THE DETROIT JEWISH NEWS
Feeling History—Passover at the Red Sea
By BABAS/3AB BAT HAIM
World Zionist Organization
JERUSALEM—The Red
Sea coast, much nearer to
the ancient Land of Goshen
than to Tel Aviv, is not
much different to look at
now than it was when the
first Israelites set foot on it
more than three and a half
thousand years ago. Then
Moses led his oppressed and
exploited people away from
the wrath of the Pharoah,
through the miraculously
parted water, to this inhos-
pitable shore.
To a rabble of slaves,
household servants, scribes,
laborers and farm hands,
dragging along their
frightened women and chil-
dren, totally unused to fend-
ing for themselves, the grim
rocks and sand-swept plains
must have been very dis-
couraging. There were
about 6,000 of them al-
together including the el-
derly, the halt and the sick.
Almost impossible to see in
them the promise of the
great nation they were to
become.
This year, as every year
since the Six-Day War gave
modern Israel access to the
route of their ancestors, the
same number or more
present-day Israelis walk
over the same ground. All
along the edge of the Red
Sea .tents and improvised
shelters house, temporarily,
the descendants of these
historical trekkers, who are
celebrating the arrival of
their forefathers to that
very area.
Some camping outfits
are so sophisticated and
the field kitchens so
comprehensive that the
festive meal is as elabo-
rate as it would be in a
five-story hotel. Some
travelers make do with
their sleeping bags and
a packet of matzot in
their rucksacks.
Our own tents are pitched
two metres from the calm,
shining water. This is a
great advantage for the dis-
hwasher (me) as the plates
and cutlery can be scoured
and sand and rised off in the
sea. Dinner, netted by local
fishermen less than an hour
ago, is grilling over char-
coal.
We should really be eat- .
ing the quail that sustained
the Children of Israel
through their 40 years of
wandering but over the last
'three milennia and more
particularly over the last 50
years these have been al-
most hunted out of exist-
ence.
However, manna is still
available for anyone who
gets up early and knows
where to look. Just before
Begin Smeared
AMSTERDAM (JTA) —
Posters with a picture of Is-
raeli Premier Menahem
Begin and the words "Be-
gin, Murderer" have ap-
peared on walls here.
They are signed "Red Re-
sistance Front," an extreme
left wing group which main-
tains close relations with
the Baader-Meinhof group.
sunrise it can be gathered,
white, resinous and as
sweet as honey, from the
tamarisk trees that are a
feature of the Sinai no less
now than they were at the
time of the Exodus.
Ii our decadent way
we have brought most of
our supplies from the
cities in which we live at
other times. One of the
kids is cutting up the bit-
ter herbs on a flat stone
while another is pound-
ing apples and honey into
charoset. Salt water is
not a problem to find as it
rolls gently into all our
pots while we are not
looking.
Night comes early in
these regions and by six
o'clock the descending sun
is setting fire to the moun-
tains behind us. For a brief
moment the minerals in the
rocks catch the light and re-
flect beck a bouquet of bril-
liant blues and greens.
But the predominant
color is red and the flaming
peaks, mirrored in the
water, cast a glow that
shimmers all around us and
seems to enclose us in a rosy
haze. No speculation as to
where this stretch of water
got its name.
We lay out six white to-
wels tidily on the sand,
weighted down at the cor-
ners by bottles of wine. Our
neighbors, half-a-mile down
the beach, have a starched
white linen table cloth and
the electric light connected
with their car, shines on
crystal and silver.
We like to think that
our more modest feast is
nearer to those first
meals that the Israelites
ate giving thanks for the
miracles that got them so
far. Their bowls were
wood and clay and ours
are plastic and paper and
their wine came, goat fla-
vored, out of skin con-
tainers, but our food is
less simple.
The familiar story of
Passover has a sharper sig-
nificance down here in the
desert. Egypt is not much
more than a stones throw
away. The children ask the
Friday, April 21, 1918 13
B'nai Brith Family Needs You
questions to which we all
know the answers and we
listen as though it were all
new. Those dangers are
past. We are free, in our own
land but the struggle is not
yet over.
The old heros and sages
are very close to us and
when we fill an earthen-
ware beaker for Elijah no
one would be surprised to
see him charging up to
drink it. Chariot, six white
horses and everything.
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FROM
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and
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Passover
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