July 4th afternoon/evening!

We left Atlit; the air conditioned bus ride was well-received by everyone!  It gave me time to think about the Jews fleeing the Holocaust only to again be intercepted and interned.  It is so easy now to understand why so few Holocaust Survivors ever spoke of what they went through.  How could you ever describe in words what they lived through?  How could they ever feel safe for sure?  When I think of the “baggage” I let myself carry from my relatively “easy” life, I am so humbled by what they overcame.

Looking closely at teh pictures from the bus, brings me back to our guide Amos’s insightful explanations of nearly every crevice we pass.  Noticing the blue-blue skies but especiallynotice the GREENs.  None of this existed before Israel became a State!  All the fresh fruit and vegetables we are eaching, and there are plenty, are all home-grown; something else that never happened before.  We’ve seen all over fields of Pomegranate trees, Pear Trees, Orange, Lime, Date-Palm, Fig trees, you name it!  And the huge plots belonging to various kibbutzim are incredible.  By law, every house uses Solar Powered-Roof-Top mounted hot water heaters.  Israel recycles over 75% of its water; water is such a precious commodity.  The country who reuses the most water after Israel only recycles 27% (If my memory serves me right!).

We stopped in a small mall for quick lunch on our own and of course for those of us shoppers or those needing to use the restrooms…this felt too short!!!!!

Wednesday afternoon we arrived at the Midrasha at Oranim College.  Our agenda said only that we were gonig to meet the staff of the Medrasha, which we did do!  But we got a short walk on campus which allowed us to see the art along the way; then we found we were attending two short study session; the first, on Gender (you know I loved this!) we deconstructed two short Rabbi Akiva stories regarding his daughter and his son.  the second session was more about the difference between being Jewish and being Israeli and trying to understand the sometimes subtle and sometimes not-so-subtle differences.  This was interesting too and didn’t leave Gender out of the discussion.  The purpose, as I understand it, of the Midrasha is to aid in developing Spiritual Leadership where potential emergeing communities exist.  Like we are all to familiar with, day-to-day life often leads to a more secular, non-religious life and lifestyle and  so people need assistance to reconnect with the more spiritual, religious side of leading community development.

More beautiful driving took us to Kibbutz Nof Genosar in the Sea of Galilee and a quick check-in to our rooms before a dinner together in the dining room there!  What a cool place!  we had very little time to explore the Kibbutz but our meals were with a view of the Sea of Galilee and some of us made time to do some walking and exploring.  People were there from all over and it was a very neat environment!  The makeup of the building and the rooms was a very neat, clean (almost IKEA-looking furnishings!).  As I’m traveling alone, I always have more than adequate space!  Again, we are treated to “Dead Sea” minerals soaps, shampoos and hand lotions in our room!  I love this!!!!

We got together in a meeting room afterward; we were going to have a discussion on American/Israeli relations; but Enid quickly saw that we were all so exhausted that we ended on a few lovely notes and retired for the night.  Our guide has us all scheduled for an hearly morning wake-up call for us to head up even further North!!!