Day 4: intentional mud-building

Today was mud-building day, AKA all kinds of messy! We started making mud in the morning, using an industrial sized mud-making machine the Lotanites converted from an old cement making machine. We did that all morning, filling 2 huge boxes. It was hard work – required lots of shoveling and lifting buckets of silt, water, straw and sand into the mixing machine. Everyone took turns between shoveling, lifting, and being the “mixing master,” the person in charge of putting the right amount of each ingredient into the machine.

We went to breakfast early, where I enjoyed a lovely piece (or 2) of freshly sliced bread with olive oil, lemon juice, and zatar, as well as a full plate of veggies and a hard boiled egg. The breakfasts here are basically the same thing everyday, so requires a little bit of creativity to change it up a bit. My zatar toast was the creation of the morning :)

After breakfast, we spent the rest of the day “refurbishing” a mud bench that was ruined by rain. The initial structure was ruined because the builders did not put on a final coat of oil, essential to any mud structure to prevent water damage. The bench wasn't looking too good – huge pieces falling off, cracks, flaking..it had definitely been through quite a bit of water damage.

So we took the huge boxes of mud from the morning and got our hands real dirty repairing it. There were 5 main steps:

1. remove any broken pieces and sweep up misplaced dirt
2. take a sponge and wet the area you are working with – this is ESSENTIAL before ANY type of mud-building, as it acts as a buffer for the mud. Very very important!
3. take a bucket of the mud-mixture and add a little bit of water, making it more liquid and “sauce” like
4. cover the bench in this solution
5. take another bucket of the regular mud-mixture and plop it on top of the layer from #3, then either using your hands or a tool that I cannot remember the name of, flatten out this layer so there are no air bubbles. This layer is the final layer before smothering on the protective oil.

We didn't start from scratch, so the tips above are only for REPAIRING mud-structures. I'm not exactly sure how you build them from scratch, but hopefully I will soon :)

That evening, there was a local event with people from different kibbutzim around the region. It was all about sustainability and eco-living, as most of the kibbutzim in this area are geared towards just that. It started off with a moon-lit hike, which is something everyone should do at-least once in their life – the Negev is one of the most amazing places to be at night, a blanket full of stars, massive mountains, and a soft breeze snuggling your entire body. After the hike, everyone went to a cafe-like area and split off into discussion groups. The subject was religion and the environment – do they go together? If so, how? If not, why? Very interesting perspectives, considering the diversity of the group – Israeli, American, English, Australian, Italian – all over the world.

But despite this diversity, everyone pretty much agreed that Judaism goes beyond just praying and being “religious.” Reform Judiasm IS sustainability. Furthermore, whether you consider yourself a religious jew, a spiritual jew, an I-don't-know-jew, or not a jew, there is one thing that is ubiquitous for every person inhabiting this earth: we are required to sustain it, just as it sustains us. It's a symbiotic relationship, meaning that both systems entirely depend on each other for survival. It's about being consciously aware of your actions. Every action has a reaction, every thought a consequence. I believe the first step for rendering a conscious mind is in setting intention – tuning in to the present moment with attention and asking yourself the question: “why am I here?” The answer could be anything – to develop a certain trait, for another person, to give back, to learn, to rest your mind – just something that resonates with you; something that motivates you to be right there, in that moment. Putting an intention on your action – this is where conscious living begins. This is where sustainability, for the earth, others, and yourself, begins.