Tel Aviv – The first “Hebrew” city

Posted by Michal Garmise on November 17, 2008 under Traveling in Israel, Vacations in Israel | 2 Comments to Read

The young beauty is celebrating its 100th birthday

Prologue

Sticking to proper English grammar rules, one would have to refer to Tel Aviv as “It”. You will excuse me, as for me Tel Aviv has always been a living organism, so I shall refer to Tel Aviv as a “She”, and a glorious She for that matter.
People either hate Tel Aviv or love her. It is simply impossible to be indifferent to her. So many songs have been sung about her, so many poems have been written, glorifying her decadent beauty. The city by the sea, hot and humid in the summer, wallowing in the sands of the Mediterranean, the salt eating the flesh of her buildings, was the home and exile and muse of the first Hebrew poets. Young and angry, hungry for new identities they sat in small cafes, drinking and smoking their lives away, arguing like their lives depended on a word, a phrase or an idiom. They fought for their ideas and ideals to the last drop. Tel Aviv absorbed them and became the cultural capital of Israel.
Now those young enthusiastic youngsters are just street names, other poets live in those streets, enthusiastically reinventing that same old wheel.
What is the secret of her charms?
For her 100th birthday I would like to tell you about her virtue. Have a seat, it might take a while.
This is the first article in a series about Tel Aviv.

Let’s begin at the end

Tel aviv’s official population stands today at 391,300 residents. However, this number does not include the many young people who rent apartments and do not bother to register. Tel Aviv, which is spread over 33 square miles, is considered to be Israel’s cultural capital.
There is a university in Tel Aviv, as well as three large museums:
The Tel Aviv Museum of Art
The Eretz Israel Museum for archeology and history of the land of Israel, and Bet Hatefutsoth Museum for Jewish history (). In addition there are numerous small museums and galleries. There are three big theaters, an opera house and a few busy fringe theaters.
Tel Aviv is known for her vivid night life and numerous cafes.
But that is not what makes her so special.

What’s in a name

Tel Aviv is named after the utopian novel written by Theodor Herzl (the founder of the political Zionism) in 1902 called Altneuland in the German origin, which means the old-new land.
This novel reveals the outline of the vision Herzl had for the Jewish state, not just a refuge for the Jewish people but a cultural and spiritual center.
In those days, mind you, he needed quite an imagination to anticipate such a notion. The novel became one of Zionism’s establishing texts and was translated into Hebrew by Nahum Sokolov, who poetically translated the name to Tel Aviv.
The word ‘Tel’ in Hebrew means Mound – a man-made hill covering the remains of an ancient settlement. The word ‘Aviv’ in Hebrew means spring – which metaphorically is used in all languages to describe revival and renewal. So as you can see a lot lies in the name of this city: it is full of contradictions. Old and new, beautiful and ugly (like any big metropolis it contains both) intellectual and materialistic etc.

How do I love thee? Let me count the ways…

A kind of naïve romantic story lies behind the establishment of Tel Aviv, and the unbelievable rapid growth she went through reflects the story of the Jewish state. The story of its unique architecture mirrors the “split personality” that all Israelis have to some extent. In its folds we will find the incredible story of the revival of Hebrew language. We will discuss all that in the next coming weeks. Meanwhile here is a little teaser:

Torah ceremony

Posted by Shira Cohen-Regev on November 13, 2008 under Jewish Holidays | 2 Comments to Read

After mastering reading in first grade, the Israeli child is ready to read the Torah in its own language. The second graders go through an exciting process that prepares them to receive the Torah. The peak of this process is a big ceremony in which they receive the book of Genesis.

My daughter Daphna just received the book and for that reason, I conducted an interview with her so you may get the child’s angle of beginning studying the bible.

How did you prepare yourself to receive the Torah?

At school we learned that the Torah (תּוֹרָה), the Mezuzah, and the tefillin (תְּפִלִּין, phylactery) are written with a quill pen (קֻלְמוּס, culmus) like in the old days. We also saw a real Torah scroll. It was much smaller than the one we later saw at the synagogue but I was very excited to touch it.

We also went for a visit at the local synagogue. It was just before Rosh Hashana, so the Rabi Blew the Shofar for us. We saw three Torah scrolls with beautiful ornaments. On the way back to school we got wet from the first rain of the season (הַיּוֹרֶה, hayore).

The rain gives us and the land life just like the Torah fills us with wisdom and life.

What was in the Torah-receiving ceremony?

The girls in my class danced to the music of the Shabat song: ” שָׁלוֹם עֲלֵיכֶם מַלְאֲכֵי הַשָּׁרֵת ” (Shalom aleykhem mal’akhey hasharet, Welcome ministering angels). I was very excited to dance to this music. The boys danced to the music of ” אֲדוֹן עוֹלָם ” (‘Adon ‘Olam, Lord of the Universe). (A mother’s note – I had tears in my eyes watching the little angels dancing heavenly on the stage). The other classes sang songs related to Torah stories and conducted a play about the revelation of Sinai and why G-d decided to give the Torah to the children of Israel.

How did you feel when your teacher gave you the Torah?

After the show, we went to our class and our teacher gave each child a beautifully wrapped Torah and a little bag full of raisins and almonds. I was very excited because I felt that finally I have something that is very important. We learned a proverb that says:

” טוֹבָה תּוֹרָה מִכָּל סְחוֹרָה  ”

“The Torah is better than all merchandise.”

It means that the Torah is more important than everything that we may buy, because it is a book given to us by G-d and it is very ancient.

What is the significance of the raisins and almonds?

Our teacher added a note reciting a proverb by חז”ל = חֲכָמֵינוּ זִכְרָם לַבְּרָכָה (xaza”l, our Sages of Blessed Memory):

” כְּשֵׁם שֶׁהַצִּמּוּקִים מְתוּקִים, כָּךְ מְתוּקָה הַתּוֹרָה עַל שׁוֹמְעֶיהָ ”

“As the raisins are sweet, so is the Torah sweet to all its listeners.”

What have you study up to now?

We learned about the creation of the world. We learned that first it was chaos (תֹּהוּ וּבֹהו, tohu vavohu) – there was not light and no darkness, no morning and no night, no plants and no land, and G-d organized it all and created the animals and the human beings. We are very lucky that G-d made it this way, because if we were created before the land we would have drowned in the sea.