Harvesting Gani

I am red…is it a sun burn? Or have I become a communist? Both, I am a kibbutznik.
I arrived, clean and naïve and within minutes they stripped me of my pretty dress handed me a patched up denim outfit and a pair of used work boots. Twenty minutes later I was sitting in the dining room getting the orientation.
“That’s where the new immigrants sit”
“That’s the goat cheese that was made in our own dairy”
“That’s where the retired old ladies sit…don’t let them see if you don’t finish your plate”
“That’s the mean French man, only sit by him if you are feeling confident”
“That’s the Rabbi of the community”
“Those are the Yeshiva boys, they don’t talk to women, so don’t even try”
“If you mix the chocolate powder with the coffee, it’s really yummy”
…………and so it went, I got all the survival advice I needed, a pat on the back, and a good luck bidding.

For those of you who do not know, a kibbutz is a type of collective community, original to Israel. The movement was born in the late 19th Century when Jews began returning to the land. Setting up small, self-sustained, agricultural communities was the only practical way to survive in the land when there was no central government or a grid to be on. Life of a kibbutz is very interesting and counter-intuitive for the self-interested capitalistic system us westerners are accustomed to since all resources are pooled and evenly distributed… the farmer and the lawyer make the same money (sorry). Everyone eats together in the community dining hall, works together, and governs together. The social experiment proved successful and was the breeding ground for the hard, tough pioneers that came back to resettle the land. Today the kibbutz movement has lost much of its fuel since there is an official Jewish State and many can’t find ways to generate enough income to support the tribe. Nevertheless, these utopian communities still exist and many people prefer this setup as opposed to cities and suburbs. Most kibbutzim resorted to tourism or operating industrial plants to generate income, however this kibbutz is on the cutting edge of large-scale organic farming and agriculture…back to my personal narrative…

Then I got my job assignment: harvesting grapes in the vineyard. Which sounds really romantic, right? Picture me, prancing about with a wicker basket, the hills are alive with music, the Gilboa Mountains to my left, the Jordanian Mountains to my right, me, in the middle of the Beit She’an Valley with grape vines in my hair, leopard print, the music to fantasia playing in the background, a Jewish Dionysus, goddess of wine, festivities, merrymaking, and ritual madness (insert maniacally laugh here)…well not exactly.

The work day starts at 5:30am. After a quick lesson in Torah and some black coffee, we dive into work. The sun has yet to make to make its appearance, although he’s the star of the show. We man our positions in the vineyard, armed with silly hats, scissors, and gloves, unified against our common enemies…the merciless sun and the territorial hornets (getting stung is a right of passage). The sun peeks over the horizon, casting a red glow on the grape vines, breathtaking at first, but then it keeps rising and the faucet of sweat turns on, perpetually leaking down your back…drip drip drip. Time passes but not so quickly and there is only one place to go…deep inside yourself.

When you are spending hours inside your head, it’s important that you enjoy your own company. I refer to it as: The Gani and Jenna Show. Talk about a mild case of schizophrenia, truly a jekell and hyde of sorts; the more refined self-aware version of me (Gani) versus the hedonist pleasure-seeker (Jenna). Man do they go at it. It’s quite humorous to step back and listen in. Both make valid and convincing points, they even switch sides sometimes.

After a while, everything starts to blur, life stories, all valid, equally vivid: standing on Northern Blvd. wondering why there is smoke coming from the Twin Towers, standing at Mount Sinai wondering why there is smoke coming from the clouds, memorizing Boyz to Men songs, memorizing the Shema, killing me softly with his words, building tree houses, salamander hunting, rebuilding New Orleans, ascending the steps at the Beit Hamikdash, standing at the foot of ancient pyramids in Mexico, standing on one foot in lotus pose, crying, laughing, dying, sighing, skiing, being, loving, dancing, telling secrets, getting high, getting low, getting back to the garden, WoodStock or Gan Eden? Lech Lecha, driving my pink Cadillac (plush velvet seats), billiards, Redemption Song, Memorial Day Parade with Grandpa Milton, parading around Jericho, recklessly jumping from cliffs into icy water, recklessly wrecking my car, Criss Cross will make you jump jump, Modah Ani Lefanecha, want to play the game? Is this life or was this the game all along? Am I loosing my mind or have I suddenly found it? Eureka!

