After we left Qumran, we headed south toward Ein Gedi, and on toward Masada. We got within a few miles of Masada when we were blocked by a small torrent of water rushing accross the road. Though it rained very little in the desert, the rain in the higher elevations was running down to the Dead Sea. We waited for a while hoping the flood would subside but to no avail. I have been to Masada before, but going there with the seminar group would have been a totally different experience. I'm sorry we did not make it there, but we used the opportunity to spend some time at the Dead Sea. I decided not to go in the water since the weather was not so good. The rain did produce a beautiful rainbow.
Meanwhile, back in Jerusalem, the rain that was falling in the morning had turned to snow! Now that is something you don't see every day... About an inch of snow fell on the city and covered it with a blanket of white, but the temperature was not cold enough to cause problems with ice on the roads. The snow was mostly gone by the end of the next day.
On Thursday, we will be visiting some places of interest in Tel Aviv.
-Wayne
