Israel Day 4 – May 4, 2023

It is so easy to fall behind in keeping track of the things we are doing because there is so much

to report! And, by the end of each day, we are tired from soaking everyting in!

So I am going to pick up with Thursday, May 4.

We woke up on Thursday morning in the beautiful desert town of Mitzpe Ramon to a very

warm and sunny day. The Negev desert is in a short period called “Hamsin” – which is an Arabic

word meaning “hot spell.” While the air was dry and gentle and there was a breeze, the

contrast from Tel Aviv was amazing. No humidity, no city noise, no crowds. But because of the

Hamsin, the high temperature was forecasted to reach 90 degrees – which is very unusual for

the month of May…even in the desert!

After breakfast at the hotel, we were prepared with hats, water bottles, snacks, and cameras for

a predominantly ‘outside’ day. After all, that is what Israelis love about the desert – the beauty,

nature, interesting wildlife, unique flowers and plants, and the unique colors of the hills and

mountains. In the Negev, a lot of time is spent talking about the amount of rainfall and “how

green” it is at any given moment. Because winter in Israel has just concluded and was

adequately rainy, the desert was greener than one might imagine. While the Negev is

technically a desert, it is not the type of desert that is all sand. It is more correctly thought of as

a wilderness – which now makes more sense after our day on Thursday. Our first stop was a

beautiful park and nature preserve known as Ein Avdat. We took a magnificent walk through

some wilderness terrain, but it was obvious from the start that we were in an area where water

had to be close by. There was plenty of vegetation and trees, bushes, and flowers everywhere;

birds were chirping. The white color of the hills and terrain looked gorgeous against the crystal

clear blue sky.

We took a short walk and then out of nowhere came to a beautiful stream of water and mini-

waterfall. We learned that we were standing at the Tsin Stream – a stream of water that over

the millennia has carved out a deep and impressive canyon. We were in a magnificent oasis. We

walked over a “bridge” with the spring below us and the waterfall pouring out of a mountain

above us. Because there has been significant rainfall over the past month, there was plenty of

water all around us – and we imagined what a welcome site Ein Avdat must have been and

continues to be for those who call the Negev desert “home.” On the way back to the bus, we

were treated to something extraordinary. We looked up and into the cracks and crevices of the

canyon, and all of a sudden, we saw an ibex…and then another and another, and then several

more. Big ibex, smaller ibex, and even babies. This is the breeding season for ibex and some of

us stood and marveled at them as they blended into the background and then appeared again

as they made their way in their habitat. It was an incredibly beautiful site – and just a perfect

way to conclude our walk.

It was obvious that the temperature was rising quickly and we made a quick stop before lunch

to Sde Boker, another storied place in the Negev. Sde Boker is a Kibbutz community (cooperative, 

mostly socialized village – often specializing in agriculture) that was founded in

the 1950s as a community that had at its mission the desire to escape the cities and live and

work in the beautiful desert. While nearly half of Israel is desert, it was and still is important

that the desert “blooms” – that the desert be a place in which flowers, trees, wildlife, and

Jewish life flourish. This vision of making the desert bloom was part of the Zionist dream and

one of the important objectives following the establishment of the State of Israel. One of the

most famous citizens in the history of Israel fell in love with the Negev Desert and made his

home in Sde Boker for many years – David Ben Gurion, the first Prime Minister of Israel. Ben

Gurion adored the desert and believed that the key to Jewish survival in the State of Israel

depended not upon how life was built and sustained in the cities, but rather, on how these new

Jewish communities would turn the desert into homes and farms, and communities. We walked

over to David and Paula Ben Gurion’s graves – two simple stones overlooking the magnificent

Wilderness of Tsin –the place where Moses was said to look out just before he died. While he

did not get to experience The Holy Land himself, he certainly stood close to it in the Wilderness

of Tsin and had to be as overwhelmed as we were by nature’s show of magnificence.

We got back on the bus and took a short drive to a Bedouin Village where we enjoyed an

authentic, delicious outdoor Bedouin lunch, and learned about the amazing history of the

Bedouin people - a tribal group native to the Negev – people that predate any state or national

boundaries. The Bedouins are truly wanderers of the desert; they are probably as ancient as the

land itself. We learned about their community, culture, encounters with modernity, and the

continual challenge between “tradition and change.” We watched them bake their bread on an

open fire and roast, grind and serve delicious coffee, which is part of the important Bedouin

value of welcoming guests. Like many other minority groups in Israel, the Bedouins face many

challenges but are proud of their heritage, folkways, and customs and all too happy to share

their stories with our group.

And then, it was time to learn about one of the most incredible stories about nature we had

ever heard. We took 4x4 jeeps right into the wilderness to explore what is known as “The

Ramon Crater” – in Hebrew, Machtesh Ramon. A Machtesh (it is a Hebrew word – used in all

languages to describe this geological phenomenon) is an ecological and geological phenomenon

that began millions of years ago in which an enormous land erosion formed due to several

geological events coinciding. There are only a few places in the world where all of the factors of

nature came together to create a type of crater that is unique. The Machtesh is essentially a

mountain that fell into itself through erosion and the slow movement of sand and rocks toward

the Dead Sea. What this movement left behind are multi-colored landforms caused by a

combination of minerals that have been deposited by the moving soil and rocks and the rain which in

this area is known to flash flood several times of year. All of this adds to the erosion that over

millions of years has carved out an enormous landform (our guide compared it to a ‘bathtub’)

that measures 40 km x 2-10 km and is shaped like a heart.

Because of the minerals, the water, the weather patterns, and the evolution of time, the

Machtesh is filled with medicinal plants, wildlife, colored soils of all colors – an eco-system that

is rich in resources and that is exquisite to see and understand. Machtesh Ramon, Israel’s

national treasure, is the largest Machtesh in the world and people come from all over the world

to study it and marvel at it.

After a two-hour tour of several interesting places in the Machtesh with our fabulous guide for

the day named David, we were returned via our “jeep brigade” to the hotel where we

showered and prepared for dinner (yes, another meal!!). Tired but feeling good from the

exercise, fresh air, and newfound knowledge, we ate dinner together and then got ready for one

more outdoor adventure: star-gazing in the Ramon Crater itself. So, as the sky grew dark, we

put on some warmer clothing and went back to the Ramon Crater which looks altogether

different at night. The darkness was only illuminated by the full moon and by the bonfire that

our special astronomer guide built for us. As we lay on pillows on our backs or sat in chairs

looking up at the sky, we learned about the planets, the stars, the constellations, and galaxies

and experienced the grandeur of a sky that against the quiet darkness of the desert looked like

it was filled with all kinds of sparkling and twinkling lights. While we roasted marshmallows in

the fire and drank hot tea, we also had the opportunity to view the moon from three telescopes

that our guide had set up for us. He showed us how to use the telescopes and we had a

wonderful time comparing our individual impressions of what we were looking at as we gazed

up at the sky in a place that is known for its magnificence -- both during the day and at night.

We certainly saw that the desert is a place that teems with life; a place in which nature is really

quite “busy” in so many mysterious ways. The key to the desert is being there with people who

know and understand that the wilderness should never be thoughts of as the absence of life;

rather, it is life in many different forms. You just need to respect the desert and know where to

find its hidden gifts.