“For this Prelude, I don’t have any pictures. Primarily because I didn’t have a camera during that first week in Tel Aviv. Even if I did, it’s doubtful I would have taken any since I wasn’t engaged in sightseeing… In order to help the reader get a sense of some locations mentioned in this story, I will post some photos and maps, which I got from the internet.”

Chapter One

“Upon arriving in Tel Aviv, I was in the state of what I refer to as “beingness”. With no plan, no guidebook, no itinerary, nor even an idea of where I would spend my first night. Having traveled solo to many countries over the years, this circumstance wasn’t novel to me…”

“My flight from New York City arrived late on a Friday afternoon in early December. After retrieving my battered suitcase from the luggage carousel and clearing customs, I found my way over to the bus loop in front of the terminal. There I found numbered stanchions with schedules bound for Tel Aviv and Jerusalem posted in weather worn plexiglass frames.”

“As the bus wound its way towards the city, I stared out the window at this unfamiliar yet very well-known land. Everything I had ever imagined from childhood bedtime readings and 1950s Hollywood biblical epics soon dissipated. These timeworn lands, dear to my imagination, were now a jumble of over-developed suburban landscapes thick with the works and ways of modern life. Teeming highways crowded with cars and plastered over with billboards. Factories and strip malls. Junkyards.”

“Not having any other options or even the faintest idea of where I was, it was a simple decision to hop off the bus and check into Momo’s on Ben Yehuda Street.”

“After showing me where the communal bathroom was, he led me down the hall to an undecorated dormitory room with five or six bunk beds… I plunked my suitcase on the top bunk in the far corner of the dormitory. The room was in a significant state of disorganization. Several well used backpacks were leaning against the bunks with piles of dirty laundry heaped on top of some beds. The odor of sweat, like old sneakers, stung my nostrils.”

Chapter Two

“Within a few minutes, I came upon a fortified structure surrounded by concrete Jersey barriers. Looking up over the main entrance, I was taken aback to see it was the United States Embassy. Overhead, there was a flapping sound. Gazing upward, an American flag with tattered ends was snapping against a blue sky in the morning breeze.”

“… I stepped on my heels and after a few random lefts and rights came upon the blue Mediterranean. Relieved to be away from the hubbub of Ben Yehuda Street, I crossed a promenade onto a long stretch of deserted beach. The wind had picked up and waves were beating against the shoreline so, kicking off my sneakers I strolled along barefoot in the cool sand until I stumbled upon the town of Jaffa.”

“In the course of my many travels, despite having been to scores of beautiful and historic locations, it felt remarkable to visit my very first biblical site. After wandering around in silence for an hour, I bought a piece of flat bread from an Arab bakery and sat upon one of the stone staircases which make up these small side streets. Chewing on the warm bread, I got lost in thought and stared out beyond the Mediterranean to where the sea and sky merged in a haze…”

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jaffa

Chapter Four

“The fact of the matter is that my father’s side is Jewish. They just escaped with their lives from the Bolshevik inspired pogroms in Ukraine after the events of October 1917.”

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pogroms_during_the_Russian_Civil_War

“All Jews,” I said, “at some point had their origins in Israel. After the Romans destroyed the Temple in AD 70, the nation was dispersed. Many of the survivors from that catastrophe were carted off to the furthest bounds of the old Roman Empire as slaves. So, although my grandparents were born in Eastern Europe and elsewhere, their origins had to have been from here.”

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Siege_of_Jerusalem_(70_CE)

“My question provoked and incensed him. He raised his voice in disgust, not at me particularly, but at the idea which I had presented. “Religion? Do you know how many people have been killed fighting over this Holy Land of yours? Do you know how many young boys, both Jew, and Arab, I have seen killed, dead, because of religion?”

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Six-Day_War

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yom_Kippur_War

Chapter Five

“By the end of the week, I came to recognize the usual gaggle of regulars when I took my accustomed stool and ordered a Goldstar.”

Chapter Six

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Torah_ark

“I had never seen an Ark before, let alone hear about one such as this, so it was with a genuine, intellectual interest and religious fascination that I proceeded. Swinging open the heavy doors, I peeked inside the cabinet. Much to my surprise, all I beheld were stacks of scrolls…”

Chapter Seven

“We started our slow ascent up into the brown rolling hills of Israel—a strange ancient land indeed. The ride was only about an hour, and before I knew it, we had entered the suburbs of another metropolis.”

“Soon enough, we reached our destination. I beheld a medieval battlement in front of us and realized we had arrived at the Damascus Gate in Jerusalem.”

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Damascus_Gate

“Then, like out of a dream, there it was in front of me—Herod’s retaining Wall. The last remnant of the Second Temple… To a lay observer, it would appear to be nothing more than several courses of stonework in varying degrees of shape and size, which had been stacked up over the millennia. Toward the upper layers, scraggly bushes were sprouting from the clefts between the rocks, with a host of sparrows darting in and out of the many nooks and crannies.”

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Western_Wall

“Blowing high over the top of the Wall was a white plastic bag wafting down from the heights of Temple Mount. Filled with warm air from the afternoon sun, it puffed and billowed like a little sail. I watched it hover in the breeze, unnoticed by the throngs below. Like a disembodied spirit of Ariel wandering through space, it slowly floated down to the plaza below.”

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Western_Wall_Plaza

Author’s Note

Momo’s was a different place when I stayed there in December of 1998. It appears from the photos on the internet that the atmosphere and style has changed very much from the time depicted in this story. Everyone treated me very well during that time and I only have fond memories. Next time I’m in Tel Aviv, I’d like to stop in again for a Goldstar or a cup of coffee. All the best to everyone who might still be there. GP