The sound of a herd of children running down the hall outside the bedroom woke Sally from her Shabbat afternoon nap.  Although rested, she'd slept a good twelve hours last night and now again another four hours, she could still feel a touch of fatigue.  Whether this was from the exertions of the week or the emotionally draining exchange with Yigal, she couldn't be sure.  She hadn't even stated to get off the bed to change and prepare to go downstairs when she heard a quiet knock on the bedroom door.

"Yes?" Sally offered to let her visitor know she was awake.

Shifra entered the room and quietly asked if it was alright to come in a speak a  moment?  Without waiting for Sally's reply Shifra entered, closing the door behind her.  "Don't get up yet." Shifra said, seeing Sally starting to stir in order to place her feet on the floor.  "I couldn't help but overhear your conversation with Yigal earlier this afternoon." Shifra paused, then started again. "He has never gotten over her death.  If affected all of us deeply but Yigal turned a tragic event into a savage attack on himself."

"What do mean, attack on himself?" asked Sally, trying to make sense of the older woman's words.

"Yigal saw Avital's death as a personal attack against him, as if the deliberate death of the young woman he loved was intended to hurt him."

Sally pondered Shifra's words.  Shifra was a mature and intelligent woman.  She definitely had both much more life experience than she and must know Yigal better than she, yet it didn't make sense to her. "I'm sorry," Sally said, " but that sounds so egocentric to think that someone else died in order to ... what hurt him?"

"To punish him.  Yigal evidently feels guilty.  Maybe its his dilemma over religious observance, torn between wanting to find the meaning in our style of life and the need to rebel against the thins he doesn't accept, or understand.  i really don't know.  What I wanted to say was this ..." Shifra paused to collect her thoughts then began again.  "To the best of my knowledge, and over the past year Yigal has become a stranger to us visiting briefly if we are lucky, one Shabbat a month, but to the best of my knowledge he has never done what he did today."

When Shifra stopped to pause again Sally couldn't stop herself from prompting her, "Which is?"

"Sally, Yigal has never shared his pain with anyone.  Not us, not friends, not mental health professionals and certainly not exposed himself as being so vulnerable as he did with you today.  I don't know what that means, but it was very important to him and, well very important to us that he heal so he can move ahead with his life."  Sally's confusion was evidently plain to see so Shifra concluded, "I didn't mean to imply I expect you to do something, I just thought I'd share with you and try to put today's 'experience' in perspective.  Also perhaps to thank you for being so kind to our son.  We love him very deeply and feel his pain and so desperately want him to ... work it through and start living again - emotionally.  So thank you."

Still now clear how to relate to this entire conversation, Sally smiled and chose silence as her best defense against saying something wrong.

"Well if we are going for this walk we'd better get moving.  David and Yigal are waiting for us downstairs in the kitchen!"  With that Shifra got up from the corner of the bed Sally was sitting on and walked out the room closing the door behind her.

Sally's mind raced through everything she had learned about Yigal Ben-Ari over the past few hours as she quickly dressed and tied the sneakers she'd stuffed in her backpack in case they did decide to hike.  She tried to imagine the pain, the sudden loss, the sense of anger.  At whom was that anger directed?  At the women in the community who thought Yigal wasn't a suitable suitor for the dead girl? Then it dawned on her as she was walking down the staircase.  Ultimately who was responsible for Avital's death?  Who could have prevented it?  To a religious person there was only one answer - G-d.  Yigal who had evidently had problems accepting the formal religious teaching of his parent's way of life, of the schools they sent him to.  The Yigal that apparently stayed religious because this childhood love kept him in the fold. Yigal not only finally rebelled against religion but held a grudge against G-d himself for murdering the only person that helped him fit in and feel whole.  sally stopped on the bottom stair holding the banister in her hand. "Wow!" could all these crazy thoughts be logical.  Is this what happened to this man who she now admitted to herself, interested her in more than a casual sense.  Well time would tell.


"Well, there you are!" David Ben-Ari said, coming out of the kitchen into the front hallway. "Here," he said, handing her a water bottle in a shoulder sling. "It's still hot out there, and a long climb to the top of the hill!  But don't worry, if an old guy like myself can make it, you shouldn't have too many problems.  Beside, Shifra and I will take plenty of rests on the way up!" David was such a soft, self effacing man.  Sally recognized the Yigal who was secure in himself.  She wondered for that instant if maybe she was noticeably different when she was secure, felt not threatened.  Strange idea to cross her mind.

The four of them walked out the front door quickly, and with not a little stealth.  Shifra had intimated that she preferred the children not see them.  This was to be an "adults only" walk, she said.

revolution against the The walk up the hill passed by yet another archaeological site.  At the entrance to the community was a complex of rooms including an identifiable kitchen, with the two thousand year old stove still recognizable, a wine press and associated storage rooms, or perhaps bed rooms?  It was impossible to know.  What was clear were the door posts and the entrance and exists of each of the rooms.  in some instances the stone door frames still stood to half their height.  David explained, as they passed by and started the long climb to the top of the hill above them, that most likely it was part of a farm complex.  There was every indication that it had destroyed during the Bar Kochba revolution against the Romans in 134, that being the latest coins found in crevices between the stones.

