An Update in Israel!

Day 5 (April 29):

                Five days ago, I never would have dreamed that I would be sitting in a dark cave with 35 close friends, singing our hearts out together. This is how our Israel trip 9has started to change us all. This morning, we left the Jerusalem area to head south. driving for an hour, we finally stopped at the area of the caves that were used almost 1900 years ago in the Bar Kochba Revolt. we crawled through the tunnels and rooms, some uncomfortably tight and small, stopping along the way to hear the story of the tunnels, how people had to go underground and fight to prevent themselves from losing their jewish identities. Then, we took another drive, stopping along the way at a gas station to eat lunch, to go to the dig-for-a-day archeological seminar. We dug through dirt and rock, sifted out buckets of dirt, and crawled through caves to learn about how all our knowledge of ancient history comes to be. Our final stop before our hotel, after almost three hours of driving, was at the edge of Machtesh Ramon, where we started a jeep ride that took us around the huge basin. We learned about it's formation, and how a Machtesh is different from a crater. After this ride, we traveled to our hotels and ate dinner before going to bed. It's now my turn to go to bed. Goodnight!

Day 6 (April 30):

We looked outside the window as the morning sun broke through the horizon. Once again Eretz Yisrael didn't fail us, it was a beautiful, cloudless, sunny day. That was until we stepped out of our hotel into the scorching 95 degree sun of the Negev. The day commenced with a short bus ride to Ein Ovdat where we took a brutal hike over a waterfall (with no water), and a scenic view of the mountains of this Holy land. Shortly after, we traveled to the grave of the person who carried the country through a difficult time, brought success, and encouraged the land to flourish. His name is David ben Gurion. We showed our respect to this great person who transformed history, and then went on our way to the Neve Midbar natural pools. We relished in our first swim since coming to Israel. We concluded the day with a literal bang as our bottoms embraced the comfortable humps of a camel across the desert, and we are now enjoying the hospitality and food of the bedouins at Kfar Nanokdim.   

Day 7 (May 1):

Ouch, we woke up so early this morning, it was 4:00 a.m.  It was very hard, but the day got much better.  We went to Masada and we climbed up the side path for like 20 minutes to the top. Then we got up, watched the sunrise, and prayed.  Afterwards our group toured the oh-so interesting Masada, courtesy of King Herod.  After touring for a while, we had a Torah service and since I'm a Kohen, I got the first aliyah.  This was a very cool and interesting experience for me.  After the Torah reading, we went to the bottom of Masada.It took us about an hour,the Snake Root is very steep! In the restaurant we had breakfast.  We went to the Dead Sea afterwards where I had a lot of fun.  We then went to Ein Gedi and after a while of climbing, we reached our destination and we swam and went under the waterfall for a little bit. Then we went on the bus to Karey Desheh,by the sea of Galely where I am now.  Peace out.