Vivian DeGain Better at 50 Blog
Columnist and arts writerIsrael study tour nourishes the spirit
Detroit Jewish News 6-16-05 “Community View”
Path to Spiritual identity
By Vivian DeGain
When I began to study with Rabbi Joseph Klein at Temple Emanu-El in Oak Park last fall to become Jewish, he had been planning, coincidentally, to lead an adult study tour through Israel in April. Some coincidences are no accidents.
My husband, Doug, is not Jewish, but agreed that any trip with Rabbi Klein to Jerusalem, to an archeological dig in Tel Maresha at Bet Guvrin, to the Negev, Dead Sea, Masada, Tel Aviv and Tzfat, would be the trip of a lifetime. It was our first trip abroad together in 23 years of marriage.
Every moment of the journey created discovery and opportunity, discovery of a natural splendor and topographical history, and the opportunity to profoundly connect with the Eretz (land of) Israel and with Yam (the people) Israel, the basic pulls on the heart that drew me to conversion.
Though as a child I was raised Catholic, remarkably, it was often the Jewish people in my life, their intelligence and compassion, that inspired me to heal myself during some very difficult challenges, as well as instructed me about Tikkun Olam, how to repair the world.
Chance meetings? I don’t think so.
And as coincidences go, we found them all over Eretz Israel as we landed in Ben Gurion Airport.
As the Israeli desert bloomed in the crimson fuchsia, wisteria lavender and lemon yellow of spring, to our delight as bird watchers, White Storks, giant oriental gliders with a wing span of over five feet, were migrating from Africa to Europe over the Great Rift Valley. Like them, we were drawn to the thermal currents in answer to some ancient instinct and voice. The birds require the warm currents to provide them the means to support their enormous body weight for the long cross-continental flights. Our group “glided along” with the constant support, insight and translation of Rabbi Klein and a professional guide, Amir Or-li from Keshet Tours.
In our visit, two weeks of ancient cities and remote dessert, we saw people in every imaginable garb: Bedouin women wrapped in blankets, Tel Aviv women wearing bikinis, Moslem women wearing burkas, Orthodox men wearing black hats, suits and coats of the Middle Ages. We saw young gorgeous men and women dressed in the green and brown camouflage of military service, as contrast in emotion, freedom and the cost of freedom.
It’s no surprise to Jewish people that landing in Eretz Israel arrives with intense joy, recognition and feeling that one is home – home and safe at last. It’s common to kiss the sand and shed salty tears back into it.
But for me, to go as part of the process of becoming gioret, a Jew by choice, the trip brought me to a language, a landscape, a people and a history that transcended everything I had known to everything I wanted to know.
Becoming Jewish before coming to Israel meant learning Hebrew phrases and prayers, phrases like Yerushalayim, Mt. Zi’on, mitsrayim, Shehechiyanu and l’or vador, beautiful words. Becoming Jewish since going to Israel means knowing these words in very tangible and sensual ways, that Mt. Zion is a place. Mt. Zion is sand and stones and hills under my feet, and there, the Kotel (Western Wall) is stone architecture, standing for some thousand years. The Kotel is smooth and bumpy, has little smell and is cool to the touch.
Yerushalayim is a freedom, a very delicate freedom.
Since going to Israel, I want to find the vocabulary to explain to Jews and non-Jews that there, hundreds of laughing children play in neighborhoods within feet of bunkers. They seem to know this and play in the courtyards outside anyway. That for me wanting to be Jewish, is wanting for them and myself, peace, prosperity and identity. That being there was walking where home is, was like walking through a cemetery with a stone that I placed in my own heart.
In many places on the trip, Israelis would approach us and ask, “Is this your first trip to Israel” and “What do you think?”
As an American in the Negev, I was dumbstruck by the immense beauty and spirituality in the craters of Mitzpeh Ramon, or in the mountains climbing to Masada. Overlooking the land below Masada, or wandering through Jerusalem overhearing the clamor of the Moslem call to prayer, the bells of Christian churches, and the chanting of Hebrew prayers. No wonder enormous religions have sprung from this land. No wonder.
Over these next months, my journey to conversion will continue with Rabbi Klein, to learn more about Jewish liturgy and Jewish holidays, Israel history and her independence. He’s introduced me to Israeli poets and Jewish literature — and I’ve only scratched the surface of what will be a lifetime of study.
Vivian DeGain became a Jew by choice on January 20, 2006.
Thank you for this reflection. There is indeed something about that moment when the plane touches down. you captured so much, Vivian and so beautifully. Yasher Koach! Wonderful job!