Gradually as they climbed, stopping every few minutes to let David & Shifra catch their breath, although Sally was not in the least opposed and welcomed the brief pauses to admire the magnificent view of the Judean Hills beneath them, and the coastal plain beyond.  Yigal had bid her a quiet "Good Afternoon"  as they left the house together, but had not spoken since, leaving his father the role of official tour guide.  At some point along their climb the two young people were several tens of meters ahead of the older couple, and when they paused to let the others catch up Yigal took the opportunity to speak.

"I apologize for my outburst earlier," he said with a sheepish look upon his face.

"Why do you feel you need to apologize.  That's what friends are for, to share with, the positive and the negative." sally responded, weighing each word as she spoke.

"Does that mean we're friends?" he asked, a look of surprise mixed with pleasure on his face.

"I'll let you decide what it means" sally responded evasively, wondering to herself why couldn't she just say 'Yes'.  "Yes Yigal, we can be friends if you want to be!" she finally forced herself to said out loud. "But it goes both ways!"

"What does that mean?"

"It means I get to share my pain and doubts with you, as well as my successes and occasional joy, when I have a reason to rejoice!"

His face glowed like that of a little boy receiving a candy he wanted badly.  "Thanks, I'd like to be your friend!"  They both stood silent looking into each others eyes, neither needing to blink or turn away until David and Shifra caught up to them a few minutes later.

The 'Path of the Forefathers' was simply an ancient roadway that ran atop the water line of the Judean Hills.  The section that ran though the Etzion Block ran close to the Western side of the broad plateau atop the low mountain range.  Sections clearly showed signs of paving, possibly during Roman or early Byzantine times. The entire length was walled on both sides by ancient terrace walls, painstakingly repaired generation after generation by the owners of the fields on either side, their best protection against trespassers who would trample the crops they grew, or worse, pilfer the produce grown, claiming if it was an open field it was not considered theft.

When the 'Path' reached the modern highway that reached Jerusalem in the North or Hebron in the South, a sign indicated the entrance to a huge underground water conduit.

"This stone pipe, made of these huge stone links, " David explained pointing out one of the round stone circles, the inner circumference of which a man could stand upright, " were placed one into the other, with a small indentation on one side and a small protrusion on the other so they would seal."  The pipes led the water of the many artisan springs in the valleys around toward large pools just South of Bethlehem.  There another stone pipe led the water all the way to the Jerusalem, part of the flow arriving directly to the Temple.

As they walked back up the 'Path' toward their point of origin, they could see the sun slowly sinking in the West, the sky growing increasingly redder in color, but paler in strength of light.  Arriving a the Kibbutz the men went directly to the synagogue in the hope of catching a quorum for the afternoon or 'Mincha' prayer.  Shifra led Sally further into the kibbutz to one of the many small homes that rested between the tall shady trees that seemed to blot out the sky above.

Yekutiel and Bracha were some kind of cousin to Shifra, but seemed to welcome her like the closest of family.  Sally was welcomed as the proverbial 'Friend-of-the-Family' only this time Shifra took pains to add an explanation about Sally's role as photographer on Yigal's most recent archaeological site.  With that introduction Sally found herself beset with dozens of questions.  The interest of almost everyone present in the history of the Land was almost overwhelming.  Begging off as "I'm only the photographer" she succeeded in deflecting the questions until Yigal's arrival.  In the meantime everyone took time to play 'catch-up' with who was doing what, who was marrying, who gave birth etc.  The men seemed less involved in this conversation, but Yekutiel feigned polite interest as he went about slicing garden vegetables for a salad.

David and Yigal showed up a few minutes later to be invited to wash and break bread at the kibbutz family's little table on their back patio.  Everyone had evidently been waiting for them to arrive.  Having finally said the blessing on the bread, once everyone could talk again, Yigal felt the full brunt of the interest Sally had recently successfully deflected.  Slowly and cautiously he described what they knew and differentiated between that and what they surmised.  "In short," he summarized, "we'll all be wiser in another few days!"

When asked if they had worked together before, Sally was about to answer when Yigal spoke up. "No, this is the first time, but we've been friends for a while," he looked meaningfully at her, "and when I needed someone in a pinch, Sarah was gracious enough to rearrange her schedule to help me out."  Sally flushed slightly at being called his friend.  In Hebrew it could be nothing but it also had the connotation of 'Girl Friend' with a capital 'G' and 'F'.  She also realized that she felt a glow of pleasure at his use of her Hebrew name.  Somehow it made a difference to be 'Sarah' and not 'Sally', especially when he used that name.  Then she smiled at herself.  You're getting "it" bad! she thought to herself, unwilling to define exactly what "it" was, but was certain it would cause her as much pain as it did pleasure.

As the dusk arrived, they all said the Grace After Meals in unison and the men rushed out to participate in the evening prayers at the synagogue.  Sally had always been very lax about her synagogue attendance, going when she felt the whim and forgetting about the entire thing when she wasn't in the mood.  Having spent an entire Shabbat with the Ben-Ari's she began to realize how much participating in community prayer was an integral and central part of their life style.  She'd have to ask someone, maybe one of her teachers, to learn just how much a woman was obligated to participate, although she noted that Shifra hadn't attended the previous night, nor the afternoon or evening prayers today.

