Visiting Masada, Sdei Chemed Style!
As I placed my feet in the water to enter, a cut on my foot immediately began to sting. After the initial shock, however, the pain weakened and I journeyed deeper into the sea and joined the others. For once this summer we didn’t need to wear our life-jackets! We all just relaxed as we let our bodies simply stay afloat in the water. After a long tiring trip, this was a great way to chill and detox. Feeling newly rejuvenated, a more energetic (and healthy), camp made their way to the bus. Our last stop was at an off the road chill hike called Ein Bokek. We stomped through knee-high water as we made our way to an area with two waterfalls and a pond. We relaxed in the water and just enjoyed ourselves. But the calm didn’t last for long. We quickly transformed the slippery waterfalls into slides, which we used to launch ourselves into the water. Instead of returning to our base back near Yerushalayim we drove to a hotel in Yeruchim, a religious city located in the Negev. We immediately went to our rooms and took nice long naps. Finally relieved from our exhaustion, we got up a few hours later do daven micha, some learning and an awesome camp barbecue, where we ate delicious burgers and tasty wings. The hotel had beautiful lawns and a full size basketball court for us to chill. Our last activity of the night was at an indoor pool a short walk away from our hotel. We had the entire pool to ourselves. The pool was the perfect end to an action-packed day, that was not only exciting but relaxing as well. Tomorrow we will visit the Israeli Airforce museum and Chavat Na’ama, where a guy named Buki will give us a tour of his farm. Can’t wait!
Community Bais Yaakov Students Discover Through Experiments
Mrs. Moeller’s fifth grade science class has been exploring a fascinating unit about the human body. While learning about the skeletal system, a discussion developed about the importance of calcium. Students examined their eating habits and what they thought is needed for strong bones and teeth. To emphasize this need, the girls engaged in a hands-on experiment which brought the lesson to life. Each girl examined two chicken bones and considered their characteristics. They discovered they were hard and non-bendable. They then put one of the bones in a container of vinegar and one in a container of water to see what changes would occur in the bones. The containers were placed on the windowsill in the classroom so the
girls could observe them easily. Hypotheses varied. After five days passed, the girls re-examined the bones to see how they were affected by each of the liquids. They found that the bone that had been in the water was unchanged, while the bone that had been in vinegar was soft and bendable. They were amazed at the change and the difference between the two. The reason, they discovered, for this was the acid in the vinegar removed the calcium from the bone, which made the bone lose its hardness. Applying the lesson to their lives, they worked together on ways a loss of calcium could impact someone’s life. This experiment helped the girls understand why calcium is so important for us.
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F e b r u a ry 7 , 2013
Last night or rather this morning, we left our campus at 1:45 AM and headed straight for Masada. With our camelbacks strapped on, we prepared for the climb. We marched our way up the mountain using blazing torches as our only source of light. We climbed the ancient Roman ramp and so a quick 20 minutes later, we found ourselves on a beautiful mountaintop with a breathtaking view. As we started davening vasikin, the sun was barely visible, there was just a thin pink line in the sky, but by the time we reached Shimoneh Esrei, the sun had completely risen and was in full view. Davening this way, was not only magnificent on the eyes, but was also a very inspirational backdrop. After davening, we ate our pre-made breakfast along with an ice cold shoko, while we listened to a brief historical background on the story of Masada. We then finished off our stay on the mountain with our awesome camp flashmob dance; officially stamping the mountain with our authentic Sdei Chemed flare. At this point one can began to feel the heat of the sun and so we had the option of either going down the snake path to the air-conditioned activity center (the cable cars were not running yet), or stay and get an exclusive tour while the weather was still bearable. Being that I had never seen Masada’s landmarks before I decided to stay. The tour was truly amazing. Wiped from an already awesome start to the day, the entire camp loaded on the bus and headed for The Dead Sea. We arrived at the Yam Hamelech, which today has a beautiful separate beach, just 20 minutes later. The Dead Sea’s appearance is a bit deceiving: shiny and beautiful from the outside, yet full of burning salt water on the inside.
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