And just when I am on the brink of insanity, the sound of the tracker interrupts my thoughts, drowning out the chirping birds and the melodic crickets in the foreground. I drop my scissors, drop my hat, drop my gloves and swagger towards the monstrously large hay covered machine which I ride to breakfast, gloriously, covered in dirt, stinking, barely recognizable.

Do not get me wrong, this work has been extraordinarily rewarding. I am so glad that I am here. So glad to be working in the land if Israel. So glad to be harvesting fruit after the most intensive year of my life. I am glad to have this time to sort out myself. Truly contemplate, meditate, germinate.

Plus the grapes are incredibly delicious and perhaps the most sensual fruit I have ever experienced. The bunches, they hide under the brush (interesting that in nature, the most precious things are tucked away and hidden from sight). I sweep the leaves to the side, exposing the large, supple, juicy clusters, dangling, sun-kissed and dripping with dew…and snip, they fall into my hand.
I have eaten so many a grape.
I am sick to my stomach and drunk, but tomorrow I will do it again.
They are so good.
And the variety of grapes is unbelievable.
Juice grapes, wine grapes, high end organic grapes, purple grapes, seeded grapes, raisen grapes… I could continue but I think you get the point.

I find it quite symbolic that I am harvesting grapes in Israel. I came here a year ago, my garden wild and chaotic, with the conviction to tame it a little bit. I came to Israel to grow, and growth is no easy process. I had to raze myself to the ground, up haul everything, weed it out, plow, relandscape, replant, water, tend, sow, and now…I am harvesting fat organic grapes. Now we shall make some wine and have a toast, will you please raise your glasses...L’Chayim.

I am a Jew

The three weeks...it's a heavy time, a time allotted to feeling the pain. During the hot, oppressive, humid, unforgiving heat of the summer, the destruction of both Temples took place. So tap in, reach deep inside, acknowledge and mourn all the afflictions and deficiencies faced by living in a broken world. People are starving, broken-hearted, hurting, angry, hateful, bitter, jaded, missing...but we should take refuge in the fact that in acknowledging these emotions, we are in fact yearning for a better day. Darkness can only be understood when being juxtaposed to the opposite...light.

I find it difficult to be in mourning right now especially since I am in Israel and have the opportunity to see first-hand the damned nation of Israel build itself up..higher and higher. Watch people coming home after 2,000 years from every corner of the world, watch the children laugh and run in the parks, completely unaware of the years of hostility. Personally I feel like celebrating, because in my eyes the temple is being rebuild already. It's a organic rebuilding, the way the sunrises in the morning, gradual, natural, and progressive.

It's not my style to post other writers, but this gave me goosebumps and I think its important to share the sentiment in Israel in light of all the negative media, human rights accusations, internal strive, etc. It is very rare that I read something that perfectly captures an image, emotion, feeling. Words are so limiting...may we all merit the day that we don't need letters to communicate with each other, just a smile will do. We are obviously on the brink of the universal redepmtion, consciousnesses are expanding. We pray every day, especially now, that the temple will be rebuild, A house of love and prayer for all people in the world...Amen Amen Amen

I am a Jew, by Dan Sporn

Our condition, in Israel, has never been better than it is now! Only The television and the media make people think that the end of the

World is near.. Only 65 years ago, Jews were brought to death like Sheep to slaughter. NO country, NO army. Only 60 years ago,

Seven Arab countries declared war on little Israel, the Jewish State, Just a few hours after it was established.

We were 650,000 Jews against the rest of the Arab world. No IDF (Israeli Defense Forces) or Air Force. We were only a

Small group of stubborn people with nowhere to go.

Remember: Lebanon, Syria, Iraq, Jordan, Egypt, Libya and Saudi Arabia - they all attacked at once. The state that the

United Nation s "gave" us was 65% desert. We started it from Zero.

