Lech Lecha - but first, a minor miracle

Not only did my bike arrive with my luggage (on the same plane), but I was actually able to put it together… no extra pieces -and it works!!! Quite a sight watching dozens of people with their bikes in various stages of dissassemblage (not sure that’s a word)… but by the end of the day, everybody was pretty much up and riding. We took a shake-down ride around Jerusalem, which, if you have never been here and don‘t already know, is NOT a bike friendly city. But we had enough time to make sure all the gears worked, and nobody got killed.

I had dinner with Ben Simon tonight. Ben is the other alumnus of my 1974 kibbutz group who is on the ride. It was great to catch up with him. After all these years, though we look different (yes, older), we are able to bring ourselves back to that formative time like it was yesterday… well almost yesterday. We wish there were more of us on this ride - but we are thinking of each of you.

As we gathered for our first meeting, a number of things have struck me about the group. We are a very wide age range - from 12 to 73, with many more older (read older than me) people than I had anticipated. Many of the older folks will ride the shorter rides - but still, we are riding in the desert and it will be over 100 degrees a lot of the for time. And of the 120 or so riders, over a third are repeat riders - some have come multiple years. I have pretty much though of this as a one-and-done thing, but it seems that something happens to folks out there that brings them back. We shall see.

Lots of information imparted to us today, including many admonitions about Israeli drivers (notoriously bad), and reminders that this is a Ride and not a Race. As well as some things that we might only find on a ride in Israel - from particular animals that might distract us to firing ranges for tanks and artillery. While they shoot over the road, not at it, we are advised not to stop and look around when we see those signs.


Our meeting today began with one of the rabbis on the ride. He remarked on the fact that this ride is sandwiched in between two significant Torah portions (well, they’re all significant…) Last week we read Lech-Lecha, which is the portion that tells of God’s command to Abraham to leave his home and to go out into the wilderness to find the land of Canaan (the future land of Israel). The words are translated roughly as “Go, take yourself,” but one commentator has suggested the words mean: “Go - go for yourself.” Go out and find yourself, find out who you really are. And the portion we read next week is V’yireh: “And he saw,” which tells the story of Abraham not sitting in the door of his tent in the desert and he sees a vision. While seeing visions in our context might be a sign of dehydration, how fitting it is that we are setting out tomorrow on this adventure in the desert. For some it will be a huge challenge. Others are looking for something in themselves that perhaps they will find. Still others will find this a deeply spiritual experience. I’m not sure where I will find myself on this mystical continuum, but it is more than fitting that we ride with these two portions in the background.

Tomorrow we ride down from Jerusalem, into the desert, and then to the sea.

L’hitraot,

Lester