Thanksgiving in Israel

Thanksgiving is a time for family and turkey. However, here in Israel both are hard to come by, so we gave into the second best use of a Thanksgiving... i.e., ROAD TRIP!!! Our trip consisted of visiting Ein Gedi and Masada (both on the west side of the Dead Sea). We enjoyed swimming in the Dead Sea and finished up with a scrumptious dinner at the Tel Aviv Shearaton, turkey and all.
We stayed the night at the Kibbutz Ein Gedi. Anabelle loved that she got to sleep in a "play crib". She was hezitant to sleep there since "only babies sleep in cribs"... so, yes, our parental manipulation skills kicked in and we told her it was a "play crib" and that it would be fun to sleep in the "play crib". She quickly fell for that.
The next day Anabelle woke us up at the crack of dawn (literally) and after exploring our hotel grounds and a great breakfast we were off to Ein Geidi National Park.
























Ein Gedi has two main trails-David and Arugot- each following a stream by the same name. David's trail is a lot shorter and since we only had one day to hit three different places we went with David's trail. This trail also has a series of caves that you can see up on the mountain face. It is believed that this is where David hid from Saul (1 Samuel 24:1). The terrain is very arid and it reminded me a lot of Utah. Along the trail there were several waterfalls and Anabelle and Maria enjoyed jumping in to a couple of the pools to cool off.





You can see one of the caves right next to the main waterfall at the top of the trail




Once we were at the top of the trail Anabelle thought it would be fun to go fishing


After hiking for a couple of hours we headed a bit more south along the Dead Sea and visitedMasada National Park.
This is a picture (not ours) of what the whole fortress looks like from up high, looking at it from the North side. The East side of the bluff measures about 1,300 feet in height. On the West side you can see the Roman ramp.

It takes about an hour to two to hike up, but we took the cable car instead since we did not have the time to hike it. You can see some of the hikers going up on the right, they looked like ants.























This is what the fortress originally looked like. Nate is pointing at our location at the time we took the picture.

Masada is well known for being the last place of refuge for a group of about 930 Jews during the Great Jewish Revolt, after the First Jewish-Roman war. The Romans laid siege to the fortress for three months and finally built a ramp about 30 feet high on the West side of the cliff, but when they finally entered Masada they only found death and destruction. The people had set ablaze their precious fortress before committing mass suicide rather than being taken as slaves or worse. It is believed that the actual killing was done by ten chosen men, who then picked one last man from the ten to kill the nine left, so that only one man actually committed true suicide (as suicide was not acceptable in Jewish beliefs). The picture below shows nine stones found upon the ruins with what is believed to be the names of the ten men.

Ruins on the South and central side of the fortress.




There are at least 100 pics, but I can't post them all, so here are a few that I thought were interesting.
Here's one of Nate looking down on a huge cistern. There were several of these throughout the fortress, which is how they managed to stay barricaded for many months without needing to go out for provisions.

Byzantine Chapel (about 5th or 6th Century).

One of two Mikvahs found still pretty much intact.

Original flooring of the bath house.

Going down to the second level of the North side













Original pillars still standing on the first level on the North side

Well, there's lots more pics, but I'll spare you the scrolling. After spending almost three hours in Masada we finished our day (after having a very late lunch) relaxing and playing in the Dead Sea. Nate and Anabelle did the playing,

Maria did the pampering and relaxing at the Bein Gedi Spa for a couple of hours,
(these are pics from the Spa's website, since Nate took the camera and Maria couldn't take any pics of herself covered in mud and soaking in the Dead Sea hot springs. How convenient, no?)




and then we headed back to Tel Aviv to have a late Thanksgiving Dinner, courtesy of teh Fulbright Fellowship Israel Offices. It was the perfect ending to the perfect vacation. Anabelle ate a lot of food and ended up wearing a lot of her food too.

In search of courage

Last night, I had one of the most uplifting theater experiences that I've ever had. I felt uplifted spiritually. I felt strengthened as an individual. And I felt a deeper level of spiritual resonance and respect for the "children of Israel" then I have ever felt before. So how did this happen? Well, I had the opportunity to see a musical production titled "In Search of Courage" that was performed by the Raise Your Spirits Summer Stock company. In a nut shell the play is about a young woman seeking to understand how to deal with the atrocities of life by looking at past Jewish heroes and how they demonstrated courage. One of the goals of the production was to encourage the audience members to find that courage within themselves. It was phenomenal!

