Day 16: Masada and the Dead Sea

Within just a few minutes after leaving Jerusalem, you are really in the desert. Our destination today is 1411 feet below sea level, the absolutely lowest place on earth. But our first stop was to the great symbol of heroism to the Jewish people: Masada Masada is a UNESCO World Heritage site. It was captured by King Herod in 43BCE, and he soon built an elaborate fortress. Situated on a high mountain plateau, it was a perfect vantage point. The view from the top was an ideal lookout upon the entire region, overlooking the Dead Sea, the Judean desert valley, and Jordan (the Dead Sea is the natural boundary between Jordan and Israel). He built a huge palace here, actually two, one on the north side, filled with frescoes, Roman baths, enormous storerooms, and, of course, a sophisticated water system. He also built a smaller palace on the other western side on top of another earlier palace there. We took a cable car to get to the top, unlike the first time, many years ago, when we climbed the winding “snake path”. This was much shorter! In AD 70-74 about 1000 Jewish rebels, fleeing Jerusalem after the destruction of the second temple, managed to capture this fortress and establish themselves in the palace. The Romans laid siege to it over many months with a force as larger as 15,000, but the Jews fought valiantly. Finally, when the Romans breached the walls, as the story goes, the Jews committed mass suicide rather than being enslaved. There are several variations to the story. Two witnesses who survived by hiding, claimed that suicide is against Jewish belief so they drew lots to kill each other so only the last man had to take his own life (here represented by stones). This is also the reason that the story is not mentioned religious Jewish writings. After exploring for several hours, we then moved onto the only place nearby that serves lunch to the thousands visiting Masada every day, (the only one, it seems, because a sinkhole 5 years ago swallowed up the competition 😝😝) and a chance to buy Dead Sea products. The Dead Sea, the lowest point on earth, is not usually visited by Israelis as they prefer the beaches of the beautiful Mediterranean ( see tomorrow’s pictures). It is very oily, 30% salt, and mud and other products from it are supposed to be very beneficial to skin. You cover yourself with mud, step in (water or other shoes are a must), scrape yourself on the boulders underneath that you can’t see, and…float! Arm strength is needed to move any other direction but backward. Lots of fun, but the showers afterwards cleaned us up enough to enjoy the view from our East Jerusalem restaurant a bit later. Our bus had a flat tire so Ibrahim scrambled to find alternate transportation. He has a few friends that he called upon in the area since he lives here! A different bus brought us home again to pack after our 6 day Jerusalem stay.

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Day 15: Chagall windows at Hadassah Hospital, then to Bethlehem

Although not on the original itinerary, Ibrahim arranged for us to tour the famous Chagall windows. This was a fabulous opportunity as we would not have seen them otherwise. Hadassah Hospital, the most prominent and renowned medical facility in Israel, treats everyone who walks through their doors, from Prime Ministers and Kings to the poorest of the poor. If you are an Israeli citizen, you have excellent health service for less than $100/ month. If not, you pay what you can, sometimes nothing.

After enjoying some beautiful sculpture in the hall, our guide gave us some history of Hadassah, founded by Henrietta Szold in 1912. After a trip to Jerusalem, she saw a crying need for nurses to help the poor and especially children. Little by little, the Hadassah movement sent nurses,and more money. Her organization “A drop of milk” is still very active around the world today. And, of course they eventually built not one but two huge hospitals in Jerusalem , one on the east of the city and this one, in Ein Karem in the west. Then to the windows. Chagall was famously asked to make a set of windows for the synagogue in the hospital. His response: “what took you so long to ask”! The twelve windows each represent a son of Jacob, basis for the twelve tribes of Israel. Chagall used Jacob’s blessings for each of his sons as the basis for his design. He only signed one. In the 1967 war, two of the windows were damaged. Chagall was asked if he would repair them. He left a little piece of clear glass towards the bottom to commentate the destruction. Onto another additional site to our itinerary: two churches in Bethlehem, another very holy site for Christianity as it is the birthplace of Jesus. Located in the Palestinian-controlled West Bank, it has unfortunately evolved into a very touristy town, lots of pushy street hawkers to push away, and small shops selling religious knickknacks. To get there we have to pass from the”C” zone of Jerusalem (Israeli-controlled) to the “A” zone (Palestinian controlled). We were told to bring passports to get back into Israel, but it turned out they were not needed on this day. The first stop here was the Church of the Shepherd’s Field where it is believed that the angel Gabriel appeared to the shepherds to announce the birth of Jesus (“Hark the Herald Angels Sing”). (According to Ibrahim, shepherds were the Twitterers of the day in terms of spreading news).

The site is also of interest in Judaism as Boaz, of second husband of Ruth fame also had his home and big field here. There were also caves underneath, usually not open, that had set ups of the birth and shepherds. We made a stop at a touristy gift shop. It costs $100 for a bus to park at the Church of the Nativity. But… you can park for free if you bring your tour group into this shop🙃🙃. The bathrooms were nice… Next stop was the Church of the Nativity, built in 324 AD and is the only church that was never destroyed. We entered through the “door of humility” to see a beautiful church with throngs of people inside. Most were waiting in line (for more than two hours we were told) to see the small “cave” where Jesus was born. It was also apparent that, for a small fee, you could pay the church workers and bypass the line. Ah! the tourist business!! Free time this afternoon found us back in Jerusalem shopping and perusing the area not far from our hotel. It is in a great location!

Dinner was at a “ western” restaurant, the first one in awhile where the food was wonderful and high quality.

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