Only 41 years ago, we fought three of the strongest countries. In the Middle East, and we crushed them in the Six Day War.

Over the years we fought different coalitions of Arab countries With modern armies and with huge amounts of Russian-Soviet

Ammunition, and we still won.

Today we have a beautiful country, a powerful Army, a strong Air Force, an adequate Navy and a thriving high tech industry.

Intel, Microsoft, and IBM have all developed their businesses. Here. Our doctors have won important prizes in the medical

Development field. We turned the desert into a prosperous land. We sell oranges, flowers, and vegetables around the world.

We launched our own satellite! Three satellites at once! We Are in good company; together with the USA (280 million

Residents), Russia (220 million residents), China (1.3 Billion residents) and Europe ( France , England and Germany

35 million residents), we are one of the only countries in the World that have launched something into space!

Israel today is among the few powerful countries that have Nuclear technology & capabilities. ( We will never admit it ,

But everyone knows.)

To think that only 65 years ago we were disgraced and Hopeless.

We crawled out from the burning crematoriums of Europe . We won in all our wars. With a little bit of nothing we built

An empire. Who are Khaled Mashal (leader of Hamas) or Hassan Nasrallah (leader of Hezbollah) trying to frighten us?

They are amusing us.

As we celebrate Independence Day, let's not forget what this Holy day is all about; we overcame everything.

We overcame the Greeks,

We overcame the Romans,

We overcame the Spanish Inquisition,

We overcame the Russians pogrom,

We overcame Hitler , we overcame Germany and overcame the Holocaust,

We overcame the armies of seven countries.

Relax chevray (friends), we will overcome our current enemies.

Never mind where you look in human history. Think about it, The Jewish nation, our condition has never been better than now.

So let's lift our heads up and remember:

Never mind which country or culture tries to harm us or erase us From the world. We will still exist and persevere. Egypt ? Anyone

Know where the Egyptian empire disappeared to? The Greeks?

Alexander Macedon? The Romans? Is anyone speaking Latin

Today? The Third Reich? Did anyone hear news from them lately?

And look at us, the Bible nation – from slavery in Egypt , we are Still here, still speaking the same language.

Exactly here, exactly now.

Maybe The Arabs don't know it yet, but we are an eternal nation. All the time that we will keep our identity, we will stay eternal.

So, sorry that we are not worrying, complaining, crying, or fearing…

Business here is beseder (fine). It can definitely be much better, But it is still fine. Don't pay attention to the nonsense in the media,

They will not tell you about our festivals here in Israel or about the People that continue living, going out, meeting friends.

Yes, sometimes morale is down, so what? This is only because we Are mourning the dead while they are celebrating spilled blood.

And

This is the reason we will win after all.

Feeling crabby?

According to Jewish tradition, each month is infused with meaning and energy that can be tapped into for healing, growth, and self-evaluation. According to Sefer Yezterah (The Book of Creation… which expounds on the first chapter of the Bible), every month corresponds to a different sense, a controlling limb of the body, a zodiac sign, one of the twelve tribes, and a letter of the Hebrew alphabet.

Ok, now pretend that I write horoscopes and that you are checking yours. This is fun, its like make-believe…except real because I am not making this up.

The month of Tumuz is the fourth month,
Sense: sight
Limb: right hand
Zodiac: crab
Tribe: Reuben
Letter: chet

The theme of this month is our sense of ‘sight’, which makes sense since it’s the summer time, a holiday for the eyes with everything blooming and basking in the summer-time sun. Janis Joplin says it herself in the song appropriately titled ‘Summertime’: she’s a looking good now. Also, the name of the tribe ‘Reuben’ comes from the Hebrew root word ‘to see’. And if you still don’t SEE the correlation, Reuben's tribal stone is the ruby, a deep, luscious red, the most vibrant and visually sensual of the stones.

