Today we had a field trip to a biblical wilderness reserve called Neob Kedmium. We learned how to herd some sheep, which I might add that I was a natural at....ok, maybe not a natural but my sheep whispering skills definitely came in handy.
After our shepherding experience we went into the "forest" area and it brought me back to girls camp or just camping in general. It looked exactly like the mountains in CO. There we made our own pita bread and ate our lunches. We also picked some hyssop plants and some other seasonings and made our own Zatar spice. I was in heaven. Zatar is this really unique spice that they dip all of their bread in.
We also got to meet a professional calligrapher that is trained to write the Torah. It is a tough and highly prestigious tradition to be a Torah writer. It takes about a year to write the Torah and if they make a mistake they have to cut out the area and stitch in new parchment with the correct words. To get a handwritten Torah costs around $30,000! But they are gorgeous. Some other random Torah facts:
If the Torah falls at the Synagogue the congregation has to fast for 40 days!
The Torah writer has to completely wash his body before writing so he is clean.
The Torah is never spoken normally but canted or sung. Every person sings it to a different tune depending on where he grew up.
When a Torah is old and is hard to read they have a full funeral precession for the Torah to "lay it down".
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