After a peaceful and relaxing Shabbat in the apartment, I Aaron, Eitan, and I were trying to figure out what to do with our Saturday night when our doorbell rang. We had no idea who would be ringing our doorbell at 7:00 on a Saturday night, so we jumped up and opened the door. Standing there in traditional orthodox garb was an older man who immediately invited himself in and began sharing with us his life story. He was born and raised in England, and then he moved to Belgium before he became a pulpit rabbi in Flatbush (Brooklyn, NY). He moved to Jerusalem with his wife (where they live now) about ten years ago, but they also have an apartment in our building, so they vacation in Arad, and drive to the Dead Sea almost every day they are here. After talking at us for a few minutes, the Rabbi (whose name we still did not know) finally got to the point, and explained that there was a party at the Yeshiva across from our building that night in honor of Sukkot. He told us that he was not a member of the Yeshiva, but they knew him, and he offered to bring us in to see what it was like. Without consulting my roommates (who I knew would be in agreement) I said “Definitely!”
When we walked into the beautiful campus of the Yeshiva, people glanced at us, but we did not receive the stares I had been expecting. The Rabbi introduced us to a large, elderly man who welcomed us warmly in his best broken English. He asked about us, and when I told him that I knew Barry Shrage –the one person he knew from Boston-He immediately put his arm tightly around me like family. He brought us upstairs into a huge room where hundreds of men and boys were dancing and singing. The dancing was surprisingly reckless with people getting trampled and knocked over everywhere I looked, but we joined right in until they took a break a few minutes later. During the break, the large man introduced us to his friend Moshe, the deputy mayor of Arad, who was clearly not Charedi, but came to check out the party. When I heard who he was, I began making conversation with him, and when he was getting ready to leave, he handed me his business card and told us that he would love to have us for Shabbat dinner! We stayed for a few more minutes and talked to several other men before returning home.
The next day I slept late since we were off from work for Sukkot, and at 8:00 that night, I got onto a bus with Aaron and Eitan heading to our first concert of the year. We had heard about the Tamar Music Festival several weeks earlier, and when we saw that Mosh Ben Ari was playing on Masada, I knew I couldn’t miss it. Mosh Ben Ari has been one of my favorite Israeli musicians since my brother Jacob introduced me to their music at least 5 years ago...and they were just as incredible live as they are on my iPod. Anyway, the concert was not until 3:30 in the morning, but in order to get there we had to take an overpriced, private bus and wait where we were dropped off at the Dead Sea shopping center for 5 hours until the concert before ours ended, and we could proceed.
We got to Masada at 3:00, picked up our tickets, and rode the cable car to the top of the mountain where hundreds of mattresses covered by several massive tarps had been set out to sit on. We found a little spot pretty close to the stage, and we sat and hung out until Mosh came on around 4:00. This was the most amazing concert I have ever been to for a few reasons:
1) Mosh Ben Ari is one of my favorite musicians
2) We were almost definitely the only Americans in attendance, and definitely the only Year Coursers
3) This was a sunrise concert on the top of Masada.
I don’t know how to describe the concert other than simply amazing. Mosh started out by playing his slower music to get people in the mood, and as the sun started to rise he shifted gears, speeding things up slightly. By 5:30 when the sun was completely up, Mosh was jamming and everyone in the crowd was on their feet dancing and singing. The music was incredible while the view and the atmosphere completed the morning. Even though I felt sick when we finally got home at 8:00 in the morning, I could never have forgiven myself if I hadn’t taken advantage of this opportunity.
Aaron, Eitan, and I had 36 hours to catch up on sleep before heading out once more for another wild night, this time with our friends Evan and Sam (from the hike) to see Infected Mushroom, a famous techno group of Israelis who now live in Los Angeles, but are very popular in Israel and all around the world. Our boss from Tel Arad, Ron, had offered to take us to the concert (Thanks again, Ron!) so at 7:30 pm, the five of us met at Muza- one of the two bar/restaurants in Arad. Ron bought us a round of Israeli beers before arranging for his brother to drive us over to Nachal Zohar –literally “stream of radiance”- a canyon near the Dead Sea. This was a really cool venue because it was a giant area surrounded on three sides by enormous rock walls.
There was an opening band called Knessiat Ha’sechel – “Church of the Mind” which we had not heard of, but many people in the audience knew the lyrics, and I later found out that they are a popular, up-and-coming Israeli rock group. The band was really good-and I downloaded some of their music when we got home- but we were ready for infected, and from the moment they walked on stage, the rest of the night was crazy!
I was pretty tired and I hadn’t been feeling too well before the performance, but none of that mattered anymore as the music picked me up and brought me into a different world where all I wanted to do was jump and dance; so for the next two hours, that’s what I did. Through numerous cramps and aches, I didn’t stop moving to the beat. The concert was complete insanity, easily better than any party, club, or techno/house/dub step concert I could ever have imagined. Everyone was into the music because it was impossible not to feel the bass and the electric drums running through your body with every note. We even got to the very front of the crowd, right up against the fence, and it was a little frightening when the security guards (who were clearly not messing around) would jump over us every few minutes to throw someone to the ground who had climbed onto a friend’s shoulders, but that just added to the intensity of the experience. The night was awesome, and it kept the already outstanding week in full throttle.
