Nahal Zavitan and Yam Kinneret

24-25 September 1982

Our travel group consisted of Mara, who helped me get invited to a Bedouin friend’s house, complete with freshly slaughtered goat; Dan, a Catholic student of Professor Richard Hecht’s from UCSB; Marty; and Jana, Marty’s girl friend. Marty had a hippie feeling about him, with long curly brown hair below his shoulders. I heard that he and Jana ended up moving to the Galilee and working on Jewish/Arab reconciliation projects affiliated with Peace Now.

Nazareth Marty was not only a cool guy, but his sister had made aliyah and had a car. So we went in Marty’s sister’s car, driving first to Nazareth and visiting the shuk.


Camping at CapernaumFrom there, we went to Yam Kinneret, the Sea of Galilee, and camped just outside of Capernaum. We watched the sunrise over the Golan Heights by the shore of the sea.

I returned to the campground near Capernaum many times during my year in Israel.

There was a wonderful Arab restaurant down the street where I would eat lebni and hummous for dinner and relax by watching an old black-and-white television.

The shows seemed to be classical music programs from Egypt, and filled the restaurant with wonderful songs I still hear in my imagination. When I play my Yasmine El Khayam in America album I am transported back to that restaurant. After my meal, I would hike back to the campground and wade out into the water of the Sea of Galilee under the moonlight.

Hear her song Taht El-Kamer

Swimming in KinneretThere were large rocks under the water, and I would swim out a distance and then find a boulder that projected high enough for me to stand on. The water was not cold, just pleasant, and I could stand out there in the beautiful moonlight for half an hour, relishing the water and offering prayers of thanks.

Nahal ZavitanWe hiked the path along Nahal Zavitan and came to one waterfall after another. Some were only ten feet high or so, but others seemed much higher. At one fall, we came upon a tour group that was repelling down the canyon wall, helped by an Israeli tour guide. He said we were crazy to jump this fall, but held his group up long enough for us to jump down one by one.

At another fall, I thought we were crazy for jumping. The canyon wall and water pool were such that you had to duck as you first jumped, in order to avoid cracking your head on a rock ledge, but then extend in order to jump far enough to reach the pool. Somehow, we all made it. We must have jumped over a dozen waterfalls by the end.

Journal Entry: Hiked Zavitan – amazing falls to jump! Recognized the background to Psalm 42.

תהילים פרק מב Psalm 42

כאיל תערג על אפקי-מים
As the deer pants for the water brooks,
כן נפשי תערג אליך אלהים:
so my soul pants after you, O God.
אלהי עלי נפשי תשתוחח
My God, my soul is in despair within me.
על-כן אזכרך מארץ ירדן וחרמונים מהר מצער:
Therefore I remember you from the land of the Jordan, the heights of Hermon, from Mount Mizar.
תהום-אל-תהום קורא לקול צנוריך
Deep calls to deep at the noise of your waterfalls.
כל-משבריך וגליך עלי עברו:
All your waves and your billows have swept over me.