On Monday Sept 17, the first day of the New Year 5773 we went to Petah Tikvah, near Tel Aviv, to visit Yakov's relatives (our friend that we do Bible studies with). Petah Tikvah was one of the first settlements for refugees after 1948 and the name means Door of Hope. The family speaks Russian and Hebrew but only limited English. We were all a little nervous about how to communicate but we soon relaxed and had a good visit.
Sept 18 was also a holiday for New Year. Everythng was closed. We spent most of the day ay home (I was studying) but took a little walk in our neighborhood at noon and found a cool slide-thought the kids would like to see it.
We had Ruth Fazal for dinner and talked about Israel, the Holocaust survivors, and her new Hebrew song that she wrote. She is studying Hebrew at the same place that I am but she has lived here for a year so has more time to practice.
Today I had a Hebrew lesson, and dad has his first day in the place he is volunteering. He is helping an older man named Michael, a Jewsih man from Be'er Sheva who has MS and is severely handicapped.
Then we went to Herodion, one of 2 places of Herod from the first century.(the other plaace is Masada). It is a huge artificial mountain in a circle with a palace inside.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Herodium
The pile of stones is a collection of round rocks that were used to roll down the hill on the attackers.
Recently they found the actual grave of King Herod the Great and a huge theatre and swimming pool and gardens. (we couldn"t see the tomb of Herod as it is not yet open to the public)
It was later used by Jewish revolutionaries who were revolting against Rome (70CE and 135 CE). The revolutionaires dug extensive tunnels under the mountain and hidden cisterns for water that they could get to through the tunnels.
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