In most countries

The Dead Sea Scrolls
November 18, 2004

In most countries, well scratch that, I don't really know about most countries. In the US, before someone becomes a citizen he must learn about the country. He learns about history, civics, etc. Israel has a "law of return" which allows any Jew to quickly become a citizen upon entry into the country. As such, people often miss out on the opportunity to learn about the history of Israel and how the government functions. Whether intentional or not it appears that ulpan subtly serves this purpose. Obviously the main goal of ulpan is to teach modern Hebrew. However, In doing so we are also being taught much about the modern state of Israel. We read biographies of key people such as Eliezer Ben Yehuda, the man credited with establishing Hebrew as the primary language of Israel. We learn about the structure and functioning of the Knesset. And we learn some history.

Recently we read a short story about, what in Hebrew are called, the Megilot Midbar Yehuda, or what are more commonly known as the Dead Sea Scrolls. I know that over the years these scrolls have been the subject of much controversy, but you have to hear the timing of this discovery of what, most scholars believe, was evidence of a Jewish presence in Israel over 2000 years ago. In early 1947 some Bedouin shepards stumbled upon the first few of the scrolls in a cave not too far from Jericho. A few months later the shepards brought the scrolls to an Arab antiquities dealer in Bethlehem. The dealer contacted a professor at Hebrew University and they arranged to meet. They met at the barbed wire no-man's zone that then separated East and West Jerusalem. The professor, Eliezer Sukenik, realized after some initial disbelief that these were authentic samples of biblical text written 2000 years earlier. The date that Sukenik received the samples was November 28th, 1947. The next day, November 29th, 1947, the UN (in what was probably the single act for which it was created) voted to partition Palestine and create a Jewish state.

Even writing it now again sends chills up my spine. Imagine, the day before the entire world is to vote on whether or not to officially allow the Jews to establish a nation in their ancient homeland proof of that connection literally appears out of nowhere. The modern history of Israel is chock full of such "coincidences" and other seemingly inexplicable events. To me all of these events are like a pointillist painting. Up close it's a random bunch of dots, but take a step back and the entire picture becomes clear.

As I'm writing this we are receiving our first significant rainfall here in Beit Shemesh. Amazing, we've been here for 3 1/2 months and this is our first rainfall! Not only that, but the temperature just began moderating a little. We still had the A/C on last Shabbos. What an easy job it is to be a meteorologist here. Eight months a year; "hot and sunny". You could just make a recording of yourself saying, "hot and sunny" and go on vacation for eight months. Now as someone who's favorite season is late fall in the Northeastern US, this has been quite an adjustment for me. I love a cold, overcast day, with bare trees, leaves on the ground, and maybe a hint of snow in the air. (Note to self: You have moved to a desert in the middle-East, get over it.) Well at least it was a pleasure for me to wake up the past couple of days to overcast skies and a cool wind blowing.

Remember our lift saga? It's baaaack. Not exactly a repeat, but close. After much deliberation we finally decided on which car we want to order. It wasn't an easy decision. First of all, even with our Oleh benefits, which reduces the sales tax for us from 125% to 75%, we will still be paying a small fortune for this car. Another factor is the price of gas. Right now it's around 5NIS per liter or about $4.20 per gallon. Diesel fuel is about 1NIS per liter cheaper. Since diesel cars are very common here you'd think it would be an easy decision. However, there is a yearly registration surcharge for diesel so you must figure out how many kilometers you have to drive per year to break even between the lower fuel cost and the higher registration cost. So we did all our analysis, looked at several cars, and finally decided on a Kia Carnival diesel minivan. We ordered the car from a broker who was able to throw in a few extras. We were told that the car was on a ship that was to arrive a couple of weeks ago. Well the ship arrived, but there were no Carnivals on it! So now, once again, we are awaiting our ship to come in. :) I look at it this way. Between the cost of gas and insurance and given the little amount we spend on cabs around here I figure we're saving money every day that boat doesn't come in.

It's begun, "the children shall lead them". Meira has started correcting us. The other day Meira made a bracha on something and Randi answered Amain. Meira said, "No mommy, it's Amen." In case you missed the subtlety of my spelling, most Ashkenazic Jews pronounce the tzeirei (two horizontal dots) with a long A as in "main". In Israel that pronunciation is disappearing and becoming more like a segol (three dots), pronounced like a short E, as in "men". Meira, has quickly adopted much of the Israeli pronunciation. She is rolling her Raishes and she no longer pronounces our last name as LIPKIN. It has become LEEPKIN. Of course as she generalizes this to her English speech there can be humorous consequences.

The other day she pointed to a sleeping bag we have that has a picture of Snow White on it. She said to me, "I can say that in Hebrew." I was very impressed as I figured she'd say something like "Sheleg Lavan", which means snow white in Hebrew. But instead she said, Snow White, with some kind of rolled, guttural "W", which she totally made up because even the Israelis wouldn't say it that way.

Just one more Meira story. The other day when I brought Meira to Gan I had the opportunity to watch her play in the playground for a few minutes. She and a little Israeli boy were near the slide and he said something to her in Hebrew. Right away she said, "luh". (Another pronunciation difference. We pronounce the Hebrew for "No" as "LOW". The Israelis shorten the "O" to an "UH" sound and say "Luh".) The boy then said "ken" (yes). This went back and forth a few times until the boy started crying. I happened to have been standing next to the boy's father. He, good naturedly, asked me in Hebrew what I thought happened. I said that I have no idea, but that Meira did not know what he said to her because she doesn't understand Hebrew yet! I guess being a woman transcends language. :)

Meira is not the only one making strides in Hebrew. Randi has been doing great in ulpan. Always the studious one, her 1-2 hours a night spent on homework are clearly paying off. She is now able to hold her own when in the supermarket or when talking to Meira's teacher. If Randi, the-whole-country-is-going-to-have-to-talk-to-me-in-English, Lipkin can do it anyone can!

We had the extreme pleasure of spending time with "old" friends from Edison a few weeks ago. We really look forward to these visits. We seriously considered stealing their passports, but we didn't think their kids would be too thrilled if we held the parents hostage. My dad and sister are coming next week and Randi's sister and aunt are planning a trip in January. Of course our star frequent flyer, Elisheva, will be making an appearance back home for Chanukah. We're counting the days.