Climbing Massada and Celebrating Purim

I am writing this post on February 25, 2013 which is Adar 15 and Purim in Jerusalem.  Purim is celebrated one day later in Jerusalem because it is a walled city. This week has definitely been the best week so far. On Monday, we went to the Old City to learn about the destruction of the Second Temple. When we finished, we followed the zealots up onto Massada.  It was actually very interesting to finally understand the connection between the destruction of The Temple and Massada.  I had been to Israel many times but it is only now that I feel that History is coming alive for me.  I think it has a lot to do with our teachers and the way in which everything is being explained to us, you get to actually see the places that you are being taught about. We stayed at the youth hostel over night, and we were woken up at 4:00 in the morning so we could see the sun rise. Instead of taking the snake path, we took the long path, the runners path. It was about a two hour hike, up a cliff. The only reason that everyone was able to get to the top was because everyone was helping each other and being supportive.

My Purim Costume ;)

There is no better feeling than reaching the top of Massada.  We spent some time in Massada and we visited the site and we also got plenty of explanations as to how everything happened up there. After we learned about what happened there, we went to the Dead Sea. The dead sea was really cold, but it was really cool.  I had never been to the Dead See in the winter so this was a really cool experience.

With Andy Green, Archer Green and my friend Nate Cooper

Everyone was floating around, and we did a Harlem Shake video. We then put mud on ourselves.  I can't believe that people come from all over the world to put mud from the Dead Sea on their bodies, it was not a pleasant feeling at all, actually,  it was really gross. later we drove back, and had more school. Wednesday was the Purim Parade!!  They actually have a Purim parade on Wednesday because Thursday is a fast day (The Fast of Esther) and it would be hard to have the parade on Friday.   We all dressed up, and followed people dancing on a car playing music really loudly.   We actually saw something very weird, The Russians all wore matching outfits, and held communist flags, it was very frightening and kind of crazy. After the Parade, we had a party! On Thursday we went cave crawling, we had races in an amphitheater and we went to an archeological dig. Little did I know that in a cave crawl, you actually have to crawl. I spent Shabbat in Jerusalem with Andy Green and his family. Andy is a rabbinical student at The Ziegler School of Rabbinic Studies in LA and we met during the fall semester when he was living in Las Vegas.   He is actually a super nice guy and his wife Charlene is very nice too.  They have a little boy named Archer who is very cute.  I always wonder if I’m destined to spend every Shabbat with a rabbi, or a rabinical student...

Climbing Massada

 
               Harlem Shake at The Dead Sea!!!
          Guess who is wearing the horse mask...