Memory Lane

The things I do to beat jet lag.

Disturbingly, after one week back in Israel, I’m still waking up at 3 am, not tired at all. The good news for you is that I have been using this time to work on the Penguin Panorama 2007 Calendar, a Matt Lebovic Living original product coming to the Internet soon. The bad news is that I am f—ked up and need to get back on track.

Today I took a gallant stand against jet lag by putting myself on a bus to the Galilee at 8:30 am. The goal? Stay awake all day until midnight, tire myself out, and then let the sleep roll in like Niagara Falls until at least 7 am. After two hours on the bus I arrived at my Galilee destination – Nahalal.

Nahalal was the first moshav in Israel, founded almost 100 years old. A moshav means that the farming operation has some collective elements, but not everything is shared like on in a kibbutz. Nahalal is one of Israel’s most famous places, in part because of its pizza pie design. When the pioneers came to settle the Jezreel Valley where Nahalal sits, they built the moshav in a circular fashion for defense reasons. All the houses and farm buildings sit in the center of the circle, and from that core radiate the pizza “slices,” aka farms. Many aerial shots have been taken of Nahalal and its design has been copied in Israel and elsewhere (see photo above, from israelimages.com – a HOT site).

A malarial swamp just a century ago, the region was drained and planted by Zionist pioneers, whose descendants continue to feed the residents of Tel Aviv and the rest of the country. This is the Israel I found in Sunday School text books when I was an eager young student during the Reagan and Bush Daddy years. Valleys, streams, flowers, prophets sitting under ancient trees, and the occasional stray sheep that might lead you to a burning bush.

Nahalal was home to two of Israel’s most famous men – war hero Moshe Dayan (black eye patch) and pilot and astronaut Ilan Ramon, lost in the space shuttle disaster several years ago. In addition to these luminaries, yours truly spent three months living at Nahalal during my volunteer year (April-June, 2001). With five other volunteers, I helped teach English at the local high school and hung out with troubled teenagers at the boarding school.

Having picturesque Nahalal as my home for the final part of the volunteer year was a great sedative before returning to the US. Almost every night I walked the inner circle of farm houses, looked up at the stars, smelled the cow dung, and tried to not get bitten by the boarding school students (this happened twice).

Today was my first visit back since those days half a decade ago. Nahalal being a rural farming community, not much has changed. With my atlas and compass in hand, I was surprised to realize one can see the buildings atop distant Mt. Carmel (Haifa) to the northwest. This was the region that came under Hizballah rocket attack for a full month this summer, forcing thousands to flee south or live in bomb shelters for days on end.

I attempted to locate the famous founders’ cemetery where Moshe Dayan and Ilan Ramon are buried, but was unsuccessful. This time, I did everything I could – I asked for directions, used my map and compass, and stayed sober. Alas, I did not see any signs necessary to find this hallowed plot of land two miles from the pizza pie. It occurred to me I could hail a motorist and say I am Ilan Ramon’s cousin from Brooklyn, and won’t you please take me to his grave? I was too sweaty and wretched by the time I had this idea, so instead I continued walking to the small city in the distance (Migdal HaEmek/“The Valley Tower”), where I got a bus back home.

I am definitely envious of people who live on farms. To be in touch with nature, work the land, and not be surrounded by cars, noise and obnoxious people all day. I feel like the people at Nahalal don’t need yoga, massages, or SSRI’s, because living in the middle of the Galilee acts as a natural mood enhancer. Hizballah rockets aside, you can’t get more zen than living in the heart of the Jezreel Valley, Israel’s breathtaking breadbasket. If only they’d put in a food court for wanderers like myself, we’d be all set.

(See the Nahalal photo album for a guided tour of this famous farming community, including a trip down memory lane.)

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