Shabbat #2: Ein Gedi

It was a new Shabbos and therefore a new experience.  For my second experience, I was asked to participate in the Conservative Yeshiva Shabbaton in Ein Gedi, and I was more than eager to go.  Thursdays are the new Fridays in Israel (not that I went out on Friday nights), so to get up early Friday morning to pack, shower, and get ready for the trip was not the most fun thing in the world.  But trust me, it was worth it.

The one thing about buses in Israel is that you basically always fall asleep on them.  So of course, I fell asleep on the bus ride down to Ein Gedi, while chillin' with Nativ kids, and our British yeshivabucher friends too (they're so funny).  We got off the bus to hot air and a beautiful view of the Dead Sea, which was very close by.  It is definitely easy to tell that the Dead Sea is receding, but lucky for us, there was still plenty to go around.

Our first order of business was to climb up a rocky "mountain" to get to a spring near the top.  I had done the hike before, but couldn't really remember if it was hard, long, or what.  The schedule advertised the hike as about a 2 hour hike.  If by 2 hours they meant about 45 minutes, then yeah.  The hike was pretty easy, but brutally hot.  Fortunately, the spring was cool, and everyone jumped in and cooled off.  We played keep it up with a beach ball in the water after destroying someone's attempt to make us break the ice with everyone there.  There was this really cool crab on one of the rocks too...and then it just disappeared.

We hiked back down the mountain and ate lunch and chilled for a while, before davening Mincha, and taking a trip down to the Dead Sea to have more fun in the water.  Getting back into the water and having that buoyancy feeling was definitely weird, but after a few minutes it felt natural again, except for the insane burning.  I got the saltwater into my eyes a few times, and had to run out to wash my eyes off as quickly as possible.  Wow did it burn.

We eventually settled at the youth hostel in Ein Gedi, and took a nap before getting ready for Shabbat.  The guys in my room were David, Judah, Nadav, Reuben, and me.  They're all great guys, and we had a great weekend together.  When we got downstairs for Kabbalat Shabbat, we first had a Speed Chevruta session about whether the Torah is more like Fire or Water, and how it is portrayed in many sources as such.  My interpretation is that for the regular shulgoer sitting in shul, the Torah is soothing as water droplets, or a stream, but for those interested in exploring the text and understanding the true meaning of the stories the Torah can be more fiery than one person can handle.

To tell you that our Kabbalat Shabbat was good would be an incredibly large understatement; this Kabbalat Shabbat was probably the best Jewish experience I've had thus far in my 18 years.  One of my good friends, Judah Kerbel, a rabbinical prodigy, led services that night.  With the voice of an angel, and a choir of Rabbis, Rabbinical and Cantorial students, yeshivabuchers, and awesomely goodlooking people, the service came together like none other I had witnessed before.  I could have cried I was so happy.

Dinner was exciting as well.  A crazy Sephardi family was also staying at the hostel because a boy had just gotten bar mitzvah'd.  He was wearing some weird pink short sleeved button down shirt with a white collar, that was just downright tacky.  The funniest thing was that some uncle or something gave a really long speech in Hebrew, and I could have sworn I heard Allah 9 times.  He was packing heat (carrying a gun), on the holy Sabbath, screaming, and looked very scary.  When David clapped, he turned around and yelled at him, and then continued to speak.  Sephardis are so much cooler than Ashkenazi's, it's really not fair.

We had an awesome tisch that night after dinner, and after leaving I went star gazing with some friends.  I finally hit the hay and got a good night's sleep.  The next day was uneventful, filled with davening, sichot, and sleeping, and before we knew it it was time to board the bus to go back home.

Motzeh Shabbos everyone came back together after traveling around the country for Shabbat, and dispersed throughout Jerusalem for Selichot services.  Last year was the first time I experienced Selichot, but I could not remember exactly what it was about.  In the States, one person reads from a book, and it's pretty boring.  In Israel, it's much different.  Everyone sings unique melodies from the Selichot book, and I got lost approximately 16 times.  The ruach was great, and the experience very memorable.  Israelis know what they're doing, and have incredible neshamas.  Israel is very, very special.