Days in the Negev

So, wow. If there's anywhere to go for Lent, it's the Negev.

As I mentioned, Succah in the Desert (Succah baMidbar) was simply amazing. I highly recommend it: under certain conditions. Alone, or with one's spouse, or with one's family including kids is the way to do it. The first night there I was the only guest, as a large German group had canceled. And yet, the hosts made me feel completely at home (to the left is a picture of the common succah where meals were served). The second night another six or eight people showed up, and it still felt very cozy.

Contrast this to Chan HaShayarot, the commercialized Bedouin camp where I stayed for the following two nights. There's no denying that the place was great; indeed, it was simply amazing. The food was incredible, including grilled chicken, ground beef kebab, delicious hummus, eggplant (yes, I'm making myself like it), and assorted other Middle Eastern dishes. Fantastic. Then there were the camels. Wonderful camels, who didn't spit and only fought with each other enough for our amusement. Very good with kids. Their lips seem to be prehensile, capable of grasping round things (namely, my fingers). The one to the right I call Joe. No, really, he was trying to get at the cigarettes in the trash bin, so I couldn't help the obvious joke!

However, Chan HaShayarot is not really the place to go alone. Go with a group of a half dozen or more. There were groups there up to a hundred people, and they got the full package. That doesn't mean I didn't enjoy myself- I thoroughly did- but I had to hook up with bachelor party groups, families on holiday, and a caravan of law school students from Chicago to do so.

Back to Succah baMidbar. I might as well mention the animals. At the site, the owners keep six very, very large dogs: two Rhodesian ridgebacks, three large white Russian dogs, and a Turkish sheepdog. The greatest animal, Dov, is a big, furry, white, and very playful young pup. Yes, pup- he's just two years old. I made sure to take a picture of him next to a person for scale. Look at him! He's huge! I loved it.

They also have two donkeys, two horses, and a ton of chickens for their eggs. They cook all vegetarian meals, and let me tell you, if all vegetarians cooked this way, I could totally do it. Then again, who'd want to?

I stayed there two nights, so on my full day I made the eight kilometer hike to Mitzpe Ramon. This is the town overlooking the Ramon Crater, a massive geological formation that pictures don't capture and words can't describe (here's a picture anyway). More importantly, though, the hike through the desert really gave me the chance to reconnect with the roots of Christian spirituality: ascetic meditation while on a desert march. Lent is all about preparing oneself to suffer alongside Christ as he walks the Via Dolorosa, and in order to prepare myself, I prayed through the rosary (Lutheran version) multiple times while using a book given to me during the St. George's Palestine of Jesus course that offers up Scripture readings for the stations of the cross. There's few better ways to get through a desert hike than ritual prayer and, especially, the Prayer of the Heart, a.k.a. the Jesus Prayer. I'll have to write a post on the Prayer of the Heart at some point, because it has been a source of strength and serenity- and sometimes necessary disturbance- for me.

Well, I got to Avdat, between Mitzpe Ramon and Sde Boker (the town near Chan Hashayarot) . Avdat was a city of the Nabateans, the ancient nomads-turned-settled townsmen who controlled the trade routes between Yemen and Gaza. This route was the path along which incense and other precious goods from southern Arabia traveled into the Roman Empire. The city is the best-preserved of the stations along the Incense Route, and includes ruins from the Nabatean period (third century BC to first century AD), the Roman period, and the Byzantine period.

The highlight for me was seeing a double baptismal font at the entrance to the earlier (fourth century) church. Here there is a cruciform adult immersion pool, but below and to the left there is a smaller immersion-sized infant pool. It is magnificently preserved to the point where it could almost be used today. More importantly, it serves as an object lesson in not only how the early church baptized infants, but in how equally incapable we are before the wisdom and power and law of almighty God. We are all of us infants, going into the waters of salvation.

It wasn't long before a bus picked me up from Avdat and got me to Chan Hashayarot. After a good night in the warm tent (yes, it's true, the desert gets freezing cold at night), I took my full day there to get up to Sde Boker.

Sde Boker is one of the most famous kibbutzim in Israel. This is where the founder of modern Israel, David Ben-Gurion, settled at the end of his political career. The 'old man' (as he was known) had a long-standing interest in taming and settling the Negev.

The house he lived in today stands exactly as he left it. It is a museum testifying to his humble lifestyle through to his final days. He has numerous statues and portraits of famous figures who offered him inspiration throughout his struggle to create a Jewish homeland in Palestine; included are Buddha, Plato, Abraham Lincoln, and Mahatma Gandhi. Of course, what could be more impressive for me than the centerpiece of the house, his five thousand-volume library?

From there I hitched to the nearby Ben-Gurion University. Here are the graves of David Ben-Gurion and his wife Paula. I don't know why- I've mentioned before that I wasn't sure exactly what to do at the graves of the ancient Jewish sages in Tiberias- but I was strangely moved by being here. Something about the struggle of the Jewish people for a homeland, and forging it in the immediate shadow of the Holocaust, and the trials of the nation of Israel since then, have left me embedded with a sense that this little country is a mirror for the marginalized peoples of the world, whatever its many faults.

Happily, just by the grave site is the entrance to Ein Avdat National Park. This park contains the Wilderness of Zin nature trail, which leads from the university to a mere kilometer from Chan Hashayarot. The hike was breathtaking, leading through a wadi teeming with life in the middle of the harsh Negev desert. There's not much to say, but check Facebook for pictures.

For those of you wondering if I'm alright, I'm now in Taba, Egypt. I hitchhiked from Chan HaShayarot to Eilat thanks to the benevolence of some black dude who didn't speak of word of English but happily gave me a ride in his pickup truck. Before crossing the border I spent two hours in Eilat's Underwater Observatory Marine Park. Baltimore has nothing on this; the observatory is 4.25 meters beneath the surface of the water and allows visitors a great view of the Gulf of Aqaba's coral reef in addition to a great aquarium on the surface. It was a great way to kill a few hours before heading into Egypt.

The Taba Hilton is definitely the magnificent facility it's made out to be. But after an aquarium and a beach resort, tomorrow it's back to the desert: returning to St. Catherine's Monastery and Mount Sinai. Hard to believe it's been three months since I was there. Quite certainly, I'm in better shape now.

Pray for these final days of Lent, that they may prepare me to confront Good Friday and accept Easter Sunday.

I'll leave you with this final picture of the desert sunrise from my succah: