Touring Sites as Israelis

Some friends and family have told me that they are impressed that I have what to write about each and every week and I just want to say here that I do not take this for granted.  Since making aliyah Matt and I have been blessed with the ability to travel, explore, and really enjoy life.  Even when we experience the less good or crazy stories, they usually turn out to be hilarious when written down, so we are grateful for that too.  We try to make the most of every minute and this week has been no exception.

In just this short week I have toured the Baha'i Gardens, Bialik Street in Tel Aviv and Mukhraka (this week also included trips to Jerusalem and Binyamina for work, but I won't talk about those here).  

We love when friends come visit us.  Firstly we love it because we get to see our friends, but we also love it because it gives us a good excuse and motivation to do some touristy things.  Out first visitors this week were a couple we know from Chicago and with them, I got to go to the Baha'i Gardens (sadly - for him - Matt had to go to school).  The Gardens are part of the Baha'i World Center which is located here in Haifa.  

Things I Enjoyed: The Gardens are absolutely stunning to walk through.  You get an incredible view of the Haifa Bay as you descend the garden stairs.  We climbed down approximately 700 stairs during the tour (I felt this in my legs the next morning).  We learned about the Baha'i religion and the background of the Terraced Gardens.

Things I Learned: The Baha'i religion was founded by the Baha'u'llah in 19th century Persia.  It is based on the teachings of the Bab, of whom Baha'u'llah was an early follower.  The Bab is buried in a large shrine in the center of the Gardens, his remains secretly brought here from Iran and buried on March 21, 1909.  March 21 is the Baha'i New Year (it is also my birthday).  The shrine was around for decades before the Terraced Gardens began to be built in 1987.  They were fully completed in 2001.  There are 9 terraces above the shrine and 9 terraces below the shrine.  Each terrace represents one of the Bab's 18 disciples.  There are approximately 100 professional gardeners who maintain the gardens daily.

Our second set of guests were friends from Jerusalem who came to stay with us for Shabbat.  With them, we took advantage of the fact that they came with a car and drove over to Mukhraka.  Mukhraka is the highest point on the Carmel mountain range and houses a monastery dedicated to Elijah the Prophet.  

Things I Enjoyed: To get to Mukhraka you drive through the Druze towns of Daliyat el-Carmel and Issafiya, which have beautiful and interesting architecture.  You can climb to the roof of the monastery and get a breathtaking view of the entire north of the country.  From there you can see the Hermon Mountain to as far as Tel Aviv, you can see from Nazareth to the Mediterranean.  Matt taught us about the history of Elijah at this place.  

Things I Learned: Mukhraka is the location where Elijah faced off against the prophets of Ba'al and God sent down fire from heaven to consume Elijah's offering (I Kings 18:17-46). The word Mukhraka is Arabic means "burned place".  The Carmelite monastery has been located at this spot since the late 1800's and houses a 12-stoned alter, reminiscent of the alter Elijah placed there which he constructed from 12 stones.

In the middle of the week, while in Tel Aviv for work, we were taken to tour Bialik street as part of our training.  Bialik street is home to Beit HaIr (the former Tel Aviv City Hall), Haim Nachman Bialik's house, Reuven Rubin's house, and some Bauhaus architecture.

Things I Enjoyed: Being able to visit important historical tourist sites as part of my job. Touring sites that teach me about the creation of the modern Hebrew language while being guided in Hebrew.  Seeing the beautiful and thought-provoking artwork of Rueven Rubin, including the original of a poster we have hanging in our apartment. Learning new things and gaining a new appreciation for Tel Aviv.

Things I Learned: The street was name Bialik Street while Bialik, the national poet of Israel, was still alive and living on the street. Bialik was able to make a good life as a poet and author because he married a rich woman.  If you see a photograph of Bialik with a mustache it means it was taken outside of Israel, whenever he came back to Israel, he shaved his 'stache.  Bialik and Eliezer Ben-Yehuda, the father of modern Hebrew, disagreed about certain words.  Bialik won out by using the words the way he thought they should be in popular literature (ex: we say כרובית, not כרוביה).  Rueven Rubin, whose house is now an art museum of his work, painted a large scene of a Passover Seder where the seder plate is missing the shankbone. Next to the plate, however, a Palmachnik (an elite fighter of the pre-state underground army) is extending his forearm, symbolizing  the sacrifice made to establish the freedom of the modern State of Israel.  Jesus is also sitting at this Passover table.  The building that housed the original Tel Aviv City Hall was built with the intention of it being apartments or vacation rentals.  Bauhaus architecture and furniture are designed to be functional rather than beautiful.  Many guests of the Bauhaus museum ask if this is IKEA furniture.  Besides artists and poets, most of the original inhabitants of Bialik street were doctors.  

There is so much to see in our small little country and we'd be happy to show you around if you also want to be our guests!

Have a great week,

Stef and Matt