Yet again so much has happened in two days.

It is hard to believe that just yesterday we woke up early in Jerusalem
and headed to Mount Herzl cemetery early in the morning. Our soldiers—I
believe I can now safely say friends—from Ashkelon were dressed again in
military uniforms out of respect for the place.

We started by visiting Theodor Herzl’s grave—originally in Europe and
moved to Jerusalem after the founding of the State—and learned about how
Herzl’s early career inspired him to envision a Jewish state and how he
convened the first Zionist Congress. We walked from here to the graves of
leaders of the State of Israel and gave particular attention to the grave
of Yitzhak Rabin, the prime minister who after serving in all of the other
highest posts in the Israeli government and military, and worked very hard
to bring about peace with the Palestinian people, was assassinated in 2005
by a radical rightist. We walked by the graves and memorials of the
paratrooper heroes who include Hannah Senesh and made our way into the
military cemetery. We visited the grave of Mike Levin who many
Baltimoreans and Philadelphians know from school or from Camp Ramah in the
Poconos, Mike returned from camp to Israel when he found out his unit was
being called up for the Second Lebanon War in 2006 and was killed in
Lebanon. Lior, our tour educator, also told us the stories of some of his
best friends who died during their service as well. We concluded our time
at Mount Herzl with appreciation for the IDF soldiers with us. We recited
memorial prayers and a blessing for the IDF and chanted Hatikvah, Israel’s
national anthem, together. “Hatikvah” means “the hope,” and I’d like to
think that not only is it about appreciating the Jewish homeland that is,
but that this “hope” can also be about the Israel that can be—an Israel
with love and respect among the Jewish people, and true peace and justice
with Israel’s neighbors.

We left Jerusalem and headed to the area of Beit Shemesh, where we stopped
for lunch. The most popular food was actually a drink of sorts—Café
Aroma’s “icecafe”—frothy and apparently fewer than 500 calories (not by
much). Some ate at Aroma; others preferred to scope out the burgers the
kosher McDonalds and we had some pretty positive reviews. We boarded the
bus for a few more minutes to get to the Beit Guvrin area; we sampled
“Krembo,” Israel’s cookie/marshmallow/chocolate treat that I believe holds
a similar mythic place among Israeli children as Oreos do among American
children (“How do *you* eat a Krembo/Oreo…”.) We disembarked the bus and
most of us went spelunking through an underground labyrinth of caves.
Yours truly did this once three years ago on a Taglit-Birthright Israel:
Hillel trip and decided that that was enough for a lifetime so I stayed
outside with anyone else who might be claustrophobic too. Brian was
dubious at first because he did not have a flashlight but found one at
last minute. Though our cave crawlers emerged a bit dirty, most of them
were thrilled that they did it!

From the Beit Guvrin area we headed South for a couple of hours, through
the City of Arad to Kfar Hanokdim, a Bedouin encampment designed for
pilgrims like ourselves. We put our bags into a big tent and drank some
tea that Aaron K. suggested tasted like boiled down Fruit Loops (everyone
agreed with this backhanded compliment), and visited this beautiful
chill-out tent space that Mike and I thought would be a really neat annex
to UMBC’s other student life spaces.

There was a place to shop for clothing and crafts, and Danielle was
excited to buy a necklace for herself after most of her previous shopping
was for other loved ones. By about 5:30 PM most of the group was riding
camels into the sunset and then returning to the camp. We were welcomed
into a large tent as Khaled, a Bedouin from the Negev desert in Israel,
described Bedouin culture with a particular focus on symbols and rituals
around hospitality. And then after some coffee roasting and drinking, the
next phase of hospitality began as we ate what many people believe was the
most delicious meal of the trip.

After dinner, we headed out into the darkness in two groups and had a
conversation called “Spirituality: Wresting with God” in which students
had a chance to be alone in the desert for a few minutes to reflect and
then share with the group. The stars looked incredible as well. We
returned to our tent where the Ashkelonians led some fun games including
the “crab war”—appropriate for Baltimore I guess—during which people had
to crawl on their back like crabs and get each other out. Josh had a
particular talent for this game but Dotan—the Ashkelonian soldier who
proposed it—seemed to make a pretty good crab himself.

As the night continued people listened to music, sat around campfires, and
generally just hung out before they went to bed, some later than others,
in sleeping bags in thin mattresses on the tent floor. It was a pretty
warm night in the desert for January but as it became chillier luckily my
co-staff and colleague from Hopkins Hillel—Rabbi Debbie Pine—figured out
how to use the heater in the tent.

We were up by 5:40, eating breakfast just after 6—another delicious meal
with the freshest of breads. We boarded the bus and headed to Masada.
Corinne and Sarah imagined that the hike up the mountain would be a lot
longer than it was—the Roman ramp that we took only took about 20 minutes.
But they also didn’t realize how intense the hike down on the snake path
would be. While we were on the top of Masada, two UMBC students who did
not previously have Hebrew names received Hebrew names in a ceremony that
we did together as a group. Lisa had a funny moment on top of Masada
when she noticed she had received a text message on her cell phone from a
Jordanian cell phone company welcoming here to “roam” in Jordan; these
signals seem to get mixed up near the borders. We learned about Masada’s
history 2000 years ago and Masada as a symbol in contemporary Israel
before we headed down the mountain. Now, nearly half a day later, I’m
pretty sure I’m not the only one whose knees are just beginning to
*really* feel it. Lena was particularly gracious on the way down the
mountain as she helped another participant whose fear of heights—perhaps
fear of falling—made the walk down particularly challenging.

After some combination of OJ, ice cream, and Ahava products at the bottom
of the mountain we boarded the bus and headed to the Ein Bokek beach at
the Dead Sea. Most of our students covered themselves with mud and the
water was a little chilly in spite of the warm weather.

We headed from the Dead Sea south and stopped in Dimona, where our
students took full advantage of 20 minutes in the local mall for bathrooms
and food. Nathan was determined to find chocolate “Bamba” (Bamba is
peanut-flavored, giant cheese-puff-shaped Israeli snack food). We found
some funky version of it which our students snacked on. Our guide
mentioned that Dimona receives a lot of attention internationally because
it is thought to be the center of Israel’s nuclear program (which Israel
has never confirmed nor denied exists at all).

We arrived about a half hour later to our kibbutz hotel where students had
a chance to relax before a little more exercise. Our soldiers put on
their uniforms once again to simulate boot camp and divided the bus into
three groups. “Lior (our tour educator) told us to wear comfortable
clothes, “ said Evan, “not, ‘you’re going to be in the army.’” Needless
to say, the fast 30 minutes I had photographing our students running
around and doing push-up jumping exercises probably went by a bit slower
for our participants.

After boot camp, a couple of dogs at the kibbutz seemed to take a liking
to Aaron B. and two hours later I think one of them has still have not
left his side.

The pool is open at the kibbutz for our students tonight and tomorrow
morning we take a hike and then head to Tel Aviv.