in god's country

This past week, our class embarked on a four-day tiyul to the Negev desert in southern Israel. This was a part of our educational experience of the year (although other than spouting off on the benefits of recreation and informal education, and then talking about “Reform Jewish connections to the land of Israel,” I can’t really tell you the M.O. of the past week) and it was a boodle of fun.

I love the desert, desert climate, desert flora and fauna (and yes, there is lots of it, you just have to look for it), desert mythology, desert sky, desert music, desert beauty, desert silence. For me it’s mostly been a love affair with Death Valley, but the Negev totally suffices. So being there, for 4 day, camping and hiking and breathing it all in, it was just all totally a pleasure.

The trip was structured around two thematic halves: enjoying the desert and enjoying each other, as well as learning about Israeli connections to the southern Negev. Our trip started with a visit to Sde Boker, a kibbutz in the central Negev that David Ben-Gurion moved to in his later life and was eventually buried there. We used this visit as a jumping off point as the importance of the Negev (about 60% of Israel’s land area; only about 10% of the population) in Israeli culture and history.

We then went on a beautiful, steep hike overlooking the Ramon Crater (the largest geologically formed crater in the world) and headed to a five-star Bedouin tent for the evening. Gavin, Luanne, and I (the three ED students) led Mincha (afternoon) service that day. We wanted it to be a contemplative, reflective service, and I think we reached our goal.

The evening program consisted of learning about Bedouin culture (a totally constructed experience, but non-authentic) and having a nice dinner, and then doing some campus bonding through a friendly Eurovision-type song competition. The LA campus group did okay (we came in 3rd), but putting “Hit Me Baby One More Time” to Opera is much harder than one might expect.

Thursday morning, half the group rose bright and super early to mount the bus for an all day hike on Har Shlomo (Mt. Solomon), a basalt crag in the Eilat Mountains. It was a great hike, a very steep ascent and an even steeper descent, but at the peak there was an incredible view of Eilat, Aqaba (in Jordan), the Saudi Arabian coast, and mountains on the easternmost edge of the Sinai Peninsula (in Egypt). Israel’s really smack dab in the middle of it all.

That evening we regrouped at Kibbutz Yahel, one of two Reform kibbutzim in the southeastern Negev (an area called the Arava), where we spent Thursday and Friday night. Thursday we rested and had dinner and a karaoke evening. I played cards. And may or may not have sung a karaoke song with RVT; we wanted to do “Love Shack,” but that was just done, so we did “Stand By Me.”

Friday morning we visited Kibbutz Lotan, the other Reform kibbutz, which has a very strong eco-friendly bent. We toured their straw-mud igloos (natural insulation), organiz garden, composting toilets, and had a conversation with the past Kibbutz mayor about the role of Zionism in Reform Judaism. We had a quick kibbutz-style bagged lunch on the bus on the way to a beach off the Eilat coral reef, where we spent the afternoon snorkeling and enjoying the sunshine. On our way back to Yahel we stopped at Yotvata, a dairy, for ice cream, the best Israeli ice cream I’ve had.

Shabbat was really lovely. The services were student led, and the massive group of 9 students did a really nice job stringing together different themes and musical elements. Leslie, one of the service coordinators, had asked me Tuesday if I would give a brief D’var Friday night, so I wrote a little D’var on the portion of the week (which was the first in Leviticus) and the desert. It was about finding and hearing your calling, bring called, responding to a calling, especially in the desert where, through the pure silence, we can truly hear ourselves. It went pretty well, especially considering it was written and edited on the fly.

Friday evening was had dinner and then a really nice chill evening of some cards (the game of the weekend was Juker, a big game in the Midwest that’s like a combination of Bridge and Spades), some hookah, some wine, some conversation. As Erev Shabbat should be.

Saturday itself was really relaxing. We had services, some down time, lunch, more downtime, a tour of the Yahel dairy cows, and then a conversation with the Kibbutz’s founders, and then we came home. The relaxing, chill element of the weekend really pervaded my own experience. It was so wonderful to get away and relax in a desert environment, and on the beach, and hike, and hang out with my classmates with out the stress of class or other external pressures.

For pictures, check out my Picasa album:

Negev Tiyul