Explaining the Deep Bath metaphor a little and the bigness of Rhinos

Pamela emailed to say she doesn't get the Deep Bath. She is concerned that this may be because of her pregnancy but I think it is probably more because I just left it all very opaque, hoping it would seem, well, deep. Let me try to explain with a story. Years ago, I came to Jerusalem with my brother who had stopped in and surprised me on kibbutz while he was on a round the world jaunt. We stayed at a hostel and in the morning when we were leaving the guy at the desk stopped us. He was a young American guy, blond mid-western, not Jewish, former Marine I think he said and he was doing rip curls while he was sitting at the desk, pumping his already considerably pumped biceps. "Goin' to the Wall?" he asked. We said we were. (That's the Western Wall, the last surviving element of the Second Temple; actually a retaining wall and not a wall of the Temple itself so whether it qualifies as a piece of the Temple is up to you). It is considered by most to be the holiest sight in the world for Jews. "Your feet are gonna burn. Your gonna know you're standing on holy ground," said the guy behind the desk without interrupting his curls. He had a little bit of baptist preacher in his voice. I had been before and didn't feel my feet burn. I guess I was curious to see if it would happen this time, or if indeed I would feel any deep religious stirring though it is an impressive wall and it is impressive that Jews can now pray there freely (which they couldn't do before the war in 1967 when the Old City of Jerusalem was under Jordanian control). It is amazing to see so many people praying so intensely but I always felt left out of that intensity of feeling. And sure enough my feet did not burn when we got from the hostel to the Kotel. I had that same feeling that I should be feeling something more. A non-Jewish semper fi hayseed could feel it and I couldn't. But maybe that was just because I was looking for it, or not looking or too far gone down the road of worldliness... who knows? Then you wonder if all these people are just crazy. Anyway, I often have the feeling that everything in Jerusalem is kind of overdetermined, religiously, politically, historically. Like I am thinking about what my experience is supposed to be rather than what it is. You think the bath is deep but maybe its just a bath, even a little shorter. The heat helps with this. So do the kids.
We went to the Zoo yesterday though we did not see Aravah. The place is enormous and we got a membership since it is obvious that we will have to go back. I will say that rhinoceroses are very big and that is about all that can be said on that subject because if you try to get across in words or pictures the bigness of rhinoceroses you will just fail. I also have a story to tell about the Jerusalem central Bus station making up for the generally civilized and well-behaved travel experience we had arriving at Ben-Gurion Airport, and that story will resolve the not-very-mysterious mystery of Bag number eight (see previous post) but it will have to wait. The boys start school next week everyone keep your fingers crossed. Thanks, Gala for taking care of Lev's blanket. We miss everyone at Over the Rainbow, in Montreal and Vancouver. Ariela has gret photos from the zoo, definitely check it out. Here is one that I took while we were waiting to go in.
Love J