Masada with the Mishpacha | Shorashim - Israel with Israelis

Masada with the Mishpacha

By Jonah Nemetz

Today we experienced what makes Israel such a unique country from many different aspects, cramming in as many different aspects of the culture as we could in a single day.

We began our day while it was still night--at 3:45 AM! Though we were fairly sluggish getting out the door, we managed to begin our ascent of Masada around 4:30 AM.

The entire group was treated to the spectacular view of a sun still beneat the horizon as we climbed up the ancient fortress, and everyone made it with time to spare, though some cut it pretty close. :)

After taking many, many pictures and tossing a football around, we settled down to learn about our peoples' history at Masada, culminating with two short scenes performed by several members of Aggo Polo--our Mishpacha (family).

  

After Masada the day took a more relaxing turn as we stopped at the Ahava store, specializing in Dead Sea products, and then drove to the sea itself, which although receding, is still a sight to behold, and even more special to take a dip in. Most everyone lathered themselves up in mud from the sea floor (which cost 55 shekels at the Ahava store!) took some more pictures. We then washed the mud off, which we discovered is a bit of a painful process (due to all the salt) when you have any kind of cuts or sores - and many of us did after playing the Israelis' physical group game the night before.

After our amazing Dead Sea experience, we kept going--which was nothing new on this busy and exciting Birthright Israel Adventure. 

We drove to Ben Yehudah Street in Jerusalem for some late lunch and shopping, after a bus ride when many of us nodded off to catch up on some much-needed sleep (well, I certainly did). Following this, we checked into our hotel and sat down to discuss some issues affecting Israel and Israelis today. We talked about what it's like to actually live in this country that we've all grown to love and face the issues that they do. Many of these issues have to do with serving in the army, which is a part of most Israelis' lives in ways that we can't really imagine, even though we've gotten a pretty good idea of the experience through our new Israeli friends' perspectives.

 

Photo Credits: Image 1-@asaglad121, Image 2 and Image 3-@artedemovimento 
 

Tags: 
Masada
Hike
Sunrise
Fortress
History
Skit
Mishpacha
Ahava
Dead sea
Dead Sea Mud
Salty Water
Ben Yehuda Street
Jerusalem
Discussion
Israeli Society
Israeli Culture
IDF

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