Pesach or Passover

Days after we moved into our new home, It was the Israeli holiday season - the Pesach break. Also called the Passover - meaning the time during which Moses and followers crosed over to the promised land. For a foreigner in Jewish state, these are simply the no-bread days. It is holiday for all kindergartens, schools and work places. Some restaurants do work, but do not offer bread. The groceries section of the outlets will close the aisle that have bakes and confectioneries and the wheat flour and its products areas. No body even sees wheat or flour. This is the time they consume all the meat and rice that had not in the whole year! We utilised this break and visited quite a few places up in the north of Israel.

Passover - Passover is a holiday that commemorates the liberation of the ancient Israelites from 400 years of slavery in Egypt (approximately 3000 years ago). Since that time, the holiday has come to represent the universal value of freedom. It is the holiday where family and friends gather around the seder table to celebrate, and by the use of certain symbols, to see themselves as commanded, "as though each one of us has also just come out of Egypt". Egypt is of course symbolical of leaving bondage for freedom.

One of the major customs of this holiday is the prohibition against eating any leavened products and the commandment to eat Passover Matzos. When the Children of Israel hurriedly left Egypt, they had no time to bake leavened bread, and thus the matzo, flat and unleavened, came into being. Whilst in their wandering in the Sinai Desert for 40 years, the people lived as Desert people, and would sit and lean against cushions on the sand, and the Haggada - the book of Pesach, reminds the participants that they too should lean on cushions at some point in the Seder.

The Ten Plagues that God sent to convince Pharoah to release His children, the Israelites, are also remembered by dipping a finger in salt water, and flicking drops of water onto a plate, reciting with each dip the list of the Plagues. In more secular Seders, the motif of Spring is also included. On the Seder night, the first night of the Passover holidays, Jewish families the world over sit together, very often with invited guests, and those who have no family to be with, to commemorate their freedom, and to recall the miracle of the passing over the Red Sea, and the beginning of a life of freedom.

seder - ritual dinner that begins the holiday




The haggadah - is the story of the Jews leaving Egypt, but much more. It also explains many of the traditions of Judaism, and the wisdom of its teachings. The Haggadah has been present at the Seder for many centuries, sometimes changing its format, but basically keeping its essence.

Matza = unleavened bread – that the Jews ate when fleeing from Egypt. We continue to eat only matzoth during the 8 days of Passover to symbolise our unity with our Forefathers.

Chametz = leaven bread - Before the holiday begins, all “Chametz" – ie. Foods that are made with flour, have to be cleared out of the house

Seder plate - an arrangement of the traditional foods that symbolize happenings in the Jewish history.




The Bible tells us of ten plagues - The plagues that God used to convince the Egyptian Pharaoh to let the Jews leave Egypt. The final one – the death of the first born in every family, did make Pharoah consent.

Settling down

So we moved in and were trying to settle down in the new home sweet home. Our goods that we had shipped from India had also arrived and we had boxes, boxes everywhere and not a bit of enthu to unpack. We had gotten used to that suitcase life in the hotel that we were not prepared for a full fledged house living which will only involve more work! But we just loved the house for the amazing amount of light and breeze, we saw and experienced all the geometry of the sun rays in that house.

Brighter side of kitchen

Our landlord's painting adorns the living

the brightly lit coffee nook

There were so many things happening in parallel, little one had to start going to the all-hebrew kindergarten, I had strated my Hebrew lessons and driving lessons ( i had to be certified by a school that I can drive in that foreign land, so had to undergo 8 hrs of driving training in that mountainous range), unpacking at home, laundry, setting up the kitchen with all groceries, my husbands work had also double folded.

Signs of improvement - one by one,the empty boxes got
moved to the balcony

Amidst all the mess, the rain Gods decended and just made my day on that one mad day!

Rain drops on the window

whenever it rains, a stream runs through the valley
 just beside the house

Click, Click, Click and I enjoyed the rains drip, drip,drip...

Evening Sky

Beautiful colors on the evening sky just after a quiet sunset, as seen from the porch. The huge building with a lightning arrester thats blocking the sky is the Carmel Hospital, Haifa's most famous medical center.

