Cooling Off with Some Hot Summer Wines from Israel

Summer menus, grilling and outdoor entertaining all lead people to look for great summer wines.  While a lot of people prefer lighter, crisper wines in warmer weather, there is no problem for red wine lovers to find great wines appropriate for the warmer weather.

There are some really nice moderately prices whites available this time of year.  I recently found Tishbi’s Emerald Riesling and Chenin Blanc in stock in local wine shops after an extended absence.  These light, off-dry wines are ideal for sipping on the deck, with fruit and cheese plates or lightly grilled fish.  For a dryer, slightly crisper finish, look for some of the outstanding whites from Dalton in the Upper Galilee.  Their wild yeast Viognier, Unoaked Chardonnay and newer (2010) Alma series Viognier/Chardonnay blend (60/40) are all enjoyable and mostly available for $20 (more or less).

Another very pleasant white blend is available from the largest wine producer in Israel, the Ridge White from the Carmel Appellation series.  It pairs well with grilled poultry and fish.  Sauvignon Blanc is another dry white summer favorite, and there are several nice labels to choose from, including the very affordable Barkan Classic Sauvignon Blanc and Dalton’s Fume Blanc.

There are also some very pleasant Israeli blush wines available during the summer.  Galil Mountain makes a Rose from 100% Sangiovese grapes.  It’s a very refreshing wine and goes well with cold meats or more strongly favored cheeses.  The Agur Rosa, produced by winemaker Shuki Yashuv in our sister community of Mateh Yehuda, is made from Cabernet Franc and Cabernet Sauvignon grapes grown in the nearby Judean Hills just northeast of the winery.  The Agur Rosa pairs well with a variety of dishes and is best served chilled.

Some grilled dishes cry out for being paired with a full bodied, flavorful red.  There are some lighter bodied reds, Gamla’s Sangiovese (from the Golan Heights Winery) comes to mind for pasta dishes, but for grilled ribs or steak you might want a Shiraz from Galil Mountain Winery or Gush Etzion, a varietal Cabernet Franc (the Tanya Winery in Ophra and again the Carmel Appellation Series offer great choices) or a red blend, ranging on the high end from the Psagot Edom, to more moderately priced Nahal Pirim from Gush Etzion or Kesem from Agur (all three Bordeaux-style blends of  Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot, Petit Verdot and Cabernet Franc).  For the more budget-conscious the Yogev label from the Binyamina Winery offers some really nice red blends of Cabernet Sauvignon-Petit Verdot and Cabernet Sauvignon-Shiraz.  Either one goes great with burgers or steaks.

Summer is a quiet time for wineries in Israel, as the growing season extends into August, so it’s a great time to visit wineries and spend time with the winemakers to find out more about what they’re growing and aging.  Enjoy some wonderful wines this summer.  The only rule you really need to be concerned about is to drink the wines you like and avoid the ones you don’t like.  B’tayavon!

Sh’lach Lecha – Gaining Perspective - Your Spies are My Scouts

The Book of B’midbar is such appropriate summer reading; it’s filled with roller-coaster ups and downs.  The Children of Israel complain about the living conditions of the wilderness of Sinai, Moses tries to address their complaints, God gets impatient and threatens the people, the people repent, God forgives and the cycle begins again.

This week’s parasha, Sh’lach Lecha (B’midbar (Numbers) 13:1-15:41) describes the turning point events of the 12 representatives sent to scout out Canaan, the promised land.  At the beginning of the narrative, the expectation is that the Children of Israel will soon take possession of their inheritance, that they are getting close.  There was likely a sense among the people that their suffering in the wilderness was near an end, the Manna, of which after just a few months they were already tiring, was a short term problem.

Moses gives specific instructions to his scouts (13:17-20) that are both of a military and a domestic nature:

            Go up there into the Negev and on into the hill country, and see what kind of country it is.  Are the people who dwell in in strong or weak, few or many?  Is the country in which they dwell good or bad?  Are the towns they live in open or fortified?  Is the soil rich or poor, Is it wooded or not?  And take pains to bring back some of the fruit of the land.

Moses needs some military information, how strong are the people and are their cities defended?  He also needs to know about the living conditions; agriculture, building materials and soil quality.  All of this is worthwhile information to acquire.  Moses, as leader, wants the confidence knowledge will give him in order to lead the people into the land.

The scouts, to their credit, follow the instructions they are given.  The tension begins with the way they deliver their report and in the public way (were there intelligence leaks?) their report gets to the people.  The scouts indeed find a land flowing (or some translations say oozing) with milk and honey as promised.  They return with a cluster of grapes so large it takes two men to carry it (the symbol today for Israel’s Ministry of Tourism).  So what is the problem?  The problem is one of perspective, and probably confidence.

The people in the land seemed large to the scouts; some of the cities were indeed fortified.  Probably neither of these facts should have been particularly unexpected since indeed Moses contemplated these possibilities in the delivery of his instructions.  The problem is in the people’s reaction to these reports.  They go right back to their perspective of victimization, to their complaining of how much better a life of servitude to Egypt would be (what they knew) to lives of freedom that might involve some conflict and challenge (what they didn’t know).  The reaction of the people (14:1-4) is what God finds so vexing.

Caleb and Joshua do an admirable job giving perspective to the report, telling the people to have faith in God, and that the task is achievable, but the people are ready to pelt Joshua and Caleb with stones.  As Professor Burton Visotsky, in his book on Midrash, Reading the Book details, God is shown here to be the most tragic figure in Tanach; “How long will this people spurn me, and how long will they have no faith in me despite all the signs that I have performed in their midst?”  (14:11).  God threatens to destroy the people and start all over with Moses.  Moses, the original spin doctor, tells God how it will look to have made this big show of taking the people out of Egypt, only to destroy them in the wilderness, and God relents – as we repeat on Yom Kippur, God replies “Salachti ki’dvarecha” (I will pardon them as you have asked (14:20)).

There is a consequence.  The punishment extends to the non-trusting generation of the exodus, and except for Joshua and Caleb, the conquest of the land will wait for the next generation – none of the complaining generation will get into the land of Canaan.  The 39 years of nation-building in the wilderness is the sentence for this offense of lost of trust in God.

Questions to consider:

1.  Does the punishment fit the crime?  Why do you think the people need a 39 year time out?

2. How hard is it to be Moses?  He has to deal with the people’s disappointment and God’s disappointment.  Do you know anyone who could do that job?

3.  How would you make the best of a bad situation, knowing that the rest of your life was going to be a 39 year camping trip?

Steve Kerbel is the Director of Education of Congregation B’nai Tzedek in Potomac, MD.  He is the current chair of the Education Directors Council of Greater Washington and a national vice president of the Jewish Educators Assembly.