Wednesday

The first thing we did on Wednesday was a Jeep ride. The driver's name was Roi, and he drove us up the Golan Heights. At the top, we went inside a Syrian bunker and had tea. We talked about the different wars Israel fought and how they got the Golan Heights back from the Syrians.

Tuesday's adventures

On Tuesday, we started off the day really early to go do dunebuggying. We went in 2 off-road vehicles and we drove through the Judean desert between Jerusalem and the Dead Sea. After we finished that experience, we were off to one diversion on the highway to take a short and fun camel ride. It was also right at sea level, so there were a lot of photo opps. We then got back on the highway, and took the hour ride to Beit She’an in the north by the Kinneret. Beit She’an was a Roman city formally and formerly known as Skithopolis. Our guide, Zvi, showed us the importance of the city, as all of the trade routes probably went through here. We also hiked up a tel, a hill with layers of civilization, with a Roman temple at the top. There were exactly 199 steps leading up to the tel. Then we went to Sachne, 3 different pools that were originally springs. There were also fish, and Eitan attempted to catch one to no avail. After that, on the way to our hotel on the Kinneret, we stopped at the Cemetery, and visited graves like Naomi Shemer, Rachel רחל and others. The next chapter of our saga will continue at our Jeep ride on Wednesday. So stay tuned folks!!!

Monday

On Monday, we went on an archeologic dig in the caves near Maresha. Maresha was a city at the time of the Macabees, about 2000 years ago. We explored the caves before, during, and after excavation. When we were digging, we would dig with picks and with trowels. If we found anything, we would put them into find buckets. All the dirt woud go into other buckets. We found many pieces of pottery and even bones. Eitan dug with our guide Zvi, and found 84two pieces, that fit together, of a wine jug, with wine residue!! Rachael unearthed an ancient bathtub, and Maya found the bottom of a fish plate. After that, we sifted through the dirt to see if we missed anything. Then, we crawled through cave system 84, which was unexcavated. As soon as we finished that, we went to a fully excavated cave, which had olive oil equipment in it. We learned that to make olive oil, you need three steps: Mush, the initial crushing of the olives into a pulp, Smush, the secondary crushing, and gush, taking the finished olive oil.

We stopped at asome beautiful red wildflowers and then went to crawl through the Bar Cochba caves...or was he called Bar Coceba - son of stars OR a false messaih...you choose. The caves were very cool and we understand why in the Haggada the disciples had to find the Rabbis to tell them that it is time for prayer in the morning. You had to crawl through very very dark caves with flashlights. Some of them were almost too small for my mom and my dad to crawl through. My mom had claustraphobia...

We ended the day with the story of David and Golaith and we each took a stone from where David took one to slay the giant Goliath.

Sunday...

On Sunday we went to Yad V'shem, a Holocust musuem. It was ages 10&up, so Maya went to the zoo with the tour guide's daughter, she was 6 days apart from Maya. We learned facts we knew and didn't know. Everything was interesting even the stucture of the museum. When we first got in the buliding there was only a bit of light or courge but at the end we saw a beatuiful veiw and lots & lots light. After that we went to the Market. We got delicious strawberries or tutim in hebrew. Also we got Eitan's talit for his Bar Mitzvah.

Saturday

Saturday we went to Masada where we learned the history of it. The Zealots came here (Masada) for a refuge from the Romans. The Roman's camps (millions of camps and Romans) were surrounding Masada. We learned about Herod The Great and his architectural prowess and also listened to an awesome echo. While we were driving to Masada, we saw where the Dead Sea Scrolls were found. The bedoin boy's family sold the four scrolls for $97.57 and the next time they were sold for $250,000. Our next stop was Ein Gedi, but there were way, way, way too many people to share our vacation so we went on to the Dead Sea where we changed into our beged yam's and went down with much of Israel to float in the healing waters of the Dead Sea. We rolled around in the black mud like 5 little piggies. Then we walked around the old City and went through the Church of the Holy Sepulchre which was very exciting since the following day was Easter Sunday and there was alot going on inside. 4 groups lay claim to the church and it is heavily controlled. It was also Eitan's awesome birthday.

Friday at the Old City

On Friday, we went to Jerusalem's origins, the Old City. We walked on the walls, went to all four quarters (the Jewish, Christian, Muslim, and Armenian), saw the remains of the 2nd temple and the western Wall, andd walked in the underground water tunnel at David's City. Our guide, Zvi, showed us around everywhere. We touched T'sha B'av, sang Shir a Malot up the steps of the temple, and saw ancient grafiti that said we are still here.

Seder and the next day at Kibbutz Tzuba

Wednesday was the seder. Once we got there from Ben Gurion Airport, we took a nap, except for Eitan, who went to play basketball with Roy and his cousins. At about 7:30, we were all ready, and we went to the room where the seder was being held. We did the seder with all of Roy's cousins and relatives, with his grandpa leading it. We started at about 8:00 and finished exactly at 11:48, or as it said on the digital clocks, 23:48. That is a new record, as their seders usally finish around 3 in the morning. The next day was a holiday, so Roy, his cousins, Eitan, Rachael, and Maya spent the whole day at KifTzuba, a fun place with a cage and bumper cars and boats. we also played around in a building that had a lot of balls, guns, and buckets. what you would do is go down and collect the balls, and go back up and shoot them. It was fun!!!