Pantry Packers

In Israel, offices, schools and many businesses are closed on Election Day.  All day. Elections are taken very seriously here and with turnouts in the high 60’s and 70%, maybe we should consider a day off for our election process.  Maybe.

One of the benefits of being a Visiting Research Fellow here at the University, is that I am invited to a wide variety of academic and social activities and on this past Election Day, I took the opportunity to do some volunteer work with other grad students.  The invitation said simply, “Help Feed Hungry People”.  I had no idea what we were going to do or where it was going to happen, but I had a day free and love to feed people. 

Just after noon, a group of us piled onto a bus and headed into the Talpiot industrial district in the southeast part of Jerusalem.  Beyond the neighborhoods, past the auto dealers and malls, junk yards and empty lots, we turned down a dirt road that frankly looked a little spooky.  At the first gate, the bus stopped and the gate opened into a barren courtyard and a nondescript building with a simple sign identifying it as “Pantry Packers”. 

We were greeted by a delightful young man, originally from Houston, who took us through the introduction to the organization and their work with the hungry.  We watched a video that explained how the needy are screened, and helped with dignity.  Food is delivered to homes, no standing in lines for a hand out, and other services are offered to help depending on the level of the client’s needs.  Some get food, some food and a hand up, and many have graduated to self-sufficiency with the assistance they have received. 

Our assignment, should we choose to accept it, would be packaging rice for distribution.  Bags and labels, date stamped, measured, sealed and packed in boxes of 30 bags each for shipment.  It was really a pretty smooth operation, like they’d done this before.  We rotated through stations, either labeling or date stamping the bags, pouring rice into a hopper set to premeasure the rice for each bag, bagging the rice then delivering it to the person operating a little conveyor belt heat sealer, closing the top of the bag and finally packing the bags into boxes.

In the end, we helped provide food for 150 families, packing 20 boxes, each with thirty 500 gram bags of rice.  600 bags, about 661 pounds of rice. 

That’s a lot of rice, and a great way to spend a free afternoon.

 

For more information about Pantry Packers visit

http://pantrypackers.org/

https://www.facebook.com/pantrypackers/photos_stream

http://www.jpost.com/Videos/Chabad-Pantry-Packers-facility-opens-in-Jerusalem-328535

Pantry Packers | Charity Pure & Simple | Since 1788

The "parent" Ministry on site at the Western Wall.

The Hills of Judea

The tour guide told us in a month, these beautiful green rolling hills would be brown and dry.  But for now, the desert blooms.

We had rain, lots of rain during the winter, frequently floods, so much rain, that last week when the weather reporter the bus driver was listening to called for more rain, the woman in the front seat became terribly agitated, demanded in English and Hebrew, No! No more rain.

It’s raining today, and showers are expected tomorrow, likely the last until next winter.  Last weekend it snowed in the north, and rained everywhere else.  It rained again in the Judean Hills.

People ask me all the time if I feel closer to Jesus here in Israel.  I have to say, not in the way they seem to expect.  Maybe because it’s all so commercial in the Old City.









But here? This is different.  In this place, I can completely imagine Jesus and his disciples walking through the tall grass.  Stopping at a well, or under a tree.  When I think of Jesus the man, I don’t think of him so much at the end, I think of his whole life and ministry.

It’s not that I don’t ponder and appreciate the sacrifice that we just remembered, or rejoice for the Resurrection that we celebrate, but as necessary as his brutal death was, Jesus ministry was so much more than those three days.  For more than 30 years he walked these hills and valleys, wadis, deserts and mountain tops.






The Gospel is the whole story and I like the idea that he had comfortable times too.  Times when he could stand where I’m standing as I look on this panorama, and just appreciate the sun, and the breeze.  The colors and the fragrances.  Times when he could go to a wedding or teach in the Temple. Times when he was just like us.

I like the hills.  They remind me of the Kettle Moraine area where I grew up. Rolling, gentle and green, somehow lazy and comfortable.  I like to think of Jesus here.

Psalm 65:12 the grasslands of the wilderness overflow; the hills are clothed with gladness.

Joel 3:18 “In that day the mountains will drip new wine, and the hills will flow with milk; all the ravines of Judah will run with water. A fountain will flow out of the Lord’s house and will water the valley of acacias.

The Fifth Gospel

Last night I attended the Maundy Thursday Holy Communion Service & Hallel at Christ Church Jerusalem. 



Reading the Psalms that Jesus would have sung at his last Passover Seder, sharing the moments with my family here would have been enough, but then we left the church and walked down into the Kidron Valley, back up to the Garden of Gethsemane and on up to the Mount of Olives outside the Russian Orthodox Church of Mary Magdalene; the best archaeological guess as to the location of Jesus passionate prayer to the Father, ultimate betrayal and arrest.

We walked, as Jesus and his Disciples walked, only about 2.5 miles, all dramatically down then uphill, mostly lit by the full moon. 

I found myself wondering, as we walked silently knowing from this side of history what was coming. Knowing Jesus knew what was coming. Remembering the disciples were still not exactly on board with the events that their dear friend and teacher had been predicting. I wondered what the conversations on the walk might have been that night. 

Comments about the meal they had just had? Wondering what was up with Judas? Pondering the love of G-d and his miracles bringing the people out of Egypt? I’ll leave it to you, but I’m thinking after four glasses of wine and a good meal, at the very least they must have been in a fairly good mood, and I understand why they would find it hard to stay awake to “watch and pray” as the master had asked.

And so we walked last night. 

Considering the days ahead. Quietly making our way through this portion of the story. Deep in our own thoughts. Down into the valley then up into the garden, where we could look back over the valley to the Old City of Jerusalem, the beautiful city on a hill.  

After a message from the Gospel of Mark and a time of reflection, the return walk.  Not under arrest, not betrayed by a kiss, but this time through the Lions Gate and along the Via Dolorosa, the "path he will walk later today".

Some Christians refer to Israel as the Fifth Gospel.  I think of it now as the illustrated version. However you perceive it, being here does add another, deeper dimension.  Everywhere you go, scripture is illuminated. Even with the expansion of the Old City outside the city walls, there remains a shadow, a whisper, a memory of the past, all of the past.  History is the economy here, so you can’t avoid it, but for those who are looking, there are traces of the past that feed the soul and make the heart glad. 

I am glad for last night and for today, knowing what came next.  

It would be easy to be overwhelmed, it’s Friday, but I know, Sunday's coming!

To all of you, 

Chag sameach,

Pesach kasher vesameah, Happy and kosher Pesach!!

And a Happy and Blessed Easter! 

To read more about the Mount of Olives and the Via Delorosa, visit:

http://www.sacred-destinations.com/israel/jerusalem-via-dolorosa

http://www.bibleplaces.com/mtolives.htm

For the Liturgy we used, visit:

http://www.cmj-israel.org/dnn/Portals/0/Images/CMJ/CMJMinistries/Christchurch/Congregation/Liturgies/Holy_thursday_flyer01.pdf

and if you’re wondering Hallel is Praise, a Jewish prayer, a verbatim recitation from Psalms 113-118, which is used for praise and thanksgiving that is recited by observant Jews on Jewish holidays and their Christian cousins.

for a video of the event visit:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2XvLUROJjU8