Accordingly, the month of Tumuz we have the opportunity to focus on and rectify our sense of sight. To fix the sight does not mean changing the scenery or getting a better prescription (although if you need one visit http://www.1010optics.com/). Rather, to fix your ‘sight’ means changing your perception of things, taking another angle. Whether you step 90 degrees to the right, step back, take an aerial shot, or zoom in… we should try to take a situation in our life, perhaps a reoccurring annoyance or a tragedy that we can’t seem to get over, and attempt to see and understand it a little differently.

Sometimes it is hard to SEE the big picture, but that because we are but silly humans limited by the spectrum of colors our eyes can detect and the fact that we don’t have more than two eyes, like flies, or complete peripheral vision.

Interestingly, the crab (the zodiac sign for the month) is symbolic of our tendency to focus on the bad surface of a situation, because the crab has an outer shell. Our challenge is to see past the shell, or remove it, in order to reveal this inner truth, soul, or reality. The shell is only a guise, a mask, a trick.

Thank goodness we have the healing power within ourselves to overcome the shadow of the ‘shell’. Since ‘He prepared the remedy before he brought the disease’ (Megilah 13b), we can use the controlling limb of the month, the right hand (or your left if it’s more dominate) to wage the battle against poor sight. The right hand, notably the pointer finger, directs the eye sight. The right hand is also known as being the hand of kindness, of compassion, the hand of love. So we should try to see everything in a positive light, with understanding.

According to Rabbi Kook, the expression “always place G-d before you” really means TO SEE the godliness in everyone and everything that happens in front of your face, before your eyes. Rabbi Kook furthermore says, if you truly love the creator, you will love all that the creator created… which includes all people and trials that we experience. Also, according to eastern medicine, the emotion of anger affects your eyesight and your liver. Therefore when you are mad, you literally ‘see red’.

Yes it is hard to think positively all the time, but I challenge you to SEE it a little differently, change the way you look at your world, at the events in your life. There is a major difference between LOOKING and SEEING. You look at something and acknowledge it as being there, but ‘seeing’ something is how you internalize it.

A practical guideline for how to properly ‘see’: Since it is good practice to ‘walk in the ways of G-d’ (aka emulate Him), we can look into the Torah and find out how it is that G-d see’s things. The very first time the word “see’ is used in the Bible is in the fourth sentence when G-d is creating the world and it says G-d sees that it is good.

Next time you get annoyed, angry, flustered, depressed, etc, try to soften your eyes a little bit. Have compassion. Be a visionary, see the good, and then declare it…. IT’S ALL GOOD

What's the exchange rate?

1 bucket of cooked grains and food scraps = 1 bucket of goat manure

1 bucket of compost soil = 3 bushels of basil

1 bucket of fruit peels and compost material for chicken feed = 2 fresh laid eggs

2 hours of editing = 1 private yoga class

3 hours of babysitting = acupuncture treatment

In Bat Ayin there is a different currency. Cash-money is pretty meaningless in a town where there are 2 places that accept it…a grocery store and a used clothing shop (gammach). Objects that you never thought had value…like your food scraps or animal droppings… are worth investing in and the expression ‘day trader’ doesn’t have anything to do with markets and projections, rather it means to barter while the sun is out (which is silly because everyone is cranky in the heat of the day, you get better deals in the morning!!!)

I pick grape leaves and stuff them, I sit under fig trees and eat from them, pick apples and sauce them, dry sage and bundle them, clip mint and seep them. It’s so raw. It’s so real. It’s also so hot. Thank goodness I inadvertently conditioned myself for the extreme heat, not knowing the day would come that I’d be spending the summer in the Mediterranean dressed in full garb (knees and elbows covered). I knew there was a reason I practiced Bikram’s yoga, a style done in extreme heat, for the past three years. Everyone keeps asking me how I never break a sweat… thanks David.

More about Bat Ayin…it is a small settlement in a somewhat disputed area known by some as the West Bank and known by others as the Judean Hills. I live very close to our brothers, who remind us about it five times a day. It’s quite romantic to watch the sun set with the melodic call-to-prayer in the foreground (it’s a good thing my parents don’t know much about the geography of Israel). Biblically, this is where the tribe of Yehuda settled when the Jews finally came into the land after wandering in the desert for 40 years. I always wondered why their tribe was known as the ‘stone cutters’, now I know. Most of the stone, especially the pearly white stone used to build Jerusalem is mined here. It is also located right on the oldest most ancient trade route in the civilized world, the crossroads of the fareast, Africa, Europe and India.

