Masada and the Dead Sea

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Today was a big day.

Our first stop was Masada. They packed us into a gondola to take us to the top. As we walked around this ancient base, Joe told us all about it's significance. He told us of the Zealots who, after the second temple was destroyed, took their families and made their last stand there. less than 1000 men, women, and children stayed there for 3 years, as over 17000 roman legionaires laid seige to the mountain. After 3 years, with the romans finally closing in and preparing to come up, they made the decision to kill their families and themselves, leaving only one man to commit the sin of suicide, rather than allowing the romans to rape their women and selling their children into slavery. Joe took us to one part, adjacent to a mountain roman camp, where, when asked to surrender, the Zealots would yell out across the mountain, "AHM YISRAEL HAI!" Translated, it means, "The Nation of Israel Lives!"

Joe told us of an interesting event occurring a lot more recently, during the excavation of the ruins. When they found a Mikvah, it was reported with enthusiasm by the press. The next morning, thousands of Orthodox Jews made their way up the snake path, led by the leader of the Orthodoxy. The excavators were, to say the least, surprised by this, but welcomed them. The lead rabbi asked to see the mikvah. The rabbi was taken there, and proceeded to take measurements. For a while, he took measurements, while the othodoxy and the axcavators all looked on with anticipation and, for the excavaotrs, severe curiosity. Finally, the rabbi announced that the mikvah was kosher, and, to make an already long story short, there was much rejoicing.

Well, we hiked the snak path down Masada, and were rewarded at the end (after paying about 10 shekels) with some of the tastiest OJ I've ever head. No lie. I did take a stone from the top of Masada, with the promise that someday, I will return to replace the stone.

Ou next stop was the Dead Sea. This was just plain fun. The water was damn cold, but you get used to it after a few minutes. I played in the water with everyone else, did the Superman and just lay back and floated. Unfortunately, all that salt was hell on my already chapped lips, and my ass hurt like hell. I can definitely understand why they warned us not to pee or fart in the water. I can't imagine how much THAT would hurt. After playing in the water, we played with some mud, slathering it all over ourselves before hopping in the showers and heading out.

Final stop of the day was Ma'ale Boqeq, or the Boqeq Ascent. We earned that view goddammit! It was a hard climb, and we were all already pretty tired from all the physical activity earlier. But damn, it was fun. We all made it up, and then back down. I was one of the first 5 down. Then, at the bottom by the bus, little emily found a stone with an arabic "ayin" painted onto it. Joe tossed it down, saying it was only 1000 years old!

This has all been so amazing. Some day, I've gotta come back. I wanna climb the snake trail and see the sun rise from the top of Masada.

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