Yet again so much has happened in two days.
It is hard to believe that just yesterday we woke up early in Jerusalem and headed to Mount Herzl cemetery early in the morning. Our soldiers—I believe I can now safely say friends—from Ashkelon were dressed again in military uniforms out of respect for the place.
We started by visiting Theodor Herzl’s grave—originally in Europe and moved to Jerusalem after the founding of the State—and learned about how Herzl’s early career inspired him to envision a Jewish state and how he convened the first Zionist Congress. We walked from here to the graves of leaders of the State of Israel and gave particular attention to the grave of Yitzhak Rabin, the prime minister who after serving in all of the other highest posts in the Israeli government and military, and worked very hard to bring about peace with the Palestinian people, was assassinated in 2005 by a radical rightist. We walked by the graves and memorials of the paratrooper heroes who include Hannah Senesh and made our way into the military cemetery. We visited the grave of Mike Levin who many Baltimoreans and Philadelphians know from school or from Camp Ramah in the Poconos, Mike returned from camp to Israel when he found out his unit was being called up for the Second Lebanon War in 2006 and was killed in Lebanon. Lior, our tour educator, also told us the stories of some of his best friends who died during their service as well. We concluded our time at Mount Herzl with appreciation for the IDF soldiers with us. We recited memorial prayers and a blessing for the IDF and chanted Hatikvah, Israel’s national anthem, together. “Hatikvah” means “the hope,” and I’d like to think that not only is it about appreciating the Jewish homeland that is, but that this “hope” can also be about the Israel that can be—an Israel with love and respect among the Jewish people, and true peace and justice with Israel’s neighbors.
We left Jerusalem and headed to the area of Beit Shemesh, where we stopped for lunch. The most popular food was actually a drink of sorts—Café Aroma’s “icecafe”—frothy and apparently fewer than 500 calories (not by much). Some ate at Aroma; others preferred to scope out the burgers the kosher McDonalds and we had some pretty positive reviews. We boarded the bus for a few more minutes to get to the Beit Guvrin area; we sampled “Krembo,” Israel’s cookie/marshmallow/chocolate treat that I believe holds a similar mythic place among Israeli children as Oreos do among American children (“How do *you* eat a Krembo/Oreo…”.) We disembarked the bus and most of us went spelunking through an underground labyrinth of caves.
Yours truly did this once three years ago on a Taglit-Birthright Israel: Hillel trip and decided that that was enough for a lifetime so I stayed outside with anyone else who might be claustrophobic too. Brian was dubious at first because he did not have a flashlight but found one at last minute. Though our cave crawlers emerged a bit dirty, most of them were thrilled that they did it!
From the Beit Guvrin area we headed South for a couple of hours, through the City of Arad to Kfar Hanokdim, a Bedouin encampment designed for pilgrims like ourselves. We put our bags into a big tent and drank some tea that Aaron K. suggested tasted like boiled down Fruit Loops (everyone agreed with this backhanded compliment), and visited this beautiful chill-out tent space that Mike and I thought would be a really neat annex to UMBC’s other student life spaces.
There was a place to shop for clothing and crafts, and Danielle was excited to buy a necklace for herself after most of her previous shopping was for other loved ones. By about 5:30 PM most of the group was riding camels into the sunset and then returning to the camp. We were welcomed into a large tent as Khaled, a Bedouin from the Negev desert in Israel, described Bedouin culture with a particular focus on symbols and rituals around hospitality. And then after some coffee roasting and drinking, the next phase of hospitality began as we ate what many people believe was the most delicious meal of the trip.
After dinner, we headed out into the darkness in two groups and had a conversation called “Spirituality: Wresting with God” in which students had a chance to be alone in the desert for a few minutes to reflect and then share with the group. The stars looked incredible as well. We returned to our tent where the Ashkelonians led some fun games including the “crab war”—appropriate for Baltimore I guess—during which people had to crawl on their back like crabs and get each other out. Josh had a particular talent for this game but Dotan—the Ashkelonian soldier who proposed it—seemed to make a pretty good crab himself.
As the night continued people listened to music, sat around campfires, and generally just hung out before they went to bed, some later than others, in sleeping bags in thin mattresses on the tent floor. It was a pretty warm night in the desert for January but as it became chillier luckily my co-staff and colleague from Hopkins Hillel—Rabbi Debbie Pine—figured out how to use the heater in the tent.
We were up by 5:40, eating breakfast just after 6—another delicious meal with the freshest of breads. We boarded the bus and headed to Masada.
Corinne and Sarah imagined that the hike up the mountain would be a lot longer than it was—the Roman ramp that we took only took about 20 minutes.
But they also didn’t realize how intense the hike down on the snake path would be. While we were on the top of Masada, two UMBC students who did not previously have Hebrew names received Hebrew names in a ceremony that
we did together as a group. Lisa had a funny moment on top of Masada
when she noticed she had received a text message on her cell phone from a Jordanian cell phone company welcoming here to “roam” in Jordan; these signals seem to get mixed up near the borders. We learned about Masada’s history 2000 years ago and Masada as a symbol in contemporary Israel before we headed down the mountain. Now, nearly half a day later, I’m pretty sure I’m not the only one whose knees are just beginning to
*really* feel it. Lena was particularly gracious on the way down the mountain as she helped another participant whose fear of heights—perhaps fear of falling—made the walk down particularly challenging.
After some combination of OJ, ice cream, and Ahava products at the bottom of the mountain we boarded the bus and headed to the Ein Bokek beach at the Dead Sea. Most of our students covered themselves with mud and the water was a little chilly in spite of the warm weather.
We headed from the Dead Sea south and stopped in Dimona, where our students took full advantage of 20 minutes in the local mall for bathrooms and food. Nathan was determined to find chocolate “Bamba” (Bamba is peanut-flavored, giant cheese-puff-shaped Israeli snack food). We found some funky version of it which our students snacked on. Our guide mentioned that Dimona receives a lot of attention internationally because it is thought to be the center of Israel’s nuclear program (which Israel has never confirmed nor denied exists at all).
We arrived about a half hour later to our kibbutz hotel where students had a chance to relax before a little more exercise. Our soldiers put on their uniforms once again to simulate boot camp and divided the bus into
three groups. “Lior (our tour educator) told us to wear comfortable
clothes, “ said Evan, “not, ‘you’re going to be in the army.’” Needless
to say, the fast 30 minutes I had photographing our students running around and doing push-up jumping exercises probably went by a bit slower for our participants.
After boot camp, a couple of dogs at the kibbutz seemed to take a liking to Aaron B. and two hours later I think one of them has still have not left his side.
The pool is open at the kibbutz for our students tonight and tomorrow morning we take a hike and then head to Tel Aviv.
Internet access is a little tough here, but I'm going to try to follow this up with an email from my gmail account with some pictures.
L’shalom,
Rabbi Jason Klein
UMBC Hillel
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