Our Home in Haifa

I spoke about our home too early, not fully mentioning about what we did during our 3 weeks of stay at the Dan Panorama. First 2 weekends were fun packed (as you might see from my earlier posts) but the 3rd weekend was cough-packed with all of us having our first flu attack, some kind of pollen allergy in spring i suppose and we stuck indoors with a quiet beach visit on a sunny afternoon. The Haifa beach visits will have a dedicated post. So introducing our home that was -

After a week of house hunting and analyzing the pros and cons of the house-location-shopping, we decided to move into a house that had a beautiful beach view sit out and large windows in the master bedroom, so we could wake up to these every morning...

View from the balcony

The rainbow over the Mediterranean 

and enjoy a cuppa with these enchanting, never-can-you-get-bored-of sunsets. I'm not usually the "aww-ing" types, but the sunset by the sea did make me one!

"The origin of the name "Haifa" is unclear. According to historian Alex Carmel, it may come from the Hebrew verb root חפה (hafa), meaning to cover or shield, i.e. Mount Carmel covers Haifa.^[10] Another possible origin of the name is the Arabic word حفَّ ("haffa") which means "beach", or the word حيفة meaning the "suburb" or "side of the city".^[11] In turn some see a resemblance to the Hebrew word חוֹף (hof), also meaning beach, or חוֹף יָפֶה (hof yafe), meaning beautiful beach"

Wow!

Acre (Akko) continued...

There are so many pictures from Akko through the year that I am having a tough time in choosing the ones to publish here. We have visited this place many times in 15 months and have seen the area through length and breadth during all the seasons of Israel. Should there be a most-frequented or repeated weekend trip, Akko wins it hands down.

In my earlier post, I missed mentioning about the port or harbour in Akko.

Akko Port

The clock tower, the city and the port

The port area is a very windy and noisy part of the town. There are boats that take the tourists on a boat ride for about 20 NIS per head, they play the all jazzy arabic music. Some shops along the shore play some funky remixed versions of hebrew music albums. Young boys offer some rides on their donkeys/mules and horses.

A stone whale structure by the bay

the bay in and during sunset yellow

the boat rides

We talked about the museum somewhere while walking along the wall. A combined ticket can be purchased for the museum and the Knight's citadel. Some pictures of the antique and historical pieces.

Enter the museum

a piece inside the museum

old crockery

a pharmacy corner

The Knight's citadel and prison has an audio tour that can be borrowed at a price. The audio is available in Hebrew, English and a couple of European languages. It was all dark and not enough lighting since most of it is all underground. The citadel's walls and pillars are so massive!

Knight's Citadel

The Templar's tunnel is an accidental discovery in the late 1880s when a resident in Akko was investigating his plumbing problem. It is worth a walk through the Km long tunnel for 10 NIS per head. It leads you from the middle of the town from beneath the clock tower to the light house. (see here) Few parts of the tunnel are as low as 3feet and only our 3 year old could walk through in confidence. There are some aqueducts and bath houses in and around the tunnel.

Inside the Templar's tunnel

Entertainment in Akko should not be a question at all, there are numerous water bikers, kids jumping off the walls like in Caesarea, the view of Haifa and the evening sunsets...

a water biker

a school girl does the leap

a teenager leaps in style!

Haifa from Akko and the 2 Dan Panorama towers

Last but not the least, this is how a visit to Akko must end -

The Awww factor sunset by the Mediterranean!

Acre (Akko)

It was our 2nd weekend in Dan Panorama, Haifa, Israel. It was a saturday and saturday meaning Shabbat. Not many options for outings since most places do not serve cooked food or let me put it as we have the choice of going out to only not Kosher certified restaurants. During his 7 or 8 eights business trips to Israel, my husband had once been to Akko with his other colleagues. So, Akko ? Why not ? "Lama lo ?"

