Two truths and a lie: It's after 2:00 am, I typed this with two fingers, and I never wear socks.
We are two days into our trip and having an amazing time. We are excited to finally start our blog with you now that Shabbat has ended.
We landed Friday morning where the group met with our 7 new Israeli friends, who will spend the duration of the trip with us. I can't believe we have them for all 10 days of Birthright! Supposedly this is Shorashim's hallmark and I couldn't be more thrilled.
Landing at 5:30 am meant we would have a full day of touring. From the airport we drove North to the Golan Heights.
Our first stop was to a research lab/factory that does the most interesting and ridculous things with olives. The enthusiastic owner gave us a tour and told us about his love of Israel. They make this paste that could smooth the skin of an alligator. This girl had really dry skin and when she put the "cream" on (more like mutated olive oil), It cleared up in literally five seconds. Amazing! It also smelled so good I wanted to eat it, but I decided against it out of fear I would turn into a Ninja Turtle. (I remember that green ooze being some powerful stuff.)
We then drove to Mount Ben Tal, a plateau at the tip of the Golan Heights. We got an incredible veiw of the countryside and I could not believe that I could see about another country! Syria was right in front of me. We talked about the situation there today, Israel's precarious relationship with her Northern neighbors, the wars that have been fought over this tiny section of land, and were played song a poignant song about it all by Robert Zimmerman. You may know him by another name...
****************************************************************************
Neighborhood Bully
Music and Lyrics by Bob Dylan
Well the neighborhood bully he's just one man
His enemies say he's on their land
They got him outnumbered about a million to one
He got no place to escape to no place to run
He's the neighborhood bully.
The neighborhood bully he just lives to survive
He's criticized and condemned for being alive
He's not supposed to fight back he's supposed to have thick skin
He's supposed to lay down and die when his door is kicked in
He's the neighborhood bully.
The neighborhood bully been driven out of every land
He's wandered the earth an exiled man
Seen his family scattered his people hounded and torn
He's always on trial for just being born
He's the neighborhood bully.
Well he knocked out a lynch mob he was criticized
Old women condemned him said he could apologize
Then he destroyed a bomb factory nobody was glad
The bombs were meant for him. He was supposed to feel bad
He's the neighborhood bully.
Well the chances are against it and the odds are slim
That he'll live by the rules that the world makes for him
'Cause there's a noose at his neck and a gun at his back
And a licence to kill him is given out to every maniac
He's the neighborhood bully.
Well he got no allies to really speak of
What he gets he must pay for he don't get it out of love
He buys obsolete weapons and he won't be denied
But no one sends flesh and blood to fight by his side
He's the neighborhood bully.
Well he's surrounded by pacifists who all want peace
They pray for it nightly that the bloodshed must cease
Now they wouldn't hurt a fly. To hurt one they would weep
They lay and they wait for this bully to fall asleep
He's the neighborhood bully.
Every empire that's enslaved him is gone
Egypt and Rome even the great Babylon
He's made a garden of paradise in the desert sand
In bed with nobody under no one's command
He's the neighborhood bully.
Now his holiest books have been trampled upon
No contract that he signed was worth that what it was written on
He took the crumbs of the world and he turned it into wealth
Took sickness and disease and he turned it into health
He's the neighborhood bully.
What's anybody indebted to him for ?
Nothing they say. He just likes to cause war
Pride and prejudice and superstition indeed
They wait for this bully like a dog waits to feed
He's the neighborhood bully.
What has he done to wear so many scars ?
Does he change the course of rivers ? Does he pollute the moon and stars ?
Neighborhood bully standing on the hill
Running out the clock time standing still
Neighborhood bully.
*****************************************************************************
After Ben Tal we took a hike in the Jillaboon Valley. We hiked down a rock formation, for which I am still impressed I survived, and sat as a group at the lagoon below. Who knew that Israel, a land with so much desert, would have waterfalls?
On the way back up we took a break to sit in the stream that feeds back into the lagoon. When we reached the top, I was damn proud that I made it, although I am not so sure about this Masada thing in a few days.
45 minutes later we got to Kibbutz Hookook, where we would crash for Shabbat.
That night the girls all lit the shabbat candles, who were then surprised by the guys with roses. We had a shabbat service while learning about its origins and formation, and concluded with Odon Olam sung to a Backstreet Boys tune. Let's just say that night I fell asleep with "I want it that way" running through my head.
And the Lord saw it was good, said it was good, and it was good... the first day.