The Torah learning is so unique and integrative. The gardening portion of the program just ended, although I wake up at 6:00am every morning to work in the field, the learning is now more focused on healing.

My favorite class learning about Rambam’s writing on health. Rambam (also known as Maimonides) reigned from Spain, Morocco, and Egypt in the 12^th century and is the most influential thinker of the middle ages. Besides being a Torah scholar (he was the first to write a systematic code of all Jewish law), Rambam excelled in the fields of logic, science, medicine, exegesis, and philosophy. He served as physician to the sultan of Egypt, wrote numerous books on medicine, and in his free time served as leader of Cairo’s Jewish Community. He was pretty revolutionary, at a time people were bleeding each other to get rid of headaches, Rambam takes an entirely different approach, insisting that healthcare was holistic and varies from person to person, depending on their body build, personality type, ect. His insights are brilliant, I seriously think Rambam could become the next Atkins diet.

The herbal workshop class is also nice. We go out into the garden and learn about different herbs, the medicinal properties, their sources in the jewish tradition, and how to create balms, sprays, teas, ect out of them.

Oh yes, I apologize for never getting to the promised point of the other blog post about when I am coming home. It’s a bit complicated since:

(a) I truly love Israel

(b) G-d keeps opening more and more doors for me here

(c) it’s against the Torah to leave Israel (gotta love that one) and

(d) I only bought a one-way ticket….

But do not despair quite yet, I am planning to sit at my mother’s Thanksgiving table and to cuddle my two new family members that will be making their début into the world around that time and so I will be back (bli nadir) around November in order to do these things... a see all of you of course.

Peace of Pie

SPIRITUAL HYDRATION (an aquatic exhibition)

Sunlight through the reeds along the coast of the Snir River

Bathing in the Jordan River

hexagon-shaped water hole in the lower golan formed by cooling volcanic lava

mikvah in the valley between Mt Meron and Tzfat

sunset accompanied by jazz at the Caesarea Jazz Festival at the ruins of the ancient port city on the Mediterranean Sea

sunrise over the Sea of Galilee

view of the Dead Sea from the top of Masada, the ancient mountaintop fortress

Hula Valley, a favorite vacation spot for birds migrating along the Syrian-African Rift

BAT AYIN...DEFINATELY NOT IN KANSAS ANYMORE

picking daises

building fires for Lag BaOmer

at Bat Ayin, we play with fire

and we play in the orchard

pretty flowers

Sun set in Bat Ayin. The white caravan to the right is where I live.

Figs!!! They are out of control...but if you eat too many, so will you be

Getting a blessing from Oriana Devorah at her beautiful wedding

Dialated Pupils

Shalom, Shavua Tov, Blessing, Howdy. Long time, no post. I hope no one was holding their breath…I hope instead you’ve been involved in deep meditative breathing, basking in the sun, eating melons, and sitting in grassy mounds…or whatever it is you like to do in the summer.

So since we left off…Passover..I believe it was, much has happened. Although I am so tempted to recap, to tell you about my crazy Passover Sedars that involved dancing in the streets of Tzfat for Eliyahu the Prophet and whipping eachother with garlic (apparently it’s a Sephardic custom that is reminiscent of what it is to be enslaved) plus I wanted to tell you all about the bonfires of Lag Ba’Omer, being in the Old City for Jerusalem Day. I wanted to tell you about my dad and Uncle Dave coming to visit me and the miraculous events that took place as we traversed the country, I wanted to tell you so much, but once again, if you’ll oblige me, I am going to fast forward to the present moment, where I find myself on a mountain in the middle of no where while simultaneously being in the middle of everything…Bat Ayin (roughly translated to the pupil of the eye). Stay tuned because I am getting ready to answer that million dollar question…when is Jenna Domber coming back to the United States?

