February 28-March 4, 2020
February 28, 2020
all our days are spent in learning about Egypt - which is also often learning about Israel. So much history, so much mythology. so much society. it is too much to digest at once. i think I'll make some poems.
Here's a draft of the Temple of Horus at Edfu: The Temple of Horus
Maybe I'll try Luxor next.
March 1,
i don't have time to breathe, much less to write - schedule has us old people running from breathtaking place to place. i love every minute, but how can live them and write at the same time. today after ann exciting day in so many ways we found ourselves in the synagogue of Rambam. and if you don't think i dont want to write reams about that you don't know me. but i have to get up a 5 and can't keep my eyes open now. March 3, 2020 i promise to recover soon. for 10 days we got up at 4 and went to bed after 10 with many breaks for meals but none for rest. today, when we returned to Tel Aviv, Ezi went straight to sleep, while i began trying to unravel the knots i had left before. now I think back at all the synagogues we saw, and all the temples and museums, and suddenly they blend together - a glorification of the Egypt of today with the aid of the artifacts of yesterday. That's what the synagogues are - unless we do something to bring them to life. it's pretty clear that as much as our israeli guide endeavored to elaborate the story, the official Egyptian guide gave us the official account. Elephantine Island has a great view and Jews lived here, says the Egyptian. Look to your left, that pillar was part of the temple, and it is said the scrolls of the holy temple were kept there for safekeeping before the destruction of the temple in Jerusalem. later, they were spirited away to Ethiopia. The first record of a battle in history is on a stone in the Egyptian Museum. it is of Megiddo where it is written that there is nothing left of the jews and their seed. it isn't mentioned in any explanation. these are just a few examples. i'll get back to this later. did i love Egypt? oh my yes. March 4, 2020 And now we're stuck home - the panic of corona was with us all the time - especially in Abu Simbel when we were inside the monument and suddenlt realized that everyone else was speaking Chinese or Italian. That was a week ago and except for terrible exhaustion we're feeling okay. well - no - i have the same sore throat that i had before i left and we're not going to share this with the kids. So we're glued to the television as the election results change from moment to moment. the mud is flying. it seems to me that we're even whipping up the excitement a bit more than in the rest of the world in order to scare people into staying with Bibi.
