There are millions of people who live in Israel. There are also many, many people who visit Israel. They range in age from the delightful newborns that you get to sit next to on the plane, to the great-grandparents who are blessed with the ability to fly across the ocean to shep nachas from the generations that they are responsible for. One of the great things about Israel is the range of activities that present themselves for the range of tourists that visit her.
On our recent visit, we wanted to spend as much time with son #2 as possible. After all, that is the reason we were there. According to our tour guide, or the man formerly know as husband #1 (still working on a new title), this limited what we could do while we were visiting our homeland. A likely story. He explained that since Sha’alvim is in the middle of nowhere, we needed to be close to nowhere because we didn’t want to interfere with too much of son #2’s learning. (And let me assure you, there is a great deal of learning going on.) One of the things I have learned about my son’s yeshiva is that students tend to choose it not only because of the level of learning, but because of the very fact that it is in the middle of nowhere. No distractions of having to go into town to meet people every night. The social scene is limited because these young men are trying to concentrate on their spiritual growth. And, every part of the program is “optional” because the folks in charge know how seriously these boys take it and that they would never dream of not participating in something. Again, if you are reading this and scratching your head as to how I have a kid who goes to this school, scratch away. I have no idea.
So back to the tour guide. It seems we were on the senior citizens guide to Israel. Very little walking (well, until we got to Jerusalem, and then I took over), only one or two activities a day and time allotted for at least one nap. Meals were early and often and we were in bed by 7:30. No, I am kidding, About the going to sleep early part. There was college basketball on—how could we possibly go to sleep early? While they were watching basketball, I would go on Facebook, because that is where I get my news, and I would see how many other people were also visiting Israel. But they were doing hikes and climbs and cooking in the desert. They were going to Eilat to snorkel and up North to do whatever you do up North. Jeeping and Segwaying—wow, there is a lot to do in this country!!!
But we were also doing amazing activities. We volunteered at Leket, where the man formerly known as husband #1 helped run an assembly line of oranges, grapefruits and beets (he had never seen a beet). We went to Sderot to bring food to those that cannot afford any, courtesy of Stuart Katz, who is a whole article unto himself and an amazing tour guide. He brought us to an army base on the Gaza border, where we were able to thank and feed soldiers. We went to the Coca Cola factory in Bnei Brak where we watched soda being bottled and found a close-by mincha minyan (because if you aren’t going to catch mincha in Israel, where are you going to catch it?) and so many other things that we will save for the next in the series of Ganchrows Take Israel.
The bottom line is this, for a small country, there is a lot to do. And within all there is to do, there are different levels of what you can do. Or you could just spend your time eating. In conclusion, I would like to publicly thank our tour guide (gee, maybe I should just start calling him that) for arranging a great trip. Even though he almost killed us four times and almost ran out of gas, almost doesn’t count and a wonderful time was had by all.
By Banji Latkin Ganchrow
Banji Ganchrow wants to know if there is anyone reading this who has tried every waffle on the Waffle Bar menu… I am thinking of putting that challenge on my bucket list.
