Dead Sea Hike

I went on an amazing hike near the dead sea today which was a total of 8 hours. It involved repelling, swimming,sliding down rocks, rock climbing, and all the while we were in between cliffs that were the size of huge buildings. It was definitely one of the wildest and most challenging hikes I have been on in my life.

Japan Israel Relations

This morning I saw about 100 Japanese people standing in front of the Western Wall all carying both Israeli and Japanese flags and singing songs in Hebrew! The crowd were mostly women wearing kimonos and there was a leader in the front with a megaphone leading the singing. Between the songs he would talk to them in Japanese and after saying something, the Japanese people would chant back, "Amen"! It was quite the sight. The banners read "Peace to Jerusalem" and the "50th Makuya Pilgrimage of Japan".
See http://www.makuya.or.jp/eng/judaica.htm for more details.
Many of them spoke Hebrew very well. I was very happy to see them here and I told a friend that it would be great to see every country come here and show such admiration to Israel.

Hadassa

Tonight some of the Yeshiva guys and I went to Hadassa Hospital near Hebrew Univeristy to play guitar and sing songs to cheer up the patients. We really brought a lot of smiles to the people there, especially to the children's ward where whole groups of kids would gather around us and dance with us as the music brought much spiritual light to the drab hospital atmosphere. I noticed that both Muslims and Jews were being treated at the hospital with no distinction between them as patients. On Monday, our Intermediate One and Two level students will be going on a hike around the dead sea for at least a 6 hour hike, so that should be really amazing.

The Old City, Jerusalem
 

A few Israeli Defense Forces soldiers taking a break
 

The Beis Midrash (study hall) in the Aish Hatorah yeshiva (seminary)

 

The Moshav, the seminary dormitory where I am staying.
 

Praying at the Western Wall 

The Ramban (Nachmanides) Synagogue in Jerusalem.

Adam Fox, and I hanging out in the public square. Adam is from Melbourne. Fox & Fox!! 

Me, Alex (USA), David (Aussie) and Paul (Montreal) after a wedding.  

My Australian friend David and me in the Bais Midrash. (I am holding a Babylonian Talmud) 

View of old city of David
 

Old City of Jerusalem by day. View of Al-Aqsa mosque
 

Some recent photos of me in Jerusalem, the Negev Desert, and Elat. 

My view everyday looking out at the Western Wall and the Dome of the Rock in the background.  

Latest

Hi, so just to give you an idea of the program that I am involved in, check out: http://www.aish.com/progsisrael/intermediate/

and to learn more than I could ever tell you about Jerusalem, see: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jerusalem it is worth the read!
So, I am living with 3 South African's, and doing great with my learning and living here in the Holy Land!
Ok, thats all for now!

New room

Well, after almost a month at living at the 'Heritage House', I have just moved into the Aish HaTorah (www.aish.com) dorms and have signed up to be at the Yeshiva until the term ends on April 7th. I have not met my roomates yet, but everyone at the Yeshiva is very nice, so I am not too worried about who my two roomates will be. The learning has been going very well lately, with full days of learning Hebrew, Jewish Philosopy, Chumash (5 books of Moses) and much more! I am still bumping into so many people I know here, which is great. My view now looks right over the Temple Mount, see this pic for what it looks like, although this is from an aerial view: http://www.unf.edu/classes/crusades/image/domerockfromair3.jpg
Ok, until the next time!