AAAAh, Shabbat Shalom!
There was a LOT of action in the past few days and it was
veeery nice to get to sleep in today. Not too bad to roll out of bad and onto
the beach either. I'm sure everybody at home is headed off to the beach after
Nathan's bar mitzvah, right?
So I fell asleep the other night while starting to write
about Masada. Sometimes they make you wake up at 4:45 AM so you can get to the
top of Masada for sunrise. Somehow we got out of it, so we got up at 6:45 to
get to the top and have a reasonable day. We took the Roman Ramp up and Dafna
led us through the bath house, the Jewish area, and of course the cave where
the final speech of Eliezer ben Yair convinced everyone that it was better to
die free than live as a slave.
On the way, Shekina stopped to look a little too closely at
a cistern, and her hat fell in the pit! It's quite a nice hat, I'm sure you've
seen it in pictures, so we did want to make an effort to retrieve it. So I tied
some t-shirts together, tied it to a pole... no, no. We got a park ranger who
said he'd get it "later." When we were just about to leave, we saw
the man chasing us down........... Shekina's hat in hand! How he got it will be
one of the mysteries of the trip, but it definitely put everyone in a good mood
as we headed down the snake path towards the Dead Sea.
At the Dead Sea we had a lovely time smothered in mud and
floating in non-floaty positions. Of course you saw the pictures. Everyone
bought hand cream for people at home and we were off to Tel Aviv.
Yesterday we were at the Rabin Cultural Center and Kikar
Rabin, where Yitzhak Rabin was assassinated. The museum tells the story of the
Israeli people and how society came to the point where Rabin had to pay the price
that he did. We then went to the Independence Hall to see the place where David
Ben Gurion read the announcement of Israel's independence on May 14th, 1948.
There was shuk-shopping, and a rest before Kabbalat Shabbat on the roof of the
Sea Net hotel (where the sunset pictures were shot).
All day we'd been learning about Rabin. We heard a few times
that it was so sadly ironic that he died with the words to Shir LaShalom stained
with blood. So as one of the Kabbalat Shabbat songs we sang Shir Lashalom and
you could feel the meaning behind everyone's singing. I think everyone agrees
that it was a really lovely Shabbat service, and we've certainly spent the time
relaxing today!
I am off to lunch. Shabbat Shalom!!
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