While everyone was clearing the table and continuing their family updates that had been interrupted by the men and the meal, Sally sat outside on the patio breathing in the cooler evening air, and listening to the sound of the evening breeze play thought the tree tops above her.

"So you're Yigal's new friend?" she heard a voice ask from behind her.  Turning she say a young woman, probably turning twenty or twenty-one.  Someone she didn't remember seeing at the meal, or had somehow completely overlooked.

"Well, friends like in 'yididim'" said Sally using a word she learned mean casual friends as opposed to emotional involved girl-boy friends.  "I'm Sal ..." she cut herself off and started again, "Sarah.  What is your name?"

"My name is Shira, although all my friends call me Kiki!" laughed the younger woman.  "But that's an entire 'megilah' in itself" she said, using the colloquial idiom for "a long story".  "I'm happy for him, whatever type of friend you are.  He's been very lonely for a long time, and wouldn't let himself open up to anyone, and there have been no lack of girls interested in going out with him!"

Sally wasn't certain how she felt about that.  Still unsure as to what her own intentions were, still the implicit idea of competition, at least until she decided where she herself stood, perked a tweak of jealously.  Recognizing it for what it was, she again smiled at herself for her own emotional uncertainty.  "So I've come to understand." Sally said, not wanting to speak too much about Yigal behind his back, especially with someone who was a stranger to her.  "And are you family to the Ben-Ari's as well?" she asked.

"Oh no!  I'm the daughter of Bracha and Yekutiel's neighbour.  I live in Jerusalem.  I learn there at Betzelel School of Art and Design and am just visiting my parents for Shabbat."  With a lower tone indicating a desire to half apologize, "I was sitting in my parent's patio and couldn't help but over hearing the conversations on the other side," she explained pointing to a short stretch of wooden fence that provided some small measure of privacy to both rear patios.

"Yes, I know what its like.  I have exactly the same sort of situation with the neighbour on my roof top apartment!" Sally said, thinking of the many times she had overheard Yigal speaking to someone, either on his roof-top patio the other side of their mutual wood privacy fence, or on his phone while pacing there.  Their conversation flowed on to Kiki's subject and the kinds of art courses Sally had taken when she'd studied photography in New York City University.  Hearing the men return from synagogue, Sally invited her new acquaintance to drop by some Shabbat when she stayed in the city.  They apparently lived but a few minutes walk one from the other.

Yekutiel, as host to the assembly gathered in his house, made the "Havdalah" blessings over the wine, light candle and fragrant spices symbolizing the end of the Shabbat, and ushering in the new week.  Once everyone had said their goodbyes and promised to stay in touch, he then walked them out to the parking lot and ended up driving them down to Shevut Ami to the Ben-Ari's house.  With a hearty "Shavuah Tov" (Good Week) he turned his van around and returned to his kibbutz at the top of the hill.

Inside Yehuda had just finished saying havdalah for his wife and children and everyone was now gathering their various belongings together in anticipation of their trips home.  Shifra came out of the kitchen just as Sally reached the ground floor, having collected her things and packed them in her backpack in preparation for her trip back to the city with Yigal.

"I want you to know that you welcome in our home anytime!" Shifra said just as Yigal joined them, entering from the living room, his own carry-on in his hand. "And you don't need Yigal to drive you!  You can come even when he's not here, we enough your company!"

Sally felt her face flush and moisture well up in her eyes. "Why, thank you ever so much, that is so kind of you.  I'd like that very much," she said, feeling a wave of warmth flow through her and a feeling of affection tinged with admiration toward this kind compassionate woman.  Surprising her, Shifra took Sally up in her arms and gave her a long and affectionate hug.

"I'll keep you at your word!" was all the older woman laughingly said, as she turned to help her daughter prepare her brood for their much longer journey to Beer Sheva in the Negev.

"Well it looks like you've made at least one friend this Shabbat," Yigal commented after witnessing the very affectionate goodbye his mother had given Sally.

"Just one?" asked Sally, looking him in the eye with a half serious half coquettish look that begged him to avoid answering her.

"No, I guess you've made more than one friend this Shabbat," he admitted, again avoiding saying explicitly what she wanted to hear and he wanted to say, but didn't know or have the courage to express.  "Ready to leave?" he asked, moving the exchange back to safer mundane issues that didn't emotionally challenge him.

Together they said goodbye to Deborah and Yehuda, their older children calling upon Yigal to invite 'Sarah' next time them come!  Finally David came down the stairs to bid them both Shavuah Tov and a safe and eventfull week.  Sally wasn't certain if he meant that as a blessing for success in the personal or professional sphere, but decided she's take his blessing however he gave it.

The last thing Sally saw of the Ben-Ari's was David and Shifra standing arm-in-arm on their front porch highlighted by the lamp over their heads as they watched Yigal's jeep reced and slowly climb up the steep hill away from Shevut Ami and back toward Jerusalem.

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