Masada and More!
When our counselors told us that we will be waking up at 4 am my first thought was eek! How will we do this? Well needless to say, we did definitely do it! At 4 am we met in the lobby of the youth hostile for some coffee and cake and onto to the bus we went to take a short drive to the Masada mountain. That 20 minute bus ride was probably the quietest we have been all week long. Before starting the hike we gathered in a circle arm in arm singing the chant that we learned on the first day "achim, achim, achim, achim, achim, simcha, simcha, simcha, simcha, simcha". Immediately after that we were all pumped to climb the mountain before dawn. The hike up was quite difficult but was made bearable with the encouragement of all my new friends. We reached the top with only a few minutes before the sun peaked over the mountains. We watched in amazement as it slowly rose, snapping away with our cameras.
On top of the mountain we learned all about the history of Masada, starting when it was built under King Herod and continuing 100 years later when a group of Jews lived there during the Roman siege. The story itself is a fascinating one of unity, strength, and sacrifice.
The end of our Masada tour culminated in a Bar/Bat Mitvah ceremony of several people from our trip. Each one chose to become Bar/Bat Mitzvah'd, said the blessing for the torah and explained why they decided to do this. It was a beautiful ceremony that ended in singing and dancing and lots of Mazel Tov's!
After we climbed down the mountain we ate a well deserved breakfast and off we were to the dead sea. The sea gets it's name because nothing can live in it as it contains 1/3 salt. They say that these waters have special healing powers and I wonder if it will help the scrape that I have on my knee! Floating in the dead sea, the lowest point on the earth, was a very unique experience and I am reminded of pictures that I have seen of people floating and reading newspapers.
After we showered and got cleaned up we drove a long 40 minute drive to Jerusalem where we had the chance to eat lunch and shop in the Machane Yehudah market. Rows and rows of fruits, vegetables, nuts, pastries, and all other types of things make up the market. It was bustling with people buying various groceries. After stopping by several stands to see what they had to offer I settled on some cherries, an interesting new type of nut and some delicious Halva.
We are on our way now to the hotel to check in and take a long deserved rest!
