Jerusalem - Friday. To Masada, Dead Sea, Qumran, Jericho, Birthday Surprise

Friday began with another early wakeup call so we could be on the bus at 7. On the way to the Dead Sea, everyone sang Happy Birthday. Really special.

Dead Sea: first of all, it's the lowest spot on earth. This means high temperatures, high pressure (good for asthmatics because it forces open the alveoli and lungs). It also means chewing gum and yawning (just like going up and down in an airplane.) This is the Judean desert where Jesus was tempted by Satan. I can tell you one thing, after seeing how barren and desolate it is, I would have been tempted by a drink of water or a Nutty Buddy. Reminds me of parts of New Mexico, Arizona, and Nevada.

The surprising thing about the Dead Sea is I always had a mental picture of a fetid, salty, whitish, brackish pool of stagnant water. The reality is it's a huge body of water, beautiful blue, and clear. Just salty. Try 30 percent salty. One of our group said he was looking forward to going into the Sea because "All my life, I've wanted to float in water." Sure enough, everyone floated. In fact, it was difficult to get right side up after being on your back. It's like you've got floaties on your ankles.

Next up were the caves at Qumran. Fascinating. Just caves in the side of mountains and hills. In 1947, a shepherd was looking for a lost sheep, saw a cave below him and leaned way down and tossed a rock in the opening. When he heard a piece of pottery break, he investigated and the rest is history. In clay jars were found manuscripts including a full text of Isaiah and most other Old Testament books.

Then we went to Masada. I need to correct my earlier post about what happened there. The Zealots did not commit suicide. Actually, the 960 men, women, and children met in the synagogue. The priest and leader, Eliazar, convinced them that the besieging Roman army would torture and rape the women, torture and kill the children, and torture and kill the men. Instead, they voted to kill themselves. Here's how they did it. They drew straws (so to speak) and the 10 men who drew the lots were to kill all the others.

Each of the 10 was to kill his own family as well as others he was assigned. Then, one of the 10 was selected to kill the other nine and then, because suicide was/is forbidden in Jewish law, he was to fall on his sword (literally). That way he wasn't committing suicide.

They even left huge storehouses of food, grain, etc. so that the Romans would realize that they -the Zealots - could have held out for months if not years. But they killed themselves to avoid the torture and killing as well as to send a signal to Rome that they were not subject to nor were killed by the Roman soldiers.

It's a story of sacrifice similar to our own story of the Alamo. In fact, when an Israeli soldier finishes basic training, they are brought to Masada where they take a vow "Never another Masada." Inspirational and beautiful. You get to the top via gondola. You see the ruins built by Herod which included swimming pools, offices, barracks for the Roman soldiers, and storehouses for food. Incredible accomplishment.

Then we drove to Jericho. Did you know it's the oldest continuously habited city in the world? 10,000 years old. (and it looks every day of it.) There is a startling and stark contrast between the towns and cities in Israel compared to the towns in the Gaza Strip and Palestinian territories. Reminded me of a Mexical border town. We had lunch there in an outdoor restaurant. For the fourth time in three days, we had falafel, hummus, shredded lettuce, lamb burger, rice, and chicken kabob.

Back to Jerusalem for an hour in the hotel. Then, off again, this time to a very nice store in Bethlehem (again, Palestinian territory which means your passport has to be checked by machine gun-toting  Israeli soldiers. When they decide a bunch of old Episcopalian/Anglicans aren't likely to be a threat, they get off the bus and say "Shalom."

In this store, I bought Trinity a beautiful Nativity scene made out of high-grade Jerusalem olive wood. They had one for $40,000 - not the one I bought. Most were in the $2,000 range (again, not the one I bought).

In the restaurant, guess what we had? Again, lamb, falafel, hummus, shredded lettuce, rice. But then, with great fanfare, the waiters brought out a large birthday cake complet with candles and a huge sparkler and everyone (for the third time today) sang Happy Birthday to me. Yeah, yeah. I got a little teary. You know me. I told them how special they all were or had become to me. You've got to understand, when you spend time in Jesus' tomb and on Golgotha  and walk on the Via Dolorosa with people, you feel a special bond.

Wonderful ending to another long day. Up tomorrow and on the road at 7 to leave Jerusalem (gonna be hard for most of us) for Tiberias, Caesarea, and the Sea of Galilee area where we'll spend the next three days. Again, no pictues tonight because my Internet service is spotty at best and I need to figure out how to reduce the size of the pictures. That's for tomorrow.