The Easy Life

There are a few recurring themes in conversations I tend to have with people here, especially as many of us contemplate going home (or as people who have gone home come back to visit).  One of those conversations revolves around the comparison of life in Israel and life in the States.  It is generally agreed that life in the States is easier.  Not better.  Just easier.

I am constantly reminded of this fact when I go get groceries, as I did today.

In the States, getting groceries is relatively easy.  I would make a list, hop in my car (at just about any time of the day or night, any day of the week) drive a few minutes to the store, wheel the cart around gathering whatever items I was in search of, go through the checkout line with a cashier who spoke English, load everything in my car, and drive home.

Here I also start by writing out a list.  That's where the similarity ends.  The lists themselves won't even be that similar, with very different foods available.  Once it is decided that food is needed, I have to plan a time to go purchase it.  I can't go when I have class, but I also can't really go in the evening, so I need to find a day when I'm relatively free in the morning or afternoon.  Then I have to make sure that the day is not Saturday (when everything will be closed) or Friday (when everything will be busy with people buying last minute supplies and will close early) or a holiday about which I may have forgotten.

Once I have determined that the current day is a proper one on which to visit the grocery, I load up a cart and some bags and begin the trek, hoping the cart wheels are firmly affixed this time.  

Our carts and shopping bags.

Yes, that's right, I walk to the grocery store, probably about a mile away.  Don't get me wrong.  I'm not complaining.  It's just that in the States, assuming there was a grocery store that close to my house, I would still probably take the car because of the time saved and the advantage of being able to transport more goods than I can comfortably carry by myself.  

Anyway, after 15 minutes or so I arrive at our produce guy where I'll get all the good stuff: peppers, tomatoes, cucumbers, onions, garlic, potatoes, nuts, and whatever fruits are in season.  

The outside of the produce place.

Those are our staples, since produce is relatively cheap here.  After having gathered all the foods I want there I'll take them to the counter and hope that the guy there doesn't ask any questions because he doesn't speak English and I don't speak Hebrew.  

Once this endeavor is successfully completed,  I take myself and my produce across the street and down the hill to the grocery store.  

The grocery store inhabits the bottom story of this building (below street level here).

Leaving the produce in the cart by the door, I have the option of renting a shopping cart for my shopping, or of using my grocery bags to carry everything around the store.  Usually I'll use the bags, trying to move quickly before they get too heavy and I get too tired.  I'll try to avoid getting cheese because I'm not very good at communicating what I want to the lady at the cheese counter.  I'll hope (in vain) that products haven't changed or been moved around, because I won't always be able to understand the Hebrew labels.  In vain because, for example, the dairy section is always in a different order than it was the previous week and includes slightly different products.  

The frozen food isle looks fairly normal, though I rarely purchase food from it.

Once I have everything, I'll check out, again, still hoping to not need to communicate much.  Usually they'll ask me a question in Hebrew and I'll look at them blankly or say "lo" and hope that was the right answer.  

Waiting to check out.

Just in case you need pots, pans, underwear, or children's books, the store has all those things as well.  

With everything purchased I have the task of loading as much into my cart as it will fit, and then carrying the rest in bags as I trek back up the hill, down a hill, and up another hill, on my way home.  I'll hope that the eggs are secured and not squished, that nothing will fall out, and that my cart still won't loose a wheel.  Again, it often happens that these hopes are in vain.

Fifteen or twenty minutes later I'll arrive home, hot and sweaty and out of breath from lugging 50 pounds of groceries up that last hill.  Fortunately, my apartment is basically the same level as the street, so at least I don't have to lug everything up a bunch of stairs. 

I don't say all this to complain.  It's enough of a hassle that I'm glad when one of my roommates gets the groceries so I have a week off, but it's not a bad way to live.  It's just a good reminder of the relative ease of life in the States that we often take for granted.  

Recent Sights

Another smattering of thoughts and pictures from life in Israel.

The other day I found a rose on the road.  I figured it was left there for me by a secret admirer.  So I took it home.  

Some very cute kids hang out by the ruins at Jericho, among all the Opus Reticulatum.  

Apparently, sheep like standing stones as well as your average American tourist.  They don't climb on them quite as well, though.  

If I were the spider that built that web, I would be really unhappy.  

