DAY  5

Monday, 11 January

Our morning was spent in a most enjoyable and informative lecture on Jewish Identity with Naomi Heim, her daughter Segalia, and Anita Havim after which we drove to the Israeli Museum to view the Dead Sea Scrolls.

The Dead Sea Scrolls are preserved in such excellent condition because the caves at Q'umran enjoy the lowest humidity in the world (6%).  Composed of patches of parchment sewn together by hand, the scrolls contain many books of the Hebrew Bible.  Scribes, oftentimes coming from a generations-old tradition in the trade, meticulously copied the texts, dipping their fingers in water three times for purification each time they came to the word "God".

We had a good bit of time to walk through the museum before returning to the hotel.  Having the early evening free, I wandered outside for a view of the city.  Slipping out a side door, I stood on the top of a three-tiered terrace, blue wrought iron arches intersecting over the descending levels like the outline of a waterfall.  Rising up from the hill below, the tall, thin outline of cypress trees cut into the evening sky; directly opposite me were the walls of the Old City, lit by strings of white lights.  The darkening sky above provided a solid backdrop for a spattering of small, bright stars, so immediate and clear that the glow of my cigarette seemed to be a part of them.  A little to the right of the Old City stood a hill.  Two cars painstakingly made their way up and around, their headlights illuminating a few short feet of dust; I watched their progress until they disappeared around a curve in the path.  The night had now grown too dark to write, and my cigarette was done-- a clear indication that it was time to go in for a drink.

Our evening ended with a very informative lecture by Dr. Menachem Loberbaum on the Constitutional Issues of Religion and State in Israel.