Passover in the desert!

March 25-27 Passover in the desert!

Yoram comes from a big family his dad (former member of Parliament and Minister of Education under Rabin)—87 years old and still going strong, his older brother, former Defense Attache for Israel in Washington DC and Head of Military Intelligence, now “retired” and running the think tank National Institute for Security Studies, who has a daughter with 2 young children, and another adult daughter and son; and his younger brother, father of 4 kids ranging in age from 30-14, 3 of them with long-term relationships. All in all, those that were free for the Passover holiday amounted to 20+ people. So, when the idea came into Amir’s head (the younger brother) to celebrate the Passover holiday in the desert at a kind of retreat center, it seemed pretty crazy. But he got support from Amos’ (the older brother) wife, and the plan began to crystallize. The idea was to rent out this center he had discovered in the middle of the desert, only 1 hour north of the southern tip of Israel (Eilat) and there, re-enact the exodus of the Israelites from Egypt. 

No camels, alas.

The southern edge of the Dead Sea through the haze.

They organized a division of labor (each person had an assignment—meals, activities, costumes, dividing the “roles” for the exodus story, etc. Everyone drove down on Monday, the day of the Passover Seder (festive meal) and began to get ready—cooking food for 20+ people, scouting the route for the Exodus, handing out costumes etc.

Our home away from home

Amir, Shiri, Michal and Amos

The girls

By late afternoon, we were ready to set out: each person with a Haggadah (the book telling the Passover story traditionally read at the Passover seder,  (not the traditional version our side of the family knows, but the more secular version written for the Kibbutz movement) and his/assigned role. We had the two readers, Moses, Aharon, Pharaoh, God, the spies, Miriam (Moses’ sister, which was ably played by Amos’ 4 year old granddaughter) and the rest of us were the Israelites. This was the motley crew as we were about to set out on our journey.

For the next hour or two, we reenacted the story—we were slaves in Egypt, Moses was saved from death by being put into a basket in the river and found and raised by Pharaoh’s daughter, he appeared before God in the burning bush, his snake turned into a staff, he got his brother Aharon to be his spokesperson, he went to Pharaoh and asked him to “let my people go”, he refused, the plagues came, Pharaoh inally agreed to let them leave, they passed through the Red Sea unharmed while the Egyptians who tried to follow them (after Pharaoh changed his mind) were drowned, and they rejoiced in song (complete with drums, cymbals and tambourines) and began their journey to the Promised Land, We even did the part where Moses struck the rock twice and was told he would not be able to enter the land, and the 40 years of wandering imposed on them because of their unbelief. It was awesome!! The moon had risen and the sun was beginning to set, we were alone in the empty desert wasteland, and here we were, celebrating the remembrance of the delivery from slavery to freedom and the fulfillment of the promises of God, just miles away from where it happened! As darkness began to fall, we drank the second cup of wine and headed back to camp for the festive meal. 

The food was abundant and delicious (Israelis know how to throw a party!),  the conversation lively and spirited and the time with Yoram’s family so precious to us.

Moses before speaks to his people

God speaks from the burning bush

 

Loooong shadows

We woke up the next morning pretty much with the sunrise, sat around for a while catching up with family  and having a leisurely breakfast. It was already quite warm, so Yoram, the girls and I decided to go for a walk in the desert near the camp before it got too hot. The desert has a beauty of its own; we were amazed by the hardy plants  that managed to grow in that barren wasteland. I also finally learned what an acacia tree is!

We met in the air conditioned club for some family game/bonding time. Amir brought a team-building exercise: each person got a card with a picture on it. We were to look at the picture for 45 seconds, memorize as many details as we could, and then turn it back over. Our job was then to put the story that was tod by the pictures in order, without looking at the pictures again. It was fun, and definitely showed the overabundance of leaders in the Yadlin clan!  By this time, the wind had picked up, and there was a real sandstorm blowing outside. So, instead of th planned Treasure Hunt in the desert, we had a “Press Briefing” with Amos, Yoram’s older brother, who is the retired Director of Miltary Intelligence, and now runs a think tank. He lectures all over the world, but he didn’t charge us a penny! It kept me extremely focused that I was trying to translate for Shiri. What he has to say is really interesting, and many of his ideas make so much sense!! Unfortunately, many of his sensible solutions would never fly in this political climate, but what a wonderful thing it would be if they could!

Dinner that night was mixed grill, cooked by Amir’s daughter’s boyfriend—sausage, followed by chicken, many, many different cuts of steak, each more flavorful and tender than the last, with hummus, homemade eggplant salad and tahini, other salads and sides, fries fresh from the hot oil—I was flabbergasted about how much food I was able to eat!  And the family fellowship time was as great as the food. It was an amazing 2 days, and I am so thankful that we got to be a part of it! I only wish that Roni and Youval could have been here, too! They were definitely missed, and would have LOVED it!!!

Some of the family members needed to be out early the next morning (Amos was flying to Russia for some meetings/lectures, one of Amir’s daughters needed to be back at her Air Force base), but the rest of us had a leisurely breakfast and had the last opportunity to chat—who knows when we’ll be back! We decided to take a different route north; we wanted to drop one of our American second cousins who was also with us off at her place, and also opted for slightly different scenery on the way back. This road took us through the Ramon Crater, a huge natural crater (I guess it’s not officially called a crater unless it’s been formed by an asteroid hit, but that’s how I’ve always heard it called) formed as the weaker sandstone was eroded by flooding and rains leaving only the outside granite and limestone standing. The road actually winds down to the canyon floor, and then climbs back up to the cliffs on the far side. We has planned on a hike, but missed the turnoff, but we did stop at one place that had the hexagonal shaped rocks you find in Devil’s Postpile in Mammoth, and another with piles of the natural colored sand found in the crater. Our goal was to get to the visitor’s center which recently reopened, because we had heard that they had installed an exhibit about Ilan Ramon, the Israeli astronaut killed on the Columbia Space Shuttle, and a good friend of Yoram’s (Yoram and Roni were at the launch that never returned). The names of Ilan and the crater are completely unrelated, but it was a good reason to put the exhibit there, especially since they named some of the formations in the crater after the astronauts of Columbia. We were soo glad we went! The exhibits, both the one about Ilan and the Columbia Shuttle, and the one explaining the geologic peculiarities of the area were fascinating and really well done. And it didn’t hurt to walk into the first room of the Ilan exhibit, and the first picture we saw, covering the entire entry wall, was a picture of the parade for Ilan’s  Presentation of the Wings with Ilan at the front and Yoram a few rows back!! And then to watch the film and see Yoram’s brother interviewed (he and Ilan flew the mission that took out the Iraqi nuclear reactor in 1981).

Yoram peeking out in the 2nd row

Two of the black mounds named for the Columbia astronauts

Ben Gurion's grave

We dropped Yoram’s cousin off, took a quick look at David Ben Gurion’s grave and its view of the desert, and headed back to the kibbutz after an awesome holiday. We went for a relaxed run, and spent the evening  organizing our stuff and enjoying the last visits with family and friends. Today we leave the 70 degree weather of the Negev and head towards the gray, rainy 30’s of Vienna!!