I believe in a former post I mentioned the wedding-decorated cars?  Well, that season is back.  Here's another one.  

As it turns out, there have been more people from home in Jerusalem in this one week than in the whole two years I've been here.  This is me with a friend from High School/College days.  

The Eagles are Coming!

"There is no real going back. Though I may come to the Shire, it will not seem the same; for I shall not be the same. I am wounded with knife, sting, and tooth, and a long burden. Where shall I find rest?" ~Frodo, Return of the King

Several times over the past semester I have compared my experience at JUC to that of Frodo and Sam at Mount Doom.  I don't mean  to imply that it has been a miserable or traumatic experience.  Certainly there have been elements of misery and trauma as are common in life, but it has been a wonderful blessing to spend two years on this "journey" to my MA.  The point is, though, it has changed me.  It has changed us.  There is a handful of other hobbits, dwarves, elves, and men who have been with me on this journey, some for the full two years, some for slightly less time.  We have traveled together, explored, studied, learned, hiked, swam, endured burning sun and freezing rains and flying rocks, watched sunsets in desert skies, shared meals, shared rooms, laughed together, prayed together, studied the Bible together.  There is something about living in a foreign country where there is the combination of so much ancient history (especially Biblical History) and so much modern conflict.  There seems to be a general consensus: after this, it's going to be hard to fit back into life in the States.

However, fortunately for Frodo and Sam, journeys always have an ending.  This JUC journey is ending for most of my companions.

One more meal together before more departures.

The Eagles are coming and, one by one, taking my friends back to their own little "Shires" where, like Frodo and Sam, they will try to find a place to fit and search out the company of others who have had similar experiences, looking for people who understand, and hoping for many JUC reunions in the years to come.

A few of us help my roommate of two years pack up.

A few of us will still remain after this summer, to continue the journey together.  Our absent companions will be greatly missed, but it is a huge blessing that a few will remain to grow together some more, and to add a few more companions as we journey on.

Testing

Remember those days of yore when you would go to bed at night, dreading a large test the next morning?  Maybe you dreaded the standardized tests in grade school (CTBS or SAT or whatever) or maybe the SAT or ACT or an AP test in High School.  Or a large final in college.  Or the MCAT, FE, or even the GRE.  So many initials and so many long tests.

You would probably try to go to bed early the night before the test.  If you were smart, you would have been studying for weeks or even months prior.  If you were like me, you  might try to cram in a few bits of information the night before and hope for the best.  Eventually, though, bedtime would come, and you would fall into a restless sleep, punctuated by odd dreams involving conjugating verbs or solving systems of equations or diagramming circuits or whatever the subject of your coming test.  Occasionally your slumber would be interrupted as you started awake, fearful that you had overslept.  After a glance at your alarm clock you would go back to your uneasy dreams for a little longer.  Eventually morning would come and you would get up with butterflies in your stomach.  You would force yourself to eat a good breakfast, knowing you would need energy.  You would gather your #2 pencils, erasers, calculators, passport or other form of ID, extra paper, and whatever odds and ends were required, and head to school.

For me it seems that these test always took place in the spring.  The sweet, sharpness of the cool breeze would add to my alertness as I attempted to calm the butterflies in my stomach.  Eventually everyone would get there, details would be taken care of, and the test would begin.  After all the preparations and dread, that was the easy part.  Maybe I'm just weird, though. :)

Today I had such a test.  I am not sure if I should be proud or ashamed to say that of all tests I have ever taken, I probably studied more for this one than any other.  I almost never study for tests, but I've been studying for this one since February.  This is partly because of the nature of the test, a Hebrew Comprehensive exam.  We were to translate and become familiar with 10 narrative chapters in Hebrew Scriptures and most of our questions were to be taken from that section.  I also studied with a partner, which is something else that I almost never do.  In this case, though, the added accountability was quite useful.

So last night I went to bed after having spent most of the last two day studying Hebrew, in addition to the semiweekly sessions since February.  My dreams were indeed punctuated by a jumble of mems and beits and other Hebrew letters, all vying for precedence.

The test itself consisted of 3 sections (translation and questions on our 10 chapters, a sight translation, and a Historical Geography question).  It ended up taking me about 6 hours, and in retrospect, I don't think it was too bad.  Of course, I still don't know if I passed, but I have been assured that passing is the most likely outcome.

