My Thoughts and Reflections on my Temple Trip to Israel 2025
If you are like me you may not be sure how to relate to Israel and how it fits into your sense of what it means to be Jewish. Going there and experiencing the Land firsthand may be the best way to answer any questions.
I am not sure why I am fascinated with Israel. Whatever its attraction for me is, it has enticed me to have made six visits. The last being our Temple trip on February 13, 2025; during this emotionally difficult week with the release of the hostages and the anniversary of the 500th day of this tragic conflict of October 7th 2023.
For me Israel does not yield its wonders all at once; for me it has been a land that requires revisiting. It has taken many fabulous trips to see its many wonderful cities and sites and to appreciate all of its paradoxes, complexities and its mysteries.
I would like to say that my first trip to Israel in 1966 was a defining moment in my life as well as in 1999 when I was able to rest my hand on the Kotel wall it was a religious experience, but they were not. For me it’s been a kind of an evolution one step at a time. On the first two trips I saw Israel as a tourist, on my next three trips I was able to visit Israel as a Jew, thanks to Temple Israel and its clergy. It was on this last trip that I was able to start to understand a deeper and emotional understanding of what it means to be an Israeli through the voices of Israeli people.
The miracle of Israel is not only in its historical religious and archeological sites but also in its people. The trip enabled me to get a more complete and comprehensive understanding of life in Israel. It made it possible not only to see the sites of Israel but added the dimension of hearing the sounds of Israel in the many voices of the people we met. To be able to really know Israel is to hear its people tell their story in their own words.
In their stories one can sense the vitality and energy that fills the land in the mist of sadness and tragedy. It shows how they live their lives in the present but have a pride and respect for the past. There is also a hope for the future that cannot be fully understood only described and witnessed by their own voices telling their own story.
The voice of Rabbi Gabby and the members of Or Hadash our sister Reform congregation for a glimpse into the world of Reform Judaism over the past year.
The voice of the research people at Neot Kedumim (pleasant pastures of old) where they are recreating the land in a way it was in the bible through the disciplines of biblical scholarship, botany and archeology to bring the bible and its stories to life.
The voices of Israeli and Arab activists at Beit Ha Gefin trying to bring together Arabs and Jews through art and promote coexistence and tolerance in a time that it is truly needed.
The voice of Rabbi Dali through music at Haman il Pasha to celebrate Havdalah
The voice of Mohammed Darashe at Gival Haviva a center that implements comprehensive and educational programs for Jewish and Arab students to foster learning, understanding and imparting tools for a shared society in Israel.
The voice of Yahel and other Bedouin women telling their story of the inequality of being born a girl as we planted flowers to help beautify their community.
The voice of the people at Healing Space a pioneering response to the unprecedented trauma inflicted by October 7th and the subsequent war.
The voice of Kabbutz Ein Hashofet established in 1937 who played a leading role in the American Zionist movement.
The voice of the Jewish Ethiopian community as told by Aklum through the story of his family and his activism in fighting the bias and prejudice to the Ethiopian community.
The voices of random Israeli citizens as we visited different cities and memorials.
But most of all there was the voice of our guide Uri , who was able to put all of these voices into one coherent and understandable story that is Israel with all of its complexities, paradoxes and mysteries. He also brought with him the voices of Israel poets and singers past and present as we walked and travelled through Israel.
There were two more voices that moved me; it was of our Rabbi Jesse and fellow congregant travel companions sharing what was meaningful and moving to them. The experience we shared formed a bond that will last forever. We all had a great time.
For me Israel is definitely a land that requires revisiting. If you give it a chance it will touch all of your senses, in its history, beauty of the land, miracle of her survival, the voices of its people and a hope for the future.
So give yourself and or family a wonderful gift by taking the next Temple trip to Israel. Israel is an experience that every Temple member every Jew or any person who wants to get a better understanding of that part of the world should experience. From the moment you take your first step on Israeli soil and start to experience the land and its people, “the land which God swore to your ancestors,” you realize that there are three stories being told the biblical story of the Torah, the archeological story of history, and the story of modern Israel. You will not regret it. Be part of the story.
– Bob Hirsh
Visit to a Memorial 2025
Six times I have come
To see this Land
Each time more memorials
In new places exist
Where tears water the soil
I stare at the horizon
A beautiful view
So peaceful and pastoral
Then reality strikes
Why am I here
Pictures of beautiful faces
Under their names
Dates start to tell a story
2000 in something to 2023 October 7th
I star back to the horizon
Knowing there must be
Eyes staring back at me
A border I cannot cross
Yet so close
Words of Genesis fill my thoughts
“What have you done
Listen
Your brothers blood
Cries out to me
From the soil”
We live so close
We have so much in common
We have both lost so much
I would call you neighbor
But I don’t really know you
You don’t really know me
We pray to the same God
Descendants of Abraham
Followers of different sons
Yet we both love the same land
We call it Israel
You call it Palestine
Safety is measured by a no man’s land
By the width of a buffer zone
By a Rainbow called the Iron Dome
So many years we failed
To have the conversation
To really understand the other
So many words not spoken
Turned to bullets and missiles
Hatred and fear grew
Blood continued to water the land
I want to have the conversation
To see and understand you
So, you can understand and see me
But today may be too soon
So, I pray for something that does not
Yet exists
Peace! Shalom!
I hope to visit the Land again
To stand under the Rainbow of Peace
Where no new memorials exist
A peace we gave our children
In a Place
Where their blood no longer
Cries out from the land
-Bob Hirsh
