Beginning with a Blessing

As with all beginnings, it is good to start with a blessing:

Baruch. . .shehechiyanu, v'kiyemanu, v'hegiyanu laz'man haze

Blessed are You, O G-d, ruler of the Universe,

who has kept us alive, sustained us and enabled us to reach this time.

This prayer of new beginnings will be recited again when we first arrive in Jerusalem. In a few weeks I will have the privilege of leading my first Temple Mission to Israel from Congregation Beth Israel in Portland, Oregon.

Yesterday morning, as we were snowed in for the second day here in Portland, I had an early morning conference call with the ARZA office in New York and Israel. For over an hour we reviewed the itinerary line by line.

This is going to be a very exciting trip!

It is a trying time in Israel. Months after the summer war in Lebanon the country is still reeling. As we were going over the itinerary the newspapers were announcing the resignation of the army Chief of Staff Dan Halutz, the architect of the war and widely seen as responsible for many errors in its execution. http://www.nytimes.com/2007/01/17/world/middleeast/17israel.html Not since the Yom Kippur war of 1973 has there been so much political and military upheaval in Israel. One of the reasons for taking a mission to Israel at this time is to see for ourselves what the situation is and to learn ways that we can help.

Aside from many of the usual tourist spots we will be spending time in Southern Israel, hopefully touring a military base, and in the North where there was so much upheaval from the daily barrage of rockets. We will learn about relief and reconstruction efforts. In Jerusalem we will also be hearing from a representative of Rabbis for Human Rights, http://www.rhr.israel.net/ an organization which promotes a humaine approach to solving the Israeli - Palestinian problems.

My family in Israel tells me that there are many things going on now that do not make the newspapers, like the constant fall of Ketusha rockets - not just in Sedorot, but all along the Gaza border. We will try to understand better the current challenges and - hopefully - opportunities.

I am very excited to begin this journey.