my parents and sister came to visit for my graduation! we had the week
priot to graduation off, so we spent the time traveling around israel/palestine
which was a lot of fun. we stayed in a little hilltop village called shoresh
just west of jerusalem, and traveled around via rental car which was amazing as
i got to drive! western wall for shabbat sunset. cheap ethiopian food in downtown
tel aviv. qumran caves on the shores of the dead sea where they found the
qumran scrolls, the oldest copies of the old testament. floating on the dead
sea. masada mountain, symbol of jewish independence. church of the holy
sepulchre that marks the place Jesus was crucified. hiking through hezekiah’s
tunnel – a 1.7km pitch dark water conduit that supplied the ancient city of david.
shisha in jerusalem. nazareth. cana where Jesus performed his first miracle. tzfat,
a hilltop ancient center of jewish mysticism/kabala and currently a magnet town
for artists. random stop at mount meron to visit the much revered tomb of
jewish mystic rabbi shimon bar yochai. mount of beatitudes and caperneum on the
shores of the sea of galilee. tomb of the patriarchs (abraham and isaac) in
hebron, palestine, and wandering the segregated “apartheid” and other streets
of hebron’s old city and eating cheap chicken which was the family’s favorite
day. church of the nativity in bethlehem. showing the family my clinical sites
in bnei brak, kfar kama, afula, ashkelon and of course beer sheva. but its not
about the places, it was about being with family which was so nice! thank you
for coming:)
then it was time for graduation! our speaker was dr. ofri, a prominent
writer and physician at new york university school of medicine. my friend ross
gave a great speech, and then it was over. mazal tov/mabruk/congrats to my
classmates; i wouldn’t have wanted to get through medical school with any
other group of people!