So, I can relax a little more.  Until I take the Historical Geography Comprehensive exam in a week or two.

Oh, and for any Hebrew scholars out there, this is one of my favorite verses from the section we translated.  English translations just don't seem to do it justice: (1 Kings 21:21)

 הִנְנִי מֵבִי אֵלֶיךָ רָעָה וּבִעַרְתִּי אַחֲרֶיךָ וְהִכְרַתִּי לְאַחְאָב מַשְׁתִּין בְּקִיר וְעָצוּר וְעָזוּב בְּיִשְׂרָאֵל

Life News

I have been posting less frequently of late, I believe.  There are a couple connected reasons for that dearth.  

Reason 1: I am busily engaged in attempting to finished all projects and papers and comprehensive exams so that I will be graduated, Lord willing, by the end of June.  

Reason 2: At least in part because of that goal, I have had less time to go exploring and adventuring, and less time to write about the little daily adventures.  

At any rate, here's a brief update on my life for those of you out there who might care about such things.

1. As stated above, I'm working on finishing up projects, including one wherein I plan out a 15 day tour of Israel.  The map below shows all the sites I am hoping to "visit" with my tour.  Yeah, there's lots of them.  If you want to visit me (hint, hint) I could give you a sample tour. :)

2. I'm hoping to be back home for a month or two this summer, so if you happen to be there too, give me a call or send me an email or something.  I want to see people! :)

3. Lord willing, I'm hoping to come back here next fall.  I think I've told many potential readers of this blog about that personally, but if I haven't told you and/or you'd like more details, just ask. :)

And that's all I have this time. :)

Guard your heart

Proverbs 4:23 "Above all else, guard your heart, for it is the wellspring of life." (NIV)


Philippians 4:7 "and the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus." (NKJV)

These are the only two verses in the Bible that I know which use the phrase "guard your heart" (at least in some translations), yet this phrase is used all over by Christians offering advice on relationships.

It's rather ironic.

The first verse in its context seems to be quite clear in its warning to guard your heart, against sin, not against possibly painful emotions, which is how it's generally used.

The second verse seems to be speaking of guarding the heart from anxiety and worry.  Again, not much to do with romance.

When most Christians today use the phrase "guard your heart" they are warning against becoming too emotionally involved too quickly with a member of the opposite sex.  Such warnings may be logical, but I'm beginning to wonder if they're Biblical.

Some might argue that in the culture the Bible was written in there was no idea of dating.  Marriages were generally arranged, and a bride might only know her intended husband for a brief time before they were legally married.  There was then a time of "betrothal" where, though legally married they were not physically intimate, in which emotional attachment could presumably be cultivated.  Thus, there was little risk of developing an emotional attachment to someone who was not to be your husband and girls could effectively "guard their hearts" and avoid painful breakups.  Christians then argue from this culture to say that young men and women pursuing a relationship should attempt to avoid emotional attachment until at least engagement, thus making break-ups less painful.

I have at least two problems with this argument.

First of all, simply because something was done a certain way in the culture of ancient Israel, I don't think that is reasonable to conclude that that is the best way to do it.  All cultures need to be redeemed by the gospel, and Israelite culture is no exception.  There is evidence that some of these same women who were so properly betrothed, once married, also worshiped clay images of women with large breasts, praying for fertility.  Should we then advise Christian couple struggling with fertility to make their own clay goddesses to pray to?  Arguments from culture, though possibly having valuable insight, are not on par with arguments from Scripture.

Second, I don't recall any place in the Bible where we are told to avoid emotional pain.  Human nature wants to avoid pain, and there is no wisdom in looking for it unnecessarily, but some emotional pain is unavoidable.

C. S. Lewis writes in The Four Loves:
Of all arguments against love none makes so strong an appeal to my nature as “Careful! This might lead you to suffering.”
To my nature, my temperament, yes. Not to my conscience. When I respond to that appeal I seem to myself to be a thousand miles away from Christ. If I am sure of anything I am sure that His teaching was never meant to confirm my congenital preference for safe investments and limited liabilities.…
There is no safe investment. To love at all is to be vulnerable. Love anything, and your heart will certainly be wrung and possibly be broken. If you want to make sure of keeping it intact, you must give your heart to no one, not even to an animal. Wrap it carefully round with hobbies and little luxuries; avoid all entanglements; lock it up safe in the casket or coffin of your selfishness. But in that casket—safe, dark, motionless, airless—it will change. It will not be broken; it will become unbreakable, impenetrable, irredeemable. The alternative to tragedy, or at least to the risk of tragedy, is damnation. The only place outside Heaven where you can be perfectly safe from all the dangers and perturbations of love is Hell. 

