My Journey Through Israel: Passover vacay

Passover in Israel is a time to clean, clean, and just when you think you’ve cleaned as much as humanly possible you clean some more. It’s also a time to buy lots of new stuff, particularly stuff for the house, whether that is some new bedding, a stovetop, or a whole new kitchen and living room. It was really funny to see how crazy people get around Passover both in terms of cleaning and buying all kinds of new stuff. On the eve before Passover, I got to experience a “Hametz hunt”. The main reason for the extensive cleaning process is to get rid of any possible residue of hametz (anything that is forbidden to eat on Passover like bread, cookies, etc). So the night before the holiday, once it gets dark all the families (at least in Beit shean) took out their flashlights, shut the lights in the house and went around looking for any traced of hametz. It was so cute and the kids were so excited, it was like a treasure hunt or something, like they had mission to make 100% sure there was not a crumb in the house.

For the actual seder, I went with my host family to a moshav near Jerusalem where Ilana’s whole side of the family got together to celebrate (over 60 Sephardic Jews). It was interesting to say the least. The seder itself was very long and they spoke really quickly, so it was a bid hard to follow, plus there were about 10 children under the age of 3 that were getting very ancy and I was trying to calm at least the ones from my host family down throughout the 3ish hours I believe the seder was. One of the highlights of the seder was Nissim and another guy (they were leading the seder) decided to put on a costume and pretend to be Egyptians and yelled at everyone else like we were slaves. Passover is supposed to be more meaningful if you actually feel as if you are leaving from Egypt, so maybe they were trying to evoke that or maybe they were just trying to be funny. Whatever the case, it was really entertaining and my favorite part of the seder. The foods were different from a typical Ashkenazi seder too. For example this is definitely the first seder in which rice was served. Sephardic Jews eat rice and other grains, unlike the Ashkenazim. Although, they do use different spices, which makes the food all, taste a little weird. Also the charoset was like a paste, which was a little weird but pretty good. I still missed the charoset I’m used to though; I think I will have to make it for fun one night to get my yearly fix. Anyway the moshav we stayed at was in the middle of the woods and we all stayed in log cabins. The next day it was hag (like Shabbat), which means that you can’t drive, use electronics, etc. So the whole family hung out together, kind of like on Shabbat, barbequed and enjoyed the wilderness. It was very pleasant, the place was beautiful, and it was a great opportunity for me to hang out with my host family and to use all the Hebrew skills I gained from my time and Beit Shean.

After the Seder, I went to visit Moriah for a few days, where I saw a bit of the center of the country, without being in Jerusalem or Tel Aviv. It was a really nice city, not to big, not to small, and her family was awesome. Her parents are American, so they speak English in the house, but the kids have so many Hebrew expressions that can’t really be translated, so they end up talking hebglish, which is very entertaining. Even I have started to mix together the two languages to come up with a unique mixture of things I like to say from both. While I was with Moriah, we went to the mall and saw a really cute balloon display for Passover, which showed the whole story, from all the plagues, to pharaoh, to Moses parting the sea. My time with Moriah and her family was really fun! They were so welcoming, warm, but unlike the people of Beit Shean they were very American so it was easy to relate to them.

Then Arielle and I went on our adventure to Greece. We went to Athens, saw the Acropolis and all the other historical sites and then we had 2 more days. Athens was cool, but you don’t need more than a day there, especially not on Easter Sunday and good Friday when nothing is open anyways. The acropolis was really neat though and I got the best jumping picture ever in front of. I’m pretty sure Athens should use it for an ad. Then we ferried to Santorini where Arielle and I played endless games of Yaniv. We arrived to Santorini and Stavros (the hostel owner) was there waiting for us to take us to our hostel. He was the best! He was so kind and went above and beyond to help us with anything we needed on the Island. Santorini itself was so beautiful, it was amazing to look outside and basically see a postcard. We saw the sunset in Oia (my favorite part of the trip), went to the volcano, red rock beach, black beach, and all over the whole Island. We rented an ATV so we could go and explore the island how we wanted and it was so much fun! Plus the ATV was orange and blue!! (Along with our hostel room, and so many things throughout Santorini- it’s a gator-loving place =)) The only problem was that it was quite cold, and not beachy whether like we had planned. The vacation was still really fun though, especially Santorini- I recommend going there; it’s a wonderful place for a vacay (or holiday as the rest of the world calls is).

Then we came back to Tel Aviv to go to the beach and embrace the warm weather and the Hebrew we missed so much. It actually did feel very comforting to start hearing Hebrew in the Cyprus airport, and then to come back to Israel, which has been our home for the past 7 months. We have created a life here, something special; something I think will connect us all to Israel, and make us come back as often as we can to visit. In Tel Aviv I met with Dana and tried to explain how wonderful Beit Shean was, but I still don’t think I convinced her. In a Tel Aviv state of mind, Beit Shean seems so far from reality, that it’s hard to see how wonderful it can be. It’s definitely a developing town, people have true points, but I still think until people go there and spend a significant amount of time with the people, you can’t judge, because there is something special in Beit Shean that I haven’t seen anywhere else. From Tel Aviv I spent one more night with Moriah and then I was off to Jerusalem for the last part of my program!