These questions have bounced around my head for the first few days of our trip in Israel. As soon as I stepped off the plane onto Israeli soil I was a little disappointed. I had expected for it to hit me that I was in the holy land that God had supposedly granted the Jewish people, but it just felt like I was some where I had never been before. The next few days we traveled throughout the Negev which included camel riding, repelling down into a crater, learning about Bedouin culture, and learning about how great Israeli humus is.
On Friday all the diaspora Jews gathered together at a nice hotel in Jerusalem and I was blown away by the ruach of the Australian and South African groups, Baltimore has some work to do for Congress. Even after Shabbat services and my hilarious attempt to close services with Laura by singing Adon Olam, I still couldn't grasp the thought that I was in the holy land that our people had struggled for thousands of years to control.
The feeling finally sunk in when we went to the Wailing Wall Saturday night. At first I was incredibly underwhelmed thinking that this one wall covered in ivy had been the holiest site in the world for the Jewish people, the location where millions of Jews for thousands of years aimed their prayer towards. However, as soon as I walked up to the wall I froze in awe looking at the site of hundreds of people gathered along the wall thinking, praying, and crying.
Once I approached the wall I wasn't really sure what to do, but I saw that many people had their hands against the wall and seemed to be talking to God. Once I placed my hands on the stone wall something inside my body dropped, I felt a wave of energy rush from my head down to my toes. I stood at the wall praying for everything I had in my life: the amazing opportunity to be in Israel, my family, and the great friendships I've made with my other Diller teen fellows.
I was at the wall for 15 minutes before I finally left to go back to the group, but in those 15 minutes my perception of Judaism changed immensely. Over the past few years I had begun to lose my belief in there being a god, but after praying at the wall I definitely felt like my prayers had been heard. I felt even more blessed to have been able to bring my great grandfather's necklace with me. The necklace made my experience even more emotional because it made me feel as though I was carrying on the cohein tradition, since my family used to be considered holy priests back in the days of the temple.
Before I left the wall I sang the hatikvah. I don't know why I did, but in the moment it just came to my head. Hatikvah translates to the hope, and that definition could not be more fitting for the latest experience we had on the trip.
We had the opportunity to go to Yad Vashem, the famous holocaust memorial in Jerusalem. The museum was great and very insightful, but I was interested in the contrasts i observed between the museums in Washington DC and Jerusalem. In Israel, the museum doesn't focus much on the horrible things the Nazis did. Not once did we discuss human experimentation or the brutality of the Nazis against the Jewish people. In Washington DC the museum has a lot more shock value, while in Jerusalem the museum focused more so on the perseverance of the Jewish people and the importance of us remembering the victims of the holocaust not just as dead bodies, but as human beings with their own unique lives. Musicians, artists, writers, fathers, mothers, children.
Elie Wiesel, a holocaust survivor and Nobel prize winner for his book Night, recently passed away in the past few weeks. In his book he stated, "Hope is like peace. It is not from God. It is a gift only we give each other". This quote and the message of the hatikvah have such a strong connection. No matter how you choose to practice your Judaism, whether or not you believe in God, you need to have hope. Hope is what drove our people for thousands of years to overcome oppressors, challenge the impossible, and make our culture thrive. Looking forward to the rest of our trip I have hope, hope that I can grow closer to the Ashkemore family, hope that I can deepen my Jewish identity, hope that I can establish a strong connection to the land that God promised my ancestors, hope that the Jewish people will continue to prosper, and hope that I can make the most out of the rest of the time I am in Israel.
Zach Caplan
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