"Af Al Pi Chen" - Nevertheless

Near the start of our trip, Roni, our tour guide said, "The country was not given to us on a silver platter." As we hit the road for touring in earnest today, that lesson came alive - in ancient and modern contexts. We started with the present and moved backward in time. The murder of Yitzhak Rabin at the hands of a Jewish, religious opponent of the Oslo Peace Process, marked a nadir in Israel's national life. Rabin had been the first prime minister who was a native born Israeli. He was, as Roni put it, truly seed of this land. Rabin had also survived nearly everything - the War for Independence, the Six Day War (he was the chief of army for it), the Intifadah and he came to understand that shaking Arafat's hand was more productive and important to peace than shooting him. Since Rabin's death, the Peace Process and Israeli society have never been the same. It really is a struggle.

At Haifa we stood below Mount Carmel site of the story of Elijah the Prophet. In biblical days, he stood against King Ahab and Queen Jezebel at the risk of death. They had forsaken the Traditions of the ancestors and worshipped the foreign god, Ba'al. Elijah challenged the prophets of Ba'al to a kind of holy duel - your god vs. mine - atop this very mountain. Elijah won but had to flee for his life. He fled to the desert where he encountered the "still small voice" of God. He wins a battle but the war is not over - nothing is handed to him on a silver platter.

From that base of Mt. Carmel, we then entered the museum of the Israeli navy. Its centerpiece is a display about the illegal immigration - the Ma'apilim Jewish partisans who ran the British blockades in the 1940s to bring Holocaust survivors to the Jewish homeland. The conditions were terrible. You may know the story of the Exodus ship and the internment camps on Cyprus. They looked a lot like concentration camps. We learned about this from a young woman (maybe in her mid-20s) who is an officer in the navy. Roni pointed out to us that she wore on her uniform the insignia indicating that she had served in the Lebanon war 2 years ago. She toured us around the grounds and through one of the ships that had been used to run the British blockades (now preserved in dry dock at the musuem). The ship we toured had entered service after the Exodus disaster when thousands of refugees had been repatriated to Europe by force. The ship's name captured the spirit of the ma'apilim efforts: Af Al Pi Chen, Hebrew for "Nevertheless." Even though the obstacles are great and history indicates we may lose many battles, NEVERTHELESS we will not be stopped. We will make our home in this land in peace, safety, and happiness. Nevertheless...

What commitments do you have in your life that you would name "Af Al Pi Chen?" What goals will you pursue with full vigor even against the greatest of doubts?