Wear everyone out at Masada before we return home. And that's an order.

For our last full day in Israel I decided to take the boys to Masada. I knew that we had a long journey home that would involved lots and lots of sitting coming up so I wanted our day to be very physical. At the same time, I was not that excited about walking UP the snake trail. 

     After about a two hour drive we arrived at Masada. I hadn't been there since my Seminary days in the mid 90's. They improved the welcome center and added a museum. The boys knew the basic story, but not a lot of detail. I decided to buy the tickets that included the museum and headsets. I also bought the ticket for the cable car up and the snake trail down. 

     The museum was very well done. It began as all Israeli Musuems do, with a movie. We then went into the museum with headsets. They had many artifacts and set up the exhibit as a walk through in time setting up the history of Masada before the siege, during and it's tragic aftermath.  Particularly chilling was the shards of pottery with the last 10 men's names who were to over see everyone's demise.

     We ascended the mountain by cable car. We got the headsets for the top and followed along walking where ever the tour directed us. Somehow we managed to go to Masada the one day in the year that it rains there. All of my past associations with the area are hot, hot, hot. Rain, though it happens there occasionally, was so out of context for me. It wasn't pouring, just sprinkling us, so we carried on. The kids marveled at the large amount of bathhouses, mikvahs and cisterns. How the little bit of drizzle managed to fill up all of those watery areas is a wonder.

      We looked out at the view of the Dead Sea, saw the Roman Encampments and the ramp, and climbed up and down the stairs for the Northern Palace even though you wanted to grip the handrail with a death grip the entire time. When we completed the audio tour it was time to head down. Eli counted the stairs and claimed to have reached 824. A two hour drive back ensured my leg muscles would welcome the travel day break.

      I threw out a question to the boys: what does outer first stop on this vacation have to do with our last?  Have you been following along, dear reader? After a bit of contemplation my kids figured out this unintentional connection. Our first stop was the Anne Frank House in Amsterdam. Both stories are of Jews who were pursued by the enemy who wanted them obliterated. Both stories caused our people to run to a high place for hiding. Both stories had the people stay there for several months and tragically both stories ended with their demise. Masada ends with a mass suicide to prevent torture and enslavement. Anne Frank's story ends with her being sent to a concentration camp and dying just a month before liberation.  I asked Mendel given all of this, would he still want to return to Israel for his bar mitzvah if we can in 3 years? Or would he rather go somewhere else? He chose Israel because "Israel is cool, Israel is fun and no matter what it is still good to be Jewish." Love that boy.

     We said our tearful goodbyes to my sister and her family and made our way to the rental car return at the airport around 1:30am. Once again we wish you a Lehitraot.