ahka | Trip to Israel day 8 (Reply)

Sunday
Today we went to Masada where some of us got Jewish names. We celebrated by singing and dancing. We had an interesting tour with Ken Spiro around the site. The view from the top of Masada was breathtaking. The weather was perfect. It was not as hot as it is in the summer, it was around 80F. We were the first tourist group to get up and it got crowded only by the end of the tour.

After Masada we went to the Dead Sea. They gave us mud and we went to swim. The weather could not have been any better. I had a lot of fun floating on the water, rubbing my feet with salt and getting salt into my Ziploc bag to take home.

The day was not over yet. After that we took shower, changed back to our clothes and went to ride camels in the desert. Camels took us to the Abraham’s tent for dinner with a view on the mountains and stars.

Abraham greeted us with true Abraham’s hospitality. He washed our hands, welcomed us, served the food, and entertained us the way Abraham and Sarah would. The dinner was out of this world delicious! I was in heaven! All of the spices and different flavors were just melting in my mouth. I have never ate food as good as it was at that dinner. It was heavenly.

We got recipe for the chicken that we ate. It is pretty easy and very delicious: mustard, date honey and garlic. I bought date honey and made this chicken upon arrival. I also added salt and cyan pepper for the spice kick to it.

During the dinner, we were asked to talk about our names that we got and they made me speak again. So, I told the meaning of the name for me. I didn’t know Jewish name of my grandmother, so I picked a name that I would like to aspire to be like Rachel -- Rabbi Akiva’s wife who saw his potential and made him become the greatest Torah scholar of all times. By the age of 40, he didn’t even know how to read and he started learning letter by letter, step by step and discovered his potential. These qualities are very important to me first of all because of my husband and second, because of all of my clients that I work with.

The second name relates to the first one, I was born on Simhas Torah, I added Simha to my name to do what Rachel should do with Simha, with happiness. I love to be challenged by resistant people who don’t want to open their eyes to see their potential and grow. People commented that my speech was great and Sarah was hugging me for such a long time, I was touched…

In the evening, I decided to take it easy and stay in the room. Reflect on everything that was happening to me in the past week. I have been calling my husband and my parents, spoke with my kids and friends. I was a little bit upset talking with my husband. I wanted to share my wonderful positive energy with him and it felt like he shared more of his negative energy with me. I could feel that our house is a mess, empty and sad without me and kids in it.

We had a discussion about our son's hockey season that I absolutely don’t like… It gave me a reality check, that soon, all this amazing experience will disappear and our everyday life will take over again. I would have to consciously do something about this to bring this light home somehow and keep it shine.

It is not even midnight and I am going to sleep now. What a day!!! I could not dream about all of the activities that we did today in my wildest dreams! I am so blessed!!! Good night!!!

Ps. I totally forgot, yesterday night, I started to draw Kotel. I was a little bit too ambitious :), I am not quite ready for this type of drawing but I continued today and will continue drawing it tomorrow or some other day. I think I need to draw the mountains that we saw in the desert today. It would be a little bit easier for me at this time. It is only my 3^rd week drawing and everything needs practice and more experience. I got a little bit frustrated with the wall itself and it is still not finished. I will try to finish it someday.

New Arabic word – Hebrew slang “Sababah!” =”Great!”
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