In and around the Judean hills

In the last 2 days the MBIers have traveled around the of the Judean Hills taking the history of the area. On Tuesday morning the group participated in an archaeological dig with the KKL. Here in small groups they were taken down into a cave and were given the opportunity to sift through remnants of Jewish and Roman artifacts. This was a unique experience and nice way to get some shade in the continued heat wave Israel is currently experiencing.

In the afternoon the group headed to their final hostel, Kfar Hayarok where they had some time to settle in and then a had a machaneh wide activity run by the madrichim. Then in the evening each kvutzah ran one of their peer facilitated peulot.

On Wednesday morning the group headed out to a hike in the area that included going into a series of caves that are also rich in history. This is where the Bar Kochvah revolt took place. The Bar Kochvah revolt against the Roman Empire was the third major rebellion by the Jews and the last of the Jewish-Roman Wars. The goal of the rebellion was to regain independence from the Romans, who had destroyed the Second Temple in Jerusalem in 70 C.E. These caves were the military headquarters for Bar Kochvah and his men.

After the hike they went to Tel Azaka. This is the famous place that is said to be where the battle took place between David and Goliath. The MBIers walked up to a look out point and were entertained by skits that the tour guides and madrichim(counselors) put on for them re-enacting the story.

This took the better part of the day and in the afternoon the buses either went to a near by beach for a bit or back to the hostel and hung out by the pool.

On Wednesday evening the kvutzot had another self facilitated evening. A good way to wind down after an extremely hot day.