Renewal in the Desert-Water water everywhere

Yesterday’s trek in the desert was a welcome respite from the trials of the conflicts. As we have heard time in and time out, life in Israel is about holding contradictions and living daily without any easy answers. Already after a week, I feel the toll of that kind of living—for a citizen of Israel it is a powerful and improbable long term reality, not to mention for the average Palestinian. Living with the question of your survival on a daily basis over a long period of time leaves its mark.

No wonder Israeli’s love the desert. As an aside, when we went and visited Kolot. Moti, the Orthodox rabbi who teaches Talmud to Israel’s secular elite, and runs a Secular/religious teenage dialogue amongst other thing spoke to us about the power of the desert as a spiritual metaphor. The desert was the place where the Jews had the ability to lose the shackles of slavery and reinvent themselves. He notes while they had 40 years, Jews who suffered during the Holocaust only had 3 years before inheriting a homeland. While he recognizes it wouldn’t have been good to wait 40 years he believes a vital process didn’t occur and that we need to construct metaphorical “desert” experiences.

Tuesday morning, we made our way to a monastery built into a side of the cliff. It was quite a strenuous though reasonably short hike down to the entrance. It was an extraordinary looking structure. It overlooked this wonderful man made oasis. I did not bring my long pants so I missed the tour which was led by a Palestinian Christian who everyone assured me was gay. He was studying to be a nurse.

On the outside, I davened/prayed as I looked out over the cliff with birds flying in and out of the trees that had white moths orbiting them like mobiles. Way above me, at an absurd angle, the goats grazed making me wonder if they had suction cups on their hooves. After finishing, I sat in solitude allowing my head to clear.

From there we went to Qumran and learned about the history of the Dead Sea Scrolls. History once thought that it was an ascetic, religious community called the Essenes who lived there, but now others wonder if it was a large pottery collective because of the multiple ovens and clay pots. The scrolls were found throughout the cliffs in the desert.

We then had the joy of going to Ayn Gedi which was the lush waterfalls and pools that inspired the Song of Songs. We discussed this shared text after a brief hike. The discussion was followed by 3 of us wading under the water falls. It felt wonderfully refreshing.

Though not as refreshing as the mud at the Dead Sea. Being the grown ups that we are, we joined in a mild clergy mud fight. Once we were covered we walked to the sea, making one colleague a fin for her hair so that she looked like the Creature of the Black Lagoon.

Then we had dinner at Genesis Land. We hopped up on camels that took us to Abraham’s tent where a South African man spoke to us as if he were Abraham. We sat on cushions around tables around the ground. Some stayed the night in the desert and others of us made our way back to Jerusalem in order to tour a home and meet a Muslim family whose house was demolished in E. Jerusalem –and not for terrorist activities. The tour was led by rabbis for human rights.
To be continued….