Visiting Promising Lands at Home Versus Visiting the Promised Land Abroad

When I was a child, many of our family vacations were in the Jewish Alps known as the Catskill Mountains for 10 days to two weeks in the summer.

Later as a teen, we progressed to traveling to states close enough that you could drive to by mobile home, stay at K.O.A.'s (Kampgrounds of America), visit a museum, amusement park or fort and return home all within 13 days, which probably led to my need of years of wanderlust like vacations to see the entire USA.

When my wife and I married, we decided that we would go places where you did not need a passport. For the last 20 of 21 years, our son has joined us in our summer treks to see the sites of America. We have been to states as far west as California and Oregon, as far north as Washington and Michigan, as far south as Texas and Florida and as far south as Maine. Because of our involvement in lacrosse, we have actually traveled to parts of Canada, the Bahamas, St. Thomas and Mexico.

We have visited 36 or 37 of these fantastic US locales (if you count Puerto Rico and the US Virgin Islands). And we have seen some very amazing sights and done some pretty different, unique and wild activities. I can’t wait to visit the rest. On the other hand, my son got to visit some European locations like Belgium, Holland and Germany because of college lacrosse and field hockey. However, it seems that his most memorable vacations were the ones he most recently took to Israel.

In the summer of 2011, he went on “birth right” with Taglit-Israel Outdoors, which provides free educational tours and bonding experience to Israel for young adults aged 18-25. This is a touristy kind of tour, which visits many of the popular sites like the Wailing Wall, Dead Sea, Holocaust Museum, Tower of David and Eilat Fish Pedicures.

In the winter of 2011/2012, he went on what I call “Afterbirth Right” with Aish Connections, which provides low cost educational tours and bonding experience to Israel for young adult college students aged 21-28,who have been on a birthright type trip. This is a nitty-gritty tour, with a smattering of educational class time, into the underbelly of Israel. The tours visits many other sites like the Ministry of Defense, the West Bank, a military base, an active police station, Snapeling (rappelling) down a cliff, a donkey ride in the desert, the Arabic market, celebrate Sabbath in the Kotel Square and so on. He also got to rekindle his appreciation of his faith as well.

My son told me, “It was like I woke-up after a long restless nap, from the moment I got off the plane, I was more alert and awake than I’ve ever been. The mysterious land that I was first told about in Hebrew School and at Seders and holiday the stories of the ancestors of my ancestors, who walked and walked for 40 years, until finally they reached the Promised Land and made it a state. It was Amazing!”

As he regaled his recent stories of his travels, I did not see much of a difference in what we experienced as a family in the USA in years past, as opposed to his solo experience, except for his intense feelings at the end. You see, as his friends huddled into a circle on the small patio, they all held out their plastic cups (like at the New Jersey Shore) to get them filled with kosher wine, liquor and grape juice (like in Illinois). 

They kept their hands clasped around each other’s arms (like in Washington, D.C.) in the warm breeze, smells of animals and tobacco in a light drizzle as they sang a blessing along with their tour guide. After drinking too much, they all stood for a minute looking towards the cloudy, rocky hills of Jerusalem before gratefully and wobbly heading back towards their tour bus. He looked over his shoulder at the cities distant lights, and remembered his overwhelming feelings as he stood and prayed this very morning with yarmulke, prayer shawl and tefillin at the Western Wall.  Even though it only lasted a moment, he felt a strong sense happiness, belonging, peace and fulfillment that he knew he would never forget.

According to him, moments like this happened almost every other day on both trips to Israel. He knew how exciting it would be to ride a camel, climb through cliff tunnels and to bob like a cork in the Dead Sea. His mother mentioned quite seriously via text, “You make sure you get a picture covered with the mud!”  He has visited many places with historic importance in America, but now felt like he was walking in the footsteps of his ancestors while in Israel, sometimes even more profound were the unexpected emotions, like those he felt on that drizzly night with the wine and grape juice in the Hills of Mount Herzl. There was also unreal sadness he felt as he walked out of Yad Vashem Holocaust Museum, or when he stood with friends in the Mediterranean waves laughing like a carefree ten-year old at Brighton Beach.    

Also unexpected was how quickly he connected with the Israeli soldiers…both male and female ones, all of whom made a point to revisit and spend "alone time" with him on his second trip. He even calls one “his brother from another mother.” He was intimidated at first by the unfamiliarity of the Hebrew language and their modes of dress, but before he knew it, he was in a ramshackle restaurant, listening to loud music with a few of them eating Shwarma, Falafel and Kuba, (Israeli meatball soup) and telling childhood stories. He was surprised yet again by Israel’s varied landscape. 

The rocky hills near the Golan Heights strangely mimic the terrain of Western Nevada; while to the south has beautiful beaches like San Diego and rocky deserts like Wyoming. Furthermore, he met people who welcomed him like long lost cousins (much like they did in Colorado). No matter how conflicted he may feel about Israel’s political past, he can never deny how beautiful a place it is or how gracious it's people were to him.

On the last trip to Israel he developed a cold and bronchitis and was impressed by their kindness and speed with regards to healthcare. To him Israel was a place like Gettysburg, or Boston Harbor, a place to touch history. But also to see with his own eyes, the traditions up close and what he prayed about in the HES (Hebrew Educational Society) and at synagogues across America as a child. 

Even though the people, buildings, languages, skylines and politics are different and it a dangerous place filled with tanks, landmines, bombs, extreme fanaticism and Molotov cocktails, (His tour bus was actually struck with a catapulted boulder) it’s still a place entwined deeply with cultural roots. I’m not sure if I will have the same feelings once I visit as my son had, but he is intent on trying to see if he can. I'm betting that his mother will.