For those of you that are into Biblical exegesis (Parshanut) there can be multiple symbolic meanings to this title. Clearly, it is based on my Hebrew (and now legal) name Yosef. But it could refer to Shauna's dream for finally getting me out of the house and out of her way. Shauna works from her home office so when she stays home it does not mean that she is freeloading and not earning money. A tour guide on the other hand well ....you follow the rest I am sure.
Alternatively, it could refer to my hope that my tours will realize all the best elements of my client's dreams for what their tour experience should be like. Perhaps it reflects my hopes for bringing to life all of my dreams of what my tours should be like.
Another possibility would be that my tours will be about Yosef's (the biblical Yosef) dreams in the Tanach, or speaking metaphorically, they will relate to all kinds of Biblical stories and deepening our understanding of them by visitng the places and cities where they took place. Now that is something that I actually have dreamed about.
There will also be some who argue, tongue in cheek, that the name means that I just want to lie in bed and dream about taking people on tour and never really leave my house at all. Note that this is mutually exclusive of the first interpretation listed above.
No matter whose dreams the title refers to, the responsibility of leading a group of people touring in Israel is all absorbing. I find myself constantly reassessing what to say and what not to say, what parts of the story will be meaningful and what parts to leave out. The permutations of possibilities are endless.
Last week I found myself speaking to 30 young adults at a public park just outside of modern Caesarea not far from where we had started our day many hours earlier. In the middle of the park at the top of a small hill, surrounded by beautiful tall trees, there is a brown wooden fence that encloses a large rectangular mosaic floor 14.5 m by 16 m in size. Archeologists have dated the floor the the latter part of the 6th century. This mosaic is part of the central atrium on the ground floor of a palatial Byzantine villa that covered mored that 1,500 square meters. The border of the mosaic consists of a string of depictions of wild animals and trees while the interior contains 120 medallions each of which depicted a different bird such as a peacocks or pelican and duck etc. Thus, it is nicknamed the Birds Mosaic.
From our position at the top of the hill we could clearly see the Mediterranean sparkling in the setting sun. The sounds we heard were the voices and laughter of little children playing on the other side of the mosaic several meters from where we were standing. Their mothers had brought them here to play in the park while they chatted on the sidelines and watched them as they played with their soccer balls or basketballs or just ran back and forth on the harder surface of the mosaic. A pleasant breeze was blowing through the hanging branches of the trees.
My final comments to my group included a reminder for them to appreciate and remember the uniqueness of the moment. We had begun the day learning about Roman culture and the often cruel way in which that culture had been imposed on the Jews of Judea. We talked about the Jewish rebellions of the first and second centuries and the martyrs that had died in the ampi-theatre of Caesarea, including perhaps the famous Rabbi Akiva himself. Those rebellions marked the beginning of the deterioration of the Jewish presence in Eretz Yisrael. Then we moved to Zichron Yaakov to learn about the period named the First Aliyah. This period marked the beginning of the rapid rejuvenation of the Jewish Yishuv in this former Ottoman province and eventually led to the establishment of the State and all of its subsequent achievements. And now here we were - Jewish youth enjoying the sun and the sounds of young Jewish children paying on top of the remains of a 1500 year old Byzantine mosaic floor. If even some of them felt how surreal the scene was, then I will be satisfied and concede that at least one of my dreams has begun to come true.
There is much beauty here. You have a gift, which I know you will pass on ever more successfully with each group of tourists, for sharing what is beneath the history of our amazing Land.
ReplyDeleteLet's talk "acharei hachagim." Drishat shalom to your beautiful wife.