The group’s first full day in Jerusalem started early with everyone finally packing up their laundry to get sent off for the day and a yummy breakfast at the hotel. We then spent our first afternoon here heading out of Jerusalem to go dig at Beit Guvrin, a World Heritage Site which has thousands of underground dwellings left behind from the Greek rule around 2200 years ago! We spent the morning digging out a new excavation site looking for chicken bones, pottery, metals, and other important “treasures”. After sifting through the rest of our dirt piles, most of the group went over to a cave which has yet to be worked on to crawl around and explore what the system has looked like for the past 2200 years since it was buried. A sandwich lunch in the shade next to the visitors’ center later, and we were back on the bus to our hotel so an afternoon siesta. Lucky for us, the pool was open and we got a chance to beat the heat in the cool water! We gathered back together a few hours later to walk over to the Mamilla Mall in Jerusalem for dinner and a little shopping followed by a walk back down to the Kotel Tunnels. Exploring this ancient sunset had a different feeling than the previous day when we had been here in the blaring heat. The group will meet back here again one more time on Shabbat for a third, distinct experience at the wall. Everyone is exhausted from a long day full of walking so we are headed to bed finally. Tomorrow we will dive deeper into the other religious groups of the city!

Until tomorrow,

Havaya Israel 2022


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