Eilat: Israel’s vacation center. Beach, boardwalk, hot all-year-round, what could be better? I just returned from Eilat with 30 friends. I leave for the navy at the end of the week – at which time we all begin our respective choices for the third segment of our nine-month “Israeli experience.” We will  be scattered around the country. 

Despite the fact that the beach had neither waves nor sand, it was an amazing vacation and a great time to get away from Jerusalem’s cold spring nights. 

On our last day as we returned to the hotel to get our bags, my friend asked me if I noticed the security detail crowded around a bag that had been left unattended on the boardwalk - a ‘suspicious object’ as they call it in Hebrew. Everyone in Israel knows, and everyone who visits learns quickly, that a #1 rule in Israel is never to leave a bag unattended, not because it will get stolen, but because you truly will never see it again. It took about fifteen seconds for someone to notice the bag, call security, and for a small robot to come and inspect the bag and attempt to implode it if necessary. Israelis have had to become suspicious of every bag and every person – this is sad.  But it is comforting to know that the bag situated on the same boardwalk on which I had been sitting was handled with expertise and without hesitation. And so it goes in Israel. 

We had 3 wonderful days of jet-skiing in the ocean(from where we could see the distant mountains of Saudi Arabia, Egypt and Jordan – much closer to home we could see dolphins), bathing in the sun, watching some TV-series that  we had missed all year, sitting by the heated pool, and going out to dinners together. After this I appreciated for the first time what it means to take a gap-year before going to college. We had just finished finals from the Jerusalem section of our course and besides a select few who are re-applying to colleges, we had absolutely no (none, zero!)responsibilities. For the first and probably the last time in my adult life, I don’t have to worry about school work or jobs. Starting next year though, the work will pile in, and after that grad school and then a “real” job, and who knows what! In the meantime  I am free, and loving every second of it in the most spiritual place in the world.

Someone once told me, “Coming to Israel and not seeing Rachel’s grave is like coming home and not seeing your mother.” After visiting my mother, my matriarch, Rachel, I found this statement to ring true. 

Rachel was the wife of Jacob and the mother of Joseph and Benjamin  (see Genesis chapters 29-35). She is regarded as a “mother” of Israel – a woman of virtue and valor.

A little while ago, we traveled together on a bullet-proof bus (this is the law when you travel to any of the potentially dangerous areas). As we neared the city of Bethlehem we noticed tall, steel, walls on either side of the bus creating a very narrow street to the grave-site. When I got off of the bus, I noticed a tall guard post filled with Israeli soldiers guarding this small area controlled by Israel to protect  this sacred Jewish site. 

Inside of the gorgeous marble building was a grave fit for a king (or a queen); it was a grave like those of the righteous men buried in Tzfat, Israel’s second holiest city for Jews, which I had seen earlier in the year. Only Rachel’s grave was a bit bigger and the grave has its own enclosing building. Rachel’s grave is partitioned by a wall, separating the men from the women. Many pray and recite special psalms and personal prayers on both sides - some just observe. Tears were streaming down some of the women’s faces; others were concentrating so intently on their prayers that I don’t think they would’ve budged if there had been an earthquake. The feeling I got when I saw her grave, united  with every women there visiting our ancient “mother,” was truly a feeling of returning home.