Jonah Mancini

I have been inundated with the new ulpan and have little time to do much else. I did have the honor and great pleasure of being a witness in a wonderful event that took place at the Church of the Holy Seplecure. This event however is of such great magnitude that it deserves the time and effort of its own blog. This to be posted soon. All this to say that I am doing well here in Israel and am working hard to try and learn fully this Hebrew language.

A break in the war up north has people here breathing sighs of relief and with their very next breath held in anticipation to see what is to happen next. All in all there is an unsettling calm that is thick and almost tangible in the air.

I hope to post again soon when I have become a bit more settled with my new roommates and new class load. Till then, may GOD?¢‚Ǩ‚Ñ¢s peace endure.

Some wonderful people that I had the pleasure of getting to know during the last ulpan (intence Hebrew Language Program).

I had the greatest of pleasures this morning. Not in a 100 years, neigh, a 1,000 years would I ever have thought that I would have had the honor of what I had this morning, on this bonny Sabbath morn. Both I and a good friend of mine from Bermuda had the privilege of leading GOD’s children in worship, in the city of Jerusalem! It was wonderful and a unique experience for me. I remember as a young boy watching the pianist play the hymns we sang and thinking/praying: What a privilege it would be to be that person who played the piano for people to sing praises.” I asked GOD if one day I could have that privilege. As I look back now at that request and see how to great lengths GOD has answered that prayer. I have had the honor to lead worship in a Bickertonite home Church in Albuquerque NM, in a Baptist/non-denom church plant in Alb, for a Methodist Youth group in San Antonio TX, for camps and retreats in San Antonio, for a Presbyterian College Ministry in San An…, for Intervarsity Christian Fellowship, for Fellowship of Christian Athletes, helped plan and played for an Episcopal Modern Worship Service in San Antonio, for a Baptist Congregation in North Chicago IL, and now for a Multicultural Multiethnic Interdenominational Church in Jerusalem, Israel! How the Good LORD answers prayer. Bless the Name!

After the service was over I was to meet up with a friend from TX in the Old City at the Damascus Gate where he was staying. However, I failed to get there in time to catch him, but since I was coming from the church I had my guitar with me. As I sat in the gate waiting for my friend, a couple of Arab guys came up to me and began asking me questions about my guitar. After a while I realized that they wanted me to play for them. The were learning how to play and they wanted to watch my fingers. So I agreed. I began to play as they watched and were impressed and thanked me for my time. After they had gone I continued to play since I was just waiting anyways. So as time went on, about 8 Arab boys slowly gathered around me. One at first then he encouraged his friends to come by also. Only a couple of them spoke English well and asked me if I could play this song or that song. I did as best I could and played the few popular songs I knew (exp, Free Falling, Hotel California, …). It was great! They hung around for about 20 min or so and bought me some kind of juice slushy. It was tasty. As they got up to leave, they thanked me with handshakes all around. It was at this point that one of them said to me, “You come around her and play anytime you like. You are a friend for life!” I was kind of taken back by the grandiose statement made by this young man of age 17ish. I thanked him as I thought on what he had just said. I hope to see him and his friends again in the future.

It still amazes me, the power of music. Even though it has been many times in my life my sole and lone companion in sharing some of my deeper emotions. Often it would expresses the emotions I didn’t even know I had or was feeling. I hope that I never lose this ability, this gift, this passion kindled deep in my soul. I know music is a powerful fire, and can burn one if it is not used wisely. The vehicle of music only carries us to places we already know. To emotions we have already visited. However, when it does this, it does it with a fanned flame of intensity. If you want to feel sad, music with bring you to sorrowful tears. If you want to feel happy, music will bring you joyful dancing. If you want to feel love, music will wash over your soul like a strong wine. If you want to feel anger, music will bring you to a violent rage! This is the power of music. This is its force. In this is the passion of mankind in pure expression. I hope never to lose my ability to express it.

Liminality might best be described as the state of limbo found in one’s own identity due to social transition or a “rite of passage” where one can neither be associated with who one had previously been nor can one be associated with the social recognition that he/she has earned but has yet to receive. The tasks/roles of the past are completed and the tasks/roles of the future are not yet accessible… the individual is found to be in a kind of unbound flux both within one’s self and within the larger realm of society.

Why did I begin this blog with a definition of some philosophical term? I thought it fitting since the last conversation I had with a certain young woman, whom is of great importance to me, consisted of the statement “I feel so liminal”. She had been referring to the events of the past week that seemed more like a dream than anything else. They were the type of events that involve the leads of some epic romantic film, not to mere mortals such as she and myself. Love songs sing about such things, which we did listened to on several occasions and found them quite fitting to our seemingly liminal existence.

She had not only been referring to the events of the week prior, but most likely the whole of the summer up to that point. See, she had just graduated from college and was transitioning into a grad/doctorial program at a university on the west coast. I do believe that our short lived relationship (with the hope of something more) may have been the pinnacle of her liminal experience. She had asked me a time or two “Don’t you feel liminal?” to which I mostly nodded and avoided answering. For me, I felt like my stage of transition was coming to an end and while she and I hung out and discussed the deep questions of life, postmodernism, and the perspective of a certain philosopher named Emmanuel Levinas, I was feeling more and more at home; at home in my new surroundings, at home in my renewed path, and at home in my new friend. As I joined her at the airport in Tel Aviv where we enjoyed a meal, a good hand holding and each other’s presence, I couldn’t help but feel as part of my new home was to some degree breaking up, for even from the beginning of the Hebrew Ulpan class she was my “Zoog”, my partner, and helped me fill the times in-between sleeping and class with laughter and chocolate croissant eating.

To say that I am going to miss her would be an understatement for so much of my understanding of my new home includes her. Do I feel Liminal? That is a good question. Maybe I do, maybe even more then before. The problem is if this is Liminal, then what am I transitioning to? That being said, I leave this blog with a seemingly misplaced and unrelated poem.

This is just to say

I have eaten
the plums
that were in
the icebox

and which
you were probably
saving
for breakfast

Forgive me
they were delicious
so sweet
and so cold

- William Carlos Williams