Separation of Church and State

"Separation of Church and State" is a phrase that is anathema to many Christians in America today, often with good reason.  With the innate religiosity of humanity, complete separation is utterly impossible.  The religious view of politicians will always dictate their decisions, whether they are atheistic humanist, evangelical Christians, or fundamentalist Muslims.  With that in mind, it is also reasonable that people hope to have politicians in power who most closely share their own religious views.  I think sometimes there is the view among American Christians that "If only we could get a good Christian president and a good Christian congress, everything would be okay.  If only the country was run by Christians, we wouldn't be in such a mess."  Of course, non-Christians react strongly against this "ideal" situation, claiming "Separation of Church and State!"  Ignoring the misconceptions and problematic logic of both sides for the moment, I'd like to offer a different view point, gained from living in a state where there is no separation of "church" and state and where the majority of inhabitants of the land are not members of the state religion.

Israel is Jewish state, with all that implies.  Demographically, roughly 74% are considered Jewish.  So far, that doesn't seem like much of a problem.  Sure, there are the Christian and Muslim populations which will be bound to have their problems with the government, but my comments on the system lie elsewhere. 

There are roughly four main branches in Judaism today: Reform, Conservative, Orthodox, and Ultra-Orthodox, listed in order of what we would call least "conservative" to most "conservative."  Between these four there is a broad spectrum of Torah interpretation, and the results of these different interpretations are clearly showcased in the political arena.  

The Chief Rabbinate in Israel, the religious governing authority, is Orthodox.  They specifically have authority over marriage, divorce, and conversion.  This causes problems.  

Imagine for a minute that America did not have a policy forbidding the government to control the church and forbidding the church to control the government.  Instead, let's say that some specific Christian denomination was in control of the government, or some aspects of government.  Just for the sake of illustration let's say its a Baptist denomination. 

So, now, in America, the Baptists are in control of marriage.  Say you are Methodist.  You want to get married.  You go to get a marriage license, only to find that you are required to complete a 6 week premarital counseling class with a  Baptist minister.  Once that is complete, the ceremony has to be done inside a Baptist church, on a Saturday.  You begin to be a bit upset.  

Or perhaps you are agnostic and wanting a divorce.  You apply, only to find out that you must first supply proof that your husband has been unfaithful to you, since that is what is required for a Biblical divorce.  Not only that, but then you also must complete 6 weeks of counseling with a Baptist minister, hoping you'll change your mind.  Then you find out that technically, only the husband can divorce the wife (because in the Bible the man gave the certificate of divorce).  If he refuses to divorce you, you're out of luck.

Maybe you're Catholic and you just adopted a child from China.  You want to get citizenship for them, but then you find out that in order to become an American citizen, they have to convert to the religion of the state: Christianity.  So you go through the process of having them confirmed in the Catholic Church.  You return to apply for citizenship to find out that Catholic conversion doesn't count.  They have to be converted to Baptist.  In addition, if you want to adopt another child and also get citizenship for them, there had better be proof that you're raising your first child as a Baptist, or else your second child will not be allowed to convert to gain citizenship.  

Sounds a bit frustrating, yes?  These are examples of the sorts of things that are faced by the many Jews here who are not Orthodox.  Examples could be multiplied, but I think I have made my point.

The government is probably not the right place to try to enforce religious morality, especially for Christianity.  Brothers and sisters, if we are to impact the world, change must happen one heart at a time.  Using legislation to make people behave as you want them to behave simply doesn't work, as illustrated by the Israeli government.  Frustration and rebellion are the result among those who disagree with your stance, not increased morality.  

I do not write this to say that we should not try to make good laws or elect good officials.  I do write this to say that

1. We should not pin our hopes on the government and

2. Maybe we should be thankful for "separation of church and state" because we might find that whatever religion ended up in control might not be as friendly as we would hope.