Shimon Bar Yochai versus Pope Benedict

It is Lag B'Omer, 34 days since Passover and last night was bonfire night in Jerusalem. All our clothes which were drying on the line smell like smoke. It was the kind of event that -- if I had just arrived -- would have horrified me. Everyone starts bonfires pretty much anywhere they please... there was a real four alarm-er going in a dusty lot that I could see from our window built underneath some POWER LINES. A friend told me she was so alarmed by the dimensions of the mound of stockpiled wood that she thought about calling the police but she didn't because she didn't know how to say "shantytown" in Hebrew (as in "they are planning on burning an entire shantytown"). Bands of boys have been out picking through construction sites and looting deserted fields for anything that might burn for weeks. They have been wandering the streets with grocery carts full of old lumber and waging raids on one another's hoardes with increasing intensity. The possibilities for injury are myriad. In addition to the obvious -- getting roasted alive -- there are the more arcane as suggested by the power cords, the rusty nails, the toxic fumes, eating flaming marshmallows off the pointy end of a wooden skewer.
After ten months or so in Israel squatting in a dusty empty lot in a tinder dry city roasting potatoes over old furniture and discarded doors seemed like a nice way to spend an evening. Need I say that our boys enjoyed every smokey, filthy, danger-filled minute?
All this is in commemoration of the revolt against the Romans and the yartzeit of Rabbi Shimon bar Yochai, mystic, reputed author of the Zohar, rebel against Rome, hermit and famous grump. As luck/karma/the tripartite and/or ten-emanation Deity would have it we are under siege by Rome at this very moment, though under slightly friendlier circumstances. Pope Benedict is visiting us (not us specifically, though we did offer).
Vatican flags are flying along the Jerusalem- Bethlehem road which the "Afifior" will take tomorrow causing no end of traffic snarls and a late start to school. His visit seems to be running into a lot of trouble so far... he didn't say the right things at Yad Veshem yesterday and a Muslim cleric began talking about massacres of Palestinians in what was supposed to be a non-political interfaith meeting. There are even some Jewish extremists suing to get the gear from the second temple back from the Pope's basement. I am reminded of something Gregorey Levey said in his book "Shut Up, I'm Taking, and other diplomacy lessons I learned from the Israeli government" to the effect that Jews and non-Jews living outside of Israel all believe that Israel is run by this ultra-smart braintrust -- sometimes that's a point of Jewish pride and sometimes its kind of anti-Semitic -- but either way we have this image of a cabal of mandarins who pull the levers of state in Israel. But the sad fact according to Levey is that nobody really seems to be driving the bus at all. I think the Vatican may be sort of the same thing. There's no super-secret DaVinci Code conspiracy or secret order running the show... if there was they'd be able to stage manage these things a little better.
Since I mentioned Rabbi Shimon bar Yochai I will say that we were up north in Rabbi Shimon's old stomping ground last week. We stayed at a beautiful 'zimmer' in Amirim which is in the Meiron mountains, not a five minute drive from R. Shimon's (reputed) grave site. We also went to Pek'in on the other side of the mountains to see his cave and eat some of the carob from what is supposed to be the miraculous carob tree which fed him and his son. The trip was fantastic, Bet Sha'an, Sachneh, the ski resort at Har Hermon (don't ask), the Hashashian (they smoked hashish and then went out and killed people for money hence the english word "assassin") fortress now called "Nimrod" and a walk along the Banias. Then Gamla where I got to see Nesher (aka the gryphon vulture, Israel's largest meat eating bird) on the wing, Jordan river kyaking. Some hiking around Har Meiron itself, the aformentioned Shimon Bar Yochai visit, then Rosh Hanikra and off to David and Ronny's for a well deserved rest. The boys were incredible travelling companions up for almost anything. We are the Wexler-Freedmans, "adventure" is our call.
Today the boys are home and we spent some time this a.m. making animations. I hope Blogger will allow them to move. Remember these are works in progress. As I told Benjy, sound will be added in post-production. Eat your heart out "Soul Mama"