Woke up real early, on our way to Jerusalem once again. Nice. First place we went was this museum that had a scaled down model of Herod's Jerusalem and it was really detailed and pretty amazing. Herod was this really violent and paranoid ruler who killed his own family and strategically set up his whole kingdom so that his own people couldn't revolt against him. We saw relics from the temple and it was all pretty elaborate and amazing that such things were preserved so well.
We next went to the Southern wall in Jerusalem and we saw how the wall was built with rocks from different eras. We reenacted the siege of Jerusalem and my teacher carried me on his back like I was a dead soldier and ran with me and produced a really funny picture that's now on facebook.
We then went into the desert and meditated. I actually did a decent job and I kind of zoned out for the full ten minutes. It was such a beautiful location and the first time I've ever just tried to fully relax since we got here.
The next day we woke up at 3. Not fun. We loaded onto the bus and made the 45 hike up Masada. Once at the top, sweating and exhausted, we stayed up there... for six hours. Kind of a long time. We saw mosaics and ancient architecture, and tried our best to get into the mindframes of the hundreds of people on Masada who had to take their lives. I personally understood the sacrifice and agreed with the decision for mass suicide because the people wanted to resist slavery and maintain honor.
After our six hour study session, and a lot of sitting on the ground in the hot sun, I just felt like running. So I ran all the way down in ten minutes flat. My quads still haven't forgiven me.
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