The RYS company is very unique in several ways. 1. It was established with the desire to help out victims of terrorism and their families. Thus, all of the proceeds from their performances go towards fulfilling that purpose. The production itself is funded by donations. 2. The company performs only to an audience of women. No men are allowed due to the company's religious beliefs. 3. Thus, and not surprisingly, the company has an all women cast. Even the backstage hands and some of the lighting people are women. Therefore, the male roles are also played by women.
(Below is Deena Lawi, who performed the parts of Boaz and Mordecai in the play).


Now, this is not a professional company. In the sense that not all of the cast members are trained in nor make a living by acting, although some are. Yet, there is a great variety of talent to be enjoyed from this cast. There was wonderful acting, singing and choreography.

(This is Rivka Adina Dror who has an amazing voice and presence on and off stage. She played Naomi and Devora in this performance. She sang a beautiful soulful song that made me think of Aretha Franklin and Mahalia Jackson. Not only for the similarity in voice, but also similarity in passion when singing. You can tell she really enjoyed it and felt it.)

Yet, I was most impressed with the depth of feeling found in many of the songs (some of which were RYS originals). Two songs in particular moved me to tears. I don't remember all the words, but the resounding messages were that of unmoving faith in God, and the responsibility to find and fulfill one's personal role in life. Although not directly stated, I left with the impression that these people (and I don't mean just the characters) truly understood and trusted in the scriptural promises, "This too shall pass" and "Be still and know that I am God."

At the end of the performance the cast and audience all stood up and sang a prayer of sorts in Hebrew. It was almost melancholic in tune and definitely sacred. I meant to ask what it was called, but in my haste to talk to the cast members and express my enjoyment I forgot to ask. Yet, I will not easily forget the feelings I had while they sang. I did not understand a word, but words were not needed. I felt the importance of and faith in what they sang by the emotion that was almost palpable in that small auditorium. I only wish that some of you reading this could have been there.

Mommy and me time

Anabelle is at a fun stage where helping mom do anything is fun. She even likes to help me clean up at the end of the day before she goes to bed. Our last two projects were cheap and easy (and yes that only applies to the projects). Anabelle had a blast with the glue stick.



Tuna is not our favorite food (well, Nate will eat anything, but Anabelle and me, not so much). But, as some of you probably recall from your college days, it's a very cheap and easy solution to "what shall we eat tonight?" So, when we saw "Big Chef and Little Chef" making fish cakes the other day (British kids cooking show. Anabelle loves it) and they used tuna, I thought, "why not, let's give it a try." Anabelle really liked the messy hands-on experience.






The recipe is simple but I don't have exact measurements.
First, boil some potatoes and when soft mash them up with butter, diced green onions, a little sour cream and parsley flakes. Blend in a tuna can or two and squeeze 1/4 of a lemon with it. I added a pinch of season-all too. I made about 12 balls out of our mix and Anabelle and I then rolled them in a little bit of corn oil and then in bread-crumbs. Once covered in bread-crumbs flatten the balls to the thickness of a chunky cookie and set them on a cookie sheet to put in the oven. Bake until golden brown. I served them with lemon on the side and marinara sauce (Anabelle loves dipping). Oh, I did have to flip them half way through because the top was taking longer to brown than the bottom part, but that my be an oven thing. Enjoy!

Another day in Jerusalem

Once again we went to Jerusalem and had a blast. We started off with David's tomb where Nate and I had to separate to go into gender prescribed entrances.



Right above David's Tomb there is a room which is believed to be the room in which Jesus and His apostles had the last supper. Although as we were discussing that we highly doubt that this is where it took place. It seems unlikely that they would just let anyone use the room located above such an important and sacred place as David's tomb; and Jesus was not very popular during his lifetime. Anyhow, it was a cool place to visit nonetheless.


Next, we hit the Church where some say that Mary "sleeps." Which is interesting because last time we were here we went to the Church where she supposedly ascended into heaven.





On our way over to the Western Wall we found lots of great places that seemed perfect for pictures. Anabelle had the best deal since Nate carried her most of the way.





The last place we visited was the Church of the Holy Sepulcher, but I will have to post those pics later on since there are a lot of pics.