Tuesday, July 15

Hi everyone. Sorry it has been so long since my last post. I was without a computer/internet for a little while. We left off the night before the first Masada trip. Tuesday morning, we left and had a Jewish History tiyul in Jerusalem. We saw the model of Jerusalem in the second temple period. It was interesting to see the model of what the city used to look like. It was truly amazing to think that such a long time ago, they were able to accomplish so much architecturally. Some of the stones on the remaining retaining wall (Kotel) weigh an estimated 50 tons. The detail put into the design is also amazing. We then went to the southern wall excavations and saw more of what the city used to look like. I got to make the journey that many Jews thousands of years ago made going up the steps to בית המיקדש or the Second temple. The thought put into even the way the stairs were built is truly astounding. They were created to be slightly uneven to provoke more thought regarding the journey from the Jews making the pilgrimage. Even the walls of the temple and retaining wall were specially constructed to be not completely straight up, but slightly slanted, to make it more sturdy. We got to have lunch again in the Old City, and then started the long drive to Masada. We arrived at a hostel right next to Masada and got in some well deserved rest. At 3:30 AM, we woke up and had a quick breakfast before beginning the hike up the snake path. This is the harder of the two paths leading up the mountain. The hike took about 40 min, and as we were ascending the path, we saw it beginning to get light around us, but the sun hadn't actually shown itself. It was an absolutely amazing sight to be looking at the Dead Sea and mountains around us. I carried a guitar up with me the whole way, so that was an interesting experience and challenge. When we got to the top, we still had about half an hour before the sun showed itself. We had a nice time relaxing and recovering from the hike. Once the whole group was at the top, we had a morning service where I played guitar. Watching the sunrise on top of Masada was one of the most beautiful things I have ever seen. We saw the sun reflecting off of the water, and everything around us getting brighter. After services, we went off in our history groups and had a program on top of Masada learning about the history of Masada and how it was used. We saw a Roman bath from when King Herod occupied the area, and the detail put into it was astounding. There were colored geometric designs on the walls, and a black and white tile floor. There was even a steam room, from 2000+ years ago. We also got to yell from a certain point on the mountain שנית מצדה לא תיכול. Meaning Masada will not fall again. At this special point, the echo created is crazy. It echoes twice very loudly in two different places. That was definitely cool. We also got to see the guesthouses where people would stay. The detail put into the columns is unbelievable considering the time period in which it is from. After our program, we descended the snake path, and drove the short distance to the Dead Sea or ים המלך. We put on the mud from the Dead Sea, let it dry, and then went in. The Dead Sea is 30% salt, making it possible to float with no effort. More interestingly, it makes it near impossible to touch the bottom when the water is deeper than chest height. It is just impossible to push yourself down all the way. The water was also a very pretty shade of light blue. After the Dead Sea, we returned to Tzuba to begin packing our rooms up. Thursday we had classes as usual, and then left for Jerusalem to meet up with all of the other NFTY Israel groups at Hebrew Union College. I saw my friends from camp who are on another trip. After this, we all went to Masada and hung out at the bottom. I got to spend more time with camp friends who I hadn't seen in a long time. We had a concert with Dan Nichols, a popular Jewish songwriter. That was pretty cool, and he's really good at guitar. At 4:00, 624 kids from NFTY trips began the short 15 min climb up the Roman Ramp, the easy path up Masada. We again got to see the sun rise, but this time, we had a better view, and it was just as pretty. After sunrise, we had services again on top of Masada, but this time, we walked down right after services and went down to Eilat. Once we arrived in Eilat, we had the whole afternoon to get some real rest. We the had Shabbat services at the youth hostel, but we were all still exhausted so it was time for bed. Saturday, we had a great day. We all woke up late, got some breakfast, and then morning services at 11. After services, we had the afternoon on the tayellet or boardwalk. We swam in the Red Sea and a lot of people went shopping. Instead of shopping I went with some friends to the watersports area and we went on banana boats, little motor boats, and pedal boats. It was so much fun, and we had an amazing view of Jordan and a little bit of Egypt. We then had Havdallah services, and more free time on the tayellet. Sunday, we had a bus ride to a part of the Israeli version of the Appalachian trail. We did a short little hike to the top of a small mountain and arrived at a viewpoint where we could see Israel, Jordan, Egypt and Saudi Arabia. We could see the mountains all around and it was just gorgeous. We then went to a place on the Red Sea where we went snorkeling. We saw the coral reef and tons of beautiful fish. After snorkeling, we went to the tayellet for lunch and a little bit more shopping before our trip to the Bedouin tent. Once arriving at the Bedouin tent (tourist attraction Bedouins, not real ones), we dropped our bags and went on a camel ride. We rode through the hills around us in the Negev and then returned to the tent for dinner. We got to have the famous Bedouin tea which was delicious. They just use a few different types of herbs to make it. We had an early bedtime, and went to sleep. Monday morning, we got up, had a Bedouin breakfast, and departed for the sand dunes. The sand at the dunes was very small and had blown in all the way from the Sahara. We got to roll down the dunes which was really cool, but we had sand EVERYWHERE on our bodies, in places we didn't even know about. I still had sand in my hair today. After the dunes, we departed for Ein Gedi. At Ein Gedi, we went on a hike which was supposed to go to a waterfall, but because of the heat and the time we had, we didn't go all the way. We stopped at an area which has pools instead. These were all natural pools and it was really cool to swim in them. We finally left and headed back to Tzuba, where we all got a well deserved night's rest. Today, we had Hebrew class as usual, and then Jewish History. After lunch, we left for a tiyul to learn about the Bar Kochva revolt. We went to caves that had tunnels used during the time of the revolt to hide from the Romans. It was pretty interesting how well things have been preserved all this time. We returned to Tzuba, and had dinner, and are about to get another night's rest, also very much needed. The trip, while extremely fun is also very tiring. That's all for now, and I'll post soon.

Ben