Good Morning Everyone,
I had a good night’s sleep and I am ready for the day that has already begun. Standing by the Mediterranean Sea welcoming the day and Shabbat, listening to the rabbi I was able to organize my experience of the last two days. I thought about Pharaoh and his power and slaves and their lack of power or lack of direct power. I remembered the line about God’s hardening the heart of Pharaoh and the increase in the level of violence of the plagues in response to that hardening, the result being that Pharaoh wanted the Israelites to leave and they could not wait to get out of there. I realized that I can easily think about my personal life of when I have no control and when I have the power and I have used it to make good decisions--when I have not hardened my heart. But today I thought more about Israel and I realized that if I used the pharaoh/slave paradigm for Israel I could create a format from which to understand and organize my thoughts.

The bottom, formative line: Jews have been persecuted throughout time and expelled from most countries. Now they are in a land of their own. How do they incorporate their “childhood” experience of being victimized that came before achieving” statehood-personhood?” How does the victim mature and not become the victimizer. Now that Israel has power, how she not become the pharaoh that all abhor? There are psychotherapy and medications for individuals but what about a society? The areas of concern that we have covered in only two days are situations that highlight the problem—how does a diverse society meet the needs of all its inhabitants and show compassion and tolerance, not fear and violence? The social agencies that we met with represent various aspects of the under/unrepresented in Israeli society. Does Israel act with force to threats as if it were still weak and on the verge of annihilation? Is it able to evaluate various threats individually and act accordingly like one would hope of from a mature society? Can they ask, "Is really a dangerous situation or does it just remind us of the past when we were kids and were afraid?" But how does a society make that distinction?

As I wrote what I just wrote, I see the questions as too simple. But for now I am leaving it as it is.

I figured out one of the problems that is emerging for me is the conflict between the strong desire that Israel should be perfect, reflect perfectly her ideals (and mine of course). And of course Israel is not perfect nor should/could she be, being created and run by people. If I can wrap my mind around this basic fact, I can look at the specific issues and examine how Israel is working to fix her problems but also see how she aggravates situations.

This afternoon we saw two instances that bring me hope. First we visited with an ecologists from Zalul a NGO working to cleanup Israel's waters. Water is king here, very necessary, very limited, an origin of conflicts about countries in this area, but could be a focal point for collaboration among the countries in this area. It gave me hope.

Then we visited a mechina (gap year program for students between high school and the military) affiliated with the Reform movement in Israel. These young people live together, study, and do volunteer work in the poor neighborhoods of Jaffa and South Tel Aviv. We had a rare opportunity to listen to them in a large group and talk with them individually. The experience for most of us was one of hope. These young people were willing to talk about the hard issues such as being in the military, and serving in the occupied areas, and poverty. Although young they are maturing into adults who face questions and want to do the right thing. They are being exposed to opportunities that teach them how to make change.

We joined them for havdallah and left for dinner.

Shalom chavarim v'chavarot. L'hitraot.