Dad's Trip 2

M'tzadah
Herod, a King of Isreal during the Second Temple Period (576 B.C.E.-70 C.E.), build a fortress on top of a mountain next to the Dead Sea. As Israel fell against the hands of the Roman's, many fled to areas outside of Jerusalem, the center of life of all the Judaism. The place the King had made for himself was M'tzadah.

It is a beautiful palace with many public bathing areas, some still with the floor and wall mosaics in tact. Almost nothing brings history alive the way a city that was destroyed thousands of years ago still maintains some of its beauty, uncovered only when the Jews came back to their country of origin.



This is a hot public bath. The space underneath the floor is meant for logs that are on fire. People would put logs into this space from a hole in the wall on the outside of the bathing area. What an ingenious idea!!!

Dead Sea
So, I am not really a fan of the dead sea. Last time I went in there all my most special places started to burn, especially the little cuts on my fingers that come about because I constantly pick them. I decided that I never needed to go in that salty, evil burning water ever again. Maybe I am being a little harsh on this disappearing sea (Its coast line has retreated hundreds of meters since the 60's.) But seriously, private not-really-part-of-the-beach beaches should have warnings about this stuff.

So anywho, I invited Dad and Paula to get into the water, but I was not going there. I saw some friends at the beach resort we were at, and they convinced me to smear black mud on myself. They even secured some of the best mud on the beach for me.


Dad and Paula with mud all over themselves.















Tzfat
There is a special blessing that comes about once every 28 years. This blessing, the blessing of the sun, happened this year. It was during the intermediate days of one of the three biggest holidays of the Jewish year, Pesach, so there was a week-long festival in the holy city of Tzfat.

There were many things going on at every hour, but I believe that I made good choises. At night I went to different lectures/jamming sessions. In the morning, at a very early hour, I went to the grave of a very special person who lived in the 1500's, The Ari Zal. I had time to go to a special, musical prayer service, with guitars violins, and even a guy with a trumpet. After all that I felt prepared to attned a "Hebrew alphabet tai chi class." But one of the best things about this trip was visiting many of the art studios that were opened up for the festival. Tzfat has always been a city that attracts the artists in Israel, so seeing this thriving community was like seeing the art in the whole land.





Me sitting in an art gallery.