The Amazing Race

Thursday, June 28

Following a Kibbutz breakfast, we headed out for a day filled with as many activities that most families do in an entire week of vacationing. Packing for this day was strenuous in itself as we needed several changes of clothing for all our various adventures. Our first stop was a hike through the Tel Dan Nature Reserve replete with running springs, climbing rocks and wading pools of cool water -- quite refreshing after the heat of the previous few days. Frances told us that the amount of water rushing by us in 10 seconds could fill an entire Olympic size swimming pool.

Our next stop was a two hour river rafting/kayaking expedition on the Jordan River. We were thrilled to see Rabbi Goor join us at this point on our trip. You should have seen our rabbis and families battling it out for supremacy of waterway -- mostly getting extremely wet. Rabbi Bender invented a new Olympic sport of rope swinging over the Jordan while Rabbi Goor perfected the "getting back on the raft after being dumped overboard by congregants" maneuver. Both received a "10" by the Israeli judges.

Changing clothes again, we had lunch at an Israeli style mini-mall, dining on pizza, falafel and other delicacies. Since this mall was in the Northern area of Israeli which had experienced rocket activity during last summer's clashes, there was an extremely heavy military presence here. It was strange yet comforting to see uniformed soldiers as well as plain-clothed young people carrying rifles, machine guns and pistols.

We left the mall headed for our own Jewish version of Indiana Jones . . . a two-hour jeep ride through the Galilee Mountains from Bat Ya'ar Ranch. Dusty, bumpy but lots of fun, we headed out through the Biriya Forest. The driver of our jeep explained that all the trees in this forest had been planted by the Jewish National Fund. You know, those little blue boxes we've been keeping for years? He was so appreciative of the efforts of American Jews for those trees. I will never take it for granted again.

Time to change clothes again (modest ones), for a trip to Safed, the center of Jewish mysticism. Safed is the birthplace of Kabbalah, that trendy cult thing that Madonna promotes. However, Safed was anything but trendy. Long black coats, scrungy beards, tall hats . . . this was Fiddler on the Roof in person. We explored a narrow alleyway filled with more Judaica shops than you could imagine, and visited two famed synagogues. Thanks fo Joel's amazing culinary expertise, we feasted on Magnum ice cream bars.

Hey, was this still Thursday? And it was just dinnertime? Our last leg of this "Amazing Race" was dinner at the home of Jenine and Ronnie Bar-El. This New Yorker wife and chef husband have transformed their home into a restaurant. We sat on the rooftop overlooking the Safed sunset enjoying a spectacular meal of Israeli salads, rice, couscous, sweet potatoes, salmon, chicken, beef, potatoes, green beans, and more.

It was finally time to head back to the Kibbutz courtesy of Beni, our trusty but speedy driver. What an amazing day!

- Gail Aspinwall