Yam liYam 3rd Day: Meron to Tzfat

As you just read, I woke up early to visit Peki'in again and see the new sun. That was before the 8 hour hike that followed. We started on the top of Mt. Meron, the second tallest mountain in Israel, about 1204 meters tall. Mind you, we were heading to the Sea of Galilee, about 200 meters below sea level (making it the lowest freshwater lake). We stood at a lookout and found Tzfat , a city I had been to not long ago . That was where we were headed.

There's not much to tell, except that this was the second time I had done this hike. I did a similar, and probably more intensive Yam el Yam in 11th grade, and I got a few chills as we drove by sight I recognized. Even the Monfort hike from the first day was similar to the hike I did in high school, except that we actually went onto the fortress, and it was winter so it was a lot wetter. This time around though, we found some new treasures, such as a burial site claiming to hold the students of Rabbi Shammai, as well as his mosoleum and well as another ancient synagogue. Just in the middle of a natural park, this stuff shows up! We were entertained with legends about trees and geological explanations for natural pits and pillars. We discussed the sad reality that memorials for the dead show up even in the forests of the country. Our tour guide felt very strongly that Israel and its citizens should stop turning every street corner, tree and building into memorial.

Also on the way, we climbed up a mountain and visited the grave of Yochanan ben Zakkai, or Rashbi, or the guy from the cave earlier, or the writer of the Zohar. There's a tradition that three year olds get their hair cut here for the first time around this time of year, and sure enough, there was a party going on. Honestly, though, my favorite part was visiting the site, and then running back into the forest.

We continued on, and walked past a bunch of Israeli scouts, or Tzofim, wearing kafiyyas to keep themselves cool, and asking us if we spoke English. Mind you, these were pretty young boys and girls, and we looked like real losers passing them by. I'm sure they wondered, are these army dropouts?

We eventually reached a spring, and once through it, we climbed a mountain for ten minutes, and we basically in Tzfat! Inconceivable! The pictures can make it clearer for you; and these .

We then drove through Tiberias to a beautiful, and I mean beautiful hostel at Poriya. It was so pretty and the temperature was so perfect, I thought I'd make a sunrise streak, so I slept outside all night, but not before sharing my summer camp stories around the campfire and enjoying a tremendous bagpipe performance!

Yam liYam 2nd Day: Peki'in פקיעין

This was Shabbat, so I didn't take photographs and I didn't write this until later, but it was a wonderfully rich day of history and religion. The meat of the day was spent on a tour of nearby Peki'in , a village that claims to hold Jewish roots for two thousand years. This means that since the time of the Second Temple, Jews have been living there. What's better than that is it's a Druze village (I'll explain about them later). This area is now mostly Druze, with some Moslems, some Christians, and get this, ONE jewish women, in her eighties, named Margalit Zeynatis. This woman is a big deal, because she holds the keys to one of the oldest Synagogues , located next door to her home. Tradition has it that some of very important Rabbis were there, and now, even though the site has been renovated a little, all that's left are a few stones inside, but they have incredibly detailed carvings on them of a menorah, lions, and one may be the doors to the ancient Temple in Jerusalem. Nearby is a cave recognized by tradition as the place where Rabbi Yochanan ben Zakkai, the "writer of the Zohar" hid with his son for many years living only by a spring and carob trees (both were present of course). I thought it was a little small, but hey, we've grown since then. I'm not doing this place justice because it's just so beautiful seeing all the mountains over the houses. Peki'in has survived so long because it's been a pretty peaceful place, and takes a while for the hostilities of politics to reach it. Margalit lost some of her family during the War of Independence, but she has a brother in a nearby town with a family, who will hopefully return and help to take care of the synagogue and share it with visitors.

As for the Druze, these people are absolutely astounding. They are an extremely modest bunch, formed by a group of prophets in Egypt. Their traditions were influenced over time by their Islamic leadership, and somehow, also by Judaism. Their faith was almost immediately outlawed, so they became a secret i, meaning that when you turn a certain age, a person has to decide whether to become religious and learn to the texts of the prophets, or to be non-religious. Excommunication is possible, but nobody can convert and become Druze. Speaking of which, Druze is actually a derogative term for someone who left the faith. The real name  is الموحدون‎ or al-Muwahhidun, coming from the arabic word Wahid, or one, because they are monotheists. Druze share similar practices with Jews, such as a week of repentance, circumcision on the eighth day, and recognizing the Binding of Issac, rather than Ishmael, which is what Moslems follow. Howvever, in many cases, Druze are mistaken for Moslems, because they wear clothes similar to kaffiyas, speak Arabic. However, one of the biggest differences I heard from the speaker we listened to, who was really just the guy from the front desk, is that women are not subordinates. They own land, and hold important roles in society, and polygyny is prohibited. Druze have a few pillars that they stand by, including dedication to the land. They also submit to the leadership of their land, meaning they never idealize a Druze state. However, the Druze have outstanding relationships with the Jews. Once the Ottoman Empire fell, they fought with Jewish resistance movements, and less than ten years after Israeli gained independence, they were fighting in Israel's battles. They now have compulsory army service, are allowed into all regiments, and show a far higher rate of enlistment that Israeli does (Druze cities ~80%, Israel ~56%). Finally, Druze believe that death is planned and determined, so when people die, there is a ceremony, very much like an Islamic burial ceremony (secret religion), and the dead are not visited. However, those Druze who die in he IDF are visited and given a different burial. I found that fascinating.


Saturday night there was karaoke, but I slept through it, because I decided that the next morning I would wake up to watch the sunrise and then run back to Peki'in to take all the pictures of the places we went to.

Yam liYam 1st Day: Mediterranean & Monfort

I slept four hours after Dad left.

That's how it started. 5:30 I was on the bus waiting to get going, wondering why, for the first time all semester, I was early to something. There was a guy sitting outside tapping his feet to his ipod, and I recognized him from Before Rent . eventually, he started to dancing; intense dancing; on top of fences. All the hikers passed him by, and I believe some took pictures. It was a sight to behold, for those who had opened their eyes.

As we bussed up north and the sun poked its lazy face through the horizon, I photographed the rising brightness of the green shades of mountains. Then, for some odd reason, we pulled off the road. A cop approached the car. As it turned out, the tour guide was sitting on the very front seat, without his seat belt on. Seatbelts are required when sitting in the very front seat. The tour guide and driver could have faced considerable consequences, considering this was the first time I had ever seen Israeli law enforcement recognize the existence of a traffic laws. However, and as is always the case, the cop and the driver went way back, in high school or something close to it, so he was let off the hook. Only in Israel (and Garden State).

We made it to a beach called Achziv or really "Monkey Beach", snatched some pics of the high mountains where the border lay between Israel and Lebanon, filled up some bottles of salty Mediterranean water, got back on the bus to head to out first hiking destination.

Did I mention that Yam li Yam or Yam el Yam means sea to sea, meaning random hikes from the Mediterranean to the Sea of Galilee. Some students from my program actually did the real thing, but we would just hike during the day, and spend the night in the hostels nearby.

The first hike was in a place called Goren Park, where we walked down into a valley and then up again, overlooking the remnants of the Monfort Crusader fortress, and eating mustard flowers. This was once a crusader stronghold, that not only survived the tests of time, but also was used to store many archives, that are now safely preserved somewhere in Europe.

The trip followed with a HUGE deli lunch and a ride to our site for Shabbat...Peki'in.