From Negev to Galilee and Beyond

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Mon. Feb. 21
Slept through the night - so jet lag must be fading finally. Had "toast" for breakfast - in Isreal that means cheese between two pieces of bread, then pressed and cooked, like a panini sandwich back in the U.S. Yummy. With tomato, cucumber and avocado salad on the side. A little after 8 am Dan (my brother) driove me out to the main road from Yahel to meet the tour bus bringing our group back up from Kibbutz Lotan where they spent the night. In general, they found the accomodations spartan. No accolades. Enough said.
So we headed north from the Arava (the edge of the Negev along the border with Jordan) and drove up to the Dead Sea area. Went past Har S'dom (Mount Sodom) which is a salt mountain (brown on top -- but white underneath). The erosion leaves pillars oddly shpaed on some hill tops - leading to the idea that Lots' wife was turned to salt. They look like statues of people. (See the Bible) We began to pass the Dead Sea Works - big mineral mining business. Then hotels where many Europeans are sent by their health plans to lie in the sun as a cure for psoriasis. Why? Because the Dead Sea area is the lowest spot on earth - enough below sea level that the ultraviolet rays don't reach. So, no skin cancer from over exposure.


Will add to this later -- have to run for the bus (it's now Tuesday morning....hard to get computer time....)

Rabbi Debby Hachen

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