Holy Days and Holidays

It's been decades since I was in Jerusalem for Yom Kippur. It's different here than anywhere else on the planet. There's a quality to the day that makes it unique. First of all, everything shuts down. The airport is closed. The TV and radio stations don't broadcast. Newspapers aren't published. All stores, offices and schools are closed. And with very minor exceptions, there isn't a car on the roads. What you see on the streets is people walking to and from services. It makes focusing on the meaning and importance of the day a lot easier.

Five days later Sukkot begins. Again, here in Israel, the holiday is celebrated like no where else in the world. Even in the most secular areas there's a succa on every corner and outside most of the restaurants. Sukkot is a very festive holiday. Walk down the streets and you'll hear singing till the wee hours. Traffic comes to a standstill because there's a huge (5000+ participants) international Christian Zionist parade that takes place in Jerusalem on the same day that the President holds an open house for at least 10,000 visitors who traipse through his residence. I got caught in both traffic jams; it wasn't the best day to go and visit my bff Batsheva, who lives at the far northern end of the city.

Because lots of businesses and schools take the week off, it seems that everyone is on the move. Including us. Like all good Israelis, at least the ones who don't go abroad, we headed for Eilat and Mitzpe Ramon.

The last time we were in Eilat was 5 years ago. There's a boom in building and tourism. The foothills surrounding the city are dotted with low and high rise buildings that weren't there 5 years ago. The North Beach promenade is like Vegas without the casinos. Water sports (scuba, snorkling, paddle boards, windsurfing, parasailing and paragliding) cover the bay. We took a glass bottom boat tour. I didn't want to get wet.

Vegas style hotels on North Beach

Wind sailing on the Red Sea; mountains of Moab in the background.

There are fish. Really, there are.

Building, building, building. In another 5 years the landscape will be filled with high rises.

We met Chuck and Louisa (my brother and sister-in-law, who I've been begging to come for a visit for years) at the Aqaba-Eilat border crossing. They started their trip in Petra and Wadi Rum and loved it. From Eilat we drove to Mitzpe Ramon. It's only 2 hours away, but the road is challenging. We stayed at a very modest hotel, the Ramon Suites. Actually with one exception all the hotels, and there aren't many, are modest. This one had a group of Koreans (2 buses worth) who sort of took the place over. They are Christian Zionists and very strong supporters of Israel. We heard singing and followed the sound. They had a choir singing in Korean and Hebrew. Amazing.

The reason people go to Mitzpe is to tour the Machtesh, the world's largest erosion crater. We hired an excellent guide, who gave us a master class in geology. He explained why the Negev (southern Israel) isn't actually a desert. It has a rain-fed aquifer and underground springs. This is why the Silk Road caravans were able to cross the Negev, carrying spices from India and perfumes from Oman and Yemen on the Arabian Peninsula, to the ports of  Ashdod and Jaffa. Petra is a stop along the Silk Road. It's also why today a lot of Israel's agricultural production takes place in the Negev. All those stories about making the desert bloom are true. The crater has 80 of the 109 elements on the periodic chart. It contains all the compounds necessary to (literally) build Israel - limestone, sandstone, basalt, gypsum, etc. It is bustling with wildlife of all kinds, including some beggar ibex who were roaming the parking lot of the hotel. The mines operated until just a few years ago. Sadly, like so many other commodities, it's cheaper to import what used to be dug out of the ground.

Alen Gafny, our tour guide for the Machtesh. He's also certified in rappeling ... next time.

Is Chuck that tall or are the rest of us that short?

This trailer-like structure is a research station. The logos are some of the participating companies.
One of the projects is Mars research. 

One of the things to be very aware of in this region is flash floods. They are just what the name suggests. Torrents of water appear out of nowhere and can be deadly. There was a flash flood warning the day we were in the Machtesh, in spite of the bright blue sky. We stopped for a short break and suddenly the sky clouded up. I was a bit concerned, but the guide assured us it wasn't going to rain. He was almost right ... we just had a few drops. Sukkot is the start of the rainy season, and after 6 years of drought, Israel really needs the rain. As long as I don't get caught in it. I don't like to get wet.

Shabbat shalom from Jerusalem,

Peggy and Sid