The old city of Acre, 25 km north of Haifa is predominantly an Arabic town whereas the new parts of the city is all Jewish. It is the Crusader's town and entry is free. Charges are only to view/go through the Templar's tunnel and the Knight's Citadels and Museum. Acre or Akko also boasts of a huge wall around the old city because of which Alexander the great could not conquer the  place. It is a small, picturesque beautiful little place that we used to frequently visit from Haifa. Reasons being, it is so close, a refreshing walk along the beach and on the wall, the noisy-smelly Turkish market that gave us a feel of India ;-), the beautiful sun setting in the Mediterranean, the view of the Carmel mountains & Haifa from Akko etc,.

Yes, Akko is a Heritage site listed on UNESCO

The pictures below will do the rest of the talking. The old city can be accessed from 3 different points, 1. From the huge wall through a monstrous iron gate, 2. From the light house side, along the beach 3. From the Turkish bazaar side. There may be more ways, but these are the ones we have been through and have managed some hassle free parking all the time.The pictures will take you through the old city starting from the big wall to the light house end.

The huge wall from the Akkotel hotel side

In spring the wall is painted green and yellow with fresh yellow blossoms. There are some old canons and mortars on the wall and beside the wall, we can spot the moat which is almost dry. The wall is approx 80 feet wide and now we know why Alexandar could not enter the city.

View of the wall from the other side

As we walk away from the wall and via the Museum, we are taken through the Turkish bazaar. Many many sweet stalls and falafels and spices welcome you all the way. Forget not the stinky fishy market.

a spice shop

After the noisy market area is the quiet and clean prayer surroundings. The mosque in Akko is said to be the second largest and sacred in Israel after the Dome of the Rock in Jerusalem.

We pass through the Templar's tunnel and get a closer look of the clock tower in Akko. The clocktower has numbers written on 4 sides in 4 different languages - English, Arabic, Roman and Hebrew. Its built on top of an old couryard and stable.

Akko clock tower

As we walk through the streets of Akko, we get the real ancient feeling but people live there like a modern day constructed house with air conditioners, all electric and proper plumber facilities.. I always have the jittery feeling of when the wall is going to let loose those stones which are centuries old.

There is an entrance to the left of the wall that again takes you to ontop of the wall. A row of restaurants and amazing view of the sea greets you with open arms for ever.

Restaurants below and on the wall,

Some enjoy a boat ride on a beautiful day

The wall extends to a good old greek style church, the St John's church over looking the Mediterranean. There's a small area covered with glass by the church which enables us to see through, the grottos that are underneath.

The wall culminates at the ancient Light house of Akko. As we walk down the wall here, we enter the promenade along the Akko beach.

There is so much history associated with Akko/Acre that I dont remember any of it now but interested folks can always look up wiki or google :-).

Gan HaEm Zoo

The Gan HaEm or the Mother's park hosts a zoological park - institute in Haifa. It is a nice half day trip to the zoo when you pack some snacks or a light lunch for the young ones. Some walking freaks can give their morning walks a miss the day they plan a visit to the zoo. Located on the Carmel mountains the terrain is pretty up and down and they have environmentally friendly vehicles that do a pick and drop service within the zoo pick up points at a reasonably lesser cost of around 2 NIS per person (if I remember right). Staying in Dan Panorama, we didn't want to give it a miss, so walked across the street on a weekend.

The chirping birds do the welcome bit into the Zoo.

Followed by some stinky geese, falcons, flamigos and pelicans.

There is an other birds section which houses the rare parrots and parakeets from Africa and around the world.

The petting zoo is a thorough entertainer for the kids ranging from baby porcupines, guinea pigs and bunnies and some goats and sheep.

The reptiles section is made indoors and shows a wide range of slytherins ranging from a sand snake to the amazon anacondas.

They have a small museum built in, which talks about some pre-historic pottery and some studies.

Last but not the least is the hero of the jungle, Mr. Tiger. Oh Boy, I can just go on and on watching these active tigers of Gan HaEm as compared to the lazy leopards, lions and bears.

The day we visited in March 2009, the Otters won the best entertainer award hand down. Flipping over, somersaults in water, cat fights, their feeding time - it was all worth a watch and was very enjoyable.

March being spring time in Haifa, some colorful blossoms in Gan HaEm that caught our eyes,

View of the sea through the valley behind Gan HaEm Zoo