A Few More Photos

I still have some photos from the Chanukkah tiyul floating around, so here they are. Actually, since these posts were in no sequential order, I suppose it doesn't matter.

Took this shot of Hizmah and Adom behind it from the bus stop in Pisgat Ze'ev the night before leaving. Twilight, long exposure.

Jews don't do anything in the morning before talking to God (well, you can use the restroom, shower, and get dressed, but not much else,) so the madrichim (more experienced yeshivah guides) woke us up at 4 AM.

Yossi and Jeff, bright and shining faces in the morning.

Why? Well, we wanted to get an early start, and the sun wasn't up yet, so it in the eyes of Halachah (Jewish law) it was still the night of the previous day, secular clocks notwithstanding. Rav Bigon (the head of the yeshivah) had a surprize for us. We boarded the bus and were moving by 5:30 AM.

Yehoshua, the madrich. Notice the time on clock behind him. "Oh no, Ephraim, are you one of those guys who never stops taking pictures?"

We drove south, south, and further south. Most of the guys fell asleep again, but I can never sleep on a bus, so I just sat there taking pictures.

Southbound sunrise over the hills of Hebron

Eventually, we made an eastward turn near Lachish, only about 30 minutes north of Be'er Sheva (by the way all of these cities are mentioned extensively in the Tanach, so go read it.)

We came close to the security fence, hung a north turn, and came to Kibbutz Shomeriyah. The guys, stirring from their unconsciousness, were a bit confused. Nobody had told us what was going on. A kibbutz? most kibbutzes are arch-secular, except for a couple of religious ones that everybody knows about. But nobody had ever heard of Shomeriyah.

The mean streets of Kibbutz Shomeriyah

So we got off the bus and started putting on tefillin.


What I learned in Yeshivah:
The town we passed by called Lachish was one of the Canaanite cities which fought the Jews in the Battle of Givon. It is in the region allocated to the tribe of Judah, and due to it's extreme southern location, was one of the last cities destroyed by the Romans during their attempt to destroy the Jewish people. Today it's a thriving Jewish village, and the Romans are dust and bones. So HA HA!
To be continued...