Samara's TRY Blog: Nachal David (Ein Gedi)

We started off the day with Shacharit on Har Hatsofim. We even brought a Torah to read from. Har Hatsofim is located in NorthEast Jerusalem which has a breathtaking view of the Kotel and all of Jerusalem. For those of you who read my first post, this is the same place that they took us when we first arrived in Jerusalem. At the time that they took us it was dark Out. Today was spectacular, we actually prayed looking at the Kotel, reading from the Torah and saying the Amidah silently while taking in the view in which we talk about in our prayers.

After tefillah, we went on our way for an hour bus ride below sea level to Ein Gedi. We had an amazing experience today embracing the beauty of Nachal David. Nachal David is a water spring, in the middle of the desert near the Dead Sea. We hiked quite a lot today. We went from hiking up a mountain, to travelling along a rocky path, through water and finally down to the waterfalls. We had the opportunity to go into the water (which by the way was freezing but refreshing). The weather in Ein Gedi was beautiful at around 18 degrees Celsius (where as in Toronto it was -8 or colder). After going into the waterfalls we headed back to the bus for lunch.

On the same road there is an ancient synagogue that we did mincha in. It's special to say that we brought a 3000 year old synagogue to life while saying mincha in it. The pictures of it are posted below.

Later on after the hour bus ride back to Jerusalem (excluding the extra half hour of Jerusalem traffic) we had a free night which meant that we could pick between two places to go to. Our choices were between Emik Rafaim and Kinyon Hadar Mall. I decided to go to Emik Rafaim and explore that area more closely. So far my favourite area of Jerusalem is Emik Rafaim. I love everything about it; the stores, restaurants, layout (plus the stores are open late specifically for tourists)! This weekend we have our first host Shabbat. I am staying with the Selas a good family friend of ours that live in Petach Tikvah. I'll update the blog later about Shabbat. For now there are a lot of pictures that of places that I've been describing in this post. Enjoy!! Shabbat Shalom!!!