶּ֥ם לָבֶ֖טַח בְּאַרְצְכֶֽם׃Your threshing shall overtake the vintage, and your vintage shall overtake the sowing; you shall eat your fill of bread and dwell securely in your land.
Here it is translated as vintage. But more interesting to me is the second part of the pasuk (verse) about being able to dwell securely in our land. Halavai.
Picking grapes for a batch of Syrah wine for the Clos de Gat Winery
This past Monday night and Tuesday was Tisha B’Av, the 9th of Av, a day that we mourn the destruction of the First and Second Temples, as well as dozens of other calamities and tragedies in Jewish history. This year has felt like one long lesson in Jewish history, and Tisha B’Av has been on my mind since October 7th.
One of the scenes in the story I was working on pre-October 7th — and eventually got back to a few months later — takes place on the Shabbat after Tisha B’Av, known as Shabbat Nachamu (the Sabbath of comforting), on which we read the words of the prophet Isaiah consoling the Jewish people. The rabbi (in my story, but also many rabbis in real life) says something to the effect of: "Out of the flames of tragedy and loss come the sparks of redemption and change."
Sderot
On August 2, which already feels like eons ago, I joined a trip with my shul to visit Sderot, one of the cities in the Gaza envelop that was overtaken by Hamas terrorists on October 7th. I’ve been to the area a number of times for agricultural volunteering, but this was the first time I went for the purposes of seeing and learning about one of the communities. We started at Mitzpe Sderot, an overlook built in memory of Lt. Col. Dolev Kedar, Senior Sergeant Danny Sahon Beinsain, Reserve Sergeant Nadav Goldmacher and Lt. Col. Yuval Heiman who lost their lives on July 23, 2014 during צוק איתן (Operation Protective Edge) defending Sderot from terrorists who came out of a tunnel opening located about 700 meters from where we stood.
We then went to the Founders Home, a small museum showcasing the city’s achievements, where our tour guide - a lifelong resident - told us of Sderot’s founding (in 1951, as a transit camp for immigrants from Kurdistan and Iran, later welcoming immigrants from North Africa, Romania, Ethiopia and the former Soviet Union). She spoke with pride of many musicians who hail from Sderot, among them Micha Biton, Shlomo Bar, Kobi Oz, Haïm Ulliel and Smadar Levi and the groups Teapacks, Knesiyat Hasekhel and Sfatayim. The story our tour guide told - and echoed by the museum - is one of resilience. As the Sderot Foundation website says:
[Sderot is] most notable for being the target of an endless barrage of Qassam rockets from the Gaza Strip. And yet, despite being under fire for almost two decades, Sderot continues to grow and find of-the-moment solutions that allow it to thrive under fire.
Indeed - on our way we passed through a new neighborhood of villas, and there is building going on in several neighborhoods.
Sadly, though, October 7th is part of Sderot’s history — three different groups of Hamas terrorists infiltrated the city on that day, killing 70 people including 11 police officers, firefighters and IDF personnel. You may have seen the images of the white truck racing through the streets full of Hamas terrorists, or you may have heard of the busload of 13 senior citizens heading out on a trip to the Dead Sea who were all murdered, or about the battle at the Sderot police station, which lasted until dawn on October 8th. At the police station, after the IDF and police created a 360-degree ring around the station to keep the terrorists inside (and after rescuing the four officers and their two fallen comrades from the roof), they made the incredible decision to bring in an IDF tank to demolish the entire station to eliminate the 25 terrorists inside. We watched a harrowing movie with testimony from several police and first responders and heard the heartbreaking story of the Swissa family. There was nothing overtly graphic in the movie, but hearing the testimony and actual radio communications, seeing footage from the security cameras — it was tough.
(Here is a different, shorter clip interviewing one of the officers who survived). We then walked a few feet away to the giant hole in the ground that was once the police station - a memorial is planned, and already two giant murals have been painted next to it.
Still, our tour guide wanted us to take away the message of resilience, the story of Sderot as a success story — its courageous people for their long-standing resilience in the face of rockets and the horror of Oct. 7th, the city as a triumph of immigrant absorption and a center of regional cultural life. In the days after the attack, 90 percent of Sderot’s residents were evacuated. They began returning in March.
I see Israeli resilience everywhere, not only in Sderot. In my friend Sarah Sassoon who insists on broadcasting joy. In the volunteers who I meet at the grape harvests. In our insistence at meeting or hosting friends, going to celebrations, making plans to attend concerts, attending shul, and on and on. I don’t have to enumerate here the vast challenges we face - external and internal (one only has to look at what happened in Jit last night, which sickens me to no end; may the perpetrators and those who encourage be prosecuted to the full extent of the law) - but if you’ve been to a Jewish camp or youth movement you probably know this one. Sing it with me:
לֹא עָלֶיךָ הַמְּלָאכָה לִגְמֹר, וְלֹא אַתָּה בֶן חוֹרִין לִבָּטֵל מִמֶּנָּה[
Rabbi Tarfon used to say]: It is not your duty to finish the work, but neither are you at liberty to neglect it - Pirkei Avot 2:16
My point is that I am enormously proud of this beautiful country and what we have built, and I consider it one of the greatest honors of my life that I can live here and continue the work.
A few other resources/readings about Israel:
The 10th of Av - blog by Tal Becker in the Times of Israel. “What will determine these days is not what our enemies plan, but our response to it.”
If my Zionist pep talk above was too much, read A Protest That’s Drowning in Its Own Tears - by Gal Beckerman in The Atlantic (gift link), which may bring you down. Sorry.
Literary Matters
What I’m reading
Just finished listening to Night Watch by Jayne Anne Phillips and now started listening to Your Presence is Mandatory by Sasha Vasilyuk. Recently finished reading The Bee Sting by Paul Murray (loved it!) for my local book club, and now reading Amor Towles’ Table for Two. Look for my reviews in my Sept. 1 newsletter.
Summer book haul
Other than the Covid year of 2020, this is the first summer I haven’t gone to the States since 2003! Luckily my book schlepper aka husband brought these back for me. What are you reading this summer? Leave your recommendations in the comments!
Events
Our next two Literary Modiin events are already on the calendar, so you can already register!
September Author Event - Sunday, September 15 at 20:00 IL time / 1 pm ET on Zoom with Batnadiv HaKarmi (THE LOVE OF MORTAL BEINGS), Sasha Vasilyuk (YOUR PRESENCE IS MANDATORY) and Lynne Golodner (CAVE OF SECRETS). Register here.
Israel Solidarity Event - Sunday, October 6 at 20:00 IL time / 1 pm ET on Zoom - Special solidarity event with Israeli writers to commemorate one year since Oct. 7. Register here
August is Women in Translation Month
Don’t forget, it’s still Women in Translation month! Check out the list I made on Bookshop called “Read Israeli Women” or Erika Dreifus’ “Jewish Women in Translation” list.
Random Literary Links I enjoyed
Poetry Was an Official Olympic Event for Nearly 40 Years. What Happened? (Smithsonian Magazine) (hat tip to Josie Glausiusz’s Poetry is Medicine whatsapp group, which she wrote about here)
For the Love of a Magazine by Erika Simonian in Oldster Magazine
B’sorot tovot, my friends. Wishing all of us a Shabbat Nachamu that is full of comfort. By the time I send out my Sept 1 newsletter, may all our hostages be home. May our soldiers stay safe or heal quickly, and may there be less suffering all around.
Comments