Redemption, Exodus: Would You have been One of the One Fifth 1/5?

In the simplistic rendition, narrative of the Exodus from Egypt, when the Jewish "slaves to Pharaoh in Egypt" managed to flee with the help of Gd, multiple miracles, one gets the impression that all the Jews left together. But a more exact reading of the Bible and Hagaddah and commentaries tells a different story. Only one fifth 1/5 20% of the Jewish slaves to Pharaoh followed Moses and Aaron out of Egypt and through the for forty years of wandering and transformation into the Jewish People who entered the Holy Promised Land with Joshua.

That's a better percentage than Gd got a few hundred years before when He sent out the לך לך Lech lecha, "Go, yes, you" message, and only Abram and Sarai, later renamed Abraham and Sarah responded by voting with their feet.

I'm pretty sure that my husband and I, plus many of our friends would have been among those to have followed Moses and Joshua throughout all the challenges they had faced. Not only are we here now in the Holy Promised Land, but we've been here ever since we were old enough to make our own life decisions, marry and have children. Our children and grandchildren, bli eyin haraa, not to tempt the Evil Eye, are here, too.

What happened to the 4/5 four fifths 80% of the Jewish slaves to Pharaoh in Egypt? They're gone, wiped out. There's no trace of them anymore, unlike the descendants of the Hidden Jews of the Spanish Inquisition, who even after over five hundred years have been returning to Judaism.

Yesterday we returned to our first home in Israel, Maon Betar, in what is now called the Jewish Quarter of the Old Walled City of Jerusalem. Maon Betar has long closed down, but the building is in use. The section where we had lived is now a dormitory for the Netiv Aryeh yeshiva, and downstairs is the Plugat Hakotel Museum.

In my life experience and decisions, I see the beginnings of Zionism to build vibrant Jewish Life in the Land of Israel as the call from Gd, echoing  לך לך Lech lecha, "Go, yes, you." Then it got louder in 1948 with Israel's Declaration of Independence and even louder in 1967 when the State of Israel so miraculously defeated the Arab armies who aimed to totally destroy the State of Israel. Three years later we docked in Haifa Port and began our new lives as a married couple here in the Holy Land.

Contrary to the many negative predictions and warnings we received as we packed up our few possessions before boarding the Greek Lines Queen Anna Maria, our move to Israel in 1970 proved a wise move. The State of Israel has miraculously developed into one of the most advanced modern countries in the world. I can say the same for our 1981 decision to move to Shiloh, which then was a small isolated community, dependent on an unreliable generator for electricity and trucks bearing water. Today Shiloh is the main community in a large vibrant bloc of Jewish towns, home to a couple of thousand families. Nearby Eli is even larger than Shiloh. The Gush Shiloh Bloc extends from west of Highway 60 to the Alon Road way to the east. Just a ten minute drive north west of Shiloh is the City of Ariel, which not only has government offices and lots of stores but also the Ariel University. Today it's hard to imagine, but the Shiloh we first visited in early 1981 had barely thirty families.

As crazy as it had seemed to our family and some of our friends when we made aliyah as a young married couple in 1970, it was the right move. If you're still stuck in the Diaspora, join us. Don't risk disappearing like 4/5 80% of the Jews who had been slaves to Pharaoh in Egypt.

New Plugat Hakotel Exhibit, Museum, Movie

It's hard to categorize the newest venue in Jerusalem's Old City, the Plugat Hakotel. It's called a "museum," but there aren't really any exhibits. And unlike most every other museum, there's no walking around, so it's very good for those who find standard museums difficult to handle.

The Plugat Hakotel Museum is in the building of the historic Plugat Hakotel, on Rechov Hayehudim near the corner of Plugat Hakotel Street, where the patrols that protected Jewish worshipers at the Kotel almost a hundred years ago were quartered. The street level rooms have been set up to show a very good historic reenactment movie, which tells the basic story, fictionalized of course.

Yesterday I went to the Plugat Hakotel Museum with a group of friends from all over the country. It's best to call in advance to book a time slot.

We saw the English dubbed version of the movie which had Hebrew subtitles. It is very well written and acted and tells how members of the Betar Zionist youth movement, inspired by Zeev Jabotinsky worked together to not only guard Jewish worshipers but risk jail time by blowing the shofar at the end of the Yom Kippur fast. Yes, the British forbade shofar blowing.

For me this building has special meaning, because it was our first home in Israel, Maon Betar. We knew the history of it, but at that time, the Old City was undergoing major repairs to make it more habitable and modern. Just now, a half a century after being liberated from illegal Jordanian occupation has the museum been opened.

Shofar in the Plugat Hakotel Museum, Old City Jerusalem

Plugat HaKotel Museum Open to The Public, Memories

I was excited to see that the ground floor area of our first home in Israel has finally been opened to the public as the Beit Plugat Hakotel, Platoon of the Wall House. This small history museum is a gem.

We had been honored with a preview of the museum just under a year ago as part of my husband's 70th birthday/retirement party by the Menachem Begin Heritage Center.

The Menachem Begin Heritage Center chose the location and were able to get us in, because my husband's very first job as an Israeli, after we made aliyah in 1970, was there in that very same building. The rest of the building* had been renovated by World Betar to be used as a "student hostel." We were given an apartment in it to live in, and he was the "administrator," or אב בית. It took almost fifty years for the museum to be established/open.

The Plugat Hakotel Museum is in the building, because that is where the patrols were quartered in the dangerous time of the British Mandate. The British had been mandated to facilitate the establishment of a Jewish State, but they favored the Arabs. That is why there was a serious need for Jewish self-defense, and the Plugat Hakotel, Platoon of the Western Wall was so necessary. Besides providing Jewish security, brave, proud Jews who defied the British by blowing shofar at the Kotel came from that group.

Living in Maon Betar, we didn't have the usual olim chadashim, new immigrant experiences in Israel. Most of our friends spent their first months in a merkaz klita, immigrant hostel where they met other new immigrants and got lots of tips on how to use the system for their benefit. That's why we ended up buying an apartment on the private market in Bayit Vegan, rather then getting a better financial deal in Ramat Eshkol or Sanhedria Murchevet. We never really lived with other new immigrants. The guys in Maon Betar had mostly finished their army service and were starting their university studies. They were regular Israelis from all over the world. The connection was a Betar background.

Here I am in the early days of living in Maon Betar. This central internal patio was then open. A short while later, they roofed it, which kept out the rain and sun.

There were very few Jews living in the Old City at the time. We were certainly the only olim chadashim couple from America, though Rabbi Goldstein had already established the Diaspora Yeshiva on nearby Mount Zion.

During that special year when we were living in Maon Betar, we did feel ourselves as participating in Jewish History. Though nothing we did, not even my husband's attempts to ascend the Temple Mount, was on the level of those brave Jews who risked their lives defending Jews from Arabs while simultaneously challenging and defying the British. You'll find out more if you go to the Plugat Hakotel Museum.



*The rest of the building now serves as a dormitory for the Netiv Arye Yeshiva.