A reverse Exodus...from Israel to Egypt

I’m sitting on a porch the size of my bedroom listening to the waves of the Red Sea crash against the Egyptian beach. There is Arabic music playing in the background and the area is just lit enough so that the light of the computer screen doubles the available lighting on this porch with two comfy chairs. My crossing into Egypt marks the beginning of a week long vacation, Sukkot actually, and my first visitor from the home front, which happens to be my dad. So many thoughts race through my head as I sit here, but I am still focused on the sound of the waves that are crashing just below me.
My dad arrived last Sunday, just in time for Erev Yom Kippur. I’m thinking of the writing he has done since he arrived and I realize that through his eyes there is a whole revolution of people here aspiring to be leaders of the Jewish community in the next generation. He can’t stop talking about the pierced, tattooed individuals who speak with incredible intellect and passion. He’s amazed by the voices of the Cantorial students, some having been in rock bands before committing to study Jewish sacred music. And, he can not stop talking about the fascinating experience of being in Israel for the first time and seeing it through the eyes of a child aspiring to be involved in something that he could never grasp onto with clarity for himself. Needless to say, incredibly interesting conversations transpire and, as usual, my dad and my time together makes for moments that span a spectrum of gratitude and exploration.
Today we left Jerusalem and spent the day driving south to the Taba border, which allows one to cross over from Israel into Egypt. We left Jerusalem just after 10 and managed to get to Beer Sheva in time for lunch, his first falafel since arriving to Israel last week. My roommate, another friend, my dad and I accompanied by the Indigo Girls, Counting Crows, The Bridge and a Happy Road Time Music Mix made way to Eilat where the roommate and friend stayed and so did the rental car. Pops and I gathered our computers and backpacks and set out, on foot, a reverse Exodus out of Israel and into Egypt.
Only while sitting with beer in hand at the bar in the Hyatt Regency at Taba Heights did we speak out loud about the experience of crossing the border. First we walked up to the female Israeli border patrol, clearly younger that me. In my somewhat broken, somewhat respectable Hebrew I told her that we did not have a weapons and that I was a student studying in Jerusalem with my father going to Taba for a few days over Sukkot. She smiled, wished us a Chag Sameach v’Shabbat Shalom and we continued on to pay taxes to leave Israel and stamp our passport that we were exiting the country. A few steps forward and we were outside the duty free shop, standing face to face with another duty free, this time in Egypt and a Casino/Hotel that sat right on the border patrol station. The green IDF uniforms had been replaced with white cotton police attire, and badges on the lapel of each uniform situated on dark skinned, Egyptian men with serious written on their faces. We walked into the Arrival Hall, put our bags through the x-ray machines and were escorted into a dark room with two men sitting at a desk underneath a picture of Nefertiti. He told my father I was beautiful and then checked to see the amount of money my father had rationed in his wallet before stamping our passports and allowing us to enter the country. We continued on into another parking lot where we were met by police and a taxi driver who ushered us into a car, started the vehicle, told us to wait two minutes and shut the door and walked away. I hate to admit my own paranoia, but I turned to my dad and said something to the notion that I was uncomfortable that we were sitting alone in a running, overheating, unidentified taxi waiting for some strange man to return to the vehicle to take us into the mountains that blanketed our surroundings. He returned with an Israeli couple, both who had spent time in California, and we were on our way into what would be our Egypt experience…a five star Hyatt stay with wireless, air conditioned high ceiling-ed rooms and being greeted with our choice of mango or guava juice upon entering the hotel lobby.
Its interesting to note that the ONLY development in this area is that of the five hotels that make up this pseudo village, each offering a different cuisine in their restaurant and being linked together by a shuttle that will happily transport you from one property to the other and a golf course in the middle for the vacationer with a PGA heart. I mentioned to my dad how weird it felt to enter the country earlier in the day and also the multiple comments to us, reminding us of our American westerner status. Perhaps the most poignant was the last Egyptian police officer to check out passports who asked my father if he was a good American and than him validating that he was a ‘very good American’ when he found our destination to be that of the Hyatt. It is clear to me that we are FAR from Kansas.
So, now I’m sitting here on the porch at an ever so amazing hotel and knowing that my few days here will be spent doing my homework and writing a sermon for my upcoming Shabbat service that I have to lead. I have friends who will not enter Egypt, Jordan or any other Arabic countries because they refuse to give their money to the Arabic community. I’m sitting her thinking how my first sermon in Rabbinical school is going to be written in a Muslim country. I’m also sitting her thinking about how the only other civilizations around me, beyond the resort I’m staying on, is that of small Bedouin communities with sheep and camels and the dichotomy between the two is monumental in my sight and in my mind.
Its nice to be out of Jerusalem and nice to be out of what feels these days like a vacuum of small, enclosed circles. Still, I’m sitting in Egypt and thinking about my experience crossing the border today and having to admit that I feel like I am in a different sense of security than I was just hours ago. For someone who likes to run off the beaten track I am happy to have the luxury to stay on a hotel property that has its own security and that has the amenities that allow me to stay here, rather than venture out into a land that is not so ecstatic about the Jewish people or Americans, of which I am both. And, I’m also sitting her thinking how beautiful of a land I am sitting on. From my porch I can see Egypt, Israel, Jordan and Saudi Arabia. I’m aware of my physical location this year, but there is nothing compared to sitting on the horizon of a beautiful body of water and coming to terms with that location being smack dab in the middle East and being able to look at land that all looks the same, yet I know embodies such amazingly different ideologies and hostilities that cause this land to speak loudly and fiercely.
So, with that I wrap up yet another Friday thought dropping…wherever you are I hope it is beautiful and next week I’ll be back at my desk in Jerusalem, having more to report on Egypt and also crossing the border into Jordan as well. With love!