Desert Life

Due to the enormous agricultural and 'planting' operations that have gone on in Israel since 1948 and earlier, many areas of the state are flourishing with vegetation, and it is easy to forget that we are currently living in a desert climate. But 10 days ago we went on a tiyul (trip) to the Negev, the southern half of the state, which is what you would think a desert should look like. Our trip consisted of three days of hiking desert hills, gorges and cliffs, and hopefully the pictures here will do the actual scenery some justice.

You can see in the fourth picture that we were very close to the Dead Sea at times, and I have to say it is quite a sight to see a body of water that size in the middle of the desert. Although we have both swam in the super salty water (the lowest body of water in the world!), we didn't get the chance this trip - hopefully we will have a chance to go on our own soon.

Our Keen/Merrel water-shoes (that we had from Hawaii) were ideal substitutes for actual hiking shoes, and we actually waded through waist high water on the third day! Overall, the hiking was both challenging and fun - a fantastic break from the classroom.

Our lodgings (picture 5) were very nice for desert life. We stayed in a Bedouin-type tent on sleeping bags and floor mattresses - sort of like one big slumber party. The hosts were very friendly and always ensured that there was hot sweet tea available.

In addition to all of the hiking, we also had a chance to meet with a Bedouin tracker (those who know me well realize that this was one of my highlights in the trip). The Bedouin are traditionally an Arabic-speaking, nomadic, desert people who live off the land, and who would raise camels to sell as transportation. Nowadays, most Bedouin live in the modern world, but there are still those who live traditionally, in the desert, and it is they who preserve the practice and skills of desert survival and tracking.


The Israeli army makes good use of this resource, employing these Bedouin to aid them in tracking potential terrorists who enter Israel via the Negev. Our group met with one of these trackers on the first day and he gave us a crash course in desert survival and tracking. The final exercise entailed half of our group walking out a couple hundred yards from the rest of us in a scattered manner, while the rest of us tried to find them. I am happy to report that I got a good look at Jenny's sneaker footprint right before she left me and I was able to find her, far away and under a some large brush (teva trek paid off).

Here is a shot of our friend Chaim - we were joking about how small Jenny's head is in comparison ... overall, we were lucky to continue to making good friends on this trip :)

The movie below is of some of us rappelling down a dried-up river chute. The view of the camera doesn't make it look very steep, but in fact it is!


The following is a six minute movie from the trip made by one of our fellow students. Jenny and I can be seen here and there, but it is mostly a general video showing a lot of people and places we went.


One other highlight of the tiyul was visiting the desert settlement of Revivim - established by immigrants before the state of Israel was officially formed. The survival of the settlement under the harsh desert conditions - which included finding ways to create agriculture and to collect water - sent a strong message to the international community that Jews could actually inhabit the Negev. The success of Revivim actually helped to influence the UN to include the area of the Negev in the partition plan presented in 1948, which was a huge victory for Jews as the Negev makes up a large portion of Eretz Yisrael (the land of Israel). Needlesstosay, the residents of Revivim are proud to re-tell their families' stories of how they contributed to Israel's history, and it was certainly interesting for us to learn about their story. It's easy to forget that people didn't used to be able to call up Nefesh B'Nefesh (organization aimed to assist people in moving permanently to Israel) and book a flight to Israel to start their new lives. Rather, people literally had to work the land and prove they could survive in order to make a life for themselves here ... oh how far Israel has come in these past 50+ years. While visiting Revivim, we saw one of the most beautiful sunsets since we have been here ... who would have expected to see the silhouette of the palm trees in the middle of the Negev!?

Since the trip, we have been back in classes, which we are still enjoying. We completed our first full chapter of Mishneh (oral law) and celebrated with a Sium (party) in class today - it is exciting to be able to review our progress and feel accomplished with how much we have already learned this year! Starting tomorrow, we will be celebrating the new month of Kislev - it is traditional in Judaism to recognize the start of each month and Pardes holds special services and bagel breakfasts to celebrate! The start of this month reminds us that we are approaching Chanukkah, and we are already looking forward to the visits of our friends and family over the holiday vacation.

Happy (early) Thanksgiving to you all - we feel a bit far from home when no one here is in "holiday" mode. Luckily, we did come across both cranberries and canned pumpkin in one of the groceries, so our dinner on Thursday won't be without at least some of the American favorites.