Life in Israel: The Big City Boy Moves to the Village

30 July, 2006; the 6th of Av, 5766

We just could not afford the rental prices in Jerusalem and we had to move elsewhere. Money was hard to find, so we put out several different calls for help—one of them went here. One of those calls for help worked and we are now ensconced in a small village of 96 families in what is known in Hebrew as Matéh Binyamín, the Benjamin District of Samaria.

We now live in Ma’aléh Levoná. Ma’aleh means “rise” in Hebrew. We live on a hill. Beneath us in a valley is a well-plowed field worked by the Arabs who live there. It’s flat, like the fields in Minnesota. That’s a rarity in this part of Israel, which is all hills, valleys, and mountains.

We’ve benefited by moving here. In Jerusalem, we had a relatively roomy apartment, and we paid a very high rent for it. Here we are living in a house, and while it is not totally as roomy as the one we sold when we left Saint Paul, it is certainly bigger than the apartment we rented, has two stories, and stairs that the cat can climb and keep limber on. At least he will lose weight, even if none of the rest of us does. And the rent is less than half of what we paid in the City of David.

It is quiet here. And I do mean quiet. You can hear the crickets chirp at night and see Jupiter rise in the evening sky. You can hear the bus as it comes at 6:00 in the morning traveling all through the village. Here, the cock crows in the morning, and he keeps crowing all day long. Maybe he would stop if he had a few hens to keep him happy! Nobody honks his horn here. Nobody has to. If you have some really good binoculars, you do not really need a telescope. The binoculars will let you see the four biggest moons of Jupiter. On a really clear day, you can see the snow-capped peak of Mount Hermon, the highest mountain in the country.

Small town life is very different from big city life.

In the big city, a stranger knocks at your door asking for charity and you can give or not—it’s your own business. Here, a stranger knocks at your door saying that the village rabbi is making a charity collection, and you dig into your pocket and pull something out. In the big city, you move into an apartment and that’s it. Here, it’s news for the entire community, and you find about a week’s worth of groceries for a gift, not to mention offers of help from all sides. Here, you look to see if you can find things to give to charity. Your neighbors help you, and you need to be prepared to help your neighbors. And, because of the way you are treated, you want to be. Here you see the saying, “what goes around, comes around” in a very real way.

Article Author: Ruvy

Ruvy was born in Brooklyn and lived in Minnesota for a number of years. There he managed restaurants and wrote stories. He moved with his family to Israel where they now reside. He is published by Jewish Indy, as well as by Desicritics.org.

Visit Ruvy's author page — Ruvy's Blog