Israel Trip Update…So I’m a Little Behid
Sorry I haven’t updated anything in a few days. I both underestimated the pure exhaustion that faced me after long days in the desert and overestimated the chances I would have to connect to the internet. I’m going to post multiple day’s summaries in a row here, so you can check them all out at once.
Day Three – Hot Enough to Slap Your Sister
We started bright and early by traveling to Masada, a mountain fortress built by King Herod as a palace get-away. In Jewish history Masada is remembered as the place where a group of former residents of Jerusalem moved right before the Romans invaded as a protest for the very materialistic environment surrounding the Temple in the years directly after Jesus’s death. They were there when a Roman army of over 30,000 soldiers approached and laid siege to the walled fortress.
Being so high up on the mountain, there was no way the Romans could have defeated them militarily without constructing a route of their own, which they did. Using Jewish slaves, they constructed a humongous ramp that led to the gates of Masada. They finished ramming the gate and left for the night to return the next day to take the city.
When they arrived, all of the approximately 900 residents except for one woman and two children had committed suicide knowing that they would be massacred or enslaved by the Romans. This act of bravery denied the Romans the opportunity to strip them of their Judaism and dignity and the story lives on today as a tale of tremendous heroism for the Jewish people.
After Masada, we went to the natural springs at Ein Gedi, a site mentioned several times in the Bible including where David sneaks up on Solomon in a cave and cuts a piece of cloth from his robes. The springs were amazing, and it was a good break from an indescribably hot day of at least 95 degrees with a heat index that I would bet my plane ticket home was over 110.
Next, it was on to the Dead Sea. This body of water was formed by the movement of tectonic plates that separated, allowing water from the Mediterranean to flow in. Since then, the pass between the two great seas has closed, and as the water evaporated it left behind mineral deposits miles thick below the water’s surface. These minerals mix today with the fresh water that flows into the sea, and create the extreme buoyancy that allows for people to essentially float on top of the water. In addition, the sea’s bottom is a black mud that is rich in minerals that make your skin smooth when you put it on. However, as we all learned the water can really, really sting if it gets in your eyes, and the mud gets really itchy if you leave it on too long. Also, it is possible to cook the bottoms of your feet on the sand…not as cool as it sounds.
At night we went out to Ben-Yahuda street. On this bustling pedestrian mall there are hundreds of small shops, bars, and restaurants open late into the night. We all had a fantastic time, but it was important to keep in minds while we enjoyed ourselves that just a few years back it wouldn’t have been possible to go there. Ben-Yahuda was a prime target of the terrorists during the Second Intifada and was hit with devastating bombing attacks on multiple occasions.
Tags: AIPAC, Israel, Middle East