Jewish Geography

Jewish geography is an interesting game, one which I get to play fairly regularly here in Israel. I meet someone, and within the first five minutes, we have found a connection of one kind or another. Perhaps even more poignant is the fact that wherever I go, I bump into people that I know from Australia and occasionally even from South Africa and England.  Today I had a particularly unusual experience! I came across someone I’d met once in the Arava – albeit extremely briefly – sitting on the grass on the promenade which leads to Emek Refaim in Jerusalem. It went something like this...

Having spent a few days in Gush Etzion, which included a wonderful seder with Yossi and Chana Tsurel and their family, I decided to join Chana in Jerusalem today. She dropped me off at the old train station near Emek Refaim which has been turned into a bustling area filled with shops and restaurants. After strolling around and enjoying the warm weather and holiday atmosphere, I was making my way towards Emek Refaim to window shop and have a coffee when I heard someone call out: “Mrs Sabel”. And there was Yoni, the Zionist madrich who is at present working at Bialik College in the informal education department. He lives in the area and as he was walking home, he recognised me from the back! We chatted briefly, swapped numbers and I continued on my way …

A minute later, just before I turned off the promenade, I noticed someone sitting on the grass. I recognised the face but couldn’t place it. Australia – no! South Africa – also not! England – definitely not! Which left Israel … but where in Israel? And then the penny dropped. I’d attended a lecture of hers at Limmud Arava in March which questioned whether society can still use the axiom of what ‘a reasonable person’ would have done in a given situation to decide whether a person is guilty or not. I’d sat through the lecture and understood all of it, but had wanted to clarify the difference in Hebrew between murder and manslaughter, so I’d stayed behind after the lecture to ask.

And so it was that I joined Dr Orit Kamir and her friend on the grass and we talked about Israeli society, what constitutes a reasonable person and why on earth I would want to spend six months living in Israel if my home is in Australia, a great place to live according to the general consensus. And I agreed! Australia is a great place to live and I am very grateful to have a home there. But for better or for worse, my soul resides in Israel and right now, I am in the process of creating a path which will enable me to live happily in two places – literally and virtually.

I am confident that together with those I love, I will succeed in paving a way that will enable me to merge my two worlds, thereby minimising the internal conflict with which I have contended for so many years. And I look forward to many more episodes of interesting Jewish geography!