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TAMAR and TOMER
2003_04_29; last update:
2003_05_01
Dedicated to Tomer
Four times a week we had time after the pool
to walk up to "my" ziziphus spinachristi tree
on the Titorah, the ancient Maccabean Modi'in.
We had our lunch there, with thermos-tea,
and most cheerful hours of togetherness,
in the last time with one or more friends.
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We were never interested in the few tamars.
They weren't high enough to give us shade.
It is only now, that
I explore this experience,
that I see the link between tamar and Tomer,
not only in general, but right there on our hill.
In the late afternoon of June 2, 2002, I got an urgent
call from Tomer:
"Grandma, your tree is burning! I can see it from
my window!"
I ran out of my house, up to "my" figtree,
happy that it didn't burn,
relieved to find the fire on the other side of the jeep-road
and about to be contained by fire-workers.
From the present perspective - sculpting my Wrestling
with Tomer,
I see a link between the two facts:
It was seven year old T, who alarmed me about the fire,
and it was not a figtree, but a rare tamar, which was in danger.
Now, on April 29, the Holocaust Remembrance Day, this
tamar is green and safe,
and - from this point of view - laughing over the ruins of the "Burg"
crusader castle.
Close by, I discovered a smaller tamar, growing next
to a young spinachristi
with bunches of yellow flowers, - are they able to produce fruits?
and surronded by the offspring of grains, which once produced bread.-
Behind the tree, in the north, Jewish settlements, partly on Palestinian land
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And there comes the third tree,
seen from far away, though not very high either,
but from this point-of-view definitely overtowering Modi'in's small twin-towers. Move a little , and you see a different panorama of this town-in-building and also of the other few scattered trees - some almond trees and the pine-trees, which seem to have hosted a holy place and the ruins of a Byzanthine farm. Still, from my vantage point this tamar reigns about all humans efforts. 
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Having "covered" this
tamar and its background towards to setting sun,
I turned around to discern the tamar's aspects when looking towards the east. Towards the south-east it's my neighborhood , less than 7 years old and towards the east it's the crusader fortress, destroyed 800 years ago. Here the tamar seems to feel a bit unhappy, there it stands majestically, but the two points-of-view were only some feets apart.  |
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and the last insert combines old and new and the feeling of peace and majesty alike, at least for me.
