The Negev

Last weekend I went on a tiyul(trip) to the Negev Desert. I went alongside my fellow program participants. We went hiking in some of the most beautiful and awe-inspiring terrain the world has to offer. The hiking and camping was amazing. Even though the desert is a vast wasteland seeming to offer refuge for only a few species if any, it might be some of the most meaningful terrain to trek. You really understand that you are just a tiny speck of dust in a very complex and crazy world. Even to understand that the tiny speck that you represent is even smaller if compared to the amount of space we take up in Outer Space. The trip also made me think biblically. To know that it was in a very similar landscape that the Israelites made their way to Eretz Yisrael that I was hiking in struck me. That feeling has permeated my outlook of living here in Israel. I know that I am not the most religious person out there, but the level of spirituality that I have has risen since the trip. I am grateful to be doing what I am doing here. I know that I have made the right decision to be here for 10 months. 

We also made a visit to the resting place of David Ben-Gurion. Ben-Gurion was one of the most influential statesmen in history. The first prime minister of the state of Israel decided to be buried at Sde Boker in the middle of the Negev Desert. He had joined the kibbutz there later in his life. For me it was a special place because I have read extensively on Ben-Gurion even reading his memoir. He is a larger than life figure in Israeli culture and society. It was a very meaningful visit for me. 

This trip on the whole was amazing for me. A lot of things I have been thinking about have to been becoming clearer. The reason why I am here and the reason why people die to protect their right to live here have become clearer. I am having the time of life and I will keep everyone updated more often with more posts to come. Laila Tov l'kulam! (Good Night to Everyone)!