About three weeks ago, I started to come down with something at Mayanot. Although I love the intense learning, the holy women, the central location, the comfortable little role I played at the institution, I started to get an itch..it started in my lower back; the place that no matter how hard you stretch or contort, you simply can’t reach it. Then the itch moved to my shoulder blade, then my arm, and eventually my feet. I was breaking out with something and was self-diagnosed with the summer-time traveling bug and needed a strong dose of random, divinely inspired adventure. So I packed up my backpack, gave a dramatic soliloquy to the women, baked them cookies, and bade Jerusalem goodbye.

…And what a long strange trip it’s been! I covered my body in the best mud from the dead sea, walked on the Galilean waters, dipped in ancient mikvahs along the mountain wadi’s of Meron, bathed in waterfalls along the Jordan River, camped in the reeds of the Sneir, and body surfed the waves of the Mediterranean Sea. It was a bit of a water tour. A celebration of the hydrating, replenishing, life-giving, world-founding, bubbly, sweet, delicious mayim, water, aqua, H2O, whatever you want to call it. So purifying, liquifing, edifying, secret-belying, keep you from dying, and I’m still drying water.....trickling, splashing, gushing

Although I have always wanted to be a mermaid, the time soon came to focus on the other elements…such as the dirt. To ground myself, and to start answering questions, versus holding my breath and seeing how long I could stay under water (which btw is 53 seconds…beat that). And so here I am, quite literally being grounded…I am toiling and working the land in a crazy little communal settlement in the Judean Hills on the edge of the West Bank with a bunch of hippy Breslover Jews doing a three week Torah and Gardening Program.

The learning curriculum is very much my style. Classes include Composting 101, Herbology, Yoga and body movement, Exploring the Biblical Commandment “thou shall not waste”, and Seeing G-d in Nature. We eat organic food, make bonfires, drum in circles, live in caravans, shower infrequently, and wear clothes that don’t match. It’s great. It feels very much like home. My room mate is Nepalese and thinks my name is Gandhi… I don’t think I’ll correct her.

Plus Bat Ayin is a trip unto itself. It’s pretty much a modern day tribal society focused on organic and spiritual living. Everyone has chickens in their backyard, donkeys roam the streets, communal clay ovens bake the Shabbos bread, everyone works together, smacks each others kids, people live simply and in trailers (the Israeli government won’t let them build) but everyone is happy. The kids sit in the middle of the dirt road and play instruments, it’s a very sweet, uncorrupted environment, anthropologists and social scientists should come take notes. And best of all, every single night is the most mind-blowing color spilling genius sunset you could ever witness.

I will be here, Please G-d, for 3 weeks and then I head to the next stop on my summer tour, a religious kibbutz that does organic farming, with a goat dairy and bee cultivation …I’ll let you know how that one goes.

I’ll start writing more now that I am semi-settling in. Thanks for your support and sticking out my journey with me. It’s so fun. Life is glorious, G-d loves us so much and just wants to shower us with blessings…are your hands open to receive it?

I'll try to post pictures soon too.

49 Days to Sinai

Alright, that was the easy part...we left Egypt. Now for the trek through the desert to Mount Sinai where the Torah was given. This is where the going gets a little tough, you've thrown out all your chumatz, cleansed yourself thoroughly and now you are an empty vessel, just waiting to be filled with light and holiness.

The 49-day journey to Mount Sinai is reenacted every year in a ritual called Counting the Weeks...Siferot HaOmer. Every night starting the tomorrow (April 9) you take the 7 emotional attributes found on the Kabbalistic tree of life and evaluate them according to yourself...starting with the attribute of kindness. This link is awesome, it walks you through each day with a brief meditation and some thinks to contemplate..it takes fives minutes..
http://www.meaningfullife.com/torah/holidays/8b/Your_Guide_to_Personal_Freedom_-_Week_1.php

Last year I did this for the first time and it was a tremendously powerful experience. Check it out.
Wish I could type more, but I gotta run, G-d said Go Forth to the Holy Land, see you there.
Muah