ISRAEL - DAYS 1 & 2

This trip is to celebrate my brother's 70th birthday and his 50th anniversary of being a Pastor.

Picture of the extended family

We arrived in Tel Aviv on September 18th at 10:00 a.m. (Israel time) and are staying at the Dan Panorama hotel in Jerusalem for the first four days.  Unfortunately, yours truly was not feeling well so I slowed the group down a bit.  It wasn't until around 3:00 p.m. that we were able to go out for lunch which doubled as dinner for some of us, and walk around a bit on our own.

Jerusalem is 800 meters above sea level and the Dead Sea is 400 meters below sea level.  This is desert area and I was expecting it to be hot, which it is, and also expecting to see a lot of sand.  Instead, I was struck by how barren, hilly/mountainous and rocky the land is, and by how pretty some parts of it look with what I would call oases of date palms.

These show the rocky aspect of the land

Picture of Date Palms

On Day 2, we joined others in a guided tour of Qumran where the Dead Sea Scrolls were found.  The scrolls were written by a Jewish sect know as the Essens who separated themselves by living in the desert because they could not tolerate Jerusalem as it was.  They wanted to be as close to spiritually perfect as possible and focus on copying the bible and making their own community rules.

Picture of a part of a copy of the Dead Sea Scrolls

These were the type of vessels used by the Essens for eating

This is one of the Cisterns used for holding water coming down from the mountains via aqueducts

Picture of a cave where the Scrolls were hidden (one of the hiding places) as the Romans were approaching

My brother's two children at Qumran

On the way to Qumran, we passed Palestinian refugee camps and Bedouin camps.  The Palestinian refugee camps are passed down through the family from father to son to grandson, etc.  They live there for generations but they are stateless as they do not hold passports and are not Israeli citizens.

This is what a Palestinian refugee camp looks like.

The Bedouin camps are more of what I expected the Palestinian refugee camps to look like.  They are run down shacks with no running water or electricity.  Islamic law (by which the Bedouins are guided) allows for a maximum of four wives so one man can have as many as twenty-five children; however because they are so poor economically and they pay no taxes, they do not progress.

These are Bedouin camps.

We continued our tour to Masada, a mountain where over 900 Jewish Zealots tried to hold back the Romans.  They chose to die rather than live under Roman rule as slaves but since suicide was forbidden by Jewish law, they chose ten men from the group to kill the others.  One of the ten was then chosen to kill the other nine and last surviving man likely fell on his sword.  We took a cable car up the mountain to view the ruins, some of which has been partially rebuilt.

Bathhouse built by King Herod's slaves for some of King Herod's servants.

 The frescoes in the above two pictures are the original.  Everything below the dark line is original and what's above the dark line has been built to represent the building as it was.

 Looking down from above on to King Herod's two balconies.

 My friend and I at the top of Masada.

 My brother and his family at the top of Masada.

 A replica of King Herod's palace on top of Masada.

 The square in the picture represents what would have been a Roman military camp.

Demonstrating scroll writing at Masada.

Our final stop was at the Dead Sea, so called because nothing living can survive in it.  I think the pictures speak for themselves. 

A view of the Dead Sea from the top of the hill.

 Wading in the Dead Sea.


Floating in the Dead Sea.

Trying NOT to float in the Dead Sea.  I'm told it's just about impossible.

 

Hoping for miracles in the Dead Sea by rubbing the mud on your skin.  :)

Sink holes caused by taking too much salt out of the Dead Sea, then trying to merge 'sweet' water with the salty water of the Dead Sea.

Day one ended with a very long and frustrating drive back to the hotel caused by what the Israelis call the 'Night Run'.  Once a year on a Monday night starting at 7:00 p.m., many of the roads are closed so that people can run a marathon and any variation of a marathon.  I don't need to tell you what we thought of them doing this on a week day.  So ended our first day in Israel.....a very enjoyable AND frustrating one.